There are no pics today.
Today we spent the day traveling from Beijing to Luoyang. We flew an Air Bus plane that seated about 350 people. The flight was completely full. It’s only a 2-hour flight, but we had to leave for the airport at 10. It’s impossible to do anything with a group of 24 and be done by 10. We got into Luoyang at 3, and again it’s too little time to do an organized activity before dinner.
This is a good time to offer some general observations about Beijing. The Chinese are agressive. There’s absolutely none of the British attitude of “queue up and wait your turn.” Is there something to see or photograph that’s busy? Push your way in. When it was time to check out of our hotel, there were 3 desk clerks and three guests talking with them. So I started a line. An employee indicated I should approach the counter. I didn’t, and this upset him. So he took our room keys and walked over to one of the busy desk clerks to indicate she should check us out *now*. A few people in China like to wear gloves. I understand the cotton white gloves, but some bicyclists wear heavy gloves that covers the hand and forearm, almost up to the elbow. Considering the high temperature was over 90, I couldn’t understand why. Our group discussed this. The consensus opinion was that the gloves protect the cyclist’s hands and arms when they bump against people and cars as they push to get through *now*.
This brings us to the traffic. As I mentioned earlier, just about every family in Beijing has a car. There are about 6 million cars in Beijing for 22 million people. There’s lots of slow traffic in Beijing. Drivers expect each other to be just as pushy on the road as they are in person. When a lane disappears, cars inevitably have to invent an extra lane as they push to get in front of one another. Our guide told us the traffic in Luoyang is much better than traffic in Beijing. The streets we were on were not crowded. But I can hear from our room that drivers in Luoyang love their horns just as much as do drivers in Beijing. The other thing about Beijing traffic is that rules of the road are more like suggestions than absolute requirements. People generally obey rules of the road — until they have a reason to do otherwise. Our bus made an illegal U turn in the middle of the street to avoid driving around the block — even though the street wasn’t wide enough and he had to jockey the bus back and forth to complete the turn. Other drivers tolerate this behavior, probably because they do it themselves all the time. The amazing thing is that cars almost always look in good shape, without fender dents or bumper bumps. Of course, if I earned a Chinese salary and spent $100K on a car, I guess I would take very good care of it.
This brings us to Chinese taxes. They’re outrageous. Smart phones are made in China. But their price in China is double what it is in the US, at official exchange rates. Everybody in China has or wants a friend in the US who is willing to smuggle goods into the country. The Chinese government gets away with their outrageous taxes because nobody sees how much of the purchase price is for taxes. And it’s not so easy to see the US prices, because China blocks most successful US commercial sites.
The other reason China gets away with outrageous taxes is that they are incredibly successful, and therefore most citizens support their government. The standard of living in China has increased unbelievably in just one generation. Our guide told us that when his parents were young and wanted to get married, they had to get the “big 3 items” first. These were: a watch for him, a sewing machine for her, and a bicycle. At that time, a good bicycle was 3 to 4 month’s salary. Today, before a woman’s father will let her marry, he will make sure the groom has the “big 3 items”. They are: a condo, a car, and a good career.
The internet seems to work pretty well here. I should be able to post some pics of Luoyang tomorrow.