五星

So like I was saying, I went on a trip to China with my school's faculty. We were supposedly on some form of goodwill/marketing tour designed to attract Chinese students. I'm not quite sure what a Chinese student would get from Thailand that he or she couldn't get in the motherland...

I suppose there are some things, but I don't think those options would be reasons for parents to send their kids to Bangkok :-).

The trip was designed for three Chinese teachers, two Thai, and two 'western' teachers. After a long discussion (probably a talk about who looks white and seems kind of 'English' or 'American' (that's what I heard)), I got the nod, and found myself on a flight to Guilin for a week long trip. I gotta say, it was pretty cool, even if I was used for my 'western-ness'.

My first day there, I saw the natural beauty of the city, and the sheer size of the places in China. We didn't spend much time sight seeing, as we had to travel often from school to school, city to city. Every spot we visited it seemed, places were just packed. Everyone was everywhere, and I was blown away by the population --- its size, its beauty, its diversity.

People were yelling, selling, trying to get me to buy wild chickens in the countryside. I was blown away by the sights really, I couldn't keep track of all the strange things I encountered.

Instead I just kind of tried to jot down some impressions I got while riding on our bus to and from schools and meetings. I looked at them again this morning, here's what I have:

1) China has deeply beautiful, green, moving forests.
2) People here aren't just the guys I see in tight speedos and gym clothes at the Olympics.
3) There are African people that speak Chinese really well.
4) What happens if the Chinese start to live like the Thai? What happens if all of them get a car?
5) Chinese guys are really beautiful.
6) Everyone is nervous that China will become some kind of advanced super power.... They need to fix the roads and get some garbage cans first.
7) I saw someone eat an entire snake.
8) I haven't noticed many street dogs... I wonder why?
9) No one waits in line here either! I'm just going to shark the next person that cuts the line in the 7/11. Not that different than home :)
10) How do Chinese gay guys hook up?

So there was no real time to check out much of the gay scene in the city. It was good, because I wasn't in a good place at the time. More on this at a later date :-).

I did watch the people there though a lot. Not the kind of overt sexuality there that you find in Thailand or Vietnam. It was interesting to watch the people stare and interact with us.

The thoughts and norms there are really quite different than Thailand actually.

People have strong feelings on gays and the 'lifestyle', a Chinese friend told me that most people can't accept the thought that people are different. Things are different in Shanghai and Beijing from what I hear, but still I've read/heard that a gay life in China is quite difficult. People and judgments are firmly rooted in government edicts from the beginnings of the People's Republic (the anniversary is coming by the way, anyone wanna have a party?) and years of maintaining that 'gay' feelings were a 'mental disease'.

From what I hear, people here are changing fast. I have no starting point with which to judge. I can only say that I asked a person in some random town if there was a fast-food restaurant somewhere around the area. He politely told me that they didn't have anything there yet, but they were hoping to get a KFC in the closest city. I laughed and asked if he had tried their food. 'No,' he said with a big smile, but 'my son and the television commercials say it's delicious.'

We both laughed, and I wondered how much more I could learn about China if I lived in Central China.

It really was beautiful, but I'm not sure I could live in a city that didn't have public garbage cans.