How ordinary Chinese people really live. How people live in China - characteristics and traditions of the Chinese

How do ordinary Chinese people live?

When I travel, I am always interested to see how local people live. Agree, hotels are the same everywhere, unless they are some kind of concept hotels or interesting hostels. Last year my relatives came to see me and were very pleased to see what ordinary Chinese apartments. If you are also interested in this, then read on:

The Chinese economy is now the first in the world, so it is not surprising that new buildings are growing by leaps and bounds. Apartments are being sold at every turn, agents and touts are not asleep. Old houses are demolished, and a new high-rise rises in their place. This is especially felt in the center. Owners of former old houses in the center are being relocated to new residential complexes in residential areas with all amenities. But some residents actively resist this and remain in their homes until the last minute, living there without water or electricity. And I thought, why is that? Isn’t it easier to go to a residential area, but to a more spacious and new apartment? And then I realized that those residents mostly ran small shops selling food or repairing bicycles. These shops are passed on to the current owners from their parents, who received them from their parents, and so on. And this man repaired bicycles all his life, and everyone there knew him; there was always enough for rice and chicken. This is all he has been doing all his life, and now a manager in a formal suit comes to him, sticks him with the keys and says: “Move, dude!” And where should he go? By the way, many people rent out their apartments on the outskirts, sleep in their own shop or huddle somewhere.

When renting out a residential building, they always try to make some kind of park or square, so that there is somewhere to walk and relax, and there is also a school attached, kindergarten, a supermarket and sometimes a hospital. “Everything is for the people” - this is especially felt in China. In China, several houses are combined into compounds or gardens. They have their own security and maintenance.

If you look into the apartment of any Chinese housewife, you will certainly find a steamer (rice cooker) and a WOK frying pan. In Asia it is found everywhere. When we first moved to China, I couldn’t understand how their fried foods were so crispy and low-greasy. The whole secret, it turns out, lies in the wok. The classic wok has a curved spherical bottom and is found mainly in cafes and restaurants. The photo shows a more compact home version. Food is prepared quickly in a wok and retains all its beneficial features precisely thanks to this bottom. This bottom allows the wok to heat up to a very high temperature and reduces cooking time. With this kind of cooking, you won’t be able to doze off or decide something at the same time; you need to constantly stir and fry quickly. How is my cooking process going as usual? I covered the frying pan with a lid, so I can read, answer letters or cut salad. It won't work with such a frying pan! You should start frying when the oil begins to slowly smoke. What is your favorite Chinese dish? By the way, an omelette is being prepared on the left.

In the photo: an option for a small studio apartment. In general, it is customary for the Chinese to rent out apartments with such minimal repairs. If a person is undemanding, then it’s enough to just bring in the furniture and start living.

This is what the “draft” version looks like. And this is a standard kitchen. If you want, you can change it yourself, but apartment owners usually don’t change it. For the Chinese, a kitchen is primarily a place for preparing food. It can be microscopic and compact. “Everything is at hand,” so to speak. Some of my friends refuse to rent an apartment after the Chinese, because the kitchen there is simply crap. And this is true if the owners were actively preparing. The entire ceiling and slab, despite the hood, can be very greasy.

They eat and drink tea in the hall, which is combined with the living room. Therefore, the hall does not count as a room. For example, a two-room apartment is a living room + 1 bedroom + 1 room. One-room - living room + 1 bedroom. Very convenient, by the way.

Almost all apartments have a technical balcony like this, where a washing machine, dryer or even a refrigerator is installed. So the Chinese create a garden with fish from loggias or relax there on rattan furniture.

The bathroom is always shared. If the apartment is three-room, then in most cases there are two bathrooms: one in the bedroom, the other in the corridor between the rooms.

I've already gotten used to the lack of a bathroom as such. There is only a shower everywhere. These showers with a glass partition are the ideal solution for a small space.

Since Guangzhou is in the south, there are fans and air conditioners everywhere. There is always a fan in the kitchen and bathroom; high humidity increases the risk of mold spreading.

The rental market in China is very developed. Rental conditions vary from province to province. I will announce the terms of rent in Guangzhou:

When renting an apartment, an agreement is concluded that specifies the rental period, deposit, and condition of the furniture. As a rule, the minimum rental period is 1 year. The deposit is charged in the amount of 2 months' rent. If the contract is broken ahead of schedule, then the deposit is not refunded. The rent remains fixed for the entire duration of the contract. Some enter into a contract for 2-3 years, the price remains fixed, while the rental market grows.

It seems to me that it is very good to conclude such agreements, you feel protected, the owners will not unexpectedly ask you to vacate the apartment. And it’s good for the owners: tenants won’t flit from apartment to apartment.

I have never encountered any restrictions, such as we don’t rent to people with children and animals, or we increase the rental price. The walls in the houses are always white, there is no wallpaper, although China is the birthplace of wallpaper. But in the south, during the high humidity season, they simply fall off. According to the rules, owners must rent out a renovated and clean apartment. If this does not happen, then you can hire a cleaner and ask for compensation for her labor. When we first moved into our apartment, our gas did not work; they said they would connect it within 5 days. I said: “Okay, no problem. I will eat in restaurants, keep all the receipts, and you will pay me for all this.” The gas was connected the next day. If something breaks in an apartment through no fault of the tenants, you usually contact the agency or the owner directly and resolve the issue. In fact, everything is always individual. If the owner lives nearby, she will come herself, talk to the master and settle accounts with him. If not, you can pay upon departure. The main thing is to know your rights. And then some people bought air conditioning at their own expense...

In addition to the bill for water, electricity and gas according to meters, a separate bill for house maintenance is charged. Calculated based on square meters, regardless of the number of residents. In our compound, for an apartment of 60 sq. The metro costs about 250 yuan (2500 rubles). For that kind of money we get a well-kept area, garbage removal every hour, trash cans in a special room on the floor, security at every entrance, and cleaning of the entrances. In houses with a concierge, the payment is a little more expensive. Underground parking is paid separately and costs approximately 450 yuan/month (4500 rub.)

This is how rich Chinese live: in a separate 3-story mansion. Cost from 1 million dollars. But such houses are not very comfortable to live in, there are too many insects, although disinfestation is always carried out. You have to constantly process it and store all the sweets in the refrigerator. Therefore, the higher the floor, the more expensive the rental price.

Of course, each country has its own characteristics of life. The Chinese economy today ranks first in the world. And yes, this is a developing country, that is, a country where there is development. Being here, I always feel that if they build or do something, they try to do it for people, and not just make money from it.

Many people who come here think that they are going to some very agricultural, backward, unknown country. Yes, China still has a long way to go to reach the high standards of Western countries, but China has its own path. And this forms the diversity of our world, but all people are similar in their desire for comfort and security. And this is actually very good, because the lack of comfort diminishes a person’s dignity, lowers his self-esteem and undermines his self-confidence.

Alien among centers

When you come to Asia for a period longer than the validity of a tourist visa, you have only two options. Either you accept Asia with all your heart and discover that from now on you cannot live without it, or you get a nervous tic and run towards the airport, cursing the locals for their habits, appearance, language, climate, food and everything else.

I saw both categories of laowai - that’s what the locals call us, assuring us that it just means “foreigner”. And keeping silent about the fact that this is, rather, something like an ironic “foreigner,” that is, a creature standing at a completely different stage of development than the Chinese - a resident of the Center of the World, a citizen of the great Middle State (this is how the self-name of China is translated - Zhongguo). And one should not be deceived into thinking that this level in the Chinese consciousness is higher than their own, the Chinese. In China, it is generally easy for a foreigner to fall into misconceptions, which is why they treat laowai with a grin, sometimes open, sometimes carefully hidden.

This important point. You will always be a laova here, even if you master the language perfectly, learn a couple of dialects, reach heights in calligraphy, become a master of wushu - you will bathe in compliments and sincere admiration of the locals for your abilities, but you will remain a “foreigner”. You will never become “one of us.” If you approach this with calm understanding or even humor, life in China can become very comfortable, interesting and not particularly troublesome. At least that's what we can hope for. And those who come here with missionary intentions and a desire to fight a culture that is at least five thousand years old inevitably suffer fiasco of varying degrees of drama.

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To accept China in my heart did not mean to become more Chinese than the Chinese themselves. I don’t arrange my furniture according to Feng Shui, I don’t wear scarlet silk robes with golden dragons embroidered on them. I'm not listening folk opera(or rather, I listen - together with my Chinese neighbors from above, big fans of it, but I no longer suffer from it, like from a toothache). But China has changed me a lot. I began to look at many things differently. Only one thing has remained unchanged, for which I love the Celestial Empire most of all - almost daily surprise and admiration for the life that boils in its cities and villages. Every day brings such amazing observations and discoveries that you can’t help but feel like a child looking in amazement at the vast world.

Chinese hard work

Everyone knows: the Germans are punctual, the French are the most skillful lovers, Americans are all cowboys, and Russians drink vodka from a samovar and ride bears. And the Chinese are hardworking. They have no greater joy in life than to work hard. And we even have a song about them, about how the sun rises over the Yellow River, and the Chinese walk into the field, clutching a handful of rice in their fist, and carrying portraits of Mao...

In fact, of course, the Chinese are no different from other people in this regard. Nothing human is alien to them. They also avoid work at the first opportunity. They also like to eat well and take a nap after eating, right at their workplace. Although no, this is what they love most of all in the world, but this is a topic for a separate article.

Their diligence - in study, work - is often based on fear. In front of parents. Before society. Before the future. The demand is very strict, from childhood, that’s the way of the East. This makes you sad and you remember being in the army. For the first six months of my service, I worked a lot: I dug holes, filled them up and dug new ones. Digged trenches. I was carrying curb stones in my hands - there was no cart allowed - from the checkpoint to the guardhouse, this is a kilometer and a half across the entire part. I painted something, pulled something, loaded it... Was I hardworking then? Not really. But my work and the work of other “spirits” was monitored by Sergeant Ivakhnenko, the size of a breeding bull and with approximately the same character. His blows were all-crushing. There were no options, we had to work.

