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I am going to temper my opinions from here due to the environment I am coming from (upon the request of my family but, here is a collection of a few of my thoughts on China thus far.

Pro: The exchange rate is roughly 7 RMB to the US Dollar. For those looking for a point of reference, I will use the CCPI (common college price index), commonly known as the BI or beer index. A beer in the grocery store is 2.6 RMB (37 cents) for 640ml (the average 12 ounce beer is 355ml).

Con: Saddam Hussien t-shirts are available in some of the shops next to the Mao and Che t-shirts. If a number of American Che t-shirt wearing admirers could just see that visual association…

Pro: Amazing service. With a glut of manual labor, even the smallest tasks are very personal, from 2 different people walking you from the door to your table at a restaurant, to people hand delivering the daily handwritten weather report on paper to your room. At most of the monuments and tourist areas there are trash collectors who literally took our empty water bottles from our hands as we finished them to prevent littering.

Pro/Con: “You want watch, DVD, good friend price, many qualities” - everywhere

Interesting: A number of the global business presentations for the region largely detailed the government’s latest 5 year plan and how a given business fits into it.

Interesting: A Chinese version of American Idol was recently canceled here due to it’s supposed vulgarity, rudeness and the promotion of incorrect values. They published a number of comments on it in the Shanghai Daily from Chinese people, including this one: “I can’t help but vomit at the sight of so many boyish girls and girly boys”. One of the “vulgar” exchanges included a contestant saying he liked younger girls to date.

Interesting: As people in the US complain about “harsh” drug trafficking fines and sentences, two men just today were executed for drug trafficking in the Yunnan Province of China.

I will have more as soon as I have time. If you are curious about anything in particular, drop a line in the comments on this post.

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