One of the mysteries of China, and there are many such mysteries, is what it is like living in the hinterlands of China. Rural China. People see pictures of the skyscrapers of Shanghai, and the high-tech modern world of ultra-futuristic Shenzhen, but what of the rest of the country? What is it like? Is the mainstream media narrative that it is a devoid and barren wasteland correct?
Well, in this post we try to show what China is like outside of the big mega-cities. It’s kind of difficult, as China is just rife with mega-cities. In fact, many a village in China would qualify as a city in the United States. Ah, but we will try… we will try…
Of course, the countryside in China is treated like the countryside in America.
It is considered “fly-over” country, and is ignored by the mainstream media. The people who live there are considered hicks, ignorant deplorables, and destitute simpletons that stream into the cities to look for work. The main-stream media never reports on the countryside, or if it does, it is always shown in a bad light. It is always along the lines of “the working poor flood into the cities for work“… etc.
That is truly sad, and what is even sadder is that the very people who live in America that live in the Heartland, the very ones that are known as deplorables (by their urban breathern), refer to the rural Chinese with the same horrible derogatory language. It’s sad, and it is sickening.
Rural China is no worse than rural Kentucky. It is no worse than “fly-over” Iowa. It is no worse than deplorable-ruled Charlotte. The only thing is that the American media calls them deplorable hicks, and the unwitting American citizen believes what the American mainstream media says.
Here we look at a series of scenes from China. The scenes are in the form of micro-videos. All videos were taken within the closing quarter of 2018 and represent a cross-section of typical China as observed by typical Chinese using their cellphones. The application used to record these videos is the TicToc app.
Important note; If you are having difficulty seeing the videos or if they are not easy to see, please reload your browser. This will more than likely fix 80% of the problems you may encounter.
Town on a River Bank
Here is a small town on a river bank. This is a pretty typical scene. Most Americans are unaware of just how mountainous rural China actually is, and this video goes a long way to illustrate it. Look at those hills! My goodness, can you imagine hunting white tail there?
The buildings, in style and design, are terribly typical. They form the same overall design template that is all over China. You can find these buildings everywhere in China. They are present everywhere from the Southern island of Hainan to the far North in Manchuria.
This little town reminds me of the town that I grew up in when I was a boy living in Western Pennsylvania. Like PA, the town is serviced by water, rail and road that hug the river. Also like Pennsylvania, the buildings tend to be older and shabbier. The road is a bit dustier. Though, if you pay attention, it is actually quite a bit cleaner than what you would find in Pennsylvania.
Why?
Firstly, because China (not only rural China) doesn’t have welfare like it is available in the United States. If you are unemployed, you are out of luck. You starve. There are no hand outs or freebies for any reason.
However, there is a workfare program. Anyone can get a job in the government cleaning the streets or planting trees and flowers. Which is why you’ll find most areas, not all (especially in the industrial areas), free of litter and trash. Unlike the USA, everyone who is willing to work, can work in China.
In America, trash and litter line the streets because no one is paid to pick it up. Those who are able to are paid to sit at home on welfare. In China, the roads are clean and litter free because work is provided to everyone. As long as you are willing to work, you will get food, housing and a small monetary stipend.
You will also note that the roads don’t have potholes. This is a far cry from what you will find in Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania there is a symbolic government relationship of entwined corruption. This system guarantees road-repair for potholes every election season. Nothing ever gets done, but hey, that is how the Pennsylvanian government is run.
In China, you try to run this scam, and the corruption police will seize you. They specifically monitor for this kind of behavior, and the Western American media does not like it one bit. I wonder why?
The Chinese police will seize you and arrest you. They will prove your guilt, and you will be sentenced within three days from arrest. If your crime is really bad, you will get death plus three. (Three years of organ harvesting followed by death.) The Chinese do not mess around.
A Historical Town
The previous town was very typical. It has a mixture of old and new buildings and some minor industry. However, there are more than just one type of town in China. There are others. There are many others, and they are all different.
Unlike the USA where a town is a town and a city is a city, in China you have “communities”. Depending on the nature of the community, you will see monies and resources allocated differently.
