Our luggages in the van, eight of us including the guide cum driver set off to Shantou, a small town in Chaozhou. Our newly joined travelers intended to visit their hometown and we followed along since we need to pass by Chaozhou and later Shantou and it was an eye opener for us to visit Shantou. We heard from our guide that Shantou and Chaozhou were not safe places and we need to be cautious of our handbags. Do not displayed cash while shopping in the streets as there are many snatch thieves around. Railway is the most unsafe place to visit as there were many migrants from North/West who came to seek for work and when they cannot earn a living, the only desperate way out it to turn to crimes. Sometimes they are lured by hooligans or syndicate to commit bigger crimes. There were many beggars around; the most prominent one is a man who dragged his son to beg along with him. We arrived at Shantou town where most of the residents were formerly farmers but during the last few years booming period, they create for themselves as hardware wholesalers specializes in aluminum steel plates, pots and pans, thermos flask or any appliances made of aluminum steel There were many good lands now filled up with stagnant water or became polluted ponds and dumping ground. The city infrastructure is not as good as Xiamen or Guangzhou. The streets were very untidy in the architecture display of building, old houses with new buildings. Building with first & second storey and third storey half completed smack in between abandoned houses. The streets are constructed in between one big drain in the centre served as a dumping ground for vehicles to drive by and throw their rubbishes into the big drain. The traffic is anybody game, once the traffic light is not working, the vehicles jammed into the centre and nobody gave way to no one and the horns goes on and on and on until they called in the traffic warden. See how aggressive these Chinese drivers are!
I thought there are gracious people since with Confucianism is still alive, at least there should be a display of give way to each other. What has happened in between communism and capitalism, the Cultural Revolution, somewhere has gone wrong during the dark 10 years where the rich were sent to the fields for hard labor. People are the same everywhere, when there is a gap between the very rich and the poor, in rises the middle classes, there is always the domineering and the oppressed group and the middle classes taking advantages of the poorer in turn being take for a ride by the rich. Chinese people are no exceptionally, in Xiamen I saw a rich woman having troubles trying to walk her fat poodle with nice fur and there sat a skinny to the bone old beggar on the streets. The poodle has a better life than the beggar. To the rich, this is the outcast of the society and why can they work hard than me, see I work hard for my money and carve a niche for myself. Just too bad, the poor beggar did not make it or he deserved to be a beggar. I have not seen anyone drop some money in his old dirty hat. The McDonalds is always crowded with fat boys after school with their grandmas, many rich school boys and girls with their expensive warm clothes munching their hamburgers away with one hand and the other with their latest Nokia phones. One value meal will cost the poor seven simple meals per week. I can imagine if I am a poor boy in the Chinese city and how I could not understand why the rich daddy and poor daddy concept. Why cannot Dad be able to afford to buy me a value meal at least once a week, not on special occasion?
We saw how the rich relatives of our fellow travelers, they could afford to invite them to four kings of the seafood banquet table. The four kings will be lobsters, abalone, shark fins and sea cucumbers and it costs a bomb compared to an average worker six months wages. They have three big houses on huge lands and employed a few hundreds workers. Our van moved on after sending them off to their rich relatives, they do not dressed well but they were rich. The rich country folks cannot dress well, their mix and match even they are branded looked cheap. Their dressing sense is out of color and design. It is good to set up joint venture business “Dress beautiful dot com” as image consultant to teach the rich how to dress well to their image. I am very sure this business will be a hit in China as there is a growing middle class yearning to carry this image as outward appearance is now a very important assets in waking China. Trust me I am very sharp in business start up ideas.
Now back to Chaozhou after two hours ride, we went to visit a famous temple (don’t know the name) built in the mountain side. We climb up the rock stairs and get a glimpse of the Chaozhou city landscape. The weather was turned cold about 13 degrees C with wind blowing, I felt my nose blocked with coldness. We saw lots of streets vendor selling their famous tangerines, sugar canes, water chestnuts and did not stopped to buy some.
Mr. Chen, the guide and driver is more a driver than a professional guide; his commentary is short and abrupt. But he is not pushy as a guide and did not insisted that we dropped by a certain shop to buy things so that he can receive his commissions. Not unlike Huang the first guide busily working on his mobile phone he mentioned that such visit to certain shops is compulsory and important in the travel itinerary. We stopped for lunch and dinner at the same restaurant which is famous for the Chaozhou dishes. The owner of the restaurant is a very nice Chaozhou lady, who specially prepared the steamed cake upon our request. I lost quite 2 kilos in weight which was what I was looking forward to as I ate one small bowl of rice for lunch and dinner with morsel portions of fish and vegetables and some meats. Now back home I should be putting the 2 kilos back in no time. The hotel was on the main street facing the similar restaurants and near a night market which is quite pathetic, the stalls sells old fashion clothes and shoes. We engaged a private rickshaw rider to take us around the vicinity and it cost about 10 Yuan. We booked him tomorrow at the same time after dinner and he stood by his appointment the next night. He was from North province and came to Chaozhou ten years ago with wife and two sons. One of his sons is in the University and his younger son is still in high school. Life has been good to him as he retired and living on pension, working as a rickshaw rider to pass his time. He tipped him heavily as he is honest and trustworthy; drive us around in safe driving skills. Three of us in his rickshaw are kind of heavy for him and yet he did it cheerfully. His tips were equivalent to our body weights and this was the first time that a Chinese man mentioned that the money given was too much for him. We insisted and put into his pocket. Along the journey, we bought him a leather glove for his cold hands. He must be touched by our generous hearts and he started telling us about his life story. We brought him joy that day!
