China Thoughts

It has been eleven years, almost to the day, since I've been in China. And wow, has it changed. I am in Shenzhen. This city of about 10 million people was just a village of 1000 or so about 30 years ago, so imagine how it has changed in 11 years. It is a strange combination of pre-capitalization and post, in it's construction and areas around the city. It is a huge sprawling city. One business man I met compared it to Houston...I've never been to Houston, so I have no idea. It takes about 30 minutes (by cab) to get from center city (where my hotel is) to the edge of the city, where the "painter's village" is. And the cabbies drive like the ones in NYC (the one from the opera - the one I liked) or kinda like me (if you've ever been so privileged)...dodging in and out of traffic and making the best time possible. So, if you drive like PJ (aka very patiently), you can expect that to take a bit longer.

Every thing has become more westernized here. The restaurants and malls near my hotel are similar to home...in style and price. Actually, the style here reminds me more of NYC... a bit ahead of Baltimore fashion wise. My co-workers who live here say when it comes to "world brands" (translated designer brands) it's cheaper to buy clothes in Hong Kong than in Shenzhen. That means the prices here are comparable to NYC. Of course, you have all the "copies" here (as in NYC) where you can get the fakes for a much better price. Yes, all this shopping talk probably has Rach and C2 scratching their heads. Other than checking out the shoes, there has been no shopping going on...well other than the painter's village where i picked up one painting for 40 RMB (about $6). It's a nice souvenir. Any way, the shopping is a definite indicator of the influence of the west. Last time I was here, all the clothes were priced much less expensive than home.

My friend Mel took me to the painter's village today. It's row after row of paintings. Some are traditional Chinese, some more western style. Mel is very knowledgeable about art, so he told me much about traditional Chinese art. Some of the traditional art is based on poems that talk about the feng shui of an area. It's best to have your house situated with it's back to the mountain and front facing water. I'm down with that! There are many traditional Chinese prints with this type of scenery. Also, mountains with clouds. The artists also try to create "space" in the pictures for the viewer. It creates a peaceful feeling. There are four traditional flowers - one for each season: the lotus (summer), chrysanthemum (fall), flowering plum (winter), and the peony (spring). Trees also play a significant part. The three friends of winter are the three trees of bamboo, pine and flowering plum. These images are often portrayed in Chinese art.

What hasn't changed about China is the gracious way in which it's people welcome vistors (namely me). While I didn't request anyone to accompany me during the weekend, none of my associates in the local office would hear of me being alone in the city. Anything I wanted to do, any place I wanted to go, they were more than willing to take time out of their personal schedule to show me. They also thought of things I might what to see and places I might want to go. I can't imagine anyone visiting this country and then saying the people were anything but extremely welcoming. The kids, like kids everywhere, have absolutely no inhibitions. In some of the areas where my hosts have taken me, I'm pretty sure they haven't seen too many western women. The kids make sure they get a very close look at me. It isn't quite as noticable as eleven years ago (the adults weren't as sly in their second glances back then), but it is still here.

Well, that's about it for now.
peace