Life and Travel in China

Currently, on April 3-5, the "grave cleaning festival", also called Qingming Festival, is taking place. This holiday is treated differently in different parts of China. Generally speaking, it is mainly about cleaning the graves of ancestors and bringing gifts. Especially in Guangdong Province, artificial money is very important, as well as paper cutouts of houses, cars and even servants. All these symbols should be burned, they are to ensure a prosperous life in the afterlife. Gifts of fruit and wine are also often brought. Depending on the religion, families pray for their loved ones or organize various rituals derived from local beliefs. This holiday varies greatly depending on the location. For example, in cities such as Shenzhen, where the majority of visitors are young people, no one engages in these rituals. People simply have a few days off, go to the park, go shopping, go to the seaside, fly kites carelessly... Graves and cemeteries are located far outside the city, so there is nothing to remind us of this holiday.

I wonder why highways and skyscrapers are being built so slowly in Poland (compared to China)? Are we short of finances? Are there not enough people to work? We don't have the technology? We don't have the desire or enthusiasm to work? I really don't know, but it amazes me how skyscrapers are growing in Chinese cities. They have really huge cranes, use traditional bamboo scaffolding, do not care about health and safety regulations, and often work without protection at heights of 200-400 meters. Why are they building so fast? Why are we so reluctant to do this? Maybe it's about the number of workers, lower salaries, lack of insurance and lack of occupational safety regulations, as well as slightly worse quality of finishes and certainly cheaper materials?! In addition, it is also about the support of the authorities, either central in Beijing or local. Money is certainly not a problem in China when it comes to investing in roads and city architecture. I'm a bit worried about the speed of construction and development. I heard that the Chinese are planning increasingly larger investments in Poland!

Some Poles, or even foreigners visiting China, often treat crowds of people and crowds on the streets as entertainment. When going shopping or to a crowded park on the weekend, it's nice to take photos and have thousands of Chinese people as a background. After all, you are in the Middle Kingdom - the most populous country (together with India). A few days of squeezing through the crowd doesn't bother anyone much, it's an attraction in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong and Shenzhen. However, if we looked at it differently... if we lived here longer, for a year or two, or permanently. Such crowds are so tiring! It even comes to the point that it is better not to leave the house at all and to do shopping at certain hours. It is also not worth going to any city park on Saturday or Sunday, because you will be trampled! I found this out once again when I visited the famous park in Guangzhou - YueXiu.

In Shenzhen they are now building this big, beautiful hospital overlooking the sea. A huge building is being built near HongShuLin (Red Jungle) overlooking the bay and the border with Hong Kong. I'm already laughing at the fact that the hospital can use the advertising slogan "death with a view of the bay", "die in pleasant conditions", "the best rooms, the best view before death". Shenzhen is a young city, but hospitals are already overcrowded - people (without insurance, often paying in cash) are standing in queues to see specialists. These are usually young people, girls waiting to see gynecologists (usually during the day in one large hospital there are even 8-10 doctors of a given specialization), young workers waiting to see surgeons, many people have stomach and digestion problems. In large cities, the health of many Chinese is deteriorating, mainly due to stress, hard work, worse and worse food, lack of exercise, and pollution. Life seems to be nice, but as soon as health problems start, it's hard. Then you either have a lot of money (only good companies offer insurance to employees, you also have to be officially registered in a given city), or you have some contacts among doctors. Overall, however, I increasingly have the impression that doctors do not want to help. Sometimes they are aggressive, do not explain anything, and treat the patient as just another number, there can be 5-6 strangers in the rooms (even in the gynecologist's) at the same time! Patients often come back with the same problem and pay for the same medicines that do not really help them. Hospitals are simply good business and stable income. The system is efficient - registration and payment for the visit at the entrance, cards with patient data, displays in the waiting rooms with names, a connected computer system (they have access, for example, to the results of blood tests from another hospital in the same city), and finally, a series of paid tests and prescriptions. The prescriptions are already in the computer and after leaving the cash register, we go next door to pick up the medicines that are already prepared for us in a small basket. We spend about PLN 60 in one day (for example, for angina) or about PLN 120-150 for more serious problems. Less in your wallet, and there is no guarantee of health. In case of complications, hospitals are waiting, they give a deposit of about PLN 500-2000 depending on the disease and the length of hospitalization! That's why such a beautiful, huge hospital with a view of the sea is being built now, they will never run out of customers!

If there were pharmacies in Poland like in China, retirees wouldn't have to spend so much time at the doctor's office just to have a chat. Imagine a pharmaceutical store the size of Biedronka, with local and foreign medicines, medical accessories, rehabilitation equipment, massage and acupuncture devices, as well as herbs and traditional medicine. Oh, there would be something to do! And on each shelf, two service girls are always willing to advise and persuade you to buy a more expensive preparation. Pharmacies in China are really great and are worth visiting as a curiosity, even during a tourist trip around Asia.