China Surprise

There are many things that have shocked me about China but here are some of the biggest. I know I said it before but I do not think that the amount of people can be overstated. It is people upon people upon people. It truly is mind blowing for a kid from southwest Kansas to handle. Another thing that has suprised me the most is how clean the streets and sidewalks are. I would say they are cleaner than most sidewalks in the states. There is always someone out there sweeping and cleaning the street or the sidewalk. This also could be related to how the amount of people they have. Because everyone needs a job. It is a very labor intensive society there are a lot of people working everywhere. The other thing is the health of the people and by that I mean the amount of pullution and there diet. First off the amount of pollution in Bejing is ridiculous. Someone told me that living one day in Beijing is the equivlent to smoking 70 cigarettes. You really can feel it after you have been there a while your chest actually does start to burn a little bit. The other thing that is shocking is what they eat sure they eat a lot of rice and vegatables but they also fry almost everything they eat in oil. Everything is oily. Another thing is they do not drink water at meals if they give you anything it is green tea. I have no idea how they stay hydrated at all because you have to ask for water at the resaurants and pay extra for it. It seems very strange to me. Anyway I am sure there will also be more of these so I wil pass them one when they strike me.