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华国锋的中国旅行商量 - Hua Guofang's China Travel Thread Extravaganzoid


Hua Guofang

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>>华国锋的中国旅行商量<< - Hua Guofang's China Travel Thread Extravaganzoid!!!

 

I had to go back to China for a wedding just recently and as I was there I realised that I'd never really posted any pics from when I used to live there. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Knowing how much you cats lurve yo travel threads I figured I'd do my bit in trying to revive 12OZ with a China Travel Thread. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The first lot of pics are from a 'small town' in central China where the wedding was. The second lot are from Beijing with a few mixed in from a few years back. Then there is Shanghai and lastly a bunch from Hong Kong. Will take a couple of days to go through them all because there are close to 500...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Get yo grime on!! IMG_1426_zps23e297bf.jpg IMG_1428_zpsaf454a54.jpg IMG_1429_zpsdc624f64.jpg IMG_1431_zps28fc575d.jpg Formatting is fucking up for some reason so I'm posting this first one in the hope that it rights itself in the second post.

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No fans for Hua...

 

Council rangers, everyone hates the Chengguan, they've been responsible for triggering some pretty large-scale riots in other towns

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So then the Illuminati police state has even caught up with China.

When my boy went there years ago, he came back and said that he wanted to move there because of how laid back the cops were there and how little they give a fuck about anything non-major.

Wherever unchained capitalism goes, Fascism follows.

 

My prediction is that it'll even reach you's down under within the next few years.

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looking at those street vendor food pics kept reminding me of this....

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1ed_1382996617

recycled sewer cooking oil....

 

Man, I walked past a gutter oil shop every day for 10 days in this little town, it fucking stunk. It was the grimiest of the grime and I so wanted to take a pic but the issue of gutter oil is relatively serious in China (as in it has federal attention) and I didn't want to upset folk by documenting their activities.

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@ DAO - tell your lad not to confuse laziness, low education and corruption for discretion and judgement. Secondly, they also ignore big things as well. If a businessman, foreign or local is taken by force to a hotel and refused his/her freedom because the other party is demanding a payment (usually over a contractual dispute) the cops literally shrug their shoulders and say that it's a civil dispute and doesn't concern them. I have seen this with my own eyes and there are multitudes of news articles that discuss this situation (and how the consulates of the foreign businessmen also agree that it's a business dispute because one dude is not worth damaging diplomatic relations over. I shit you not, it's all public record which you can google).

.

 

Also, don't be so convinced that capitalism is the problem. Corruption was just as rife in China under communism as it is now under "socialism with Chinese characteristics". China is only somewhat capitalist in that you can own your own business and personal property. But there is still very strong govt intervention in to the markets (they determine energy prices, some food prices, etc.) and there is still a maaaaaaasive state owned enterprise/industrial sector that is propped up by the state whilst running big losses. There is also no rule of law there (the Party is above the law, basically) and that means contractual disputes are usually decided in terms of who is the most powerful/connected, not who is in breach of contract. Given these circumstances it is difficult to say that China is anywhere near unbridled capitalism. The market does not rule, contracts mean dick all and the state has ultimate power, as opposed to the constitution/judiciary.

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That means China is essentially a "jungle", rule is by power, nothing else. And whilst that may also be similar to all national realities (capitalist, communist, fascist, monarchist, etc.) the economic and market conditions in China does not allow the country to be called capitalist. Some call it "red capitalism" instead or neo-leninist if you want to be a wanky academic.

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The wedding.

 

Runs for two days, basically. Day one - each family provides a feast out the front of their house for family, friends, neighbours, business associates and basically fucking everyone. People turn up with 'red packages', which are little red envelopes filled with cash. The unspoken rule is that this money covers the cost of the feast and your seat at the wedding reception. Every now and then people will turn up with their whole family to eat but only pay a small amount of money. That's considered pretty rude and insulting, for obvious reasons.

 

At the street feast, which you can see below, a professional street kitchen crew set up and do all the catering. The family all pitch in by setting tables with table cloth, bowls, chopsticks, nibbles and drinks. Drinks include soft drinks, a bottle of red wine and a bottle of baijiu (translates to 'white alcohol' but is basically the Chinese version of vodka/whiskey and generally tastes like shit. Each bottle at this wedding was approx RMB88, which would have been about RMB120 if bought by the bottle. RMB120 is about USD$20 by straight conversion and about USD$35-45 by PPP).

 

People sit down and eat, the family goes around and toasts with each table wishing them to "eat well, drink well". The people eat, drink and then leave. People cycle through the tables for a number of hours with crowds of people waiting out on the street for their turn...., in a fashion that seemed terribly awkward to me.

 

And of course there are fireworks......, out in the middle of the road...., and traffic...., who just continue driving on past that shit....., which I've seen explode on other occasions. dudes seriously lack a sense of self-preservation in that country.

 

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The next day people gather at the respective family's houses. The chosen few on the groom's side get in a bunch of expensive and flashy cars and drive to the bride's house.

 

The ritual here is pretty interesting..., it involves money, candy and violence.

 

The groom's mission is to get the bride out of her parent's house. To do this he must find the bride's shoe somewhere in the house, then find the bride, place the shoe on her foot and then carry her to the waiting cars. To do this he first must get past a barrage of kids who demand red packages for information about where the shoe is in the house. Then he must get past a bunch of women (usually the aunties) who demand red packages to let him pass - and I shit you not, these women fight relatively hard amongst themselves over who gets the packages. It seems to be a bit of family honour on the line as the groom's aunties are also involved. There's a bunch of hard slappin, gang ups, bruised knees and a few torn clothes at the end of this.

 

When the groom locates the room with the shoe in it he has to fight his way through the door, which is always closed and usually barricaded by the bride's friends and families. The groom tries to bribe them by slipping red packages under the door but always ends up pushing though, climbing over or finding another way in. he then takes the shoe to the bride, shods her and then carries her away. The father literally cried when that happened here.

 

The motorcade goes to the couple's new house, the father of the groom must carry the bride from the car to the house with a fake piss bucket on his head and his pants down (I think this might be a local custom as I've not witnessed that at other weddings. The father refused to drop his dacks and the piss bucket only stayed on for a minute or two).

 

Everyone then goes to a hotel reception room, which is set up for a fucking rock star's wedding. They do a cheesy kind of ceremony, which doesn't seem to have any cultural guidance to it and it also seems overbearingly western as well. After this, everyone eats and drinks before very promptly leaving. This part is all over within an hour, it's as if the people say "Right, food and booze is gone, so am I". The amount of money that is spent for that one hour is simply fucking ridiculous.

 

Everyone packs up, goes home and that is that.

 

 

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lol, friend of mine was seeing a fairly well-to-do local lady who said she didn't like the French Quarter in Shanghai because there was usually one foreigner to every Chinese person.

 

Clearly this woman was not well traveled about the globe.

 

 

 

 

* in all the years I lived in China I experienced very little racism aimed at Westerners. I experienced racism towards black and Turkic people and favouritism towards locals but very little racism towards myself and Westerners. Whilst there is some resentment for the years of colonialism under the Europeans/Americans, the Chinese have a lot of respect for the West and its modern achievements. Dare I say it, a touch of jealousy towards the West may also sometimes surface from time to time.

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