The work of many Chinese is exactly like this - forced and not particularly meaningful. Where it should be done quickly and well, the Chinese will spend a long time poking around, gluing, tying, patching up constantly, so that in the end everything will fall apart and they will have to start again. They can do it quickly, but this speed is reminiscent of the “demobilization chord” - somehow in record time to restore “beauty” so that it all, as usual, falls apart after delivery.

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The Chinese are not hardworking. But they are very hard-working. That is, where I or someone like me is overwhelmed by unbearable working conditions, the Chinese will work with a serene expression on his face. And for this they deserve both respect and praise. It is these hard-working ant-people, short, dark-faced, dressed in baggy blue uniforms, who create grandiose new buildings, multi-level interchanges that will take your breath away, roads are laid, streets are swept, goods are transported...
The work ethic of the Chinese is incredible. It amazes foreigners living in China no less than the realization of the complete failure of the myth of Chinese industriousness.

Such is the paradox.

Amazing - close

China constantly surprises.

On a thick and warm Shanghai evening, my wife and I walked along a bridge over some regional river. It was stuffy, humid, as if in a huge greenhouse. Bats darted back and forth above our heads. Clouds, yellowish from the smog and lighting, were crawling, rain was brewing, which would not make it any cooler or lighter. We hurried home. Suddenly, in the darkness, something small, oblong, similar to a turtle appeared right in front of us. It was a real turtle. She floated silently in the air, swaying slightly at our eye level, almost touching our faces. We froze. Lightning flashed, and then an old man on a bicycle emerged from the pre-storm air. In fact, he taxied from behind us, and he wrapped a rope around the turtle and held the end of this very rope in his outstretched hand. He wanted to sell it to us for evening soup. But, hearing foreign speech, out of delicacy, he silently sneaked behind us across the bridge on a bicycle and decided to seduce us by simply showing us his excellent product: what can I say, after all, the laowai are still unreasonable and do not understand Chinese speech.

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We bought a turtle from him. The happy old man rushed away into the darkness, and we went down to the river in search of a suitable place where we could release our purchase. I don’t know what her fate would be like next. But I remember my wife’s phrase when we finally got caught in the rain and returned home: “It seems that I have lost the habit of my country. I started to be surprised by everyone here...”

When crossing the street, look both ways (traffic rules)

A short excursion into relatively recent history. During the period of the Cultural Revolution, the frantic Red Guards jealously searched for everything that might turn out to be counter-revolutionary. And, as you know, whoever seeks will always find. They found it - a traffic light. Alert comrades noticed that cars stopped at a red light. But red is the party color! There is a threat to the progress of the revolution and an obstacle to development. Stopping at a red signal should be prohibited. But reason in the person of Chinese Prime Minister Zhou Enlai defeated the energetic revolutionaries: he assured the activists that stopping at red is good, this symbolizes that the party guarantees the safety of all revolutionary activities. This was all the way back in 1966.

But in China, even in our time, the attitude towards traffic lights is very ambiguous. True, without any political background.

Every time we fly from Moscow to Shanghai, in the first days I watch both myself and my wife on the street. Spoiled by the relative respect for pedestrian rights in Moscow, we do not immediately remember that in China, for many drivers, a traffic light is just a three-color lantern decoration at an intersection. It can somehow attract the attention of bus drivers and sometimes truck and taxi drivers. All the numerous two-wheeled small fry rush “on their own wave” to any signal, turn wherever they want, and ride along the sidewalk, beeping at pedestrians.

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And if he parks his jalopy, then he certainly parks it across the sidewalk - for beauty or for some other reason. But clearly not out of malice and without challenging society. In the same way, not out of malice, you will not be allowed to pass at a pedestrian zebra crossing - in China these are just stripes on the roadway, devoid of any meaning. But you have to cross the road, right? So this must be done without fuss, without running or rushing about. Just walk and carefully look at the traffic scurrying around you. And don’t try to be indignant, don’t start calling on the natives to obey traffic rules. They won’t understand, because the main rule on the road in China is one thing: I go where I want and where I need to. And this is what every driver religiously observes.

The government is fighting this - surveillance cameras, fines... It’s hard to talk about success yet. However, recently we have already been allowed to pass at the zebra crossing several times - which means that the work is not in vain.

“Khhh!”

This sound is heard constantly and everywhere in China. It just so happened - the Chinese sincerely (and not without reason) believe that noisily clearing the nasopharynx and spitting deliciously anywhere is good for the body and there is nothing wrong with that.

In a local newspaper, I once read an article imbued with the spirit of romance about the sounds of the city - they surveyed passers-by and asked them to name a typical sound. There were the bells of a pagoda, the rustling of bamboo in the park, the songs of cicadas, the melody of the wind in high-rise neighborhoods, the tinkling of bicycle bells, the hum of an elevated train was indicated as typical and recognizable. But none of the respondents remembered the most frequent and famous sound “khhhh!”, which hits the ears of everyone who arrives in the Celestial Empire. And all because it is familiar to the locals and does not even receive attention. Little children and school-age boys, respectable old men and touching old women, graceful girls and mature aunties, commoners in rags and sleek Asian gentlemen in expensive suits - everyone coughs. Hairdressers, taxi drivers, waiters, salesmen, artists on the embankment, couples in love in the park. Loudly, with pleasure, without hesitation.

The government is trying to fight this too. Posters appeared in the subway and parks with a crossed out spitting silhouette and the inscription that this should not be done in public places - in Chinese and English. What if one of the guests of the Celestial Empire wants to join in the violation of order, but sees the inscription and is ashamed. But it is clear that the Chinese spit not out of malice or lack of culture, but for the benefit of their health. Here, no prohibitions can overcome the people’s craving for health procedures.

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By the way, this craving amazingly combined with a devil-may-care (since we're talking about this) attitude towards him. Take, for example, the Chinese passion for smoking in transport, banks, hospitals, restaurants, shopping centers, sports centers, elevators and other various places. They are also trying to fight it; in Hong Kong and Macau they have even achieved success - high fines have helped. Mainland China has not yet decided to severely punish its citizens for such trifles.

Be healthy!

It’s better not to get sick at all, everyone knows that. But few people manage to live their lives serenely and not have to see a doctor.

One Chinese morning I woke up, touched my forehead, listened to the cough and realized: it was my turn. Of course, I visited doctors many times. But these are our own, domestic doctors. But there was no need to go to their Chinese colleagues. The first thing I did was go to the small university clinic on campus, believing that since I worked at the university, this was the place for me to go. But the sleepy doctors shied away from me as if I had the plague. I thought it was all my appearance, and I was partly right. But it was not the pallor of my brow and the sparkling eyes that alerted the local doctors, but my Laowai appearance. “You don’t belong with us!” - they stated categorically. “And to whom and where?” - I was puzzled. “You need to go to the international hospital, only they accept foreigners.” I didn't want to go there. For the money that an international hospital pays for a “visit from a doctor who speaks English,” I have to work for several months, sleeping under a bridge and eating on the outskirts of a food market. After thinking, he proposed a compromise: “I’m a simple guy, from the people. Direct me to an ordinary people's hospital, of which there are plenty around. I will leave and will not interfere with your work.” In addition to me, the negotiations with the doctor and two nurses included an old security guard in a cap, his friend, a cleaning lady with a mop in her hands, and several completely strangers who looked like students and teachers.

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They participated as equals, looking at me and discussing my future fate. In the general hubbub, I didn’t catch who made the final verdict. I hope it was a doctor and not a watchman or a cleaning lady. I received a piece of paper with an address and a referral for examination. I must say that the compassionate participants in the discussion offered to take me - some by bicycle, some by bus, and one professor-type guy insisted on a taxi and even began to call him by phone. Out of fear that the whole company would take me to the traditional doctors, I refused help and went to the hospital on my own. I was followed by wishes to get better faster and recommendations to drink more hot water. The last one is universal Chinese medicine. If you drink a lot of hot water, you will always be healthy, or you will get better quickly. If you don’t drink a lot of hot water, your affairs are bad, and your days are numbered...

In the people's hospital, the first floor of which looked more like a bizarre mixture of a bank and a train station, I toiled in different queues at all sorts of windows - paying for an appointment, taking tests, paying for tests, waiting for an appointment... The doctor - cheerful, bald, full-faced, wearing round glasses - looked at me carefully, at the printout of the blood test, and back at me.

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“It seems to me that you are sick,” he finally said in a tone that did not allow for objections. I didn't argue and nodded. Then he shyly asked what kind of illness happened to me. The doctor’s answer struck me with honesty: “I don’t know.” I nodded again in understanding: if I were Chinese, the doctor would quickly determine everything. But since I am a carrier of a Laowai organism unknown to him, my affairs are dark and my prospects are vague. Just as I was about to find out what to do now, the doctor’s face lit up. The doctor rummaged in the desk drawer and pulled out two large, finger-sized ampoules. “This is a very good product! “Chinese,” he said proudly, holding the ampoules in front of me in his open palms. “Which one do you choose?”

I took a closer look. There were no names. One ampoule contains a colorless liquid, the other contains a suspicious yellowish liquid. “Very good product, it helps a lot!” - the doctor encouraged me. "What is this?" - I asked. The doctor sighed and repeated: a very good remedy, Chinese. To be convincing, he even duplicated it in English: “Chinese medicine. Lead the guda." Indulging in fatalism, I waved my hand: “Let’s both!” The doctor shook his head in fear - it’s impossible, it’s a very strong medicine. You only need to choose one.

Many people, in addition to the doctor and nurse, watched our communication with interest. I didn’t know who they were, but I guessed: ordinary patients, bored in line, who decided to come with me to the doctor’s office and look at the “talking dog.” The doctor reacted calmly to their desire and did not drive them away - he gave his compatriots the opportunity to admire the laoi to their heart's content.

