China Living

Jon's apartment overlooks the north-east part of the city from the 12th floor of a high rise building in a gated "compound" (as he calls it). There are many of these compounds throughout the city (and the country, apparently) that house rich Chinese and foreigners. Not unlike any other country, the majority of the population isn't so fortunate. They often live in small homes, sometimes behind (or in the back of) a small shop they own, or just in crappy housing communities or apartments.

The weird thing here -- at least around Jon's house -- is that the poorer areas are just across the street from his compound. In the States, we certainly have a stratification of economic prosperity among citizens. Whether it's as large a disparity is debatable (I'd say it probably is close), but I feel that you can live as a middle-class citizen in the Bay Area nearly your whole life and keep sequestered into your fine middle class life pretty well. 

The way the neighborhoods meld different classes of people together here is what strikes me, I suppose. It seems that this is something common within the third world.

Speaking of third world, this place isn't nearly as third world-y as I had expected. While the city is generally dirty and there are obviously lots of poor people, there are huge communities filled with large, interesting buildings; beautiful, well-kept parks; fancy, Western-style restaurants where you can easily pay Western prices for a meal; nice hotels; etc. I have seen more than a handful of Ferraris and Mazerattis intermixed with the Mercedes, BMWs, Volkswagen, Toyota and other "normal" cars. So, while there is a third world thing going on here, we, as Westerners, essentially operate in a completely separate universe (along with a whole bunch of rich Chinese people) that somehow runs right alongside another, very different world. 

It's odd. And interesting. 

I feel like people want to experience "the real" place they're in. People always say that when they go on vacation -- "I want to hang with the locals, see what they do". But in this case (and in probably lots of cases), this is the "real China" for me. Just as I wouldn't be hanging out in the ghetto in America (because I'm an educated, middle class white lady), I'm not with the factory workers or eating street food here in China. So, even though I'm not experiencing the China that so many millions of other people do, I am experiencing the only China I probably can.