The school for teaching English continued after the kids had their summer vacation. Now it’s back to teaching again in weekends for me. This was the first time I took my bike all the way there. It’s located in south west and I myself live in North West but still only took about 20 minutes to get there. By car it would have been soooo slow, the traffic was totally jammed and it’s cool to be able to drive past all waiting cars knowing that the bike is much faster AND easier to park when you reach the destination. Even parking houses and specially empty spaces in the street are hard to find here, weekends nightmare.
Last week the total amount of registered cars in Beijing was over 4,5 million! Let’s not forget all the unregistered car’s from other provinces that roam around the roads here (a lot of them too!). By next year the number is going to be over 5 million because the number is increasing with about 1900 cars DAILY! (In Finland it's about 150 000 annually)
I read in a newspaper that the roads in Beijing have capacity for 6.8 million cars but what happens when that number is exceeded? Can’t drive, can’t park just stuff yourself into subways that are too small for this city as well. The city planners estimated that by the year 2010 there would be around 18 million people in Beijing but there are already over 22 million so the subway system is a few million to short to run efficiently. The reason for the massive increase of population are the people from smaller cities and villages coming to Beijing in a hope of better life and many of them work for less than minimum wages of even for FREE because the living conditions are better here than in most of the cities in China. Waitresses here make about 1500 Yuan a month which is just above 100 Euros and the apartment prices are as expensive or more expensive than in Finland. I seriously do not understand how people get by here, my salary is a lot higher than that but I still can't say that I live super awesomely here. The difference between people is enormous here, either you have money (and then you have a LOT) or then you don’t have it. Besides, if you don't have an apartment in China nobody is going to want to marry you. And sometimes it's not enough, you should also have a car to get the girls parents to accept you and see you as "reliable". No money, no girl, no marriage.How does the "normal Chinese guy" who makes about 3000-4000 yuan a month get an apartment and car when living costs are so high here compared to the salary? Last week there was a girl in Beijing stating the "I would rather cry on the backseat of a BMW than smile on the back seat of a bicycle. Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't China a communistic country? How did it turn out to be like this here? The majority could never afford to live in a place I'm living here (pics, yes it's still 25 degrees here!)
First of all if you don't have money in China NOBODY will help you, there is not a government who would pay for your medical bills, education let alone pension when your old. So if you don't have money you might live a "dangerous" life if you get sick or old (which is kinda inevitable). In a country as big as China there is also a sort of instability with certain things and if something bad happens here it is good to have money "just in case". The last few years China has seen multiple natural disasters and about 200 000 people have died of them as late as from 2008!! until today. Earthquakes, floods, storms, accidents etc make up a big number of casualties.
But here it's not ONLY the money that is important, it's about personal relationships which is called Guan Xi 关系 in Chinese. If your parents are powerful and know the right people you will never have to raise a finger to get a good job, everything is fixed for you even thought you lack the competence, therefore there are a lot of incompetent people on high levels. But this doesn't just apply to the higher levels, but the whole society. We had some people at work who had been "recommended as very good" but they didn't know any English (even though it was a requirement) nor did they work much. So they got sacked. BUT how come these people were recommended if they skills sucked like this, answer: they had Guan xi with some of the people from the HR company. When a society is build up like this you might start understanding how China works, I met so many people in positions they definitely would not deserve, everything from Banks to Restaurant (well that happens everywhere in the world but it's different here).
China is something everyone should experience, live here for a while and inhale and experience the eastern culture and ways of life. When you understand how it works there is an endless possibility for you to do business here!
Just on my way to the office I took a small alley shortcut and found this scenery. The World Trade Center is actually located just 200 meters from the spot. You can find many places like this here, old and crappy mixed with super fancy and high tech stuff all on one place.
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