I hesitated, like Neo from The Matrix, when offered the blue or red pill.

Samurai Yamamoto Tsunetomo advised in such cases: “In an “either-or” situation, choose death without hesitation.” Armed with this fierce wisdom from China's eternal enemies, I refused both ampoules, thanked everyone for their concern and hurried to leave the crowded office.

“Drink more hot water!” - came after me.

And you know, I listened to them and recovered. A week later.

Food, you are the world!

In order not to get sick, you need to not only drink a lot of hot water, but also eat well (often means plentifully). Food is the foundation of Chinese life. Until recently, people in the Middle Kingdom even greeted each other instead of the usual “nihao!” with the question “chi le ma?” That is, “have you eaten?”
No other topic is capable of arousing the same keen interest of the Chinese. Food is not only a favorite topic of conversation. If you see a Chinese person in a state deep thought, you can be sure: nine times out of ten he thinks about food. Even money and the housing issue are inferior to the topic of food, let alone the weather, politics, sports, art and everything else. If you want to “revive” your Chinese interlocutor and make him feel good, start talking about food and listen carefully. The interlocutor will be flattered by the role of an expert and will proudly tell you many incredible recipes for the most outlandish dishes, even if in fact it is just a way to prepare a simple onion soup.

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The Chinese are generally proud of everything they own, but national cuisine- especially. And, I must admit, there are reasons for this. This is a whole philosophy of life, with a pronounced Chinese character. This is the basis Chinese culture. The main beauty is that it is quite accessible and enjoyable to learn even for those who are unable to master hieroglyphs, which are also part of the culture.

Roughly speaking, there are several main directions in this most important of all Chinese arts. Northern culinary school - an abundance of noodles, dumplings, and rice is not held in particular esteem. Southern Shanghainese is famous for its sweet and sour dishes. Szechuan - terribly spicy, fiery. Well, you can treat yourself to all sorts of delights like newborn mice in Guangdong province. But is it necessary?

Pragmatic and life-loving Chinese explore the world through food. Each province has its own cuisine, special and unique. Why, every city cooks it differently. And in the city itself - in each quarter there is possible its own preparation, unique for this place. Nuances are very important and valuable. Traveling hundreds of kilometers from home on the weekend to eat “famous delicious donuts” in some remote place is very Chinese. A Chinese person’s impressions of a trip abroad are also formed primarily from descriptions of food. Many, many times I heard from Chinese friends who had traveled around Europe a list of countries where it was “tasty” and where, on the contrary, it was “tasteless”. Everyone, of course, has their own list of preferences. It’s easier with young people; they may even like Western food. But for the elderly, almost everywhere - “bu hao chi”, that is, completely tasteless. That is why, during tourist trips, the Chinese are brought in organized busloads to specially created huge Chinese canteens and restaurants. There are several such places in Moscow, and one of them is inside the Olimpiysky sports complex. Daily crowd of noisy Chinese tourists at the entrance to the restaurant against the backdrop of the huge golden dome of the Moscow Cathedral Mosque gives this place a very unusual flavor.

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So, despite the Chinese craving for so-called “food tourism,” this applies more to the borders of the Center of the World, that is, to China. But the entire periphery of the world is different. Only a few inquisitive brave souls leave the hotel in the evenings and make their way to some of our “Yolki-Palki”, where Russians order National dishes and with a shudder they look at the okroshka and jellied meat brought to them. The bravest ones may even try it, but only to recoil from the dish and remember their homeland - a great country with the most wonderful food in the world.

How to live and communicate

Even though China may seem like another planet to many, the local rules of life are universal. Calmness and politeness - best ways brighten up your life in a foreign land and establish contact with the locals. The Chinese are very sensitive and highly value respectful attitude (which sometimes does not prevent them from being completely unceremonious from our point of view, but, again, this is not out of malice, but, for example, out of curiosity or due to natural spontaneity). It's best to avoid talking about politics, especially when it comes to sensitive topics like Taiwan or Tibet. Moreover, why touch on politics when there is an opportunity to discuss lunch - past or upcoming. It's more interesting and useful.

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The Chinese are generally very friendly towards people from Russia. They will definitely praise your appearance (no matter how depressing it may seem to you) and your Chinese (even if it consists of only two, but the most important words - “sese” and “nihao”). They will pay a compliment to the president - they will diligently pronounce his last name (fortunately, it does not contain the “r” sound, which is irresistible for many Chinese) and show thumb. They will try to help if necessary, even if they don’t know how exactly to help. And they will teach you practicality: one day you will discover that you have not used an iron for a long time, and walking in beautiful pajamas along the evening street, doing your evening exercise, is just the thing.

Live in China. Like this?
Actually this is interesting. We haven't been here that long, so everything around us still continues to surprise us every day. There is so much mixed up here that, as we understand, the Chinese themselves often cannot figure it out. This is some kind of incomprehensible territory. There is no need to compare China with any European country. It's incomparable. Nothing will work out. Therefore, we don’t compare anything - we tell everything as it is. Of course, our view of the world is subjective, but we are not the state. com. statistics...
So, China through the eyes of the average person:

There is constant movement in China. Here everything moves, moves and moves. Wherever you go and wherever you look, you will see Chinese people doing something. Either they are working, which is more likely, or they are eating, which is also almost everywhere, or they are arguing about something. The combination of these three actions is the aggregate state of the Chinese. There are a lot of people everywhere. You can go into any open cafe or restaurant at night - no matter what time, at four or five in the morning - and in this restaurant more than half of the seats will be occupied for sure. You can go out onto the balcony of your apartment at night and see that the traffic on the street has not decreased at all. Yesterday we were returning home late and, passing by the tennis court, in our yard we saw two Chinese playing tennis. In uniform, in white sneakers, with good rackets - at four o'clock in the morning!!
The Chinese are everywhere and always. But they are very different. People are highly differentiated by social level. There are a lot of poor people. A lot of rich people. They all peacefully coexist with each other in close proximity. There are no elite areas and no Harlems. A multi-story skyscraper can stand right in the middle of a slum, and an elite 5-star hotel can be surrounded by poor areas with two-story shacks and sewers. Just like a brand new Ferrari can stand at the crossroads between pedicabs and three-wheeled dusty scooters. All this is cooked in one cauldron. If you leave the boundaries of any city and drive along any road - on the sides of it you will not see forests and fields - you will see fences of factories and factories - one replacing another... In any direction. There are thousands of them here. These can be small factories with up to 500 people, or ultra-modern world-famous factories with an incomprehensible number of people. They all work at incredible speed. They all make money every minute. Any of the owners of these factories is a wealthy person. Any of them can afford a shiny executive-class Mercedes and a 500-meter house or apartment. There are definitely more millionaires here than in Austrian resorts. But, with all this, each plant employs hundreds of workers who receive 100 bucks a month. And there are also incredibly many of them. In general, it is still difficult for us to understand how it all works and harmoniously coexists.
Food is a universal hobby of all Chinese. In the morning, evening and at night, all restaurants and cafes are more than half occupied. There are Chinese everywhere and they eat everywhere. Everyone eats. They eat snakes, toads, worms, scorpions, insects, all animals, including dogs and mice, and all entrails, including deep-fried intestines and lungs. You say ugh!? Come on, you can get used to it. In the evening, these glass stalls on wheels open onto the street. They drive out to the middle of the sidewalk, and the stallholders lay out various animal parts and seasonings in a glass display case. All this is fried and steamed in front of you over high heat and in a large amount of oil. You can try the ears, snout, udder, lungs and much more... In front of these “glasses” there are usually 5-7 low stools where you can sit and eat everything you just bought. At the same time, bones and skin should be chewed well and then spat out on the floor right in front of you. You can slurp without hesitation - everyone slurps - this is the norm. 15 meters from this “glass” is the entrance to a respectable restaurant. There is a soft lounge playing, dim lighting, a 46-page menu, and on the tables there are buttons for remote calling of waiters. On the menu: steaks, fried potatoes, spaghetti balanese, the best European wines, Carlsberg beer, and excellent fruit cocktails. When you dine in such a place you relax and after a few minutes you forget what you just saw on the street. The distance between these two worlds is 15 steps.
Versatility and contrast are everywhere. You can walk into the courtyard of a new multi-story building, such as the one we live in, and see a car exhibition in the parking lot below. There are “Mizirrati”, “Ferrari”, “Caens” - this is generally the people’s car of the Lao Ban (lao ban - boss in Chinese) 500 and 600 Mercedes, several Jaguars, two Hamers and other cars -fives.” You can leave the courtyard, walk across the street to the left and get into a two-story area with the same exhibition, but this time of tricycles. The tricycle is generally one of the symbols of China. They transport everything from garbage to refrigerators.
There are many extremes here, but they are extremes nonetheless. We want to talk about China and the average Chinese.

Chinese people at home and at work. The Chinese work from 8 to 12, then have a two-hour lunch break. From 12 to 14 they have lunch and have time to sleep. In offices at this time, you can easily find a Chinese person sleeping right on his desk next to his computer. The Chinese work hard. They do everything quickly - that's a fact. Quality is a separate matter. When working with a Chinese partner, it is important to constantly ensure that he understands you thoroughly. Not just understood, but understood thoroughly. Otherwise, he will do some of the work “at his own discretion.” The Chinese discretion will most likely be very different from yours. After work, China has dinner. From 18 to 20 all cafes and restaurants are almost one hundred percent occupied. It is not customary to have dinner at home. Many apartments do not have kitchens. If you walk into a cafe in the evening, the first thing you notice is a powerful din. Everyone communicates with each other very loudly - almost shouting. Such a style. After dinner, the Chinese go home or to friends. At home he watches TV - and constantly switches channels. This is not surprising - the quality of the programs shown on central television is very low. 80 percent are locally produced TV series - it’s great to learn the language from them, but you can’t delve into the meaning - otherwise your brain will soften, and repeated advertisements where characters talk to cartoon-washing-powders. When visiting friends, a Chinese man argues, shouts loudly and gambles. Gambling– this is a completely separate topic. They play everywhere. In shops, on the streets, in parks - everywhere, everywhere... We haven’t yet understood what they are playing - something between chess, backgammon and dominoes. They always play for money, shouting loudly while throwing dice onto the board.

