Life and Travel in China

I noticed that I was moving from the stage of acceptance back to the stage of rebellion and misunderstanding of China. The reason must be my month-long stay in Poland and my last short vacation in Indonesia, on the island of Bali. Well, people there are more cultured and friendly than in China. Plus, traffic is much safer. Millions of people, hundreds of thousands of scooters, but no one honks and everyone follows the rules. Here in China I am again irritated by spitting in the street, loud conversations, crowds of people and really crazy traffic. Coming back from Bali, I got angry at the border. The Chinese policeman checked my passport in an extremely rude way. It was already after midnight. And he looked through my entire passport (30 blank pages) looking for stamps from the previous border crossing. He literally crushed each page in his fingers and squeezed it like a notebook or toilet paper. I couldn't stand it and simply said that it was my document, my passport and maybe he would treat him more leniently. The guy had an extremely rude face, an ordinary communist pig - I'm sorry, but I can't describe him any other way. Of course, he didn't apologize for anything, he just quickly put his stamp on it. He also checked an Indian man in front of me and it lasted probably 10 minutes. Even another officer stood behind him and watched what he was doing. I haven't met such a mean person in a long time. My anger was later intensified by crowds of people who forcefully offer illegal taxis and almost snatch my luggage from my hands. You can get angry. I returned from an island paradise to some nightmare urban jungle. When will China become civilized?

I wonder how Poles living in England can miss their homeland so much? After all, the surroundings, customs, religion, food, weather, holidays, architecture - it's all very similar. We are Europeans and there are not that big differences throughout Europe. Moreover, in Europe, many things can be perfectly organized, there are Polish shops, restaurants, and compatriots everywhere. What am I supposed to say? China and Asia are a completely different world. You need to have enormous amounts of tolerance and you need to be open to the world, accept certain differences, understand different cultures, and sometimes you just need to remain silent, not complain, not argue. Of course, there are problems with this, but there is no one to complain to, because nothing is surprising here, everything is 'normal' for the Chinese. For me it's completely different. Of course, everyone has the right to miss their homeland, but being 2 hours away from home by plane, knowing that buses go to Poland every day, having a fridge full of Polish food, talking to Poles every day, using a Polish telephone, can we really talk about living abroad?

Yesterday, whatever you call it... the New Year celebrations ended. As you can see, it took over two weeks. There were fireworks, firecrackers, gunshots until 1 a.m., you could go crazy. The Chinese never worry about someone getting up in the morning to go to work. Of course, it's a holiday, but these fireworks were fired for about 10 days. People who are here by accident during this period and do not know much about the Middle Kingdom may get really scared that it is some kind of terrorist attack or war. Sometimes you can only hear gunshots, sometimes like bombs, other times like bursts from some cannon. Besides, on a forum in Poland about China, two years ago someone wrote that there were shootings in Shenzhen, ha ha! Some picked up on the topic and asked for details, ready to spread rumors about war in China. Others simply wrote that it could have been a wedding reception, a party or a birthday. Another aspect of yesterday's holiday - you should eat small rice balls with black sesame or peanuts so that everything "goes smoothly" in the new year.

The Chinese have been accustomed to obedience for over 50 years. For years they built a new, wonderful China, they believed in the communist revolution, Mao's slogans. They lived in suffering, subjected themselves to self-criticism, agreed with the party's program, and in fact, politics was their religion. They sacrificed their own families for the "good" of Chinese communism. So today, if someone talks about freedom and democracy in the Middle Kingdom, they probably simply don't know the mentality of these people. It will be hundreds of years before this nation rises from its knees and rebels.

Today, quite by accident, I came across our class's profile, which contained the main photo of me, my model! I don't know this person, fictitious account, with a Chinese name. As you can see, people don't care about copyright and the rights to use someone's image. If only someone would take the trouble to ask me for permission? Or explained why? I immediately warn other visitors to this website that I will not tolerate unlawful taking of photos! Just ask - I usually agree to private use when everything is clear. Commercial use without any benefit for me - I tend not to agree to it. There are photo banks where you can buy my works. I expect some respect. And because of such situations, I will never publish larger photos here.