This post should have been published in February 2009, after my trip to China in Christmas 2008… but it has lived happily since ever in my Drafts.
The last stop in the trip to China was Macao. It is, like Hong Kong, a Special Administrative Region, as it also used to be a Portuguese colony, and now they are trying to integrate it with Mainland China.
It is pretty close to Hong Kong, and the two former colonies are linked with frequent and convenient ferries, perfect for a one-day trip. But note that you should add some time to your estimations for border crossing (you have to go through HK and Macao inmigration in both ways, which may take some time)… In my case, that day I spent around two hours in immigration lanes.
Macao is not a business center as Hong Kong, and it is not full of skyscrapers. The architecture of the city is very similar to what we can find in the Iberian Peninsula. Nothing really new to me, as you can imagine. So, the biggest interest in this sense was the contrast of being in a Chinese city, full of Chinese people, and with an Iberian look, apart from the funny bilingualism of Chinese and Portuguese.
But Macao is nowadays important in Asia for other reasons. It is the Asian capital for gambling and is perfectly comparable to Las Vegas in business importance. I do not like gambling, but as the city did not offer much to me and had some time left, I went to a casino. I chose The Venetian, because it is the one which appears in Ocean’s Eleven, so I wanted to feel like George Clooney and Brad Pitt, while watching live some human behavior totally new for me.
If you have been to China or you have some Chinese friends, you may have noticed that, among other significant culture differences and particular behaviours, they are also different in such a common activity as drinking water. The first time I realized of this was during my stay in Sweden, as my friend Ziyi drank a glass of hot water (directly from the kettle) before heading to the office. In my later visits to China I could realize it was a common thing in China, even in summer. A couple of weeks ago, I ordered water with my dinner in a restaurant in Beijing and I got a glass of hot water.
Why do they do it? If you ask them, you will get different explanations for it. Some of them are related to the health (they say hot water is healthier for the body, and also for the soul), and some others are a consequence of other practices they have (as they drink plenty of tea, they get used to hot drinks, and that includes the plain water).
I don’t buy any of those explanations, even though they make sense and could also be true. This type of special behaviours must have a simple and ancient reason, as many others explained in Marvin Harris’ “Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches“.
My idea is that they originally started to drink hot water because they learned about sterilization, and realized they had to apply high temperatures to the tap water to make it drinkable (i.e. without further health compications). When you are thirsty waiting for the water to be cold is a luxurious decision, and you probably opt for drinking it right away.
This is still valid and needed nowadays. The hostel where I stayed a couple of years ago in Beijing made it clear for the ignorant visitor that we should drink boiled water if we did not want to have a “bad time”. Nowadays, even in higher quality hotels, adapted to Western standards, they make it clear that the tap water is impotable, with an alarming sign next to the sink.
Hoy he vuelto a la oficina después de unos días de asueto, y me he encontrado con un mail de un compañero chino diciendo esto:
I am sending my mourning of Mr. Samaranch to you, since you are the only Spaniard that I know.
Mr. Samaranch is the most famous Spaniard in China I would say. His contribution to Olympics games impress all the world. Also, he was the person who announced that Beijing would host 2008 Olympics. I think all Chinese will remember him.
It is a honor for Spain to have so great people.
Llevo unos cuantos días oyendo y leyendo un montón de cosas desde España sobre Samaranch, pero pensaba que era como tantas otras veces: un montón de epítetos positivos sobre alguien con mucha relevancia a nivel nacional que acaba de fallecer.
Pero este correo de mi amigo desde la otra punta del Mundo me ha dejado sin palabras. Es decir, en China, cuyos Juegos Olímpicos fueron históricos, consideran que Samaranch fue clave, no sólo para Beijing 2008, sino para el Olimpismo en general. Es decir, lo mismo que dicen aquí todos los medios de Comunicación, pero en lugar de con Barcelona, con Pekín…
Pues va a ser que sí era un grande.
I just read this post in a spanish economy blog regarding the Index of Economic Freedom. Apart from checking where Spain is as the original blogger did. I got surprised for one thing: Hong Kong is the leader of this index… Wait! Isn’t Hong Kong part of China? Yes, politically, but not in an economic sense. Together with Macao, they have a special status named Special Administrative Region, and do not follow many chinese policies, including economic.
So, if Hong Kong is not China, and Hong Kong is the leader, where is China? In the position 132, which is normal based on the lack of correlation between a communist system and economic freedom.
Isn’t it ironic that two parts of the same country have such a big difference? The S.A.R., which gives Hong Kong independence in almost all fields, will be valid for 50 years, and then the idea is to have “one country, one system”, and not “one country, two systems”, as per today. Will this time be enough for reducing the huge gap? In which way will it be reduced?
Hong Kong was born thanks to the commercial exchange and this is still a very important business in the area (according to the Wikipedia, it is the eleventh largest trading entity in the world). You can easily notice it due to the huge number of cargo ferries in the area.
As the area in the city is scarce, and the coast line has also limitations, they have found a new way to increase the capacity of the cargo port: cargo platforms. This is another example of “If the mountain will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet must go to the mountain“…
Pretty interesting, isn’t it?