Life and Travel in China

In just 2 days, the Chinese New Year will begin and the Year of the Dog will begin. We celebrate in Zhejiang province with our immediate and extended family. Yesterday we had a wonderful dinner, about 20 people, two tables full of delicacies: tofu, beef with onion, fried dumplings, crabs, steamed fish, vegetables, lotus root stuffed with sweet rice, etc. Plus traditionally Scottish whiskey, a mix of tradition and modernity. It was noisy, cheerful, many toasts. A unique holiday atmosphere. Now we will celebrate for 2 weeks.

The Chinese pray once a year and that's probably enough. Of course, temples are crowded during Chinese New Year. Collecting donations in a tray is controversial in our country. In the Middle Kingdom, some temples have paid admission! During holidays, admission is four times more expensive, e.g. on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Yesterday, Buddhist temples were besieged because they worshiped the god of money and wealth. In China, few people go to temples regularly. They pray now, during the new year and in times of need (according to the principle, when there is fear, it is to God). They often pray for money, marriage, professional success, and to a lesser extent, health.

The most popular place for shopping in Shanghai is, of course, Nanjing Street, close to The Bund. Now many regular shops and some restaurants are closed because people are resting. The exception are shops and large department stores on Nanjing Street. Currently, crowds of Chinese and tourists visit this place, shop, eat in restaurants and buy snacks. A perfect time to spend the money obtained from red envelopes. The promotions are really interesting. When buying one sweatshirt, you have to pay RMB 129, and when buying two sweatshirts, you have to pay RMB 100 in total. The pants cost 169 RMB, but if we buy two pairs, we pay a total of 199 RMB. How to understand this? In China, it's all about quantity, selling as much as possible and as quickly as possible. Don't wait, exchange the goods. In Chinese brand stores, they sell sweatshirts for as much as RMB 20-50 to get rid of older designs and introduce new ones. New ones sell for 200-300 RMB. Some stores sell 'ordinary' clothes and, for example, some with a license such as Astro Boy or Mickey Mouse, these licensed designs usually cost 3-4 times more. You earn less on something, more on something, the overall balance is certainly positive, taking into account the business traffic and the number of customers. We can envy them for this. Another topic is the activity and involvement of store staff.

I remember before the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008, there was a great boycott of Chinese products, including T-shirts. It was about defending oppressed Tibet. It seems to me that things are not any better in Tibet now, but somehow there is no boycott of any Chinese products. On the contrary: I don't know anyone in Poland who wouldn't order something from AliExpress! What happened to ideology? Does everyone think that if you can buy something cheaper, the situation in Tibet and human rights do not matter? Of course, working conditions and wages in the Middle Kingdom are getting better and better - I would even say that in some cases they are better than in Poland. But what happened to economic patriotism? We don't want to support Polish products and companies? By purchasing on AliExpress, we deprive Polish importers, wholesalers and retailers of profits - because most purchases concern small quantities. The answer is simple - where there is money, there is no place for sentiments and ideologies. This applies to large companies, corporations, but also to us, ordinary people.

When flying to China you can be sure of two things: KFC and Starbucks. Everything else depends on the region, weather, people, etc. However, the famous chickens and the largest cafe are literally everywhere in the Middle Kingdom, especially near the main tourist attractions.