Chinese on the roads: It is impossible for a visitor to understand the logic of traffic in China. The driving culture is simply different than in any other country. A very large number of traffic participants. A lot of cars. There are three to four times more motorcyclists and cyclists. While the light is red, a number of cars accumulate at the intersection, surrounded on all sides by motorcyclists. The green light turns on - everything starts moving smoothly. The distances between cars and mopeds are usually 20-30 cm, regardless of speed. Turn signs are ignored. Double solid almost everywhere, but no one knows why it is needed. The priorities of roads are very arbitrary - often the main, busy road along which the flow moves from average speed 70, a dusty three-wheeled truck with chickens in the back can fall out without worrying that someone might crash into it. The Chinese drive very slowly, smoothly and constantly changing lanes. Changing lanes all the time is normal. It is not customary to simply drive along and enjoy the road.
Surprisingly, the Chinese never swear while driving; they react to all cuts and constant sharp moments by calmly and confidently pressing the brake, without showing a drop of aggression or even dissatisfaction. There are no accidents at all. We haven't seen any. Just like there are no “Zhorikov” on “Tens” with mufflers that you can stick your head into, and there are no old right-handed “Subars” with “Sparko” inscriptions across the entire body.
A motorcycle is folk remedy movement. These are mainly “Suzuki” and “Honda” - 125 cc four-stroke small engines on a simple frame. In appearance they resemble the Soviet IZH, only more carefully. Motorcycles with an engine capacity of more than 250cc are banned in China.
Roads. In cities traffic organized very logically. Maximum number of interchanges, minimum number of traffic lights. “Second-level roads” are being built everywhere - this is when the first floor of the road goes in one direction, the second – in the other. All roads are perfectly smooth. Automatic communication between cities is carried out in two ways: 1 - you can choose a toll road - by paying approximately 50 yuan (200 rubles) per hundred kilometers you will get an excellent road surface on which you can drive 200 and 250 (but everywhere the limit is 110), perfectly trimmed flower beds on both sides and the absence of any surprises. 2 - having paid a symbolic fee of 6 yuan (24 rubles) per hundred kilometers, you go onto a “budget” road - and then ... God help you! From personal experience: when you drive along such a road, you feel like a fighter pilot deep behind enemy lines.

If you go into the food section of a supermarket, it can confuse an unprepared person. Approximately 70% of products are not identifiable to foreigners. How it is, what it is, whether it is the first, whether it is the second, or the third is not clear. But in any case, no matter what you buy, most likely it will be delicious – the main thing is not to know what it’s made from. But, everything takes turns. Meat – meat is sold everywhere. A lot of pork, a lot of beef, a lot of chicken. In China there is a special type of chicken - black chicken. The meat tastes exactly the same as regular meat, just black in color. This is a Negro chicken. Along with pork and beef, there may be dog meat on the shelf in the store - in order not to cook it for lunch, it is important to learn the hieroglyph for “dog” well. In China, it is believed that animal entrails - hearts, livers, stomachs - are much healthier than meat - that's why they cost more. Fish - we live on the very shore of the ocean - there is a lot of fish in these places and in a great abundance of varieties. If you go to the fish department of any supermarket, you can count at least thirty varieties of fish. All of it is fresh - either live or chilled. In any store they will clean it for you for free and cut it as you ask. Turtles, snakes, frogs, worms, rapana, snails, mollusks, octopuses and lobsters are sold alive. They swim in large aquariums with filtered water until you buy them. We cannot say anything authoritatively about the taste or the methods of preparation of these undoubtedly magnificent, exotic dishes. Natalie is not a fan of gastronomic experiments. And I put up with this, subconsciously understanding that this is fortunate.
In the egg department you will find at least 15 types of eggs. It's hard to say whose they are, but they are all different colors and sizes. Eggs are also sold already boiled, boiled in soy sauce and rotten, and then boiled. Vegetables. There are a huge number of vegetables, although many of them are unknown to us. Potatoes are very big size(slightly smaller than a volleyball) and clumsy. Carrots are sold only peeled. Surprisingly, there are no beets. Absolutely not. Nowhere. In the fruit department you will be pleasantly surprised by the variety of choices. Bananas, kiwis, oranges, tangerines, pears, apples, strawberries, pomelo, lychees, and many more fruits whose names we only know in Chinese. They all taste different, but are equally ripe and sweet. Among others you can find the famous “durian”. This is a large fruit - the size of a large watermelon, yellow color and with many spikes on the body. You should eat it with plastic gloves on, otherwise your fingers will smell like shit for a week. It's not called durian for nothing. The white pulp inside contains large yellow segments larger than orange ones and they are eaten. The taste is unlike anything else, very unusual, moderately sweet and pleasant, but it is better to eat this fruit after a cold, while the runny nose has not yet passed. This is what a child's shit smells like - it doesn't seem disgusting, but it still smells... We tried durian while visiting our Chinese friends. Natalie would never let me buy it and bring it into the house.
Dried food: sold in bags, it can be shrimp, mushrooms, carrots, seaweed, and anything else. Almost everything is sold dried. We don’t know what it is and how to properly cook and eat it, so we don’t buy it.
There are almost no dairy products. The milk is mostly soy. We have forgotten what cottage cheese, cheese and cream are.
Now a few lines about restaurants and cafes. In China, you can eat one meal for 150 yuan - or you can eat for the same money for a week without depriving yourself of meat. But in any case, you can afford to never pay attention to the right column in the menu, and it's damn nice! All Chinese catering establishments can be divided into three types. The first and most colorful are small eateries with 8-10 seats. They are in every home. I didn't make a mistake in every house. We call them chi-fanki (from the Chinese “chi fan” - eat, dine). These are private establishments that are not certified, do not undergo any controls, and they cook there it is unclear what and it is not clear what they use, but, to their credit, it is delicious. When you eat in such a place, you feel like you’ve gone into some Chinese person’s kitchen to have lunch. Plastic tables, plastic chairs, disposable tablecloths, flies and the constant TV with TV series. I ate in such chifanki a couple of times in secret from Natalie. It’s interesting... The average bill is 6 yuan. (25 rubles). The second type is restaurants and cafes of medium level and above. There are countless of them in China. There will be such a restaurant on any street, in any house. They are purely Chinese, which is more common, and they also come in various styles of cuisine, for example, Filipino or Japanese, or Korean, and so on. It is a pleasure to dine in such restaurants - the food is delicious. It is cooked over high heat and with a lot of oil. It’s especially interesting when the kitchen is open and you can see how your order is being prepared. You can watch for hours - incredibly interesting - the Chinese are unrivaled virtuosos in this regard. Within a radius of three hundred meters from our house there are a dozen of these restaurants, where we go alternately. There is usually calm music, pleasant interiors and owners of establishments with whom we know personally. They are all a little proud of our presence as their guests and are always glad to see our visits. And the third type is elite restaurants. They are more often found in the lobbies of five-star hotels. Large spacious rooms, tables served with knives and forks, well-trained waiters and an impeccably delicious menu. You need to go to such places - first of all, in order to feel “on the level”.
The food in all Chinese establishments has one thing in common - it is very fatty and oily. If a foreigner eats outside the home all the time, his stomach will sooner or later fail.
The Chinese have a cult of food. The Chinese always order more than they can eat. This is especially exaggerated if you are their guest. You dine with four people, and order, for example, ten dishes. The Chinese eat deliciously! They slurp. They burp. They spit the bones on the table. (We are talking about average Chinese; what has been said, as a rule, does not apply to directors and top managers of factories and international companies). The Chinese table is always noisy. They talk a lot and loudly while eating. They argue, joke, discuss politics and family issues. There is always a din in establishments, which is not easy to shout through. Ten minutes later you catch yourself thinking that you yourself are screaming.
The Chinese practically do not drink strong alcohol. You won't find vodka, whiskey or cognac on the menu in restaurants. Although there is almost always beer. Here they drink beer from small 100-gram glasses. This container is ideal for Chinese beer, as it does not foam at all. Chinese beer is not beer in its understanding - it is some kind of separate drink. Although the green bottle may say Hainiken. The most famous local beer is, of course, Qingdao. Served in liter bottles. You can see these on the tables of restaurant visitors, but not often, not everywhere. And of course, you will never see a Chinese drinking or walking down the street with beer.
At the same time, the Chinese smoke. They smoke everywhere. There are no restrictions on smoking. You can smoke in transport, in an elevator, in a bank and anywhere else... Recently we went to a sports store to buy sneakers - and so, in front of the window next to us, a Chinese man stood and smoked, choosing a pair for himself. (!in a sports store!) One one of the sellers was kind enough to bring him an ashtray. Only men smoke.

Chinese faces: Who said that the Chinese are all alike? This is wrong. You just don’t understand it right away. You need to get used to it and after a while you start to see a little more. And you can already say: “this Chinese woman is beautiful” or “oh, this one is only after four Chingdaos.” But, to be objective, there aren’t very many pretty Chinese, we’re not talking about beautiful ones. There are more of them in large cities and fewer in small towns. Partly because modeling agencies and the entire fashion elite are concentrated in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. But let's talk about stereotypes... There is a certain standard of beauty in the world. No one will argue this: long legs, moderately large breasts, long neck, big eyes, long eyelashes, even white teeth and it’s absolutely cool if she’s also blonde. Now let's look at the Chinese women. Features of the Asian genotype are: short stature, short legs, very short neck, narrow eyes and lack of eyelashes, dark skin color, yellow teeth and black hair. It turns out that Asian appearance itself contradicts the generally accepted standard. And this contradiction, as we see, puts great pressure on the Chinese. Otherwise, where do these ubiquitous skin whitening services in beauty salons and such popular simple plastic surgeries to increase the size of the eyes come from?
Chinese advertisements mostly feature European faces. Santa Claus in China is also European. The mannequins in stores are European. But this does not mean that in China there is no beautiful faces. Eat.
Despite the fact that the Chinese eat constantly, you won’t find fat people here. All the girls are slim, all the men are skinny. Although there are exceptions, such as our fitness trainer - a handsome man.

