Recent Changes in China (1)

by Tzy C. Peng 

A Summary of Personal Impressions over 5 trips to China (1979, 1986, 1991,
1996 and 2001) by observing and talking to people. 

After the Gang of Four era (1966-76), China has had a evolutionary change
in social and living conditions. Everytime I went to China expecting
changes, I almost always found a reality far greater than my expectation.  

Although changes in China are mostly uneven, southern and coastal
provinces are probably most developed whereas northeastern, northern,
northwest and south- western regions are less developed.  Major cities
such as Beijing, Nanjing, Shanghai, Shenzhen next to HongKong are very
prosperous whereas smaller cities such as Benxi and Qufu are less wealthy.
 You can even find poor and rich districts within the same city, say
Shanghai for example.  

Nevertheless, recent changes in China is so far-reaching in altering
average Chinese social conditions that people of the world should know the
real China that is dynamic and evolving constantly.  To illustrate my
personal impressions, I will describe following specific items. Let me
begin with one of the necessities in life, public toilets. 

Public Toilets

In my first returning trip to China, I can hardly sit myself down at many
public toilets.  It was difficult to squat over a hole in the ground and
get used to poor sanitary conditions in the public toilet.  In subsequent
trips, I noticed continuous improvement of these sanitary conditions. In
the last trip (March- May, 2001), I used several public toilets comparable
to facilities in the U.S., a mechanically flushing toilet, sometimes with
automatic replacement of personal plastic bags, and you pay only 30 to 50
cents RMB per person. Thus, the free public toilet of socialism has given
way to the pay-as-you-go public toilet of capitalism.  Is this a change
from freedom without responsibility to an enterprise designed to please
the customers? 

Public Places

In early trips (1979, 1986, 1991), I noticed very few public parks or
institutions. The 1996 trip was a group-tour mostly for the Three Gorges
of the Yangze river.  We were led to various  tourist spots as expected.
The 2001 trip is a private one, I was led by my relatives and friends to
many prominent places in China: A Qing Palace in Shenyang (northeast
China); the National Library and Sino-Japanese War Museum in Beijing,
Henan Provincial Museum and a reservoir boat-ride on the Yellow River in
Zhengzhou and Confucius Home/Research Institute in Qufu (northern China);
Dr. Sun Yet-sen's Mausoleum and Ming Tombs in Nanjing and the Century Park
and the People's Square in Shanghai (Eastern China); and tourist
attractions like Splendid China and Minorities Museum in Shenzhen, and a
scenic park in Zhaoqing (Southern China).  Quite few of these public
places were built in recent years, and are designed for recreations of
ordinary people. Some admission fees are rather high for low-income
people, but certainly is reasonable for the newly created middle-class in
China. 

Walk-Only Streets

This is a new thing to me. In many cities that I have visited in the 2001
trip, there are sections of street that prohibits all cars and are for
pedestrians only.  This can be the busiest 1-2 kilometers long sections in
downtown such as the Wanfujin Road in Beijing and Nanjing Road (formerly
known as the Bund) in Shanghai.  These streets are usually broad and clean
boulevards with very wide sidewalks, decorated with small monuments,
sculptures, and flowers.  All kinds of stores are lining up on both side
of street, including a variety of restaurants and food stands featuring
quinines from different provinces and ethnic groups in China.  A thriving
business is going on at these streets day and night. The street is alive
with people content with convenience of strolling and shopping in all
kinds of stores without any fear of traffic. This is a society of content,
not misery, and people are taking every advantage of it. 

(part 1 of 4, to be continued...)