Of course, everyone knows about the cities. There are first tier, second tier and third tier cities. Many people assume that this is due to population size, but that is terribly wrong. The classification is determined by a complex number of factors, of which population is but a small issue. It is actually a matter of historical, political, and commercial importance as well as being the hub for social and economic issues. Those cities that are most important, are classified as “first tier”, and others are classified appropriately from that.
The classification of a community determines the financial, economic, social and political resource allocation.
As such here are some other community classifications that can be found outside of the large urban areas…
- A basic town with some minor industry.
- A historical town.
- A Service Area or Train Stop town.
- An industrial town.
- A town that is classified as resort or recreational in function.
Let’s talk about the “historical” town.
You see, about twenty years ago, just when China was hitting it’s stride numerous people started to lament that everything was being torn town to make way for new things. It’s the Chinese way, don’t ya know.
New buildings were displacing historical buildings. Roads were carving into hillsides, and many beautiful areas were being displaced by parking lots. It was a sign of progress. Yet, many people were upset with this.
So the government started to enact rules to preserve nature, preserve old and historical buildings, and made rules to protect the history of China. As such, many towns in China are now designated as historical landmarks and are protected against being raised or replaced by newer structures.
Here is one such town…
And here is another protected town. These towns serve as great tourist destinations. It turns out that many Chinese like to go visit these historical towns and cities. They like to take a week off from work and visit and have fun. You can’t blame them, really. Rural China is filled with beauty and adventure. Not to mention tasty (regional) food, ice cold beer, and pretty, pretty girls.
I mean, wouldn’t you just love to eat some tasty dumplings (pot suckers) and steamed meat-filled buns over icy cold beer with this view…? Me, I’d bring my dog and plop him right next to me to share the view (and for him) the smells.
You know, many of the world’s ills could be solved by drinking more beer and talking freer with each other. I think that if we shut off the artificial limits that we have surrounded ourselves with and reached out we would be a far happier people. Come on! Who doesn’t like good food, attractive companions (of the opposite sex) and their favorite pet (dog or cat) hanging out with them?
Life is meant to be lived. Share it with a friend, why don’t ya.
Most towns have a local government that invests in “livability considerations’
Unlike the United States, the people of China think in terms of nation first, family second, person last. This is the direct opposite of how Americans think. It is always “me and mine, first”, then the City. Then the State. Then the country. This is evident in how American write their addresses, and how the Chinese write their addresses. They are backwards from each other.
Name
Street Address
City, State, USA, Zip Code
And in China, it is like this…
Zip Code
China, State, City
Street Address
Name
As such, the local town government place a great deal of importance towards livability concerns. This is true all over China. Yes, even in seemingly unlivable areas like industrial areas, and such. Yet it is very true. They view their responsibility as to make their country a fine place for the residents to live.
Here is small town.
It has a mixture of industrial and residential features, yet it is not a tourist town. Instead, it is more or less a typical Chinese village where the town elders have decided to create and incorporate livability areas.
This kind of investment in the town and living environment comes from ideas brought forth by people from the Scandinavian nations that seriously influenced Chinese thought on these matters. (I believe, but cannot substantiate.)
The Southern Coast
I live on the Southern coast of China. I live near Hong Kong. This is the South China Sea.
You know, the place where all the liberal neocons (oxymoron? Maybe they should be called “neo-libs”) want to start a war because they are all hot and bothered about China having naval bases around here. Sigh.
Of course, they conveniently forget to mention that piracy of the shipping lanes is a serious concern. After all, half of all shipping goes through the South China sea, and piracy is a serious issue. But, heck, since when did the American media ever really report news? They just make up narratives to manipulate.
Ah. Anyways…
Here’s where I live. When someone tells me that I don’t know what I am talking about… When they tell me that China is a “Hell hole” and a terrible nightmarish place to live… I just look outside my window and take in the glorious sunshine, the blue skies and listen to the birds singing their songs.
China is like any other place on the planet.
There are beautiful places, and ugly places. There are places full of impressive buildings, and places full of wonderful nature. I moved here. I like the climate, the fresh air, the beautiful blue skies and the nice friendly people. I love the food, and all the very pretty girls.