Chinese Hospitality: Chinese hospitality is a brand. Everyone knows that Asians are hospitable, but you can fully experience this only after living here for some time. We live in a small city, by Chinese standards, albeit with a population of several million. You rarely see Europeans here, so we really stand out from the crowd. Of course we are exotic in our own way local residents. And it often happens that you get tired of such attention. But you can get used to it and not notice it. Moreover, all this is more than offset by Chinese hospitality. We are welcome everywhere. And this is not fake, sincere joy. We have discounts and discount cards for almost all establishments within a kilometer radius of our home. And we have never seen such a level of service in the service sector as in China.

Chinese taxi: Red and yellow, worn-out Volkswagen Jettas are a car that was discontinued in Germany about thirty years ago. The WV plant in China made so many of these cars that the Jetta became one of the symbols of China. In a taxi, the driver is separated from the passengers by a metal grill. Safety! All taxis are metered. If you get into a car, the driver must turn on the meter before driving off. This rule is. If the counter is not turned on, you are being scammed! You should only sit in the back seat. There are no seat belts in the front. The cost of the trip depends on the mileage - but it is always affordable. After 21-00 the cost increases by one and a half yuan - the night rate. An alternative to a regular taxi is a motorcycle taxi. This type of private cab service can be found in small towns. In Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Xiamen and other megacities it was banned due to the high accident rate. For 10 yuan, a motorcycle taxi driver will offer you a sweaty helmet and quickly and dangerously take you anywhere in the city. It's great to ride a motorcycle taxi around the city at night - when you've had a little drink. Funny! Pedicabs are a viable, albeit dying, means of transportation in China. Bicycle with sidecar, two passenger seats, price negotiable. We went a couple of times – it was original, but a lot of things are debatable.

Modern China is a big construction site. Houses in China are built in entire blocks. From my office window you can count 17 tower cranes, each building two 30-story buildings. There is no infill development. If something is being built, then an entire area is being built. Modern residential buildings are complexes of 6-8 30-story buildings united by a single infrastructure. Below there is almost always a swimming pool, often a tennis court, a small park, a children's playground, exercise equipment and underground parking. The internal territory is under video surveillance and 24-hour security. The entire first floor is dedicated to shops and boutiques. You can buy everything you need right in your slippers. In the evening you meet Chinese in pajamas and with a newspaper in their hands, who have gone down to the store to buy soy sauce. Such modern houses This is good quality housing. They have large apartments of 150-200 meters. And neighbors corresponding to this level. But, even here, not without a Chinese flavor, for example, our neighbor in the stairwell - the director of a plant for the production of plastic products - every Saturday morning cuts off the head of a live chicken right on the landing near the elevator. She has all the equipment for this - a cage, a special clamp so that the chicken does not run, and a basin for blood. Shocked? We, too!
There are two apartments per floor. There are also two elevators - one internal, the second external - it rises in a glass box mounted on the outside of the wall. The apartment where we live has five rooms - two toilets, a kitchen, a large hall and three balconies. Each balcony has a marble bathtub and a tap for household needs. Washing machine also on the balcony. Each room has air conditioning - this is not a luxury, but a necessity. In summer it gets up to +50.
Linen always hangs on the balcony. It's not just dried, it's stored here. In China, you won’t see a single balcony on which laundry isn’t hanging on clothespins.
The Chinese have no secrets from each other - that’s why the walls and ceilings in their houses are very thin. This is not only here, it is everywhere in China. Therefore, we know everything about how our neighbors live and in the morning, while still lying in bed, we blush a little, realizing that they also seem to know a lot about us...

Chinese and green tea: Green tea means a lot to the Chinese. Tea and tea drinking is one of the important components life and everyday life. When you enter any apartment or establishment, you can see a special tray, a teapot and a set of cups and tools for the tea ceremony. If you come to visit a Chinese person just to chat for 15 minutes, most likely he will invite you to drink green tea with him. If you stop by a factory or factory to discuss some operational issues, most likely, you will be offered green tea; if you spend a long time buying something in a store and cannot make a choice, they will bring you a tray with a set for tea drinking. Teahouses are small shops where you can not only buy, but also try real green tea, prepared the way it should be prepared. In such shops there is a large table for 6-8 people, and a pretty Chinese woman will invite you to sit down and try any tea you want. All this will be very beautiful, easy and unobtrusive. Tea prices can vary from 15 yuan per jin (Jin is a Chinese unit of measurement equal to 500 grams) to 15,000 yuan per jin. (for clarity, the cost of 1 kilogram of good tea can buy an average car). An uninitiated person will not understand such a difference in price. But the Chinese are very good at this from birth. How else can one explain such a number of teahouses? There are three of them in our house alone. Tea shops are more common than grocery stores. And the province in which we live is considered the best tea province in China.

Beauty in Chinese: The Chinese have a very unique idea of ​​beauty and style. This shows up in everything. In architecture, in the design of apartments, clothing, etc. Let's start with the most interesting thing - women's fashion: what Chinese girls look like can be said in one word - asexual. No mini, no tight, no emphasizing... Modest, drab, nothing at all. You won’t find a “girl in a little Peugeot” here. There are no girls here who want to turn around, just because they just want to turn around... And it’s not at all a matter of external beauty, but the ability to present oneself. This is neither good nor bad. That's how it is done here.
School uniforms in China are uniform. It's a baggy green and white tracksuit. It is usually a size or two too large and deprives its owners of any gender differences at all. This costume has nothing to do with the concepts of beauty or style. I think ten years of being in this form leaves an imprint on your future life.
IN Chinese houses– your own, Chinese comfort. The walls are always white. No wallpaper, just white whitewashed walls. There are always red Chinese lanterns in any apartment, usually they hang on the balcony. And there is always a mahogany altar with a Buddha figurine and burning incense. It stands in the hallway of any home.
The most beautiful color is red. The rule “the more shiny the better” works without exception (this is especially true in the designs of the Chinese automobile industry).

Chinese letter: The Chinese language is a thing in itself. If you meet a person who says that he knows Chinese perfectly, you can laugh in his face. The Chinese language is obviously not intended to be known perfectly. Chinese has more than 50,000 characters. No one, of course, counted them accurately, and it is not possible to count them; it is simply accepted that there are about 50,000 of them. At the same time, 2,000 are enough for the Chinese to fully communicate. There are four tones (keys) in the Chinese language. The first one is neutral. Second, the main stress of the word has an ascending direction. Third - the main stress of the word first goes sharply down, then sharply up. The fourth key (or reverse key) is the descending stress of the word. Identical sound combinations in different keys have different, and often opposite, meanings.
So, for example, mai - in the third key means to buy, and mai - in the fourth key - means to sell. At the same time, the hieroglyphs meaning these actions are different. There are an infinite number of such examples: Ma - in the first - means mother, Ma - in the third - horse. Bei zi in the first - glasses, bei zi in the fourth - a blanket. And so on. This is where confusion often arises. This is why the Chinese ask and repeat the words of their interlocutor in a conversation to make sure of their meaning. Chinese in the north of the country and Chinese in the south are, one might say, different languages. Despite the fact that the writing is the same, the pronunciation of the same hieroglyphs is strikingly different. Each province speaks its own dialect. This causes serious difficulties for translators. But at the same time, there is a generally accepted Chinese pronunciation of characters - Putonghua. This pronunciation, close to the Beijing dialect, is taken as a standard. Announcers on central TV and radio speak Mandarin. Mandarin is also spoken by all educated people, regardless of which province they live in. But factory workers and old people will not understand you, nor will you understand them, even if you have an honors degree from Xiamen University.
Hieroglyphs are written in strict sequence. One line after another from top to bottom, from right to left. Any, even the most complex hieroglyph, must be strictly geometric and have a height equal to the width. Chinese is a living, constantly changing language. Hieroglyphs are simplified and modified over time. But in countries such as Hong Kong or Taiwan, changing hieroglyphs is not accepted at the government level and therefore the old “non-simplified” characters are still used there to this day. Thus, the language in these countries is increasingly moving away from the generally accepted Chinese language.

There is a lot more to tell. One could spend many days trying to understand this country. But we don’t strive or even try. We simply dissolve in it and live in the present, without analyzing, but accepting everything as it is.
Come for a visit!
Gregory and Natalie.

Feel free to ask any questions by e-mail.

