11/8/11 China

China is a country on the move!  I was amazed by how quickly it has developed since I was there 23 years ago. Granted, I only had the opportunity to visit the cities of Hong Kong and Shanghai on this trip, but the changes were immense.  One big difference was that in 1988, Hong Kong had not yet returned to being part of China, and was (and still is) much more developed than China. Shanghai is catching up quickly.  Instead of people wearing drab gray clothing and riding bicycles everywhere as they did in 1988, they are dressed in business clothing and taking transportation such as the Maglev train that gets them from the airport to downtown Shanghai at a speed of 430 km/hour!!!! In the 5 years since it came to Shanghai, Starbucks has opened 500 restaurants that look exactly like the ones in the USA. Jeff said he saw the most beautiful McDonald's restaurant in the world in Guilin, China. Both Hong Kong and Shanghai have skyscapes like you can't believe, especially at night, when all the skyscrapers are lit up and the cities are putting on their nightly laser light-shows. The view of Hong Kong from the top of Victoria Peak is unreal; it rivals the view of San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge from the top of Mt Tamalpias.

The communist government was much more visible to me in China than it was in Vietnam.  There were Chinese officials wearing red armbands hanging out in all public places, making sure that people were behaving. Some of my shipmates had trip guides tell them that they could not discuss certain subjects in public places for fear of being reprimanded and having to go through "re-education." I was told that you can not own a home in China. You can lease a home for a maximum of 70 years, at which time the government will reclaim it. The government does compensate people well for the property it retakes, so families have money to re-lease a place to live in the city, or move to the suburbs. Many websites and social media sites are fire-walled by the Chinese government, so we were unable to get on Facebook or Blogspot while we were there.

The healthcare system in China varies wildly. I took an injured student to a dental specialist in a POSH high-rise building in Hong Kong. The office was nicer than any doctor's office I have seen in the USA, and the service was impeccable. We sat down in the waiting room and they served us coffee, found us a hotel for the student to stay in that night, and mailed my postcards for me. Meanwhile, in mainland China, one of the voyagers was pushed over by a motorcycle and taken to a hospital for X-rays due to shoulder pain. That facility was much more primitive, with non-existent privacy and employee's motorcycles parked in the stark waiting room. 

I'm sorry to report that the Chinese food in China was not all that great, in my American opinion.  The biggest problem was probably that it was tough to figure out what we were ordering, and it wasn't always what we hoped it would be.  Also, we again ran into the issue of skin and eyeballs and fat encasing much of the cooked meat and fish that was served. That is hard to get used to when you haven't grown up eating it. The sweets are completely different than anything we have in the USA, and not calorie-worthy (again, in my American opinion). I'd be willing to bet that the Chinese feel the same way about American food when they visit us. I know our friend from Nigeria was none-too-fond of most American food. It's amazing how much your culture of origin influences even your taste buds!

I did not travel inland at these ports, so my experiences were limited to two beautiful cities. Jeff took a trip inland to a place called Guilin. He had an absolutely amazing time, and wishes he could have spent much more time in China. When he gets caught up on his blog posts, you'll be able to visit his blog site to see some amazing pictures of beautiful China.