Ah, but that’s just me.
There are other areas up and down the coast that are also very nice. Many Chinese people have homes on the coast, just like many Americans have in California or New England. Or even Savannah, GA, or Florida.
Of course, as an American or someone from the West you would never be aware of that because reporting on it would not fit the news-worthy narrative. Businessmen traveling to China would either stay in the big international cities of Shanghai, Beijing, or Hong Kong or visit the dirty factories in the nasty industrial areas. No one ever goes outside of those two spheres of influence. Sad.
It’s actually kind of silly when you think about it. The Hainan island is what? This grey clouded, sooty, crumbling pile of debris with starving little waifs…? Is that what it is like?
It is if you listen to the American mainstream media. But, they are just terrible liars and manipulators. In fact, the news today is all about how Donald Trump gets two scoops of ice cream, while everyone else gets one scoop. Do you think that this kind of selective reporting, interspersed with lies and distortions, is limited to only Donald Trump? Don’t you think that this kind of lying and manipulation is rampant throughout ALL news reporting?
The coast of China is beautiful, with beaches, resorts, fishing, and industry.
Industrial Areas
When a person visits China is is usually for work reasons. As such, they would typically fly into a major Chinese city and then travel through the countryside to an industrial region and an industrial town. These towns and environments are, well… industrial.
It is just like what industrial areas in the United States used to be like. (Ah, what short memories we all collectively have.) Industrial areas tend to be functional, dirty and polluted.
Typically a traveler to China would fit a rather simplistic profile. They would fly in to a big city, and then travel to a factory in an industrial area. Then after their trip, they would return home. Their impression of china would be about what they were exposed to. This would be the new big cities, and the ugly industrial areas.
The traveler to China would come back with the following impression about China…
China's cities are really impressive, and the infrastructure is new and modern. But, outside the cities it's all a Hell-hole. The people are poor, and live terribly. It is dirty, smoggy, filthy and terribly polluted.
That is the impression you get if your only experience is one or two trips to an industrial area in China.
Anyways, many people who have gone to the industrial areas work like crazy there and then high-tail it back home during the month-long CNY vacation period.
But you know, the Chinese culture is such that the community comes before the individual. Therefore, it is up to both the local government, as well as the factories in the area to provide decent areas to live, and reasonable attempts at decorations and livability areas. Here is just such an example. This gal obviously lives in an industrial area, as you can tell by the background. Yet, there is minor efforts undertaken to make it more appealing to the senses. No, it’s not a multi-million dollar environmental reclamation project, but rather a low-budget effort to render some industrial areas more people friendly.
After all, how much does it cost for PVC piping, and some cans of paint? The entire budget, statues, and all is probably under $25,000 USD.
Poor Rural China
With all the distortions in the Western media it becomes difficult to see the truth in all the lies. So, let me be clear on this. There are very rural areas in China. These areas have paved roads, and electricity, Wifi and running water, but not much more than that. Here, in the remote rural sections of China you can see stark differences.
In the video below, we see a girl returning from the city to visit her relatives during CNY (Chinese New Year). This scene is common enough. It’s sort of like how people would leave Pittsburgh during the Christmas season to visit their families in rural Kentucky back in the 1970’s.
And here’s another video showing how nigh and day the contrasts can be from what a person’s life might be in the city compared to their home in the remote village. In this video, obviously the girl is a DJ, and has come home to help her parents at the farm.
Extreme Poverty
And here is the kind of thing that the American media would put forth.
Here, we have a rural family collecting and carrying wood to their house. Obviously these people are very rural. Truthfully, this has got to be either in the far Western China or the far North-Central region. As most of rural China have electricity, running water and heat.
In any event, it is curious to note that the video was made using their iphone. LOL.
And while we are at it, let’s show some more pictures of rural China. Now, the reader must recognize that extreme poverty, dirty kids carrying wood, and homes without running water are a RARITY in China. They do exist, but only in the most remote locations.
It’s sort of like how there are still Hillbillies in West Virginia.
