Life and Travel in China

In China, various outdoor games/activities are organized during various trips and trips (company, group). Of course, the Chinese love it - joy, madness, screaming, antics. However, if we look at it from our perspective, we can realize the main purpose of these games. Such entertainments have the basic task of grouping and uniting people into one mass. They must feel that a given company, school or tour group is their community and they are part of this community. There has never been a place for individualists in China, it is not appropriate to think independently, you cannot demonstrate any individual characteristics, it is not appropriate to stand out. This is slowly changing, but the government still prefers to unite the people, because a unanimous mass is easier to control.

What is happening now in China can be compared to the times when Deng Xiao Ping took power, there was a certain thaw, relaxation, less repression. The Middle Kingdom is becoming more and more liberal, Chinese people travel all over the world, hundreds of thousands enter Hong Kong or Taiwan every day. They have access to more and more information from the Internet (although many sites are still blocked and slowed down). During the Olympics, China also wanted to show that they are COOL. However, the question arises: what next? More and more freedom, a liberal state, and maybe even free media? Ha, ha... definitely not! Someone will finally bang their fist on the table. The only question is who and when? While the state perfectly controls rural areas and provinces in the interior of China, people live very freely in the cities. There is no sense of repression or strong communist rule here. People go shopping, to discos, they have access to computers and books everywhere, they go on trips all over Asia, they are seemingly free people. Unfortunately, this is only an appearance, because we are all enslaved here in our own way.

You probably don't know that you can transport a refrigerator with an electric scooter?! And I already know it's possible - I saw it last night. I'm not talking about a very small fridge, just a 1.5 meter one. Can you imagine this in Poland? We come to the home appliances showroom, choose a refrigerator, the salesman asks if it can be delivered, and we say - I won't take it now. We go out to the parking lot with the staff, they look for our delivery vehicle, and we stand proudly next to our scooter - "Please load it here and tie it with this string."

Few people in Poland know the history of the Zhen Hua ship from Shanghai. At the end of 2008, near Somalia, they were attacked by pirates, just like "Sirus Star" with a Polish captain on board. The difference, however, was that the Shanghai ship was partially prepared for the attack. In their home port, they organized various flares, water cannons, gunpowder bombs, etc. They were attacked by three boats, the shipowner said that they could surrender and stay, that they would cover all the losses and they would talk about a ransom. However, the Chinese captain decided to defend himself. The entire crew joined the fight. The pirates boarded the ship, but could not get into the compartments where the crew was barricading themselves. I guess the pirates also ran out of courage and ammunition. After five hours, the fighting stopped. The Chinese threw a few cartons of cigarettes and shoes on board for the pirates to just go away. The Somalis were resigned, took their small "loot" and sailed away. The Zhen Hua ship returned safely to Shanghai, and the captain became the hero of the entire Chinese fleet.

DID YOU KNOW THAT... in China there are practically no swear words used in everyday speech. There are no typical Polish interludes such as f..., f..., etc. Their language is simple, but not coarse. It doesn't matter whether we mean the statements of a university lecturer, a doctor, a miner, a taxi driver or a worker... they have no practice in dirtying the language. There are, of course, curses that they use in the event of a fight, but translated into Polish, such insults would make someone smile rather than offend anyone. Well, how to react when someone insults us with the phrases "Your mother..." or "You are a bad egg" or "Turtle egg". Interestingly, they have many substitutes for offensive terms. For example, in some circles a prostitute would be called very disgusting in Poland, in China it is usually "chicken" or "lady". They used to call the male penis "JJ" or "younger brother" for short, but in Poland we have a more explicit term, unfortunately.