Whenever a person who does not have a strong attachment to his homeland moves, a feeling of euphoria first appears. For the first two or three months, everything around is new and interesting... After of this period a number of things begin to irritate me wildly, because this did not happen in my previous places of residence. My period of irritation lasted another four months and ended a month ago, incl. It's time to write about life here. I live in Guangzhou, the southern center of the country, the third most important city after Beijing and Shanghai. It’s never cold here (the temperature never dropped below +7 for me), but it can be very hot, but this moment is still ahead, periodically heavy rainfalls creep in unexpectedly, and constantly high humidity.
Guangzhou is enough new town, so it’s extremely difficult to find attractions, except for numerous parks.
About real estate I live in the business center of the city. Several years ago, all the buildings in this area were demolished and new ones were built in their place. Prices for purchasing real estate here are now very high and until recently grew at a cosmic pace: 3.2 times in 2 years. For example, if we wanted to buy a rented apartment, we would have to pay 50.5 million rubles. – 210,000 rub/m2 (in fairness, it should be noted that today this house is the most prestigious apartment house in the center of Guangzhou).
The amount we pay as rent also quite high, with one but: for this money we would never rent an apartment of similar size and level either in Moscow, or in St. Petersburg, or in Lausanne. The majority of visitors rent real estate measuring 120 - 200 m2 for 20,000 - 40,000 rubles. The Chinese themselves, like the Russians, are more inclined to buy; fortunately, unlike Russia, the mortgage interest rate here is very low.
When choosing an apartment and an office, I realized that I didn’t want to live/be in the place where someone lived/was before me, because the local population easily and naturally dirty everything around, including the walls... including with their feet. This is what a typical Chinese office looks like:
Chinese construction companies have no concept of high-quality finishing of premises. For example: they take a socket packed in plastic film, mount it, and then remove the film without caring that A - pieces stick out, B - film and electricity are not the best friends. Our main bathroom ruptured due to water tension - this happened a year after the house was put into operation. Having lifted the marble slab (solid marble, not tile), we saw that the installed hose was used. When they lifted the same slab again, it fell apart in half, i.e. Apparently it was carefully glued together, but what they used to glue it with stopped holding water... About everyday life For the first two months I lived in a hotel. Accordingly, as soon as we moved, we decided to celebrate this joyful event with home-cooked food. Our kitchen is fully equipped with built-in appliances: oven, built-in refrigerators, stove, dishwasher, even a TV on a bracket. Having happily bought the chicken, I decided to bake it. I took out a baking tray from the “oven” (why the oven is in quotes, I’ll now explain), laid the carcass on it, loaded it into the “oven” and began to select a program, fortunately the miracle technology writes in English. The automatic machine only offered a steamer, but I still found how to remove the word steamer and switch to cooking meat. I pressed “start” and the “oven” asked me to pour water into a specially designated container. I am a kind lady, and there is nowhere to go - the unit does not work without water, I poured it. And then the process of steaming my game began... The oven turned out to be a steamer. Likewise, the dishwasher turned out to be a sterilizer. It turns out that for the Chinese, simply washed dishes are not clean; they sterilize them, even at home. A cleaning lady comes to us twice a week; her visits cost 4,000 rubles per month. She manages to clean the apartment, iron the bed linen and clothes in 2.5 hours. The secret is that in China people don’t really like to use household chemicals (especially those that smell strongly) - they simply wash them with water. The majority of the population does not know how to iron; it is not accepted here; clothes are dried and put on. There are many dry cleaners with a 2-3 times difference in price, I started with an expensive one and became convinced that more expensive does not mean better. Now, for 1000 rubles I can get about 8 things cleaned. We bought the furniture for the apartment ourselves (in general, apartments in China are rented furnished). Our owners had five projects in their house, and only for one of them did they not have time to buy anything other than a TV stand. Accordingly, we agreed on independent arrangement with the condition that we do not actually pay the first two months of rent. As a result, instead of the terrible furniture that the landlord would have bought us, we got pretty decent things, spending a little more than the allotted amount on them. As an example of prices: for 100,000 rubles. I was able to buy a dining table, coffee table and TV stand made from solid stone.
By the way, when concluding a lease agreement, you make a 2-month deposit, which is returned at the end of the lease term; in addition, both you and the owner pay 50% of the monthly rental amount to the agent as a remuneration. In a normal situation, you must register in a rented property and pay a monthly tax - 8% of the monthly contract amount. But if you have a business visa, not a business one, then you can skip the registration procedure :). Rent here is calculated once every 2 months. These invoices must be paid no later than one week after receipt. The deadline by which this must be done is indicated on the invoice. There is no point in forgetting or postponing this event; from the very first day of delay, penalties are charged in the amount of 3% of the invoice amount (for comparison, in Switzerland 8% per year). In order to pay for the Internet, you need to open a card in one of the banks in China: money will be debited from it automatically. About banks: never in any country in the world have I seen such poor service and such transfer of paper to completely unnecessary transactions. For example: you need to change money. There are special exchange offices only in tourist places, so everyone goes to the bank, fortunately there are branches and ATMs here on every corner. Agricultural Bank Main Building: If there are 2 people in front of me and only one cashier, then I can be sure that I will spend at least an hour and fifteen minutes in the bank. Bank employees check passport data 10 times with those indicated in the application for currency exchange. They take a copy of the passport itself and keep it for themselves. You fill out the exchange form yourself; if there are several currencies, then there should be several forms. Each form consists of 4 self-copying sheets, each of which is stamped by a bank employee. Next, he prints a couple more papers, on the same sheets, and checks your money from both sides... If you received money in foreign currency to a Chinese bank account, and you are a non-resident, you will have to go through the same operation in order for it to be on your card. Moreover, you do not have the right to exchange more than 50,000 US dollars per calendar year (if you change euros or any other currency, they will first be converted into dollars, and only then into yuan). ATMs here have varying degrees of friendliness to foreign cards: some allow you to withdraw no more than 1000 yuan at a time (5000 rubles) and no more than 5000-6000 per day, others - 3000 at a time. As soon as you try to withdraw more than 20,000 (100,000 rubles) in a day, it doesn’t matter which bank you started your operations with, this procedure will be denied to you and you will have to wait until tomorrow to continue. This is a limitation of local banks, because... The daily limit on my cards is higher than this amount. In general, what’s interesting is that withdrawing money and paying in cash turns out to be more profitable than paying for purchases with cards in dollars, euros and Swiss francs, and it’s better to use ruble cards as cards. The transaction itself takes longer than in Russia, and as a result you receive several checks, some of which are again on self-copying paper. About friends I found my first friend using a search engine on Gossip. I wrote to the girl in a personal message, and on the 3-4th day of my stay in China we met. In general, it is much easier for a person of European appearance to make friends here than in Switzerland or even Russia: you are sharply different from everyone around you, and this gives rise to communication at the first visual contact. There are a lot of foreigners in China, so there are no problems with communication. In addition to Russians, we have friends from Italy, the States, Canada, Slovakia, Syria, India, Great Britain, Singapore, Mexico, the Netherlands, Austria and of course China.

