Day
8 - 04/10/12
Today
felt like Christmas in South Africa. I visited yet another area of shopping
malls and tall buildings and it was CHAOTIC! There were thousands of people…and
really I mean thousands. I was constantly bumped by people walking by or in the
opposite direction, at times I had to stop and wait for traffic to clear out,
there was loud distorted music hammering out of every second store and to top
it all off there were construction men at work with their hammer drills. It was
like being at Gateway during the festive season but worse…I was also hungry! Hungry + Noisy crowded place + people staring & pointing at you = Irritated Charou In China
Tracy and I finally put our poor ears and tummies to rest at a place called Europaer. Europaer is a western style restaurant with forks, knifes (not chops sticks) pizza, pasta, steak and even risotto…but THEY DON’T HAVE WESTERN STYLE TOILEEETTTSSS! Maybe I’m asking for too much from a country that makes replicas of everything…can’t they at least make a fake western style toilet! Anyway…back to peace haven Europaer. Here our ears were met with soft classical music and our noses were reunited with the wonderful western scent of baked bread. Right away we knew what we were having…pizza of course. I had a vegetarian pizza with mushroom, baby tomatoes, corn and green pepper. Tracy delighted her tasted buds with a Hawaiian Pizza – bacon & pineapple. It was delicious! Afterwards we were full, happy and ready to take on crowds of people including construction men and their noisy gadgets. We met with a local friend and spent most of the day talking with her.
We
figured that the shopping area was busy because it was a public holiday,
National Day as China was founded on 1 October 1949. We also learned that the
construction men were hard at work because Liaoning (the province in which I
live) will be hosting the 12th National Games of the People’s Republic of
China. The National Games is the main sporting event in China at national
level. It is held once every four years. It’s like the mini Olympic Games but
only for Chinese people…no wonder they did so well at the London Olympic Games
this year.
Another
interesting fact I picked up today was that China has a One-child policy. This
policy restricts married, urban couples from having more than one child.
However certain cases are accepted such as twins, rural couples, ethnic
minorities and parents without siblings themselves. This law was put into place
in 1978 which means many parents today possibly have no siblings therefore they
are allowed to have more than one child. I’m quite sure this law is violated at
some levels however our local friend says that if a second child is born
unlawfully the parents are obligated to pay a very larger some of money to the
government.
According
to the government this law will remain as it is until at least 2015. Personally
I understand why such a law has been put into place however I don’t think all
factors were considered – such as increasing abortion rates, killing of
newborns unnecessarily and freedom in terms of family planning. Maybe the new
generation will be more accepting of this law or they may even find ways to
abolish it.
I
brought my gallivants to an end by making a debut appearance at WAL MART a
multinational American chain store. It has everything from apples to zebra
print couches. It’s like Game on steroids. Apparently WAL MART has been listed as the
largest retailer in the world and the world’s third largest public corporation.
Here I bought some Skippy peanut butter and Vaseline Intensive Care lotion. I
was very happy to see some familiar things.
Fun
Day! J Hope you all have a great weekend!
Love
Verusha
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| Our pizzas |
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| Our local friend |
