A journey to the East: An account from a sojourner

15 Oct, 2017 - 02:10 0 Views
A journey to the East: An account from a sojourner Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai

The Sunday News

Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai

Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai

Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
Ni Hao (Hello)!

VISITING China or the East was never really a dream, but rather it was light years away —something unimaginable, unachievable and unreachable but as fate would have it I lived to see the day.

The reality of going to China only struck when I was handed over a passport with a visa that was allowing me passage into the foreign land I had only seen on television and on the Internet. On 9 September 2017 I set off to the far away country for a media seminar with 19 other media practitioners from Zimbabwe. We had been invited by the Chinese Economic and Commercial Counsellor to have a feel of what their media environment and country in general is like. It also made us appreciate the cordial relations that exist between Zimbabwe and China. Despite the long flights, jet leg and little sleep on the way, the journey was fine, I felt like a village girl taking her first trip to the city — excited and scared at the same time!

University Life

We took lectures at Zhezhiang Normal University in Jinhua City in Zhezhiang Province and lectures were conducted by professors, doctors and senior lecturers in areas of culture, media, communication, economics and many more. I was impressed with the fact that ZJNU has a whole Department of African Culture Studies where they take time to explore the rich culture of our kith and kin in the motherland. A museum at the university is also placed in honour of the diverse cultures that Africa represents. Various artefacts from different countries have been exhibited in the museum at the school.

Infrastructure Development

For road and outside space maintenance, China deserves a perfect total score. I had never seen vehicles that sweep clean the tarred roads and finish them off with jets of cold water. Their local government deserves a thumbs up. Basically you do not have any contact with dust as you move about such that at the end of the day your shoes will be as clean as the day you bought them. I was also impressed that the inhabitants of all the places we visited do not litter their spaces, it could be in a park or outside a busy shopping mall, all litter is in a bin. I think it is a culture that they developed to keep their areas clean and it is working indeed.

Culture Preservation

Culture is what makes a people, and the Chinese have managed to document and preserve their history in an amazing manner. A visit to local museums will give any visitor an almost real life experience of what happened a long time ago. The Chinese documented their development from the initial stages up to contemporary time.

The grass huts they lived in, the old weaving machines, water collection methods, cooking using homemade stoves up to modern day ways of life are all preserved in their various museums so that those born after those periods have an idea of what it was like before. They can track developments of their country before modernisation.

Combining interaction, observation and experience, Shanghai Film Museum possesses many functions like film culture activities, historical relic collection, academic research, social education, and exhibitions. The museum contains four main exhibition units and an art cinema. This is where the who’s who in the film industry is documented and exhibited. In short there is a rich collection of everything that represents film in China.

Eateries and night life

China possesses a wide range of foodstuffs but it is particularly the night life that caught my attention. Food traders drive move their temporary shops to designated spots outside shopping malls where they sell delicacies for the night riders. These are cooked while you wait and one cannot ignore the aroma that comes from the food stalls. The meals are mostly traditional Chinese dishes.

When the nights had died they drive off with their gas cookers and its business as usual for the shop owners the next morning.

Night markets are also widely popular and we had the opportunity to visit them often. There you can buy odds and ends in the streets, clothing, ornaments and so much more.

One cannot avoid the power of bargaining at these night markets and shopping malls, the best price wins and the Chinese do not give up, they negotiate until a compromise is reached.

This leads me to the story of the calculator. A very important tool it is for shop owners. This is when the bargaining is done, the seller puts in 100RBM and you punch in 80RBM until you reach the best price. The use of the calculator at markets and malls is probably necessitated by the language barrier. Visitors do not speak the local language and English is not an option many a time.

Growing up I always assumed English was the world’s most popular language but that is not the case as China presents a very different scenario. Communication was indeed a hurdle to all of our shopping trips and adventures. So prices punched on the calculator and negotiating was the best communication ever.

The Chinese have a very active night life where they spend quality time with family after work and school. This was seen through the number of people at eateries, parks and amusement centres, one could clearly see that these were bonding sessions of loved ones. You could literally go out of the hotel at 11pm and see people wining, dinning and shopping.

