Last year I spent a month in Shanghai and today I am
going to tell you all the interesting things I learned about this great
country.
1。Small children in China are called “Little Emperors” and they can do whatever they want
As you know, not a long time ago people in China were allowed to have only one child (now two), thus this child gained a lot of attention from his or her parents. Most of the time small Chinese can do whatever they want, as they are so important. However, in some time this “little emperor” would have to provide for his or her huge family.
2。In China there are
(much) more men than women
This fact is
strongly connected with the previous one, as the policy of one child created
some new problems. Traditionally Chinese people prefer boys to girls and
sometimes women make an abortion when they understand they have a girl. Moreover,
one-fifth of Chinese men simply can’t find a mate.
3。Instagram,
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google are forbidden in China
This phenomenon is unofficially
called “Great Firewall of China”. But it doesn’t mean that Chinese people don’t
use social networks. Quite the opposite! They adore them. China has its own
Google called “Baidu”, Twitter – “Weibo”, Instagram+Facebook – “Wechat” and
many others.
As I noticed,
Chinese people don’t care about the social networks we use and simply love
their own ones.
4。Chinese people
(mostly) can’t swim and afraid of getting tanned
You won’t believe
it, but that’s true. All of them swim with rubber rings.
Besides in Shanghai
my Chinese friends asked me: “Why your skin is so white”? Chinese women really
adore snow white skin and consider it to be extremely beautiful. So when they go
to a beach they put on a very extravagant swimming suit.
Photo by: DailyMail
Photo by: THE HUFFINGTON POST
5。Chinese people don’t
eat most of the products we eat and rarely cook at home
Chinese shops may
be enormous but mostly they are full of snacks, water, huge sacks of rice and instant
noodles. That’s because Chinese people don’t really cook at home.
If you go to China,
you will see many small cafes with very low prices. They may not look very
attractive, but if you see a lot of locals eating there – it’s a good place. I
also saw a lot of people coming home with a lots of packed foods.
By the way, Chinese
people don’t eat bread, milk products and raw vegetables. And chocolate.
6。Sunny days are rare
guests in huge Chinese cities
The rapid growth of
Chinese economy and fast urbanization are good things, but they created a huge
problem – smog. Mostly people wear protective masks as sometimes the quality of
air may be dangerous.
In Shanghai I didn’t
notice too much of smog, but the sky most of the days was grey. Maybe I am just
used to Saint Petersburg weather.
7。In China there is a
death penalty for killing pandas
And all the pandas
in the world belong to China. The ones which are outside China’s border are
given in rent by the Chinese authorities. If in a foreign country a panda gives
a birth, all the cubs are also considered to be China’s property. In
international politics there is even a term - "Panda diplomacy".
8。Crossing road in
China equals doing a fire walk
Chinese people
simply don’t let pedestrians cross the road. Even if there’s a traffic line. No
one cares. Sometimes you simply have to raise your hand and show that it’s
actually YOUR time to go. When I did it for few times, Chinese people followed
me with a great pleasure :)
9。Chinese people are
obsessed with their mobile phones
You think you spend
too much time scrolling through your Instagram feed or chatting on Facebook?
Hell no. Chinese people do it much more than you. Even when they are eating or
walking they are looking into their smartphones.
By the way, Chinese
people prefer very huge smartphones. For example, it was hard for me to find a
person with an average phone, mostly they have iPhone 6s Plus or any other
enormous phone.
10。No matter what
level of Chinese language you have, Chinese people would tell you that you
speak great.
Chinese people
consider Chinese language to be extremely difficult and if you can write
characters – you are almost fluent for them.
Last year I spent a month in Shanghai and today I am going to tell you all the interesting things I learned about this great country. ...
