Continued...
A crime is doing something that physically harms another person. Your punishment will be a like state of harm usually. If you kill someone in a traffic accident and you, for example, ran a red light and broadsided someone and they died…expect the same treatment. Not so much the Toyota shoved up your ass, but the final outcome to be sure. The basic thing to remember about crime is that there are so many people, you can probably get away with most anything and the police cannot and will not arrest you without very good cause. They are lazy and arresting you means a lot of work for them. Even getting a traffic citation would be difficult to do because they just aren’t going to chase you down to write you the ticket. Most policemen are on foot or ride scooters. Unless you physically hurt someone, the worst you are going to get is a warning to correct your behavior. About the same as your mother waving her finger in your face and saying, ”Shame on you!”
One of the things I really like about China is that no one here gives a Sh*t about me. It is my life and I am responsible for it. The government doesn’t care whether I live or die and I am free to earn a living in any way I see fit as long as no one is harmed. There is no government intrusion into free enterprise. I can earn money all I want. There is a income tax structure, but it is so minimal, it isn’t worth mentioning in detail.
Health care is a different animal here. It is possible to find a English speaking doctor, but it isn’t easy..or cheap. Here is how health care works. We’ll use the example of a broken arm. I carry myself to the hospital and show the busted arm to the lady at the desk. She pulls up the treatment regimen for a broken arm and tell s me how much it will cost to repair it. I pay and then I get X-rayed, bone set, cast, antibiotics, etc. No money, no treatment. If I can show a card that states I am unemployed, then I can get free medical treatment up to a point. That point is emergency medical treatment needed to continue breathing. After that, somebody better show up with some money. So now you are thinking, OMG! ,,take it easy…a broken arm will cost you all of about 25USD for complete treatment, if that much.
I have a medical/health insurance policy here. It cost me 220 RMB (32 USD). It covers everything for one year. No deductibles, no exclusions. From flu shots to open heart surgery..they reimburse me for the expenses.
Also, you don’t get a hospital bed unless you need one. Need means you must lie down. If lying down is not required for your recovery, you get a chair in the hallway. It is not unusual for a patient to come and go as they please while being admitted to the hospital. They aren’t going to feed you, they aren’t going to give you a bath, they aren’t going to go get you a book to read. If family/friends don’t do this for you, then you do it yourself.
Pretty much all medication is given IV. This is how the docs make their money. Doctors get a cut of the medication they prescribe. IV medication is cheaper to make than pills. If you have an infection that needs antibiotics, you will probably make a trip to the hospital once a day for about three hours for about 10 to 20 days.
There are very few…I mean very few! Doctors that have their own clinics. All doctors work out of hospitals. There are all government run facilities whether they look like it or not.
How can China be so big, have so many people and not tax the hell out of them to provide all the infrastructure that is needed? Simple. China has SOE’s. That is State Owned Enterprises. Think of any company that has anything to do with transportation, power, telephone, gas, water, trains, planes, automobiles, road construction, tourism, hospitality and the state with owns it outright or is a major stakeholder. They do not screw around when it comes to creating an industry. For example, ten years ago, China built ships, but not Super ships like supertankers, etc. Within three years, they had the facilities built to do this type of work and it only took two more years for them to be the biggest provider of supertanker in the world. How? Government sponsorship of the industry.
I do not speak Chinese (Mandarin) but I am learning. I still need my wife to go with me if I am going to venture more than a few miles from home. The basic stuff I can do without help, but if it going to require a conversation, then I need my wife or son with me.
If I am writing to an uninterested audience, this is all I will say...does anyone want to know more?
Copy & paste to friend: (Click inside box; Ctrl + C to copy; Ctrl + V to paste)
|
|
read more blogs!
