Life and Travel in China

Yesterday I saw again how much the Chinese government loves its citizens. I was riding a bicycle on the main route in Shenzhen. After a while, I saw that there were several policemen standing at every intersection, I guessed that there would be a government column or VIP vehicles. Two dressed-up policemen on motorcycles entered the route. One of them approached me after two kilometers and told me to get off the road through a loudspeaker. I didn't really listen to him and he drove away. Two intersections later, it was thick with police and I stopped. Some in uniforms, others in plain clothes, undercover. Two uniformed officers told me to move literally 20 cm, from the side of the road closer to the sidewalk. Ok, after a while I moved on. Two minutes later they changed their concept and told everyone to move even further away. The cop pats me on the back and says, "Solli, solli." So I moved even further and prepared to greet a convoy of communist hogs. When police motorcycles, Mitsubishi off-road vehicles, and buses with VIPs arrived, I started waving at them for fun. First, normally, with an open hand, and then with the middle finger. The cops probably didn't understand it, but one undercover cop came up anyway and covered me and showed me not to wave at them. And I was shouting and waving "welcome in Shenzhen". I had a lot of fun with it and that's how I joined the opposition. I hate those fat communist pigs! I hate all this exploitation and injustice, I'm fed up with this propaganda and censorship. And what irritates me even more is when the police stop me while driving nicely, I had a nice tailwind, I was driving 40-45 km/h. If the authorities say that the Chinese love them so much, why don't they let them come closer, throw flowers, wave and greet everyone? The truth is that this government only serves to intimidate and control these people. As soon as the column disappeared, all the policemen literally vanished into thin air. I saw almost no uniformed officers later on this route. As you can see, they have considerable reserves for protecting VIPs, breaking up riots and securing mass events.

Referring to the previous entry... it turned out that I showed the middle finger to not just anyone, but to the vice prime minister himself - Wen Jia Bao. As it turned out, on Saturday there was a larger party in the square in front of the City Hall, with police and Chinese ORMO members everywhere. They stopped me again while I was riding a bike, this time they weren't sure whether they should stop me, but I gave up on this route myself, why should I go to the nest of these communist pigs?! The Vice Prime Minister even visited our housing estate. Of course we knew nothing about it. He met with retired women, because, as you know, such old ladies love power and will not complain about anything. They even put on a show for him - dancing with discus. I saw it on TV and it was literally three intersections behind our apartment. After this beautiful show, older ladies ran so nicely and waved to the Prime Minister. Such pathetic propaganda, I just laugh at it, but they believe in it so much, they feel so honored, such an honor! The vice prime minister himself watched the paddle dance, wonderful! Shenzhen celebrates the 30th anniversary of the city's founding on Friday, I can already imagine how many police, checks, blockades there will be everywhere... they have already introduced baggage scanning at one of the more crowded metro stations, just like at the airport. Of course, it's good that they're safe, but they don't protect ordinary citizens, it's more about ensuring that no one transports weapons or cargo on the subway, and they would be intended for some kind of assassination attempt on politicians. Their power never cares about ordinary citizens, but great propaganda makes the nation think otherwise.

Recently I fell for Polish chocolates. The Hildebrand company from Poland offers its products in China, chocolates in three flavors. Packaging and distribution is done via Hong Kong. I bought such a package for about PLN 6, it looked like there were about 20-25 chocolates inside. As it turned out, it was just fraudulent packaging from Hong Kong. Chocolates made up about 40% of the package, the rest was just a cleverly folded cardboard box surrounding 9 chocolates! There is a rhombus cut out in the middle so that the chocolates can be seen. The problem is that the treats are just this rhombus. Not very fair dealing. Good sweets are generally expensive in China, but do they have to be sold together with a carton to make it seem cheaper and more expensive? Rice was once mixed with sand to make it more efficient!

I have a huge backlog in adding photos. I'll explain why... sometimes I don't have interesting topics, other times there's a lot going on or I'm traveling somewhere. In such situations, I usually bring 200-500 photos. Of course, you have to select them, and I don't want to add one topic in a dozen or so shots, because it would bore visitors to this website. Nevertheless, I will try to add new photos, different topics and places today. Some of them are a bit outdated, but they will certainly be interesting for people interested in the Middle Kingdom. So I invite you to the gallery!

On Thursday (August 26), the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was celebrated. There was supposed to be a fireworks show, so we waited in the city center with a camera and a tripod for 40 minutes. After this time, a police car drove by and my wife heard that the show had been canceled. Of course, the Chinese government does not have to explain itself or give us reasons. As it turned out, a few days later the show was canceled because Hu JinTao (president of the People's Republic of China) stayed in Beijing and did not come to Shenzhen. Why did he stay in Beijing? To help with the crisis in Manila where several Hong Kong citizens were kidnapped on a bus. And now I wonder - how could this Hu JinTao, being in Beijing (mainland China), help the citizens of Hong Kong who were kidnapped in Manila in the Philippines? Where's the logic here? I understand if he was in Manila, or at least Hong Kong. Even Shenzhen is closer to Hong Kong and the Philippines! Nevertheless, this is some explanation, at least it is known that the show was for him, and not for ordinary citizens and residents of Shenzhen. As usual, the party has shown that it doesn't give a damn about ordinary Chinese people.