About food When I first moved to China, I insistently suggested that everyone go to a Chinese restaurant and did not understand why no one was particularly keen. Now we eat Chinese food once every two weeks. Chinese restaurants are much cheaper than European restaurants, the food is delicious (the scarier the restaurant, the tastier it is, and, to my taste, in the north of the country the dishes are tastier than in the south), but after scandals about recycled oil, posts about beef and eggs, I rarely want to taste something local. On the street you can buy a lot of all sorts of stinking nasty things (not larvae and other rubbish, which are still considered exotic here), but stinking tofu, disgusting meat of an incomprehensible animal, chicken paws (not legs, but paws) and who knows what else.. If you want European products of decent quality, then we found only two stores, their prices are higher than Swiss ones, and it turns out that going to a restaurant is more profitable than cooking at home.
For example, a package of mozzarella translated into rubles will cost 240 rubles, versus 80 in Switzerland. Parmesan - 500 rubles for a small triangle, versus 220 rubles in Switzerland (I don’t know Russian prices for these products, so I can’t compare). By the way, in any restaurant in China you get tea or water for free. Fruits are relatively expensive here, but vegetables and fish are cheap, the carcass of which is about 22-25 cm long costs 75 rubles, and this despite the fact that I don’t go to the market. I don’t go there because the Chinese like to eat freshly killed animals. Chickens, rabbits, piglets sit in cages, fish swim in aquariums: you choose who you want to eat, they kill and skin him in front of you. Of course, I understand that those whose parts I buy in the store were also killed by someone, but I can’t help but want to participate in the process; it’s easier for me to refuse consumption.
The Chinese do not like meat that is not freshly slaughtered, and virtually no one ever buys it in stores, so what you can find there does not look fresh even at the time of purchase, and after a night in the refrigerator it generally spoils. As a result: we cook at home once a week or two at most, and the rest of the time we eat in restaurants, regularly ordering home delivery (you can order virtually everything from McDonald’s to food from fairly decent European restaurants). All deliveries are carried out using bicycles and orders are accepted only by restaurants that are relatively close. Water, but tap water cannot be used here, comes in the same way. About transport Since we are holders of business visas, and to drive in China we need a Chinese license, which can be obtained by an official resident, we do not have cars. The main transport for moving around the city is a taxi. It’s very cheap, as a rule I spend 50 – 100 rubles, and it’s convenient – ​​there are a lot of them. The only downside for taxi drivers is that they change shifts at 18.00, just when everyone finishes work, so it’s better not to leave the office/home until 18.40, because all these 30-40 minutes you’ll be standing around waiting for a free car.
Motorcycles and mopeds are prohibited for moving around the city. The Chinese drive as they please: they can easily ride along a one-way street in the opposite direction, they easily carry out the same movement at a roundabout, they never let pedestrians pass, they do not react to red lights, they do not look in the mirrors when changing lanes, so they do not like to drive next to each other. Metro. The metro is clean, neat, no one spits, eats or drinks, but trains run much less frequently than ours, about once every 5 minutes. The ticket price is from 10 rubles or more, depending on the duration of the trip (living in the center, I was not able to ride for more than 30). Buses. I rode them 3 times. Clean, air conditioning works well. If you have an IPhone, then on the map, when you enter the place where you need to go, it will be shown what type of transport and what route number you need to get there.
Trains. On trains, the air conditioning works so well that you always want to put on something warmer. My biggest mistake was boarding a train for over an hour in shorts and a T-shirt. I was shaking the whole way. There are many high-speed trains in China with the help of which you can cover a very decent distance in an hour or three. It’s bad that these trains don’t always go in the directions you’d like to go. By the way, on all trains you will always be given a free bottle of water. I saw long-distance trains only from the outside and I didn’t like them: three levels of shelves, you can buy standing seats (and stand, for example, for 15 hours!), seated, recumbent and luxury recumbent (lux = Russian compartment, not SV). Airplane. Among the Chinese companies, I used China Southern Airlines and I didn’t like it: on long flights they don’t always provide earplugs, the food is disgusting, they don’t provide toothbrush and pasta. Moreover, they do not have large planes, so in economy there are no personal televisions. Airfare prices in Europe are more reasonable than in China.
About the toilet This topic deserves a separate post. Can you imagine a hole in the floor that someone decided to decorate by giving it a ceramic shape? - This is the local toilet. (In my opinion, something similar comes to mind when I remember going to the restroom at a dacha railway station during the USSR.) These toilets are still being built in new class A shopping complexes (in A+ it’s still a familiar option to us) . They are at all train stations, airports, in the lion's share of local restaurants... The Chinese believe that this is more hygienic, but I could not see hygiene in the gender described. About medicine Medicine in China is expensive. Ambulance she comes only for money, the health insurance system is poorly developed and she has no government support. There are also no clinics here, only hospitals, where you don’t really have to be sick to visit a doctor, and private clinics. I went to a private clinic once, paid 12,500 rubles for an examination, and realized that I would never return there again. Once I was in the hospital and I also realized that I didn’t want to go there anymore... You can buy everything in pharmacies without a prescription, the problem is that everyone writes in Chinese. You have to tell the pharmacist the active ingredient of the drug in English and hope that you are understood correctly. Local tablets differ from European ones in that they must be eaten 3-4 at a time, otherwise they do not work. (When I had a cold, I took 12 tablets a day.) About beauty salons I’ve never seen chipped nail polish on Chinese women’s nails: either there’s no polish, or it looks like it’s all been applied. Manicure and pedicure are trimmed, for both procedures together in the basic version the price ranges from 400 to 1500 rubles. There are no special chairs anywhere: just chairs with cushions of varying degrees of cleanliness. Styling costs rubbish from 100 to 800 rubles, but a good professional hairdryer will only be available in “expensive” places. It is very difficult for people of European type to find a good place for a haircut and coloring: the Chinese have completely different hair, and they do not know how to work with ours. Massage is everywhere, any kind. Starting from 125 rubles for 40 minutes of massage of the feet and back, in an unpresentable place, ending with a two-hour full body massage for 5800 rubles. at the Ritz. All salon procedures that are not popular among the local population are obscenely expensive. Hardware cosmetology is not developed at all, despite the mass production of the devices themselves. As an example: LPG 5500 rub. in 30 minutes. Solarium 450 rubles for 8 minutes in a cabin that is very far from modern. Anti-cellulite wrap - 5800 rubles, done only at the Ritz. Epilation - wax, the rest is not worth even dreaming about, bikini - 2500 rubles. and they don’t know how to do it. To be fair, it should be noted that other places can be epilated cheaply. In general, Chinese women are not afraid to walk around with hairy legs and even hairier armpits... With cosmetology, in our usual understanding of the word, everything here is extremely neglected. About clothes I would like to immediately debunk the myth about cheap and good shopping in China, for a person accustomed to a certain level of quality of the things purchased - it is not here. I have several friends who believe that they produce luxury products in Chinese factories - bags, wallets. When I look at things, I think that people have never even seen this luxury - interesting models, but disgusting quality of leather, fittings and decoration. I am in no way saying that it is not possible to organize the production of something truly worthy here, but this process will take a lot of time and effort. The Chinese and I have a different concept of product quality: they will turn a thing inside out, look at how smooth its seams are, even buying a jacket for 100 rubles on the street, but it will never occur to them to soberly evaluate the material from which it is made. The Chinese women themselves dress quite well, but as a rule, everything looks decent only from a distance of five meters. They almost never wear jeans, many wear skirts/dresses and heels. They either don’t use makeup at all, or they wear pronounced false eyelashes... In general, China is very simple in terms of clothing, like a kind of balance between Russia and Switzerland, i.e. No one will look askance at you if you dress up right in the morning, and there will be no judgmental glances if you don’t have makeup or appropriate clothes in the evening. An open neckline area is only allowed here at night. An open belly is equivalent to a bare chest for us, but at the same time, Chinese women can easily put on a skirt that looks more like a wide belt, or shorts that look like panties, and under this skirt/shorts they can put on tights with “pants” most of which will stick around. Glasses without glasses are also very fashionable. I was at a local clothing market and saw things that looked quite decent, but there was nothing I could try on there. I was at the bag market and found something there that had become deformed after being worn for half a month. I have not been and will not go to those places where local shoes are sold... As for shopping malls, decent European brands here are 30% more expensive than in Europe/Hong Kong, and in any store the sellers will follow you on your heels, with the hope that they will still manage to sell you something... With I’ve finally given up shopping in China, since Hong Kong is only 2 hours away. About sport
The Chinese play a lot of sports. Older people do this in the mornings or evenings in parks ( different kinds gymnastics and martial arts - I’m not an expert and I’m not particularly interested in the names, dancing), young people in fitness centers, of which there are a lot.
There are many table tennis tables in the parks. Basketball and badminton are very popular. Surprisingly, the Chinese are very bad swimmers. At sea, the lion's share of swimmers, regardless of gender and age, wear life preservers, and this despite the fact that you can only swim in strictly designated areas, limited so that even with my 160 cm height, I always reach the bottom with my feet without submerging even a part faces into the water. Local swimsuits deserve a separate topic; they are so closed (by the way, there are no thongs in regular lingerie stores) that they wildly shorten the already kilometer-long legs of Chinese women: monokinis without the slightest semblance of a neckline, with shorts and a skirt that partially covers them. In Russia/Europe they sew this only for very little girls, and even then with a more open bottom. Peculiarities of behavior of the local population The Chinese are divided into two categories: those who speak English and everyone else. The peculiarities of thinking of these groups are completely different; the first ones are very close to the European ones; the rest, of which the vast majority are, is absolutely illogical for us. I won’t write about those who can speak a foreign language, I’ll write about the rest. They never wait for other people to get out of somewhere, regardless of whether the elevator has arrived on the first floor, or the train has stopped at the platform - they won’t let you get out, they will immediately climb inside, and not along the wall, but in the very center of the passage . If you are standing and hailing a taxi, these wonderful people Quite easily, approaching from behind, they will stop two meters in front of you: the taxi stops next to the one who is closer. If a taxi driver stops a couple of meters from you, the Chinese will come running and get into the car first. They chew wildly not only when they eat, but also when they chew cud. Belching is also not a sign of bad upbringing. They talk very loudly. They do not like Americans and all persons without a clear national identity are classified as them. They won't sit next to you at a sushi bar because they think that sitting next to unlucky people (the Chinese love their country so much that they believe that you can only go somewhere else if you are not at all successful in your homeland) has a bad effect on their karma, but at the same time, local beggars believe that even beggars are cultural people, and it is their direct duty to help their neighbors, unlike their compatriots. The Chinese are not aggressive and peaceful, you will never find yourself in a situation where you are afraid to walk down the street, but they are absolutely unclean. Spitting is officially prohibited, but 5 percent of the population does not know about this ban. A Chinese smile is a sign of embarrassment. A man, having gone on a date with a girl, will definitely remember everything that she likes and will feed her/offer her to do exactly that every subsequent time (if you like ice cream - get it at every meeting, if you like to eat sushi - go to the sushi bar...). When shopping or going to a restaurant, the man always pays. The local population is very easy-going; you can invite them somewhere right now. There is no arguing with elders here: if mom/dad/grandmother said it, then it will be so. A wedding, regardless of the age of the couple, must be approved by relatives. A woman, if she is not married, has no right to give birth to a child. If she somehow manages to do this, the child will never have a passport or other documents that would allow a normal existence (I asked if the documents could be bought - based on the answers of the interlocutors - no). They have absolutely no developed creative thinking; it is completely suppressed by the local school curriculum. (By the way, schoolchildren go to school in tracksuits) Since the country's population is huge, each person has his own very narrow specialization: delivery vehicle driver postal items does not distribute it, the seller does not work with the cash register... In general, China reminds me in many ways of Russia 10 years ago: - there is an opportunity to make quick money; - everything is decided by the necessary acquaintances; - the more expensive it is purchased, the better the item (price is more important than quality); - boasting about how expensive you bought something or how much you spent on something is mandatory (the amount they tell you may differ several times from the real cost) - restaurants and clubs, for the most part, are only good six months after opening. P.S. Everything written is my subjective opinion, photos are my own.

Many people say that life is good in China and there is a big economic growth, many say that the opposite is bad.

We decided to look into this issue. Today you will learn the whole truth about how people live in China.

Comprehensive love for the state is the norm for the Chinese. What is this: a natural, voluntary impulse, “healthy” patriotism or a forced, false action that everyone has long wanted to escape from?- we will not be able to fully find out, since to do this we need to plunge into the centuries-old atmosphere of the Asian country and take many other steps to understand the inner essence of events. We can only judge from the outside, which does not at all exclude the truthfulness of judgments, as well as their superficiality. One thing is clear: patriotism for the Chinese is both good and evil.

China - what is this?!

Today China is essentially two states; most countries recognize the People's Republic of China as the main one. The second state, the Republic of China, occupies a much smaller area called Taiwan (the island) and adjacent islands. The People's Republic of China is a communist state ruled by Communist Party China, the Republic of China is a democratic state. China was divided during the civil war that occurred after World War II.

Both of these regions call themselves China.

During the time period from the fall of the Qing dynasty to the outcome of the civil war, China was under the rule of the government Republic of China.

“..a partially recognized state in East Asia, which previously had a one-party system, widespread diplomatic recognition and control over all of China, has now become a democracy with limited diplomatic recognition and controlling only Taiwan and surrounding islands. She is one of the founders of the UN and previously served on the UN Security Council (in 1971, the seat of the Republic of China in the UN was transferred to the People's Republic of China)"

(Wikipedia)

The communists, who won the civil war in 1949, took power into their own hands, and the country's former leadership moved to Taiwan.