Blogs by phantom53:
| My life in China...Part 2 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
misschoos
|
Oct 26 @ 4:09AM
|
|
Yes, very much so! 
|
|
Blaiserboy
|
Oct 26 @ 4:28AM
|
|
|
The success of the Chinese experience has caused Russia to send several missions to China to learn of the techniques, one of Putin's goals is to make some changes following the structure to be found in China.
|
|
Sternfan69
|
Oct 26 @ 5:21AM
|
|
no! i want to hear no more for i am a spoiled obnoxious american and my mommy and daddy told me america is the greatest country in the whole wide world and my mommy and daddy are the smartest people in the greatest country in the world and they would never lie to me and if you keep telling me about some stupid country that on paper at least appears to be more advanced socially,,with superior ideas on gun control and health care and other social issues,,,i'm going to tell mommy and daddy and we are all going to get one of our 15 handguns or perhaps one of the 14 shotguns and automatic rifles we use strictly for hunting and we are going to find you and in the great tradition of this country,,,we are going to handle the thought of someone else having a better way of life then ours and our almighty "constitution" the way we always do,,
we are going to kill you
because violence is the only thing we really understand being the savages that we truly are and as a matter of fact,,take great pride in 
|
|
phantom53
|
Oct 26 @ 5:54AM
|
|
I will add a bit to this blog...I'll tell you how my wife and her family lived. First though, a bit about Chengdu. It is a city of approx 11 million people. It is a fairly modern city. It is not up to the status of Shanghai or Beijing, but all in all a nice city. We have Panda bears! Nobody else has Panda bears! That alone gives us special status!
Also, during WW2, the Flying Tigers had a base here as they helped remove the Japanese from the boundaries of China and remove the hold they had on Asia.
My wife is 45. She has four sisters. Two younger, two older. Her father died about 6 months ago. Mom is 65. My wife and her family lived in a concrete cave. I'll explain. Mom and Dad having four kids could not afford a home. They lived in what we would call, "the projects" their whole life. Their home was (Mom still lives there) on the fourth floor of a seven story walkup. The home is the size of a one car garage. Two rooms. Today, as with their entire life, they had no electricity, gas, running water, plumbing...no way to warm or cool their home. No way to cook indoors. Water was about a 1/2 km away and it was hauled every meal to build a fire outdoors and cook the meals. The source of water was also how they took a shower. My wife and her son had never felt hot water on them from a indoor shower in their life until she met me.
To cook the meals, they needed firewood everyday. How do you get this in a urban setting such as this?....Your kids go scrounging the delivery areas of stores and bring back the busted shipping pallets.
My wife as with her four sisters never made it past 9th grade. In China, school up through 9th grade is mandatory. If you can't pay for it, the state will still allow your children in school. After 9th grade, if you can't pay for it, then your kids don't go.
In China, you pay for your child's education. It isn't much by our standards, but to a father with four girls to educate, it is a mountain that can't be climbed. Dad was a steel worker his entire life, but his salary just didn't stretch far enough to support a family of six. There is no such thing as food stamps, welfare, etc. in China. It is up to your family to help you out of you need help.
Those with no children have no financial burden in the education system.
Anyway, that is the story of my wife's life. Nothing pretty, nothing easy. She is the most wonderful, happy, peaceful woman I have ever met. Nothing matters to her that is not directly involved with her families security and happiness. Have you ever lived in a home where there was singing all the time? She sings constantly unless she is chewing, talking or sleeping. She is happy. My son is happy. I am happy.
|
|
misschoos
|
Oct 26 @ 5:59AM
|
|
You both have something really special and you were right not to wait.
Life is short.
|
|
matisse731
|
Oct 26 @ 10:44AM
|
|
This is very interesting and I hope you continue to share with us. 
|
|
phantom53
|
Oct 26 @ 10:54AM
|
|
Coming to China as a tourist is a lot different than living here. When you live here, you use the back alleys and market streets. A tourist sticks to Main Street and pays the tourist prices. I can find a decent hotel for a $1 a day, eat three meals for $5 a day and travel all over the city and not spend more than $1 doing it. A weeks groceries cost about $35 for a family of three if you cook at home 6 days a week.
I can go to buildings that are still in use today that are 4, 000 years old and are 85% original.
There are down sides to living here. I'll get into that next edition...
|
|
yashaenka
|
Oct 26 @ 11:32AM
|
|
What is evident is that you are still in the learning mode have you ever studied the living Philosophy or Theologies of China and it's real history?
Unless you speak and read Mandarin or Cantonese your opinions about China is through the eyes of others that do. 
|
|
Blaiserboy
|
Oct 26 @ 12:08PM
|
|
|
I think you are at a most exciting time in your life.......exciting and rewarding...!!
|
|
travelwoman
|
Oct 26 @ 12:36PM
|
|
Hey, I'm glad to see you're back and blogging like crazy... 
