Life and Travel in China

Today they wanted to lynch a guy under my balcony. I don't know what happened, but twenty guys started chasing one guy. They hit him, threw him onto the street and started kicking him, while security from a nearby skyscraper just looked on. I shouted at them at full capacity in Chinese twice, 'What are you doing!' They didn't know who was screaming, they probably thought it was the police and they quickly stopped hitting him and dispersed. The guy had a bruised head, but nothing serious was wrong with him. They could have killed him, but luckily it didn't happen. I had already witnessed a similar fight, when a boy was choking and beating a girl in the street, the crowd was watching, so I stopped it too. They are brave, like a group chasing one, or like a strong beating up a weak one. No matter what happens there, you can't kick someone lying down and then attack one of them in a group.

Some Chinese really work too long, it's not that everyone has that much work, they just don't have anything to do at home. They are often lonely, many girls have no reason to go home, what can they do there? Sit in front of the TV or sleep? It's better to work some overtime, or just sit in the office chatting, or talk to clients (not about orders) on some instant messenger. Most often they have no computers at home, sometimes they even have nothing at all, just a bed and a wardrobe. Such overtime is understandable, so don't be surprised if you get a reply to your email at 11 p.m. (Chinese time, of course).

Our Chinese friends are increasingly able to afford sightseeing tours around Europe (costing around PLN 8,000-12,000), and they visit several or even a dozen countries quickly. What countries do they mention when they return: of course France, England, Italy, Spain, Germany, the Vatican, or even Luxembourg and Belgium, and Poland? Let's consider Poland? It's actually such a small country (one of the smaller ones in Europe), there are no nice lakes, no mountains, probably no sea, definitely poverty, no monuments, nothing interesting, mean people, thieves everywhere - I guess that's how they perceive Poland, since no one goes there, no travel agency in China offers a trip to Poland. Who do we owe this to? Our PIT, our diplomats, the government. I promote Poland as much as I can and I know that those Chinese who were there, or those who, for example, saw Krakow on TV, love our homeland. Historic, beautiful Poland, wonderful nature, unimaginable (for the Chinese) monuments, hospitable people...

Today, the construction of the large Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River, 2.3 km long, was completed. On the one hand, it is to cover 10% of China's energy needs (the largest hydroelectric power plant will be built there), regulate water levels and prevent floods, but on the other hand, it is supposedly a gigantic and senseless investment that may cause droughts and contribute to the extinction of many plant and animal species. However, the best comment today was under Onet's information about this dam. Someone wrote that the pace of work is almost the same as in Poland, because 2.3 km of highways were built at that time.

Mrs. Merkel meets with the President of China, Mr. Hu Jintao. And on Polish radio they say that the Germans are going to talk about human rights in China... that's right! The Germans have one topic with the Chinese - business, business and once again business. Germany is doing great in import and export business from/to China. Their diplomacy has always strongly supported all trade contacts. I remember that a year or even two years ago, Chancellor Schroder was here in the middle of nowhere, a beautiful delegation, about a hundred people, translators, businessmen, diplomats, advisers. Germans know that they can only gain from friendship with China, it's a pity that no one in Poland has discovered this fact yet!!!