Land of the unruly
My recent tour of the Silk Road in China was a big disappointment. Many great cultural and historical relics were despoiled or even destroyed and the residual effects of the Cultural Revolution, launched 45 years ago by the “Great Helmsman” Mao Zedong (毛澤東) were visible wherever we visited.
At Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport our tour group of 20, was very excited to be visiting “the motherland,” but first had to deal with a 75-minute delay.
Naturally, delays as a result of inclement weather or mechanical problems are not unusual, but this particular delay was caused by a handful of Chinese tourists who continued shopping at duty-free stores despite numerous warnings from their tour guide.
Even worse, the rowdy few displayed no sign of embarrassment at being the reason several hundred passengers were made to wait 75 minutes in a stifling terminal without air conditioning.
Upon arrival at the airport in Xian, I was given a hard time at the immigration office: Writing in two colors of ink is not allowed on the visa application form. The man at the office was as emotionless as a statue. So much for blood-is-thicker-than-water Taiwanese brothers!
There were so many people smoking in Xian that I found it hard to breathe both indoors and outdoors. Doesn’t the Chinese government know smoking causes lung cancer and that this can have huge social costs?
I have to say that Xian’s ancient city wall was magnificent, as was the terracotta army of the Qin emperor, but the night market we visited was packed full of hawkers and customers and the spitting was so commonplace that it would have taken an Olympic acrobat to avoid stepping on the something unsavory.
In the city of Dunhuang, I have a vivid memory of a saleswoman at the Xinhua bookstore haranguing and shooing away two boys for standing there and reading textbooks they probably couldn’t afford to buy themselves.
The Hexi Corridor is full of thousand-year-old Buddhist statues and other idols, but with the exception of those at the Mogao Grottoes, many had not been very well preserved. Elegantly made bricks from the West Xia Dynasty were actually trampled underfoot by tourists walking to and from the site.
At Crescent Moon Lake, camel riding cost 80 yuan per person (US$12). A caravan consisted of five camels and guess what? The camel owner, who was required to walk with the caravan for one hour under the hot desert sun, received only 50 yuan. After deducting the cost of feeding the animals, his net income was just 25 yuan.
For a typical 90-minute massage, a masseur or masseuse gets only 10 yuan to 15 yuan. The chief service provider gets roughly one-eighth of the revenue. Karl Marx would roll over in his grave if he knew this.
The worst part of the trip was that people displayed no respect at all for traffic rules. On numerous occasions our driver decided that it would save time to weave in and out of traffic at high speed, in a way reminiscent of the car chases one usually only sees in action movies. I thank God that we made it back in one piece.
I am not deliberately trying to find fault with China or Chinese people, far from it. I simply think that it is important to be aware that the residual effects of the Cultural Revolution linger on.
China has a long way to go before it can be considered part of civilized society.
Yang Chin-wei
Chiayi
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