Life and Travel in China

In China, theoretically, maternity leave lasts about 3.5 months. In practice, things vary. A week ago, a friend gave birth to her second child, a long-awaited son, previously there was a daughter. This is an important event for her husband's family and her parents. They still maintain the tradition that having a son is of great importance for the entire family and its future. Coming back to the topic of maternity leave... my friend was already responding to work emails almost three days after giving birth and was basically working from home. Children are traditionally cared for mainly by grandparents. I can imagine that as soon as a baby is born, you take it to grandma's and take the laptop on your lap... the world has gone crazy! Parenting in China is very unusual. As I wrote once - new parents can leave the child thousands of kilometers away from them (in the grandparents' house) and simply return to work in some factory or company in another part of China. Another option is boarding schools and kindergartens, where children see their parents once or twice a year, which is terrible. Where should they come from? Probably from TV ;-).

It may be hard to believe, but there are people in China who have never even left their village. I'm not just talking about some mountainous areas, outside civilization, but about ordinary villages in Hunan or Jiangsu provinces. This most often applies to older people, but also to middle-aged people. Their life is very simple, and the world ends and begins within their village. This is also partly due to certain regulations from the recent past. Often, people from rural areas could not simply enter cities or special economic zones, they had to have appropriate documents. I remember back in 2003, the car from Changzhou couldn't come to Shanghai to pick us up. In Shenzhen, buses from outside were also checked by the military; the Chinese had to show proof of their city address or another document confirming their purpose of staying in this metropolis. That's one of the reasons why people didn't even have the habit of 'pushing' into the city. Currently, there are no such restrictions (apart from permanent residence and registration), but many older people cannot read, do not know what the metro is, confuse buses and simply get lost outside the borders of their home village. I myself had the opportunity to observe how an elderly lady wanted to return by bus and ran to the bus stop in the direction from which she came. It was incomprehensible to her that she should go across the street.

I recently read on some Polish news website that China is planning to abolish (or rather change) the one-child policy. Of course, specialists didn't come up with this idea simply to make families bigger and make things more fun in Chinese homes ;-). Of course, it is about economic aspects, society is aging, the newly developing pension system will be overloaded, and there will be a shortage of workers both in industry and in agriculture. Having two children is even a privilege of rich people willing to pay fines. There are also various other rules, depending on the region, social policy, etc. I wrote about it earlier. Of course, they will not change this policy so easily, because it provides them with good income - all these official fees (financial penalties) for the second and subsequent children, these bribes, a lot of formalities before planning a pregnancy. The average official would not be happy to see that people could simply breed without his interference and without his permissions. I'm sorry for writing this like this, but in China, when it comes to pregnancies, births and children, officials and doctors often have a very matter-of-fact approach, for them it's numbers, symbols, notes, all in order to properly control an ordinary Chinese family. This will probably change under pressure from specialists who will make the central government realize that in the long run, limiting births will greatly harm China's future. On the other hand, they cannot allow some poor people, disabled people, sick people to have many offspring - I know it sounds Nazi, but that's how it is in the Middle Kingdom. An ordinary person does not have many rights there, freedom of choice and decision, even in intimate spheres, and a disabled person even less has no rights there. Unless he is a millionaire, then he can buy the favor of local authorities. But do you know many rich disabled Chinese people? I don't, they are usually beggars...

I remember how at first I was offended when someone wrote on some forum that the city of Shenzhen had no character or atmosphere. If I had to judge it now, after living in Shenzhen for so long, I would probably agree with it. Supposedly in Shenzhen there is the DaMeiSha and XiaoMeiSha beaches, supposedly there is the old Dongmeng market (now shopping malls and mainly brand stores), supposedly there are nightlife areas such as Coco Park, Shekou or Louhu, supposedly there is everything - a modern center and skyscrapers too... but none of these places has this something and this city is like taken out of the game SimCity. Roads, main arteries, department stores, skyscrapers, housing estates, schools and hospitals, all planned and built. Hong Kong or Shanghai are different, it's worth being there because you can feel the unique atmosphere. In Hong Kong, a mix of cultures, a beautiful bay, stunning views from Victoria Peak, delicious NaiCha (cold milk tea), night markets and tiny temples. In Shanghai there is also a beautiful bay, stunning skyscrapers with the Pearl of the Orient at the forefront, small streets with the smell of Chinese dumplings and seafood, large temples and museums. One of our Chinese friends always emphasizes that Shenzhen is the best, because she lived for some time in ZhuHai, Shanghai and Indonesia. Honestly, I don't know what she's raving about. Shenzhen is simply a metropolis to which there is no need to return, unless you live or do business there ;-).

Recently, Zhejiang and Fujian provinces were hit by a typhoon, even two typhoons. According to our friends, heavy rain and storms lasted all day and all night, with winds reaching speeds of 150-200 km/h. At the beginning of my stay in China, I also witnessed a typhoon. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, especially on the 27th floor. I had the impression that the whole building was creaking and bending under such a storm. Interestingly, many people do not make it a tragedy. Maybe because they most often work in factories, live there or rent apartments - so they do not lose their own belongings. It may sound absurd, but for some people it is even such an attraction. Work at the factory has stopped, there is water everywhere, they send one person who is waist-deep in water to go get some lunch. People are just waiting for the water to recede. A friend of mine wrote to me that now they travel around the city of Ningbo by boat (instead of buses), it sounded very natural, like 'there is water, we go by boat' and wrote that 'it should be better tomorrow'. Young people do not panic and do not dramatize. The situation is certainly worse somewhere in the countryside, where people lose their houses, belongings, animals, farmlands... Fortunately, thanks to meteorological warnings and alarms, some people managed to evacuate, most of the boats returned safely to ports and there were not so many victims of this storm.