As I was walking to the supermarket yesterday, I passed by a man walking his dog without a leash. And as I walked by and watched his dog take a crap on the side (made of tiles), I couldn't help but think of the many differences between living here and in Canada again. All the sidewalks here are made of interlocked bricks (in the nice areas) or tiles (so it gets quite slippery when it rains)...why a developing country chose not to build sidewalks of the cheaper and faster cement in a city this big is confusing. Everyone pushes and cuts lines, people are always yelling, and decent practices (like people picking up after their dogs...yea, the guy just left the pile of fresh feces on the sidewalk) that I've become accustomed to are non-existent. Too many times now I've witnessed people trying to push their way onto the subway trains before the people on the train can even get off...completely unnecessary and illogical...reminds me of trying to get into class at UTSC hahaha. One time, I even watched an old woman dash for the last remaining open seat on the subway and hip check (I can't make this stuff up) another old lady (who was going for the same seat) out of the way.
If you've ever been around people from mainland China in Toronto, then you'll know what I'm talking about. Everyone coughs and sneezes without covering their mouths or noses, and they spit everywhere. I can cough in a crowded public space without covering my mouth, and nobody would even throw me a dirty look. (So it's really no mystery how diseases like SARS spread so quickly here). But I can kind of understand why everyone is constantly coughing and spitting here. Almost everyone smokes (my shirt always smells like I smoked a pack after leaving the internet bar), and the air is filthy. Over the past 2 days, I've had things fly into my eyes at least 10 times while walking the streets (that's at least 9 times more than it's happened while walking in Toronto last year). And the people here seem content with living in the dirty conditions. Instead of trying to clean up the mess, they continue to make things dirtier, tossing anything aneverything on the streets. If it weren't for the poorly paid workers constantly trying to clean the streets (in preparation of 2010 World Expo), I don't think anyone would be doing any cleaning in the city.
But it's not all bad, most of it is probably just culture shock. Things get built here much faster than in Toronto. The rate at which road work is completed here puts Toronto to shame (and frankly, if any road construction crew members stumble upon this blog, you should feel very blessed for the wages you receive and the fact that Torontonians don't run you off the road for your awfully slow work). While it's a major human rights issue, the migrant workers here do hard and dirty labour, are paid very poor wages, and live in sub-standard conditions, but they work harder than any other labourer I've seen in Toronto. And that's how things get done so quickly here. The subway system here has TWELVE LINES, and two of the lines were only started recently and are scheduled to be done before the World Expo next summer. How long did it take for the TTC to put in that little appendage off Sheppard? (5 stations in EIGHT YEARS?!?) The new lines here are full subway lines of at least 10 stations each...I think Canadian labourers have a lot to learn from the Chinese, I really don't think we know the meaning of truly hard work. But of course, the Chinese still have huge strides to make...all the promises they made during the Beijing Olympics of becoming more civilized and improving on the vast poverty (that all developing countries face) are still nowhere close to fruition, but fundamental changes take time.
UPDATE:
My visit to the World Expo exhibition centre, wasn't too exciting hahaha.
My first cup of coffee at Starbucks in Shanghai...no difference from the Starbucks in Canada. I was feeling a little homesick (because of all the rainy weather), but a visit to Starbucks fixed that up haha!
Despite the rainy weather, I explored Huaihai Road (a shopping street much longer and with higher-class brands than Nanjing Road East). Yandang Road is off Huaihai Road, where the street resembles the buildings in France (they're in other photos when it wasn't so grey outside).
Another visit to the People's Square area. I thought the China flags lining the street would make a cool photo (the stupid bus ruined it though).
Papa John's in Shanghai! We don't even have that in Toronto yet!
A few shots from my visit to Nanjing Road East at night. Definitely looks better at night, right? Practicing my night photo and night action photo skills. Give me some credit for the sharp photos, I was shooting at like 1/5 speeds without a tripod! (If you know a bit about photography, you'll know steady handheld shots at slow speeds is hard). The number of people was ENDLESS (I tried to show this in a couple of shots). My Shanghai friend told me the locals prefer shopping at night since it's much cooler.
Me at Nanjing Road East at night!
I thought these were cool shots. They're outside the People's Square area at night. I'm proud of them hahaha.
Only in China do they actually need to post signs that say "no spitting" hahaha.
Old people do Tai Chi just about anywhere.
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Also helps that they cut corners everywhere and there's no such thing as an Environmental Assessment and various other things that should be assessed and evluated before, during and after constructing a subway.
ReplyDeleteBut that's neither here nor there.
Hope you're having fun out there and experiencing a lot of new and different things. Sounds like an awesome experience.
That's true, but we all know an environmental assessment also shouldn't take as long as it does in Toronto, and definitely should not cost hundreds of millions of dollars! And while I'll agree with you on most things made in China, I can say they didn't cut any corners on the subway system...I don't think they could afford to with the volume of riders that take the subway per day. And almost every stop has barriers!
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