Technology

China is highly advanced technologically. The mobile phone is used for many important things than “WhatsApping” that many of us are addicted to. A social media mobile application called WeChat is the most popular; it was introduced in 2011 and is known as China’s application for everything. It has over 950 million active monthly users. One can use WeChat for messaging, making bill payments, making doctor’s appointments, shopping, hotel bookings, sending and receiving money, phone calls, finding friends and it also works as a search engine. This application outshines Facebook and WhatApp due to the diverse services that it offers.

And due to space constraints caused by rapid population growth, people in China move around on bicycles and motorbikes that do not eat much in terms of space. A sizeable number therefore hops on to bikes and motorcycles for easier movement. One is also able to hire out a bicycle on WeChat for 1RMB per hour and do all errands before parking the bicycle.

Notable sites

A visit to the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai gave me a gawking moment. It is totally an amazing structure. Standing at 468 metres in height it is the world’s 6th tallest tower. And I had the opportunity to dine at the Revolving Restaurant which sits at more than 400 metres on the tower. The views are magnificent. The tower also has a glass bottomed sightseeing corridor which is hundreds of metres from the ground. Not for the faint hearted is all I can say.

Hangzhou is another go-to tourism site, named as one of the most beautiful cities in China, even the great Venetian merchant Marco Polo said: “It is without doubt the finest and most splendid places in the world”.

We visited the West Lake which is a Unesco tourism site, it is a man-made lake that is in the middle of scenic views of temples, mountains and also has beautiful weather.

The statue of the great Chinese teacher, editor, politician and philosopher Confucius also stands tall at ZJNU. His philosophy,Confucianism emphasised on personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. He espoused the famous principle “Do not do to others what you do not want yourself” which is the Golden Rule.

Hengdian World studios is regarded as Chinas Hollywood, famous films are shot at that studio and it is the largest in China. It is a must see as you may be lucky to find a movie actually being shot.

Tea

If you visit China and you are not offered a cup of their various teas, then you have not seen China. Serving tea according to them is a culture and is the pride of the Chinese people. I had the opportunity to taste the various golden, yellow, blue, black, white, red and the mouse green tea.

To them, tea is just like art, you have to follow certain principles. Professor Angie Jin Zhang the Executive Director of the Research Centre of China Water Civilisation had this to say about Chinese tea:

“For you to make and enjoy our tea, we believe that firstly you have to take a bath and dress well. We believe if you are calm, well dressed your tea tastes better and it is beneficial. We use the best pots for making our tea and different pots serve different teas. There are however, specific teas for specific times of the day. Lastly one has to take their tea while listening to traditional Chinese music,” she said.

No wonder they drink the tea in fine China/porcelain. So much for just a cup of tea!

Legend has it that tea was discovered in Southern China when dried leaves fell off a tree in to a cup of hot water that was being drunk by the Chinese Emperor Shennong. He tasted it and ‘fell in love’. This gave birth to the discovery of various other forms of tea.

However, China is not just a rose without thorns. Despite being scenic, highly cultured, technologically advanced and economically developed the Chinese have one odd trait- they spit a lot. Asked on why they do so in public, they said they believe swallowing phlegm which will be filled with dust and toxins is not good for their health so they let it all out in public!

Communication was a challenge with a minute fraction of the general population able to converse comprehensively in English. Road signs and notices are mostly in Chinese making it difficult to find the way for stranger or foreigners who do not understand Chinese.

The weather is not anything to wish for, it is hot and humid, and you would want to remain in an air conditioned room all day.

Being a typical African woman-fairly tall and curvy – there are limited clothing options. The Chinese are petite you might want to carry clothes from home when you decide to visit China!

Lessons learnt

Culture is an important part of any nation, a conscious decision should be made to record, preserve and document history for all to see. It should be readily available in museums and culture centers. Cleanliness is next to Godliness, as Zimbabwean citizens we must strive to keep our immediate environment clean, local government must only supplement what we do. Zero tolerance to litter bugs.

Heritage and tourism sites must be marketed for all to see, be affordable and also free domestic tourism is the beginning of educating people about the country and its products. Many tourism sites are for free in China. Eating healthy must be a lifestyle and taking lots of warm water and of course green tea is beneficial.

 

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