In Mao's footsteps

Writing from the dark dungeons of China's original internet cafe (clouds of smoke are hoovering above the heads of gamers and gamblers), I will try to describe what I went through in the last three days after my arrival to Changsha. This post has to be posted by my collaborator (brother) as blogs and other selected pages do not work (reasons are to be filled by the reader). Altogether the journey from Huang shan shi was c. 11 hours ride through boredom enlivened only by argument of two brothers who shouted until 2.00am while the whole carriage wanted to sleep. Afterward one of the brothers started to feed himself (I honestly cannot call his activity otherwise) with such an acoustic background that even dead man would start walking.

To sum up my impressions about Changsha with three words - awesome but dirty. I am happy to report that there are happy people in China too. Trying to elaborate; Hunan people are nice and smiling, Hunan girls are on average the most beautiful I have seen in China (although there are some exceptions even in Shanghai which will make your head spin and I have heard that Hangzhou girls are also renowned for their beauty - cannot confirm this one), people here are actually still in love with their Mao and finally, these same people are relaxed and actually willing to help you without expecting something in return or inviting you for tea ritual where you end up paying 400 kuai for worthless tea. On the other hand, nothing is perfect, nor Changsha is. The air polution is so strong that even I with three months of Shanghai experience had problem breathing.

After my arrival to Shifan Daxue (local university - Hunan Normal University) I was assisted by local student who just happen to have some time between the classes and helped me find accommodation in local dorms. Afternoon I spent wandering around the city from museum to museum and around local parks. Changsha City Museum has impressive exhibition celebrating the 30 years of reforms in China brought to you by no one else but yours truly "crescent and hammer" (started by Deng Xiao Ping in 1978 after Mao's death...) - call it cultural heritage :D Hunan Provincial Museum which should have extensive collection of Chinese historical objects was closed due to the facts that all tickets for the day were given out (Hunan is the same as London - all museums are for free).

The next day was THE DAY - I went to visit Mao's birthplace - Shao shan. It is a rather small village c. 2 hours by bus from Changsha south bus station. In the bus I met another waiguo ren (foreigner) - Thomas from Germany - with the same goal. We ended up spending the whole day together (it is more comfortable to face the pressure of ideology not alone) exploring home of the great helmsman, museum dedicated to him, and tombs of his family. In all cases we were somehow disappointed. Mao's home was really big for China (see also note for further details) even though it was used by two families. Museum was disappointingly showing only heroic period and 30 years of human experiments were kindly omitted, and tombs of his parents we almost overlooked. Shortly - really lot of shouting about nothing:)

After return to Changsha we lost again at the bus station and met Alex (true Shaoshan local) with whom we ended up having dinner and he ended up paying for us. Although it classifies as foreigners ripping off Chinese guys, which is the worst kind of ripping that can happen to you* it was purely unintentional. Maybe this happened due to the fact that in some way people in Hunan are more naive and more relaxed than those living on eastern coast. Maybe this is why Changsha looks much more European than Shanghai (spirit-wise) and maybe this is the reason I would prefer Changsha over Shanghai (all other things equal - which are not of course :). Unfortunately, money (in Shanghai) and air pollution (in Changsha) are strongly in favor of the former :)

Note on Chinese culture / soul
[still need to think it through - might be updated later]

Note: * Ripping off or getting undue amount of money from the guy on the other side of the transaction has several categories. These are classified as follows:

- Foreigners being ripped off by Chinese - the lowest level as it is the easiest way to gain profit. Basically self explanatory as foreigners are either only tourists staying for a couple of days and / or do not have time and experience to bargain.

- Chinese being ripped off by Chinese - although this happens very rarely. It is due to naivete of Chinese people being ripped off, or due to the fact that locals price-discriminate also other Chinese provinces (this form is especially applicable when locals speak in special dialect - e.g. Shanghai).

- Chinese being ripped off by Foreigners - this is the rarest form of ripping off as it can happen only unintentionally when foreigners do not know local customs (e.g. that even if host pays and initially refuses, we should include our share of dinner)