One question about work: how does the hiring and firing go?
i.e. you say that when somebody is sick and at the hospital, the family needs to take care of that person. You also talked of your wife's family, where one parent raised four children. Children get sick sometimes...
How are absences from work treated? Does one get fired because one takes care of a sick child? Or because one takes care repeatedly of sick family members?
IF... one gets fired, is it hard to find another job?
|
|
phantom53
|
Oct 26 @ 11:14PM
|
|
yashaenka, I will always be in "learning" mode. That never ends. Just as you will always be in learning mode as will everyone else on this planet until you no longer suck air. Your comments seem to be rather adversarial. You said you lived in Asia for three decades. Are you of Asian decent? Did you live in China? Are you Chinese? Your profile says you are Caucasian. If you are not Chinese, and you didn't live in China, your comments are just as valid as mine; or just as "outsider" as mine. You don't have to read or speak the language to see the pain, the poverty, the happiness, the children playing and laughing. You don't have to speak the language to see that the Chinese "have's" take major advantage of the Chinese "have not's", just like American and other societies do. You don't have to speak the language to see the pride that Chinese have for their country, even while they know they are oppressed.
I'm working on the language thing. There aren't many places I can go to learn Chinese from the beginning. There aren't that many foreigners here to warrant a school like that. But, I'm working on it. Everyday, I learn something new. If figure it will only be about another ten years and then I can hold a reasonable five minute conversation. Chinese is a tonal language. Each sound has one of five tones. Each sound with a different tone means something different. Sometimes the difference is minor, sometime very major. There are 80,000 sounds in the Chinese language. You can't call them words like in the Greek based languages. Some "words" are one sound, some are two or many. English and Chinese do not translate easily. The word order, grammar and semantics are very different. It is one of the most difficult languages to learn. But...I try..and try...I get laughed at a lot!
Chinese history is not anything that one is going to learn in one lifetime. You can try if you want to, but the Chinese had a written language 18,000+ years ago. If you want to try to go back that far and learn up to the present, be my guest. The history of China does influence their thinking today to some degree, but then so does the thinking of American about their short history or Europeans and their long history. None of it really matters in the day to day lives of anybody. My wife's family is a rare breed in China. They do not follow any traditions. They make up their own as a family. National holidays are not a big deal to them. They take the day off work, but then they just do the chores that they would have had to do anyway.
Yes, I am an outsider to some..some call me an American Chinese, some call me a foreigner(laowei). But I will say this. I am more accepted here as an outsider than many foreigners are in the US. I have not gotten one dirty look, no one has said "go home", everyone has been very pleasant and cordial. When they ask how long I will be visiting, I tell them that this is my home now. They look very surprised and they welcome me to China and tell me that they hope I am happy here.
I have no idea how employment works for Chinese people. I know there is no unemployment insurance. I do know that the few people I do know that had to take off work, just took off work. They didn't get paid for time off.
As far as my work goes, if I get sick, I must have a doctors note. I can miss one month of classes and then they cancel my contract. Again, no work, no pay.
My family...Mom and Dad were both alive when the children were at home. Dad just passed away about 6 months ago.
|
|
WINDSONG
|
Nov 8 @ 10:01PM
|
|
Hi P53, hope all is well in Chengdu. I lived in S.China for 2 1/2 yrs while waiting for a Visa for my Chinese now X Wife. You said your wife was denied a Visa, that decision was made at the Guangzhou Consulate and probably denied because you most likely failed to use a Visa agent? I belong to a Forum that provids info and a community for Foreigners seeking Visas and marriage info. Since returning to the States and marrying my Lady, she has now left me after 2 years in the pursuit of a better job and more money for her eventual retirement back to China without me. I became a stepping stone to her green card, that's all.
Although married before, she was divorced after only a couple years and she raised her only child, a gay son on her own. Working in a company with men for many years she became very hard, with a nasty attitude and tongue to match. This I didn't find out until moving to China and after she learned enough English to tell me to go to Hell. Her entire family were farmers whom I helped support, even after coming Stateside. That wasn't a problem, it's actually their duty to care for the elderly as you know. It's not an issue for me, not enough money earned by me at 65 was her problem. She left me for greener pastures with her green card in hand.
