The Grey    (Beijing, China)

It’s not too often that I’ll get to a place and think, ‘Nah, I could never live here.’ And I’ve been to some pretty messed up countries. But after the first few hours in China I was shaking my head thinking, ‘what the hell is going on?’

Downtown Beijing and the smog

First thing I noticed was the horrendous smog, which not only blocks out the sun and makes the whole city look grey, but can be seen indoors, given the room is large enough. This smog, which is essentially pollution from Beijing’s rampant industrial boom, has led to an epidemic of people in their middle age developing emphysema despite never having touched a cigarette in the whole life.

Portrait of Chairman Mao at Tain'men

Next, a taxi driver tried to charge me 130 dollars U.S. for a ride that took about ten minutes. I couldn’t believe it, what the hell was he thinking? It should have cost closer to 3 dollars US, and that’s what I gave him. He yelled and argued, but when I said that I would be happy to pay the 130 if he came into my hostel and the folks there said it was a fair price, he just mumbled something in Mandarin, waved me off dismissively, and drove away. (And then I had to go look for the place on foot because he dropped me off about a hundred metres away so he didn’t have to drive down a tight alley).

Then, as I went for a walk around the streets to orientate myself with the area, I couldn’t help but notice the intense looking police on every corner and the overabundance of CCTV. Knowing a bit about the one party government and the communist history, it made me realise that the sayings ‘elected by the people, for the people,’ and ‘people shouldn’t be afraid of their governments, governments should be afraid of their people,’ are not the case in China. One of the most influential books I’ve ever read was George Orwell’s ‘1984’ about governmental control and person freedom. That book was a warning, but it obviously wasn’t translated into Chinese.

CCTV overload (on one of few clear days after rain/snow)



We’ve all seen that footage of the guy who stood in front of a tank on the way home from a grocery store. Yeah, well, he was never seen again. In 2008, when Beijing hosted the Olympics, the international governing body of the Olympics (ICCO or something) insisted that China allow protest during the games. Of course, protest is more or less illegal in China, political dissent can attract the punishment of a serious crime, and if you wear a ‘Free Tibet’ shirt you’ll soon come to regret it. Well, the Olympic officials said that it was part of the spirit of the games to allow open protest. So China said, Yeah, okay, we will set up protest zones throughout the city, just to make you happy. The Olympics came and went without a single protest. Maybe the Chinese population is happy with the way everything is going? No, not exactly. If you wanted to protest at one of the protest zones, you had to first apply through the government; you couldn’t just show up. So people did apply, wanting to protest a range of issues. And when they did, the Chinese government put those people on house arrest, so there was no way they could get to the protest zones.  Breathe in that smoggy air, that’s the smell of freedom.

Also, censorship is out of control, with more foreign news websites, YouTube, Facebook and a whole range of websites banned, so the government can control what information enters the country. And that’s scary, that they can choose what they do and do not want their citizens to see. (They even block BlogSpot, which is why this blog is so delayed).

Therefore, as interesting as it was, after just a couple of hours in Beijing, I was thinking ‘nup, this is not my kind of place.’ Give me poverty, decrepit buildings, and poor hygiene. I reckon I could cope with those. But if you take away basic freedoms, the forum for open dialogue and criticism, and the rights of the people, then it’s no better than a jail. Of course, it’s better now than forty years ago, when you were told what job you were going to do by the government, and where you were going to do it, and you couldn’t choose where you lived or to travel abroad. They would get your school results and if you were a dumbass they’d put you on the factory line, and that’s where you would work ‘the rest of the morning, the rest of the afternoon, the rest of your life’ (of course, until the market economy was introduced). Still, today it seems very backwards, making Australia look like a bloody good place to be born, and Japan, so close to China, look Utopic.

This all went through my head in the first few hours I was in China. And maybe, because I was exhausted, uncertain of this strange country and city, annoyed with that bloody taxi driver, and a little homesick, this all looked more horrific than it actually was. But I don’t think so.

Next blog I’ll detail my stay in China and be a little more positive about this undoubtedly interesting country.

See ya!