Chinese Hospitality

   Since I arrived, I’ve been out on to several trips into the city to see the main sights of Shanghai courtesy of the people in the lab who have been very friendly and welcoming. Thanks to them, I am also now up and running on Weibo, so if you’re a member, please come and follow me there! My profile is on Weibo. 
           Generally, one of the things people complain about when they arrive to China is that people are rude. Whilst yes, in public, strangers will often push past you, not bother asking if you're in the queue and generally just go about their business as it suits them regardless of how it affects you, in a country that's so full of people, it can be hard to care about everybody. Conversely, if you are someone's friend or guest, then they will go to the ends of the earth for you, making sure that you are comfortable, have enough to eat and drink, pay for things, give you gifts and carry your bags. 

             In my experience, my lab hosts were of course very friendly from the word go. On the first Friday evening, they took me out into the city centre for a meal (more on that in a later post) and also to see the famous Bund, which is best seen when it is lit up at night. This was especially great for me, as I love making night photos and was looking forward to seeing the real thing in the flesh. The Pudong side of the river was every bit as breathtaking as people describe, and I got some great shots of it.

The guys in the lab were also very interested to see my photos, so they cajoled me into signing up for Weibo – China’s answer to Twitter/Facebook. There is supposed to be an English version of this, but only about half of the features are translated and of course, none of the text that people post, so I have to make do with guessing and Google translate to get by. Nevertheless, so many of the features are very similar to Facebook that it is not that hard to use. However, the main difference seems to be that it is very heavily monitored. Just these week it was mentioned in the news, as information became available that the Chinese government hires some 2 million people to monitor and vet users on the website. Anything that is deemed politically sensitive is deleted. This crazily large number seems rather senseless, even with having to check on 100 million registered users, but I believe this is symptomatic of a new theory I'm developing about the Chinese political system : the reason why the communist government has been so successful for so long, is that by requiring such an enormous amount of regulation, red tape and paperwork, they are keeping a huge number of people employed and thus managing to support their vast population. This was first apparent to me when I had the pleasure of visiting the Shanghai Exit-Entry Inspection Bureau.  And the amount of porters, guards and even military people around to guard everything is astounding already. It just takes such a huge work force to keep this many people in check. It’s a crazy system, but somehow, it works for them.

                But getting back to the topic of Chinese hospitality. If you haven’t seen the photos, here are some highlights from my first evening out in the city:

Ships passing on the Bund in the evening

                These are the lab people who kindly took me out on my first Friday night and showed me all the lights of the city at night. The guy on the right Yingzhou is the one that is coming to the UK in January, and I keep thinking “What on earth am I going to show him that’s just as good as this?!” There is nothing remotely as spectacular anywhere near Leicester, and I’ll probably just end up showing him round London if I want to be an equally good host.

My new labmates

              The next trip out that we went on was to the Yu Gardens (豫园) a special green garden with rockeries and lakes built in the Ming dynasty. I bet in its hey day, it made a great retreat for the Chinese nobility. Unfortunately it can’t be described as a retreat today, because it is so very, very busy with tourists. This doesn’t detract from the experience though, and I loved the bazaars around it, which had an air of Camden town on a bustling Saturday morning.

              It is made up of winding paths through lakes to temples and houses built on top of the water, teeming with large fish (and some tortoises!) vying for a piece of bread fed to them by the tourists:

 It has some very beautiful parts:

As well as some funny Chinglish signs:

Also some beautiful sculptures:

Although sometimes the harsh modern buildings show through the smog and are a stark reminder of how much China has changed through its rich history:

I sometimes wonder how much more it will change and whether the skyscrapers of today will turn into the relics of tomorrow, and with what they might be replaced.

From the sublime to the ridiculous, afterwards, we went round the bazaars and saw this weird café that has toilet as its theme! It is complete with urinals as wall decorations!

Check out my later visit to this place here.

                   Overall, with regards to friendliness and hospitality, again, China is full of contradictions as usual. It simultaneously manages to have reputations for rudeness but boundless politeness. And certainly, what I've found is that many people in the street seem quite happy to push in front of you and pushy in the street or in the underground, and many staff don't always seem that bothered to help you. However, if somebody is your friend, or host, then they would go to lengths that we would find ridiculous in the UK. For example, even Lu felt compelled to pay for some macaroons which I spotted in a shopping mall, which I'd intended to buy for her to say "thanks for showing me Chinese things, please try some tasty western things", but she insisted on paying and would not take my money. Later, her and her husband paid for a hotel for me, after I declined their offer to sleep in their bedroom, because they deemed the concept of me sleeping on their sofa too insulting to offer to a guest! Also, she would not let me carry my own bags, despite the fact that she's literally half my size (literally, in weight!) Each time, I explained that in my country, this was weird, and she says that in her country, this is expected of a host, and that it's impolite to refuse, so I had to agree..

                Either way though, I've seen so many things and having genuine Shanghai residents as my guides, I feel like I'm getting a really authentic Chinese experience and I'm really grateful to the guys in the lab for being such great hosts. Even if this means that we are sometimes communicating via the medium of the Google Translate app!