Life and Travel in China

I think I mentioned in my notes - the Chinese don't drink much alcohol. Although recently in a small town near Yongkang I met a group of drunk people. Probably some business meeting that ran a little long. They were very noisy in the lobby of a large hotel (the only one in the area). They shouted, said goodbye, then came back again. Ultimately, one of them accidentally broke a large sculpture, a hotel decoration. Interestingly, the receptionist did not intervene, and the drunk crowd simply ignored the accident with the sculpture. Somewhat rude behavior. Even the elevator didn't smell of violets from these gentlemen. So, in general, I rarely see drunk people in China, but meetings and business dinners end differently. I would also like to point out that expensive branded alcohol such as MaoTai, which can cost several thousand yuan, is often brought to such meetings.

High-speed rail in China is really advanced. The system used by conductors is truly amazing. It happened recently that I was traveling a short route from Wuxi to Suzhou (about 10 minutes by train, about 40 km). We bought tickets at the last minute, so I was separated from the other person. We boarded one carriage in which I had no assigned seat, but on such a route it didn't matter. Despite everything, literally after two minutes a beautiful conductor came up to me, she was staring at her phone and already knew from her application that I shouldn't be sitting in that seat. I explained that this wasn't my seat and I just sat down for a while, no problem. Nevertheless, the system is impressive, the train staff knows immediately which seats are to be free, which station will be occupied and they probably know (since the tickets are personal) that there will be a woman/man or maybe a foreigner sitting there, etc.

Today, a few words about surveillance - when I walk the streets of Chinese cities and towns, I am aware that I am constantly being watched on cameras, and the system probably immediately displays my name, surname, passport number, whether I am staying legally, until when, etc. It is probably easy to tell at a given moment where I am, what I am doing, and who I am meeting. A Chinese friend recently got a little scared. She wanted to rent a city bike in Shenzhen, but there was a notebook and 200 RMB in cash in the handlebar compartment. She waited to see if someone would come back, she looked in the notebook to see if there was any contact or telephone number, but there was nothing. She took the notebook home. After a few hours, there was a call from the police, did she take the notebook? Of course, she confessed, but the phone call scared her a bit - maybe some scammers? Cheating on a policeman, and probably on a grandson, has also become popular in China. She called the police back, but everything was confirmed. The police knew who took the notebook simply from the camera footage, and they assigned the phone number to the person, and the person to the address, to the ID card, to basically everything. Simple, but still a little scary.

The important moment has come, for about two years I have been planning to rebuild fotochiny.com to make the website look better and, most importantly, to work on smartphones. Today it worked, I uploaded new files, new code, new CSS styles. Everything should work and I hope that the website will be revived and will regain its decent place in search engines. I will also try to add more photos.

Since China abolished visas for Polish citizens, we now have a whole army of traveler-Tiktokers who share their observations about Shenzhen (CyberPunk city, the city of the future, as they like to call it), Shanghai, Chongqing, Beijing and, less often, Guangzhou. It's a bit funny to me when people criticize China - they think that if something is not like in my country, it is bad. It's just a different culture, different behavior, but that doesn't mean it's bad behavior. People are often shocked by spitting in the streets, loud conversations or middle-aged men revealing their belly. It doesn't bother me - when it comes to spitting and wheezing, it's about 80% less than it was 15-20 years ago. More in the countryside, in small towns, older people have these habits. This is partly due to health and medical issues - they simply believe that all phlegm should be spit out because it is unhealthy for the body. Of course, within reason. Loud conversations - a big country, a lot of people and sometimes you have to shout over each other. But that has also changed a lot. Recently, it was us Poles who were silenced on the train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. However, on the train in Jiangsu Province, people were quite noisy. Nevertheless, 15-20 years ago it was definitely too noisy. Guys with exposed belly - it's just hot. I don't like it, but I don't have to stare at them, they want to - let them walk like that, they are in their own country. Many Polish tiktokers-travellers are also shocked by the food: chicken feet, snakes, seafood, generally a lot of living creatures in shops, markets and restaurants. I'm already used to it. Sometimes I feel sorry for these creatures, but at least everything in China is fresh.