Final Thoughts On Fujian

[Dear Readers, my China entries are now complete. For a quick way to see all my entries on China in one place, you can visit the China category archive. Enjoy!]

Some final, random thoughts on my experiences in China:

Fujian/Kejia Food: Is very oily. Perhaps it was a function of being in a tour group and thus having to eat at proper restaurants with meals having more courses than you can count, but I was really put off by all the oil dripping from the food. Going inland made no difference. Also, many courses were soup based, and these courses increased as we went inland. I guess the farmers prefer soup based dishes in order to fill up their stomachs. Finally, there is a serious lack of dessert. The only desserts aside from fruit were fried pumpkin. However, in Xiamen we did manage to get the most famous of Fujian desserts. I don't know how to call it in English, but it's basically a sweet yam paste that's made with lard and is very delicious and fattening. Mmmmm.

Travel: The Chinese checkpoints at airports all had an obsession with waterbottles. Apparently someone tried to smuggle some sort of acid or something on board an airplane disguised as water. So every checkpoint will open up and sniff your water, or you can drink it for them. It's up to you. Also, when arriving you cannot leave customs without turning over your baggage claim tickets- another security measure. If travelling by road, be aware that many inland roads have been cut up by lorries, carrying heavy loads for the mining industry. The government repairs them quickly, but repairs initially involve tearing up the road surface to re-lay the tarmac. Thus, part of your journey may be on smooth and wonderfully pristine roads; another part you will be bouncing up and down on heavily damaged roads; and a final part you may be taking detours around roads under repair.

Environment: Oddly, very good and very bad. Every city I went to not only had recycling, but every single public rubbish bin on the street was divided into at least two compartments- one for recyclables, and one for unrecyclables. In Xiamen they were divided into as many as four- paper, plastic, cans and others. Frequently there were signs exhorting people to be environmentally friendly, too. It was quite astonishing to see how environmentally conscious China is. However, because of all the heavy industry, the air was very dusty and everytime I took a photograph at night, the flash would bounce off a cloud of otherwise invisible dust flying around.

Cross-Strait Relations: One of my most amusing moments was seeing a large sign on the coast facing out towards Taiwan, proclaiming, "One country divided into two, unite into one China." We could see a white billboard on one of the Taiwanese islands, which apparently reads, "Three nationalities." I'm not sure who they mean by the third. Both sides do get very competitive throughout the year, striving to outdo each other in terms of festivities, for example. The fireworks display during the Spring Festival goes quite insane because both sides will attempt to have flashier, longer lasting and more impressive fireworks. Quite a treat for the residents.

Culture: Unlike the Northeners, the Southern Chinese were friendly, warm and very helpful. I had gotten so familiar with the cold unfriendly Chinese from Beijing and Shanghai, who snapped at me and pushed instead of queuing, that to come to a warm place like Fujian and experience wonderful local hospitality was a surprise. For the first time in China, I felt like I had come home to my ancestral homeland. It goes to show how different the North and South of China are. Westerners tend to think of China is a monolithic society, just as Easterners think of America as a monolithic culture, but of course, both have very intense variations within the state. As someone whose roots lie in the neighbouring southern states of Guangxi and Fujian, I felt very much more at home in the warmer and balmier climate of South China.

I had a wonderful time in Fujian, even despite hating being herded around in a tour group. It's warm and friendly and accomodating. It's also throughly modern and advancing at a rapid pace. With so much exciting potential, I am resolved to return to South China often, and to one day live there for a while.

Posted by pj at October 25, 2004 01:30 PM