Namstey, India! I am from China and my name is Xiopeng Sun. I work in the APPLE company in the city of Shenzen, China, like many IT professionals in India. My village is Xiayong, in Weihai city in the Shandong province of China. The top level cities in China are along the coast like in the case of Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. They are Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzen and Guangzhou. The cities become poorer as their distance from coast increases.
I finished my university degree five years ago, so I’ve lost touch with the student way of thinking. But let me try to connect back to it. Nowadays my schedule is as follows: I have breakfast, which my girlfriend makes, at around 8 am, and then take a metro at around 8.40. The metro takes half an hour and I start work at 9.30 am . I have 1.5 hrs for lunch from 12 am. I leave my office at 6pm, but usually I work overtime till 8 pm. Maybe it is similar with IT workohaloics in India too.
In China, the government has a department called Chengguan in charge of stopping beggars and homeless people from entering the cities. If they find anyone begging they buy train tickets for them and send them home. I find it strange, though a little unhygienic, but interesting too, that in Mumbai people can open shops and sleep on the street. You guys have freedom not only in Facebook and Google but also in city spaces.
Interestingly, I was in Mumbai at the same time when our leader came to visit India two months ago. I travelled to Kochi, Jaipur, Agra, Kolkata, Delhi and Chennai. I heard about bullet trains. One thing I can tell from China is that it was worse for people, especially for middle and lower income groups because with speed also comes costs. Moreover these trains only connect major cities and not villages. So all the taxpayer’s money goes for the benefit of the rich, maybe because their time is more important than that of the rest.
I want to tell about my family too. I have one elder sister. Yes in China child policy changes from time to time. If your first child is a daughter you can have another, especially when you are from village, it is difficult to check. And also if you are single kid and a couple then you can have two kids. Strange for India I guess!! Also, like in India the guys are usually older than girls in a couple.
My village Xiayong is on the North East coast and it’s very far. I go hardly once a year but I keep in touch with my parents over the phone. We have a pattern of houses. All houses in our village have a big veranndah which follows a main door which enters into kitchen. After the kitchen you enter into two rooms which are side by side. The big open verandah also has a big store room on the side. Let me draw a sketch:
The wall of the bedroom and kitchen has a common window to keep the place lit up in both rooms at same time. Our bedroom has a very big bed touching the wall. Laslty, and this may surprise you, usually mothers don’t wear anything on top the upper body at home, even if their kids grow old here.
Regarding my life, I was also very interested in politics and joined the Communist Party of China when I was in college. I even applied for it but they select only one smart student from each college. They also have a branch in each village. So they can easily do governance and spread their message. We are not supposed to question about Chairman Mao. Once I did, and it was not a very good experience.
People think we are communist, but actually our capitalist economy is supporting America, EU and others. Moreover,only 20% of the population is inside the poltical party. We have a huge industry and infrastructure. Sometimes it is so gigantic that no body lives there. There are cities who have new buildings but hardly anyone lives there, and with rapid industrialisation we have a lot of pollution in the city. At times in winter you can’t walk without a mask.
I am from Han tribe. Hans are usually in control of the power. There are many tribes in the East, and they are usually poor. Regarding marriage, it is getting difficult for a Chinese guy to find a girl. They are importing them and trafficking from Cambodia. I am lucky to have girlfriend, who also makes my beakfast.
(Sun has a Bachelor degree in Electronics Information, andis an enginner focus on Apple software.)
English
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