Friendly . We were presently surprised how friendly the natives were. Many would smile at us, and an amazing amount would say Hello as they walked by. The young were especially friendly.

Happy . The Chinese seemed at least as happy as Americans. They gave no sign of living in a repressive country. Their standard of living is rising rapidly and tomorrow looks better than today. Can we say the same?

Communications . Not much harder for us to figure out things in China than during our visit to Italy ! Many street signs were in Chinese and Western characters. Museums would usually have English explanations too. Some restaurants used English sub text while others used pictures. We saw no other languages on signs. English is by far the second language of choice. School kids are being taught English as a governmental policy.

Family . The traditional family is alive and well. Grandparents take care of grandchildren. When they get older, children take care of parents. Nursing homes are rare.

Safety. We felt safer walking around Chinese cities than in American ones. The average citizen is not allowed to own a gun. If caught with one, they would be lucky to get out of jail in 10 years. There is more of a respect for authority.

Pollution . The highest negative was air pollution. In our 3 weeks, we never encountered a smog free day in the cities. Skies were never blue in cities. We feel sorry for the people who have to live there.

Smells . It was not uncommon in the cities to smell some sewage (except for ultra modern Shanghai ).

Water . We and they do not drink water from the Chinese tap. The richer people buy bottled water, others boil tap water. After a while we did not find this inconvenient –if you have limited resources why treat the entire water system when much less than 1% is used for drinking?

Traffic . Traffic was worse in their cities than ours. Even now, more than 50% of the traffic in a city is bike, motorized bike, or scooter. Traffic will worsen as more people get cars.

Crossing Streets . Jay walking was practiced with abandon. Their skills at this are very impressive. I'm felt pretty adept myself, but almost got hit by a couple of bikes. A fellow student of Heather's was hit by a bus while coming to meet us for dinner. Fortunately the bus was almost stopped, but she still was knocked out!

Toilets . China traditionally has had squat toilets - stand over a hole and do your thing. We encountered nothing that primitive, but quite a few toilets where the western style toilet fixture is instead very low to the ground so it does require squatting. The hotels we went to all had western style toilets.

T oilet paper. Except in Shanghai , most public toilets do not supply toilet paper, that is the users responsility. My theory for this policy is to conserve toilet paper. They are trying to conserve trees. In all but Shanghai , we were requested to put toilet paper into a basket which was beside the toilet – to help their sewage treatment.

Spitting . As a corollary to the toilet paper policy, we never saw a Chinese use tissue paper to blow their nose. They either snort and swallow or snort and spit. Rather gross to our sensibilities, and supposedly a contributor to TB. We did occasionally see signs prohibiting spitting.

Workers . This is almost a full employment society. If you want a job you can always sweep streets. You would see street sweepers even on divided highways where the traffic was speeding by! Much of the work remains primitive – we saw relatively few tractors. Projects do seem to get done quite rapidly because there is such a vast supply of labor. If the government wants something done, it gets done.

Vendors . Very aggressive in the cities. They target tourists and it is impossible for a foreigner not to look like a tourist. They were generally good natured but persistent. In Shanghai one vendor told me, “Hello, yesterday you were wearing a dragon tee-shirt” and he was right! I laughed but didn't buy anything.

Beggars . There were a few beggars, but nothing I expected. Heather said India has orders of magnitude more beggars.

Recycling . It was very common to see bicycles riding by piled high with cardboard, styrafoam, or plastics. People would go through the trash barrels to find recylables. In fact, they would even come up to us when we had almost finished with a soda bottle!

Conservation . The government seems to actively promote conservation. In spite of this, the rivers in cities are very polluted.

Gobal Warming . Government believes this is happening, and that it is not a good thing. We could learn from them!

Cultural Revolution . This is hardly talked about. Our Beijing tour guide did discuss it openly, mentioning that her grandfather, a high official, had died in prison during the cultural revolution. She obvious though the CR was a bad thing. The older people who went through it don't like to talk about it, much like soldiers who have been through the horrors of war.

1 Child Policy . Disliked by many at first, now most Chinese think this is a very good thing. Those who ignore the requirements face financial penalties. It has eliminated starvation and helped result in a rapidly rising standard of living. If your parents were only children, and the same is true for your spouse, then you can have 2 children. However, even these couples may choose to have just one because of the accepted belief that one child gets more attention. Most don't seem aware of it, but the implication is certainly that the population of China will surely fall. Not a bad thing.

Mao . Even though he was the author of the Cultural Revolution, he still is revered as the father of their country. They can see past his faults to appreciate what he accomplished.

Taiwan . General belief seems to be that Taiwan should be a part of mainland China . We got to participate in an American culture class Heather teaches to pre-med students and were asked twice what we thought about Taiwan . Without being blunt, I conveyed I thought it should remain independent if it so chooses. I tried to allay their fears of what Taiwan and its allies could aggressively do to China by point out how the US is having such a hard time with Iraq . Taiwan would be like an mosquito to an elephant.