Rural China is similar to rural USA
Most of rural China isn’t like this at all. Once you get off the main roads and get away from the towns it sort of looks a little like this…
I’ve got to tell ya, many places in rural China reminds me of my hometown back in the hills of Western Pennsylvania. Like this chick here. It could have well been filmed in Clarion or Butler counties. Gawd, it does make me a tad homesick.
Here’s what the rural Chinese countryside pretty much looks like…
And here is what a small hamlet or mini-village looks like. I can’t tell you where this is, or much about it, but what I can tell you is that it is pretty typical. Though, most buildings aren’t painted so gloriously. Obviously an artist or two, or three, maybe an entire family resides here…
Now, where do they shop? Where do they get their food, supplies and sundries? Well, they are just like Americans in that respect. They go to the big “box” stores, malls and outlets. Doesn’t this scene look like a Chinese version of rural highway America?
Again, pay attention to how clean the roads are. That’s what happens when you start making people work for welfare. If there isn’t any more trash to pick up, then the town will have them planting flowers. If they run out of flowers, then they will start painting buildings, or building new ones…
Which is why many Americans are perplexed about the “empty cities” where no one lives. In China, it is better to have the unemployed working doing something for their stipend, then to pay them to sit in front of a television watching Oprah all day.
People are people
I guess what I tend to say when people ask me about China, it is that people are people everywhere. While we might have cultural differences, we are humans. We form traditional family units with a mother and a father. We work, and we play. We have friends and enjoy community and social interaction.
When ever someone tries to paint others as evil, they do so using a cartoon paper cut-out. They portray them in ways that we cannot relate to. They dehumanize them. They turn the others into something else. Once people stop thinking about other people as people, and start thinking of them as things, then war can be waged, and people can die.
Stop this nonsense!
Here is a girl shooting some hoops in a rural village. Man, wouldn’t you just love to have a game of one on one with her, and toss the ball about. Life is about living it. We are all the same, and we all do the best that we can with what we have.
Basketball
Oh, and by the way, none of that socialist progressive nonsense (the stuff that has invaded America and is part of the Obama culture wars) crashed into China successfully. The Chinese won’t have none of that nonsense, and they make “no bones” about it either. Maybe it is fine and good to have a war on cheerleaders in the Untied States, but China will not have any of that.
When the SJW folk tried to get rid of the cheerleaders, the government arrested them, and (I think) killed them. What ever happened, they are no longer vocal about the need for “diversity” and “gender neutral” nonsense in China. China is a traditional nation and the government makes sure that it stays that way.
Here’s some pretty Cheerleaders at a basketball game…
And here’s some pretty pom-pom girls at a basketball game. You see, in China, it is considered normal for girls to look great so that guys look at them. And guys are allowed to look at pretty girls. It’s a time-honored tradition.
You should see the girls at the car shows. Wow oh wow.
Conclusion
Rural China is like other rural areas in other nations. Most of China has Wifi, electricity and running water. On the extreme limits and remote areas one can still find hillbillies that live like hermits without electricity and running water. Never the less, they do have the latest cell phone electricity and solar panels to charge the phones.
The Western Media, most notably the American media, tends to distort things by showing extreme images taken out of context. Like the child carrying wood above, and giving the reader the impression that that is what all of rural China looks like.
Compounding this are visitors to China who arrive in the large international cities and then travel to the dirty and polluted industrial regions. They often have nothing to compare it against as most heavy industry left the United States in the late 1970’s. Thus their impressions are tainted by their experiences and hampered with a lack of comparative resources.
China is many things. It has big and glorious ultra-modern cities, and historical villages tucked away in the wooded hills. It has large coastal areas, mountains, hills, deserts and farmland. We owe it to ourselves to look at everything with a new set of eyes. A set that is not colored by manipulation, distortion and lies. We need to realize that the world is a great and glorious place and we, all of us, have a role within it.
Posted On Free Republic
This article was posted on Free Republic on 6FEB19. I was expecting some trolling, but was taken aback by the large rolling negativity. To quote…
Interesting responses to this rather benign and informative article. -TexasKamaAina
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