You should make sure your wife and son learn passable English because I bet you will be homeward bound in a year or two, regardless of how you feel now. I am enjoying your Blog and your colorful writing but thought maybe both sides of the
pursuit of Love in China should be heard. Mine sadly is a typical story, I would still be happy and married if I never left China but one has to forsake a lot to do so.
I had no life there other than English Corners on weekends, or a treat at KFC.
Wishing you a better outcome than I had, stay well, use sanitizers and watch out for pick pockets. W.S.
|
|
eyesofastranger
|
Nov 16 @ 9:06AM
|
|
I suppose I can comment and I can relate to everything written here. Oh the GZ consulate is passport issues only no immigration offices. A visa application will only be approved if it seems likely the wife will return to her life in China. If it is clear that she will stay with her husband and even if a permanent resident application is pending it is still refused if it is clear she will leave China for good. Yash understands the East very well as do I. And yes I can speak Chinese to 80% and I can read it to 50%. I can read a newspaper for example. I have an apartment in Guanxi. My wife is there with our baby as I write this.
You mentioned your wife is now ex-wife.
I will point out something that Yash also knows. Yes these Chinese women are very beautiful and they never age. They believe family comes first and they will be faithful to a fault.
If you come from a western country don't think for a second you can deal with a wholesome Chinese woman that has seen starvation and hardship cuz she won't put up with your spoiled western BS. She won't waste food or gas or water. She knows what big things in life matter and she won't tolerate you snivelling about useless shit. I have a charming and very beautiful Chinese wife and I have become one with her mind to learn all this. Dogs are not cute cuddly friends they are an important food source that can take rotten food scraps and turn them into meat. If you went to the market looking for flippin dog food they would look at you and ask why you don't have your own rotten food scraps. Cats are fed a diet of mostly fish bones then skinned and eaten. Don't like it? Ya well you haven't lived as they have.
|
|
phantom53
|
Nov 16 @ 9:39PM
|
|
Eyes of a Stranger...China is a different place..that's for sure...But, every woman and family is different, just like everywhere else. My wife puts up with me and my western ways just fine. We have a very nice home with pretty much every convenience and luxury known and available in China. We have the biggest TV made, a Home Theater System, a washer and a dryer, we run the A/C when its hot and the heater when its cold. The house stays 72 degrees all the time. We don't waste food or water, but we do eat well. We have a computer network in the home with two computers, connected via a wireless LAN and a PS2 for my son all cross-connected into the computers and the TV.
I know all about the Consulates/Embassies and what each one does/does not do. For others, this may be important, but for me it is unnecessary information. We won't be coming to the U.S.
Dogs and cats...also known as lunch and dinner?...not in our home or anyone we know. In fact, we are looking for a larger home on the ground floor so we can have a private garden home. Then we will be getting a dog. There are many people here that have pets. Every evening it looks like dog walking time at Central Park around my neighborhood. I do know that many people do eat dogs and cats. I had had dog, it was OK...I have had cat...greasy and stringy, don't like it. This was many years ago in the P.I., not China.
Dog food is plentiful at the local Wal-Mart just three blocks away. So is cat food.
Next spring, a new toy will arrive. I am buying the top of the line Chinese made chopper. It's only 350cc, but it is pretty cool and it is strictly for fun. No for daily transportation. 350cc is a BIG bike in China.
I don't know where you got that my wife is my ex-wife. She is right here, sleeping at the moment is our nice warm bed in our nice warm home. I do have a ex, but not Chinese and not in China. She is kinda lazy. She like to sleep. She will usually sleep until about 11am every day.
We have a good life here. It's not for everyone, but for those that can open their mind to a different world, a different thought process, it can be a good life. Comparing apples to apples, I had a good life in the US, a nice home, nice things; but here, I have all that and I put 1/3 of my salary in the bank each month and I only work 13 hours a week. Try that in America!
As far as living the China experience, I didn't come here to live like a poverty stricken Chinese person. I didn't come here to "turn myself" into a Chinese person. Their history is their history. It is not mine and no matter how much I learn of it, and I'm not trying, it will never be my history.
