Wide Eyed

I am walking around China with a constant look of wide-eyed excitement. There is an energy and excitement here that is unlike any city I have ever been too. So far the most dramatic difference is the grand scale of things here.

BIG Beijing!

• Roads are wide, universities are large.

• The whole city is covered with high rise apartments, not being restricted to certain pockets of the city.

• Subway stations are spacious, at some stops it can take a 10 min walk to change lines.

• The economy is big too, a stimulus of package of RMB 4 trillion is currently being debated in the National People's Congress (NCP).

• The NCP itself is enormous, 2500+ representatives.

• They have the bigggest square in the world.

Beijing is a city which is big in every sense of the word.


The Chinese
Chinese people too are larger than life, they eat and drink big, they are loud, they talk fast. Unlike the sedate, reserved version of the Chinese that is represented in many movies.

Chinese people in Beijing are far from the retiring type.

But they see beauty and meaning in everything. From the mundane (superstition surrounding numbers 8=very good, 4=very bad) to the truly elegant (Written Chinese is absolutely fascinating. It is incredibly complex but at the same time beautifully infused with meaning and reason).

Bureacracy
There is level upon level upon level of bureacracy in China. Inefficiency, double handling, differing systems with differing rules are all rife here. From the little I have been able to pick up so far, China seems to be a very divided country. With the 26 provinces (I think) having very different systems for the administration of welfare. For example, the Migrant Welfare Pension is restricted by province. If a migrant worker working in Beijing wanted to move to Shenzhen, he would not be able to transfer the company contributed pension with him. That stays in Beijing.

Yet despite the many levels of bureacracy and the intricacies of government here. Everyday things are incredibly efficient.

Within a week of being in the country, most of the AYADs who are based in Beijing have been able to find suitable accomodation.

But so far I am loving it!
And there other AYADs here are awesome!