That reminded me of the same rickshaw man I met during my half day trip to Laos from Thailand border. I met the same honest rickshaw man who took me around the city tour. He must have been laboring with his rickshaw for many years and life must be hard living for him and his family. He kept quiet all the time and he cycled with each familiar step around the city with few cars. He will only turned around and see whether we were safe behind. We tipped him generously at one stop and after the last stop; he shuffled a few new local currencies in my hand as souvenir with grateful eyes. I still have these new currency notes in my drawer. That was 1992. We brought him joy that day!
I thought there are gracious people since with Confucianism is still alive, at least there should be a display of give way to each other. What has happened in between communism and capitalism, the Cultural Revolution, somewhere has gone wrong during the dark 10 years where the rich were sent to the fields for hard labor. People are the same everywhere, when there is a gap between the very rich and the poor, in rises the middle classes, there is always the domineering and the oppressed group and the middle classes taking advantages of the poorer in turn being take for a ride by the rich. Chinese people are no exceptionally, in Xiamen I saw a rich woman having troubles trying to walk her fat poodle with nice fur and there sat a skinny to the bone old beggar on the streets. The poodle has a better life than the beggar. To the rich, this is the outcast of the society and why can they work hard than me, see I work hard for my money and carve a niche for myself. Just too bad, the poor beggar did not make it or he deserved to be a beggar. I have not seen anyone drop some money in his old dirty hat. The McDonalds is always crowded with fat boys after school with their grandmas, many rich school boys and girls with their expensive warm clothes munching their hamburgers away with one hand and the other with their latest Nokia phones. One value meal will cost the poor seven simple meals per week. I can imagine if I am a poor boy in the Chinese city and how I could not understand why the rich daddy and poor daddy concept. Why cannot Dad be able to afford to buy me a value meal at least once a week, not on special occasion?
We saw how the rich relatives of our fellow travelers, they could afford to invite them to four kings of the seafood banquet table. The four kings will be lobsters, abalone, shark fins and sea cucumbers and it costs a bomb compared to an average worker six months wages. They have three big houses on huge lands and employed a few hundreds workers. Our van moved on after sending them off to their rich relatives, they do not dressed well but they were rich. The rich country folks cannot dress well, their mix and match even they are branded looked cheap. Their dressing sense is out of color and design. It is good to set up joint venture business “Dress beautiful dot com” as image consultant to teach the rich how to dress well to their image. I am very sure this business will be a hit in China as there is a growing middle class yearning to carry this image as outward appearance is now a very important assets in waking China. Trust me I am very sharp in business start up ideas.
Now back to Chaozhou after two hours ride, we went to visit a famous temple (don’t know the name) built in the mountain side. We climb up the rock stairs and get a glimpse of the Chaozhou city landscape. The weather was turned cold about 13 degrees C with wind blowing, I felt my nose blocked with coldness. We saw lots of streets vendor selling their famous tangerines, sugar canes, water chestnuts and did not stopped to buy some.
Mr. Chen, the guide and driver is more a driver than a professional guide; his commentary is short and abrupt. But he is not pushy as a guide and did not insisted that we dropped by a certain shop to buy things so that he can receive his commissions. Not unlike Huang the first guide busily working on his mobile phone he mentioned that such visit to certain shops is compulsory and important in the travel itinerary. We stopped for lunch and dinner at the same restaurant which is famous for the Chaozhou dishes. The owner of the restaurant is a very nice Chaozhou lady, who specially prepared the steamed cake upon our request. I lost quite 2 kilos in weight which was what I was looking forward to as I ate one small bowl of rice for lunch and dinner with morsel portions of fish and vegetables and some meats. Now back home I should be putting the 2 kilos back in no time. The hotel was on the main street facing the similar restaurants and near a night market which is quite pathetic, the stalls sells old fashion clothes and shoes. We engaged a private rickshaw rider to take us around the vicinity and it cost about 10 Yuan. We booked him tomorrow at the same time after dinner and he stood by his appointment the next night. He was from North province and came to Chaozhou ten years ago with wife and two sons. One of his sons is in the University and his younger son is still in high school. Life has been good to him as he retired and living on pension, working as a rickshaw rider to pass his time. He tipped him heavily as he is honest and trustworthy; drive us around in safe driving skills. Three of us in his rickshaw are kind of heavy for him and yet he did it cheerfully. His tips were equivalent to our body weights and this was the first time that a Chinese man mentioned that the money given was too much for him. We insisted and put into his pocket. Along the journey, we bought him a leather glove for his cold hands. He must be touched by our generous hearts and he started telling us about his life story. We brought him joy that day!
That reminded me of the same rickshaw man I met during my half day trip to Laos from Thailand border. I met the same honest rickshaw man who took me around the city tour. He must have been laboring with his rickshaw for many years and life must be hard living for him and his family. He kept quiet all the time and he cycled with each familiar step around the city with few cars. He will only turned around and see whether we were safe behind. We tipped him generously at one stop and after the last stop; he shuffled a few new local currencies in my hand as souvenir with grateful eyes. I still have these new currency notes in my drawer. That was 1992. We brought him joy that day!
.JPG)
