In the months leading up to my trip to China, I did a bit of bragging with regards to my international plans. At first I bragged because of how excited I was, but that quickly changed to telling my plans to hear the reactions of others.

Responses to hearing that I was planning to visit China ranged from “oh wow, that is going to be amazing, it is growing like crazy over there!” all the way to “I hope you aren’t scared to poop in a hole in the ground, there is very little plumbing there” to “are you going there for a community service type project to help fight the poverty?”

Hmm, talk about some differing frames of reference huh? Though, it was hard for me to really speak out against any of these statements. China has, after all, been scorned by the US government for longer than I have been alive, and they make no argument to their government being labeled as Communistic.

Well, now I have been there! Sure, I am no expert after being there for 10 days, but I can tell you what I saw, and perhaps more significantly, what I did not see.

What I did see:
Perhaps the biggest misnomer about China is that the government prohibits its citizens from the freedom of choosing their own religion. While this was absolutely true in the past, the situation has become increasingly relaxed since the 1950s, and was seen by me through the presence of a huge catholic church in Shanghai People’s Square… an area roughly equivalent to Times Square in New York (downtown, sparkling real estate, huge park, commerce and tourism super center). In fact, Pope Benedict XVI recently appointed Joseph Zen Ze-kiun, a previous Bishop in Hong Kong as a Cardinal.

Next is the idea that China’s Communist economic system is inefficient and allows and forces citizens to work in sweatshop circumstances for pennies per day. In a country of 1.3BILLION people I certainly could have missed a lot of these type situations, but I definitely never would have guessed such circumstances were ongoing based on the subways and streets PACKED with suits and brief cases. Nor would the seemingly oversaturated amount of US and European designer stores and boutiques. Or, if those weren’t enough, I found a few shiny new skyscrapers scattered around town that just screamed booming middle class.

The final stereotype of the Chinese culture that I would love to disspell is that the Communist government is outwardly abusive to its citizens. While there are many ways that I could describe how I doubt this to be true, I think the most visual and simple symbol would be the expansive parks unlike any found here in the States. Every where you looked on the streets were signs pointing towards _______ gōng yuán which is ______ park, where the blanks were filled in with the proper name of the local neighborhood park. In Shanghai there was a huge gorgeous park in People’s Square. In Pudong there were numerous parks of varied sizes, from large (as in bigger than any park I know of in the Phoenix metro area) to huge (as in makes Central Park look like a grass ditch). Near Alex’s apartment, away from any tourist traps, purely a locals area, more of the same. In Beijing, no difference. Besides the awesome sights of Tiananmen Square, there were smaller (its all relative when compared to the enourmous Tiananmen) parks one subway stop down in each direction. Yes, I know that this is hardly a sign that the government doesn’t abuse its citizens, but it sent a pretty clear signal to me that despite the priceless land value in terms of real estate, they value the people’s need for leisure, and places to find that leisure. I wish I had a huge park within walking distance that didn’t also double as a retention basin.

What I didn’t see:
One thing that I didn’t notice the void of until my mom asked me about it while talking to her on the phone was that I didn’t see a single gun in China. Not one. Sure, I saw plenty of police, and even plenty of military, but not a single one was carrying a gun. In fact, most were not even carrying clubs… both of which are nearly standard for any police officer in the US. There were certainly more uniformed officials in China than in the US, but about half way through the trip I really started to wonder if most of them weren’t just security guards in more elaborate uniforms than are common in the US.

I also did not see any signs that China had refused to keep pace in terms of modern living amenities. Notably, plumbing and common toilets. In fact, the bathroom in Alex’s apartment, I would consider significantly more “modern” than any in my house. Older smaller more independent restaurants and buildings that Chris and I ventured through showed no signs of lagging technologies or appliances. We did stop at a highway rest stop on our drive out to the Great Wall, and we heard that the toilets were a whole in the ground with a flush system more similar to that on an airplane, and that the women who were using it preferred the type of toilet where they could actually sit down. Frankly, in high way rest stops here in the States, if I have to go I generally try not to sit all the way down anyway if you know what I mean.

One of the things that I heard quite a bit before I left that I was actually kind of anticipating to be true was some of the extreme poverty. In fact, while there were certainly more street sellers hawking touristy junk at prices too low to convince me they were able to make a decent living, but even in when we went through the clearly lower income neighborhoods, never did it look like people would not have sound shelter from the elements. Come to think of it, the number of beggars and hobos was comparable to that of the States if not smaller.

Touching a little again on the idea of Communistic oppression, and the symbology in my head of the beautiful parks, there were a few other things that we did not see that also led me to believe this is a misnomer. Admittedly, this is an even less solid argument than that of the parks, but something to ponder none the less. In all of our 10 days in China, not once did we see a protest of any type against the Communist leadership. I know, I know, you are all screaming that it is because any protests would be squashed immediately by the red army, but I am not so sure. Anyone who has been to Washington D.C. can vouch for the constant picketing and protesting of any of the hot issues in discussion at the time, or the constant reminders of those MIA or KIA. Chris and I heard over and over from various students in Alex’s program that “Americans can get away with anything in China because the Communists do not want to start the human rights microscope of the world up again.” Perhaps more significant to this argument would be when we heard from students in Alex’s program in reference to massage parlors with purple barber shop poles outside being brothels, that “prostitution is very much illegal in China, but the government wants to keep the working men happy so as long as the brothels are under control, they go on.” These two general sentiments give me the impression that the Communist party will go to rather great lengths to stay out of the human rights microscope and if Chinese were to begin protest, the Chinese would be forced to allow it to avoid the risk of another Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. (Side note, PBS is airing a special on these protests, and the developments since)

Overall, I found China to be a booming economy with an unquestionably different culture from that of ours in the States, and from that of many stereotypes of those here in the states. The coming years and decades should be very interesting times in southeastern Asia as a whole. Many of my economics teachers have sworn that the next world war will be one over resources between China and the US. On the other hand, many business analysts report every day that the opening of trade between the two nations is going to flatten the world to the point of true and comfortable alliance like interdependence.