I made it to China! After 5 checkpoints of collecting my details and biometric data, I managed to get through. Seriously, it took me half the time of my actual flight to make it outside.
The first thing that caught my attention as soon as I boarded the underground train was the huge amount of people rushing in. It’s not a race guys, chill. Only the next day I discovered how wrong I was. It was indeed a race. Although there were signs everywhere saying “no touching”, people were crammed like sardines, especially during rush hour and deeper into the city. People fighting to get in and to get out at every stop. Sometimes, I even had to wait for 2 more metro trains to come by as they would be too full.
The next thing I noticed was how much everyone was into their phones. The only thing you hear when walking through the metro is footsteps and the sound coming from people’s phones. Apparently, there’s wifi at every metro stop and on the train too and people use it incessantly. Not that I should argue; It’s been a great help to have wifi at every metro stop and in every cafe and shop I enter. Even my hostel had 3 different wifi routers and people will not talk for hours because they’re busy playing, watching a movie or exchanging cute, Chinese stickers on WeChat. That’s another thing. Most popular communication websites like Facebook, WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram… They’re all blocked! Even Google services like Google Maps, Gmail and the Google search engines are blocked. If it weren’t for the virtual private network I bought and installed in advance, I’d be somewhat screwed. “Baidu” is their “Google” and I’d be happy to use it if only I understood Chinese… Thank god for Google translate (thank you Google if your spider is reading this). I doubt I would have made it to my hostel without all this technology seeing how my memory is not the best.
Nevertheless, Chinese people are extremely nice. Every Chinese person I asked for help has tried to help me one way or another, even with the huge language barrier. Some people will start pointing like crazy. Others will utilize their Baidu Translator app to translate what they mean and what I want. Some others will just keep on talking to you in Chinese with hopes of picking up a word or two and understand what they’re saying. Little do they know that the only words I know are “nihao” (你好) and “xiexie” (谢谢), But every one of them will stop looking at their phones to help out. These 3 guys accompanied me to a shop to help me buy a SIM card and also bought me lunch (some weird meat with fried skin and oil in it, I don’t know what it was and frankly I don’t want to know). I was not expecting Chinese people to be so friendly especially when they are on holiday and they don’t even know my name! I greatly appreciate their help or at least their attempt./video
Cleanliness in public places is another thing that stood out. You barely see any litter around, and the litter you see is usually biodegradable like tissue paper. I’d lick the floor if it weren’t for all the rats I see running around.
The Chinese elderly aren’t afraid to shake their booty in public. I saw several groups of people, middle-aged women + in particular, ganging up around a speaker, blasting Chinese dance music and dancing like nobody’s watching. Others would work out a sweat by exercising. I guess it’s how they vent after a hard day of work.
Guangzhou might be severely under surveillance (security officials and cameras are everywhere!), but the city is incredibly safe and efficient, and people look relatively content. At least that’s what I got from my 4 days here.