Chinese civilization is one of the most ancient on Earth, rich in culture, history, China is one of the world's leading states.

The main state of China - the People's Republic of China - has an economic and social system - communism with elements of economic liberalization. In China, despite the fact that there is communism, own business is encouraged.

« According to the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, it is a socialist state, but about 70% of GDP is provided by private enterprises. According to amendments to the Constitution adopted in 2004, private property is “inviolable.” Officially, the PRC calls its current economic system “the construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics.” Individual economists' assessments of the shape of the economy in China vary greatly."

(Wikipedia)

Many popular attempts to demand political change were mercilessly suppressed. Strengthening state power, “The People's Republic of China regained the island of Hong Kong from Great Britain in 1997 and the island of Macau from Portugal in 1999.”

This huge Asian country ranks third in the world in terms of territory and first in population. Almost 1.5 billion Chinese make up an impressive fifth of the total population globe(from 7.3 billion people).

A great power is a candidate superpower, the second economy in the world, a member of the UN Security Council, the world's largest exporter, the largest automobile manufacturer, has a large army, nuclear and other weapons, and gold and foreign exchange reserves.

Of the many peoples living in the country, 56 are recognized, they make up only 7% of total number population. The main share of those living in China are the Chinese themselves - “Han”.

The religions of China are Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and for some time now Christianity has begun to occupy a rather influential position, but “adjusted” to the pace of the state.

« The system of Christian theology must correspond to the national characteristics of China and fit into Chinese culture. This task was set by the head of the State Administration of Religious Affairs, Wang Zuoan, speaking at the “Sinicization of Christianity” forum in Shanghai. The concept of “socialism with Chinese characteristics” forms the basis of the ideology of the Chinese Communist Party.

The new Christian theology is also beginning to acquire requirements that, according to the authorities, must be taken into account when creating a version of Christianity Made in China. Thus, in his speech at a forum in Shanghai, the head of the State Administration for Religious Affairs, Wang Zuoan, emphasized that theology in Chinese should proceed from the fact that China has chosen the socialist path of development.”

(Lenta.ru)

It is also worth noting that the main “religion” of China is still for a long time was atheism. The “Cultural Revolution” bore fruit, and today over 62% of the Chinese population consider themselves atheists.

Belief in a state-approved religious niche is defined as “following religious practices that do not pose a threat to the security of the country.”

That is, you can still believe, but carefully, with the permission of the rulers, in a limited way. The “green light” in the present for some religious movements, which were previously denied entry into the Celestial Empire, indicates that the country’s leadership understands the impossibility of maintaining the unity of the people without a spiritual background and understands the danger of a vacuum, the absence of “natural opium”, an outlet. Still, in China there is too much control to talk about the unimpeded implementation of the right to freedom of conscience and religion.

China has given the world an endless series of discoveries, while becoming the largest producer and exporter of these same discoveries. Much, from the compass, porcelain, silk, gunpowder to toilet paper, is the work of the hands and minds of the Chinese.

Despite the fact that the birth control policy began to be implemented back in 1979, and also despite the literally— tough methods of combating increasing population growth — The Chinese are simply multiplying incredibly. Everyone and everyone is wondering what the secret of their fertility is. Perhaps it's their potions traditional medicine: many of the tinctures and herbs are either for increasing potency, or for fatigue and longevity...

Perhaps the point is in patriotism breaking out beyond the boundaries of everyday life: they love the country so much that they want to give it as many creatures as possible “made” in their own image and likeness. The latter, of course, is doubtful, but we will talk about patriotism separately.

Space, nuclear, and chemical production have not left their mark on the country. In China, about a million children are born every year with anomalies and developmental defects.

Patriotism in China

Do the Chinese love their country, or are they simply forced to pretend that they love it? Naturally, there are both. But people who grew up with one-way information often have no choice.

In China, the “Golden Shield” project was put into operation in 2003: filtering Internet content in the country. Thanks to it, access to many sites that, in the opinion of the Chinese leadership, could become a threat is blocked National Security, undermine the authority of the country, and also be simply harmful to the consciousness of citizens.

“Access to a number of foreign sites from the territory of the PRC is limited within the framework of the Golden Shield project;

Websites based in China may not link to or publish news taken from foreign news sites or media without special approval;

Web pages are filtered by keywords related to state security, as well as on a blacklist of website addresses.

A number of Western companies comply with the demands of the Chinese authorities to limit access to information. According to Reporters Without Borders, the Chinese version of the search engine Yahoo! does not show certain information in search results

The Wikipedia website has also been repeatedly blocked in China. The reason for the blocking is due, in particular, to the description of the events in China in May-June 1989.

The system also blocks the sites of a number of religious and philosophical movements, in particular transhumanist ones.”

(Wikipedia)

More this system restrictions are called the “Great Internet Wall of China”. There are also commentators on the Internet who, for a fee, glorify the ideology of the country’s leaders.

In general, the Celestial Empire, having realized that the Internet is not so simple, that all wars and revolutions can now start at the whiff of Twitter, put its authoritarian hand on this area.

About the Internet blockade, about the multimillion-dollar Chinese city of Shanghai, about skyscrapers that grew out of the ground in the episode of the program “Heads and Tails”:

China, which was nurtured for centuries on imperial greatness, had dynasties of leaders as its rulers, and even despite religions and culture, called the emperor the main god, due to this desire to serve and be faithful to the goals of the state, it retained its unity. And today such a huge country with an endless army can be weak if it does not have unity(unity is the most important element of strength; it is not for nothing that the main party of Russia also contains a word with the same root as unity). And the more people there are, the more difficult it is to preserve community. Restrained and humble, he is a force, but unbridled and unhumble, he is a force that can turn against the rulers themselves. Realizing this, China is tightening the screws of restrictions more and more. After all, it is stupid to underestimate such a multi-potential country.

A civilization that has risen above the whole world, called the Celestial Empire for a reason, accustomed to receiving gifts as a sign of its respect, wants to feel its power in practice and unconditionally.

Criticism of the Chinese leadership is “exterminated” in every possible way, the state can only be praised, and national traditions are promoted. In a number of cities, all billboards with foreign goods have hieroglyphs inscriptions. National holidays are celebrated on a grand scale; every primary school student knows the geography of the country.

In 2012, an essay by a Chinese student published on Twitter received widespread attention:

“Time flies very quickly. It's almost the middle of the semester, exams are starting, I've started studying for them and I'm really nervous about taking the tests, I have to start working harder because if I don't work hard and know the material well, then my grades won't improve, and I will be scolded by my parents, if my parents scold me, then I will lose confidence in myself, if I lose confidence in myself, then I will not be able to complete my studies, if I do not complete my studies, then I will not be able to complete [university] if I won't be able to finish university then I won't be able to find a good job, if I don't find a good job then I won't be able to make money, if I won't be able to make money then I won't be able to pay taxes if I don't pay taxes, then it will be difficult for the country to pay teachers' salaries, if teachers cannot be paid, then they will not dedicate themselves to teaching, if they do not dedicate themselves to teaching, then it will hit the future of our country, if it will hit the future of our country, then It will be difficult for China to progress and the Chinese people will degenerate into a barbaric nation. If the Chinese people degenerate into a barbaric nation, then the US will begin to suspect that our country has powerful deadly weapons, if [the US begins to suspect that] our country has powerful deadly weapons, then the US will start a war against China, and World War III will break out , if the Third World War breaks out and the forces of both, the USA and China, are not enough, then they will start using nuclear weapons, if they start using nuclear weapons, then they will destroy the environment, if the environment is destroyed, then it will create a huge hole in atmosphere, if there is a huge hole in the atmosphere, then global warming will increase and glaciers at both poles will begin to melt, if glaciers melt, then the water level on Earth will rise, if the water level on Earth rises, then the entire human race will drown and die. Since this concerns the survival and safety of the entire human race, I must spend the remaining few days reviewing the material covered in order to do well on the test and thus prevent a tragedy.”

If some people found the text funny, others saw in it psychological oppression, enslavement by alien ideas with early years, the third felt ashamed that in their middle years they were not so responsible.

In comments about the value of Chinese love for the motherland, one can find phrases about the difference between Russian and Chinese patriotism: they say that they cannot be defeated, because they are a united nation, because everything is good with them, and everything is bad with us. They are warriors, in every way they were able to raise the country, and we, Russians, consider them “people who have come in large numbers,” etc.

Those who unconditionally praise Chinese patriotism forget that we have too different mentalities for us to be able to try on Asian clothes and customs in order to find the best.

For a long time known facts: the Chinese, along with their unlimited fertility, have lost all interest in the value of human life. China has a high suicide rate. In China, executions are carried out en masse for numerous crimes; in China, soups are made from premature babies. If earlier the last fact raised doubts and seemed provocative and compromising to many, today there are no secrets or innuendos: the process of preparing the dish was shown on TV, and the tasting was covered on other resources.

“The meaning of the information contained in textbooks and transmitted by the Chinese media is that the answer to all the adversities that the Celestial Empire has experienced can only be the revival of Chinese greatness and national pride in the heart of every Chinese. And they themselves admit on Internet forums that when asked “Why do you love China?” they answer memorized phrases from books and slogans. Often they lack own opinion on this occasion…

...In fact, Chinese patriotism is a long-forgotten form of ethnic nationalism, which is determined by the influence of German romanticism.

Sun Yat-sen was lying when he argued that Chinese nationalist ideas did not come from a foreign source, but were “transmitted to us by our forefathers.” Indeed, in the 19th century, German thinkers and philosophers first responded with the nationalism of “language, blood and land” to the conquest of the German principalities by Napoleonic armies. This concept subsequently attracted many romantics in Asian countries whose peoples felt oppressed by Western colonial powers. It is still being implemented by the CPC Central Committee to this day.”

(from the article “Chinese patriotism is based on a sense of self-humiliation”, the newspaper “Zhenmin Ribao”)