Random Chinese sights

I still have the food post to do on the traditional Chinese lunch we were treated to, but I felt like doing a random post tonight. I got back last night around 7:00 p.m. I'm always amused by the airline snacks. It depends on where the plane originated from and on this one, we had Ramon noodles!

This picture that looks like a smiley face is the electrical outlet in the hotel. This is actually two seperate plugs, the one on top accomodates two straight prongs and the bottom one is similar to the one we plug U.S. clothes dryers into. Just like in Europe, the power is 220V. The first picture is of a street cleaner's "truck." Yep, that's his street sweeping broom sticking up out the back!

One of the great pasttimes of Westerners in China is haggling. I know it's part of different cultures, but I just don't like it. Westerners always say "they'll be offended if you don't haggle." Are you kidding me?! That's like saying people are offended by tipping. Yes, if you tip outrageously in a very poor country, it's perceived as showing off. But really, do you honestly think your waiter is offended that you left him an extra 20 cents that for him will probably feed his family for the evening? I heard someone say that South Korea was ruined by Westerners. That after Westerners started going there, a purse that used to cost $15 now costs $30. So what?! Some father is now able to send his kid to school because I was "robbed" of $15?!

I feel the same way about haggling. Here's an example. . . a shirt I wanted was 80 yuan. I offered her 50, but she stood firm at 80. OK, I say, I'll give you 80. Did I just get taken advantage of? Let me put it in perspective for you. 80 yuan equals about $10, 50 yuan equals about $6.50. A middle-aged woman with only a few teeth left, all of which are half-rotten, is holding out this shirt towards me with calloused hands that have obviously seen more than her fair share of manual labor. I just bought a silk shirt that I really liked and that will be a conversation piece everytime I wear it for $10. A conservative guess is that I make probably 50 times what she does in a year and I have been lucky enough to be born in a country where I have had the freedom to do things she can't even imagine, much less dream of doing herself. Now tell me, who do you think got the raw end of that transaction?

For those of you who followed the posts during the Winter Olympics in Tornio, you'll notice that the toilet in this picture is similar to the one in Italy. Before you get grossed out, it's just cardboard and paper in it. This is a brand new toilet that was just installed into a new building we visited that was still under construction. The toilets in the hotel are regular Western-style, so I was quite amused that folks would still install these squatters after having been exposed to the luxery of the sit-down type!

The last picture is also of the same construction site we visited. Look in the picture behind the woman standing in the foreground. That guy is one of the workers sitting in his "home." He's sitting on a bunk bed and his clothes are hanging in the right side of the picture. There were two sets of bunkbeds in here, so I'm assuming this area is shared by several people. The inside of this building was reminiscent of a house having dry-wall installed. If I would've had to stay in there more than the few minutes we were touring, I would've had a mask on so I wouldn't breath in so much construction dust. And these people were living in there. All construction sights in Beijing have temporary housing (little shanty shacks) on the construction site for the workers to live in. Rickety at best, they really are quite sad. Luckily, construction sites get done pretty quickly with so many people working on them, so hopefully they don't have to live like this for very long.

My intention isn't to make everyone feel bad with this post, I just wanted to remind us all that we were lucky to be born where we were and that we should always be thankful for what we have. No matter how down on your luck you think you are, these people will work their butts off for their whole lives and never be able to rise above the conditions they are currently living in. Just something to think about. . .