I came here to live a good life and to be with my wife and son. We have a good life.
|
|
eyesofastranger
|
Nov 17 @ 6:00AM
|
|
You live in the north somewhere. We bought a bigger place on the 2nd floor but we have found it's shaded most of the day. Something you should consider. We didn't think of it. We travel often to the village where she grew up and that's where the dogs and cats are plentiful in the market. Our walmart here does not have dog food. Maybe in the Guanxi province life is entirely different. And I have been travelling back and forth since 2004 and the changes I have sen in those years are mind boggling. Maybe walmart has it now, I don't go there much. If your living in a northern city it is likely you won't see much different from living in New York. I can tell you in 2005 I stayed about 1/2 that year and even took a vacation in hainan and I never never once saw a fat Chinese person.
Being in a relationship with a village raised Chinese woman Has me meeting many other mixed couples and the failure rate is massive from my small perspective. Few weeks ago I met a man who married a Shanghai girl they where together for 6 years had a kid and he says she only married me for the green card. Do you believe him? I try to maintain a kind and stable writing style but sometimes my moods get through. I wish you all the luck in your Zhong Guo life.
|
|
phantom53
|
Nov 17 @ 8:56AM
|
|
We were out for a stroll after dinner tonight. BTW, I live in Chengdu (Sichuan Province). It is in the west, not the north.
In my small neighborhood, I counted the dogs being walked. Three Collies, six Great Pyrenees, four Russian Wolfhounds, many ( I lost count) Golden Retrievers, and assorted other small, medium and large breed dogs. That is just one evening. My neighbor has a beagle and three cats.
My wife doesn't want a Green Card. She didn't want to leave China. Mostly because her family is very close. Four sisters. Dad just passed away last spring. Mom is doing good on her own..she spends most of her time at the Buddhist Temple, so she is busy.
Granted, there are many women in China that marry foreigners just to get out of China. If you think with your big head, it isn't hard to figure out who they are. I have dated many women in China before I found the one I married. All it took was patience and a little stubbornness. The best way to find a honest woman in China is to be adamant about moving here, not her moving to the US. That will weed them out quickly! You can always change your mind later, but initially, the plan should be to move to China.
I have been coming to China since 2003. I have made about 20 trips to Hong Kong from 1995 - 1997. I have seen a lot of changes. Growth here is phenomenal! Just in the last year, Chengdu has grown from 10.5 million to almost 12 million.
The subway project here is moving right along. Actually, this isn't the only city building a subway system. Most large cities that don't have a subway system area all building them at the same time.
From the statistics I have read, according to the U.S. Consulate, there are about 7,000 Americans that call Chengdu home. Not a lot by comparison to Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. About the only time I even see a westerner is when I go to an expat hangout bar or restaurant.
Perhaps, as you say, my patience will wear thin, but I highly doubt it. The trick is to not care. What other people do or do not do, how they act, has never given me a minute of care. Everyone is different. I do my best to not judge. I live my life as I see fit. Others are welcome to do the same. I live by my rules. I care not one iota what anyone's rules are. My wife, my son, my life, my family are all that matter. I think that is one reason I like China so much. No one gives a shit about me or what I do and I don't give a shit about them. Everything in China is negotiable...absolutely everything. It is perfectly acceptable to make it up as you go along.
|
|
eyesofastranger
|
Nov 18 @ 5:06AM
|
|
Well your a very down to Earth man. I don't find that out there in the world much. I have to agree with your assessment that in Chine no one gives a shit what you do. So much so that I have broken the rules and taken advantage of it a few times. In Nanning we have some pretty bad traffic jams. They closed the gov office for licence plates cuz thats how China deals with problems. No one can have a licence until it's fixed. Shenzhen did the same. I am a different man while I'm there, I have been caught in a traffic snarl up and taken off my helmet and drove in the car lanes on the main street. Cops look at me ready to pounce then see my western face and look away. What an asshole thing to do. I wouldn't consider doing something like that here unless it was life or death. We may have expat bars or something like that in NN but I can tell you what I like to do. Our place is walking distance from Guanxi University. Tuesday night after 7pm is English night. In the main courtyard a few hundred Chinese gather and attempt to speak english. Mostly students but not all. I enjoy helping the hopelessly lost mostly. I can speak Cantonese to the degree that my family can understand all my pronunciation. It's a bit of a struggle out on the street. At English night there are some western students that are attending the University so I'm not alone in trying to help a few hundred people.
My niece had a German Shepherd and live in an outer villiage. As she left for school everyday she had to tell the dog to stay. One day the dog got curious and left toward the school. In that village he was a deer on an Indian reserve.
|
|
|