it was with a heavy heart that I headed to the airport………the sun was shining and the sky was blue and the typhoon had disappeared and it was a perfect day for walking up to the top of the mountain or just to go for a walk along the coast.The air is fresh and clean and there are not many people here. When you are on one of the walks you will not meet many Chinese because they don’t like to walk as a rule, unless of course there is a big shiny shopping centre for them to swan about in.
I was about to return to the heart of the beast which for the last few months I have been struggling with. Many Chinese act in a manner that I find quite distasteful and annoying and when I go on a visa run to another part of the world and I don’t have to deal with them every day, I feel so much better for it. The last week in Jeju has been really enjoyable and I am sure they also have their fair share of dickheads like any other place, but most people are polite and look out for others. When they navigate through their day they are conscious of others, what they are doing, where they are in respect to themselves…………you know just like any other civilised society………….but in China there are many people as I have said before that are utterly selfish, ignorant and are just concerned with themselves and don’t give a fuck about anyone else, their safety and just don’t care about rules.
We boarded the plane in the usual chaotic way, people will stand in the aisle blocking it and don’t get out of the way to let others through. When they do sit down they recline the seat, then when they do sit down some will then think “oh I need to go forward to see my friend and try to push through the tide of people boarding. it must be hell for the flight crew on these flights, sometimes you only have to look at their faces to see the agony of their situation.
When the plane begins to taxi for takeoff they get up to retrieve something from their bag, they are still using their phones, the tray tables are down once more and we are having a picnic, someone wants to use the toilets. After takeoff I took this picture and as you can see there are many that just don’t like to follow the rules when it comes to safety…………..this is the Chinese way.
Most of the Chinese on the plane are part of a tour group and they are led around and spoon fed and told what to do most of the time, don’t think too much………..if only they were educated on these tours to be more considerate to others and told put your phone on to fuckin’ flight mode.
In the picture below you can see the woman holding her daughter after the plane has just landed while we are taxing back to the terminal, maybe one or two minutes have passed. The other woman beside her has already taken off her seat belt and is talking to the people in the row behind her. The guy beside me is on his phone and you know they are not the only ones on the plane. On the last flight that I had a guy stood up to retrieve his bag literally seconds after the wheels hit terra firma……….this is the everyday situation on a Chinese flight
From Pudong airport I took the bus to me bring me back to Suzhou, it’s takes about two hours which is longer than it took me to get from Korea back to China. it drops me about 3 km from home and so I use a local bus to take me the rest of the way. As the bus arrives there is a mad dash by the locals to get on board first. I wait for a couple of people that were before me to jump on and then I take my turn. My case is in my left hand as I move to the door, out the corner of my eye I see someone trying to sneak passed me and so I put my hand on the bus and nearly choke this old woman as her throat catches my forearm…………I look at her and smile………..she is not happy and starts to rant to me………………I’m not sure what she is saying but I’m sure I can guess. In amongst all the chaos of China at least I get a bit of a kick when I stop someone dead in their tracks like this, they were shocked when they were stopped and more so by a foreigner. I guess they don’t expect us to be as rude as them and so at times I do delight in these occasions and this is one thing that I do enjoy about China and I also feel that I am doing them a service by educating them on a little bit of etiquette…………..I know it may sound a bit sick but it keeps me amused and this is something I would never dream of doing or would have to do do in many other parts of the world………………maybe I’ll stay here a little bit longer 🙂