Visiting China in 2024

April 27

I am settling down in Wuhan now.

Grandma is doing well physically, giving her age. But her memory is failing. From time to time, she thought she is still in Singapore. She is often puzzled that the surrounding seems different.

Grandpa is going strong. He can’t walk much. He can’t hear much. I have to shout into his ear for him to hear me. But he is extremely alert mentally. 

Auntie is taking care of everything. 

Going through the custom was very slow. Every foreigner seemed seriously scrutinized. When it was my turn, I was asked to provide the phone number of family in China. If I had prepared for this, it was easy. But since I don’t have a phone myself, I don’t know other people’s phone numbers. I tried to message auntie. But she wasn’t online at that time. It took quite a while before I was let in finally. People are nice and professional. But the system demands extreme accountability to the authorities. Everyone works very hard to demonstrate they have done everything to prevent any potential incident.

The public transportation in Wuhan is wonderful. The subway system took me from the airport to almost home. But getting into the university is another hurdle. Getting into the university is like getting into a subway station. You have to tap your ID card to open the gate. I don’t have ID card. I have to talk to the security guard to let me in. It wasn’t like that seven years ago, when I visited China last time.

Last time, the view from our 17 floor apartment was very open, with much agricultural land intact. Not anymore. Entities with low economic values are swiftly and efficiently replaced by high value structures, such as tall buildings. For someone like to roam around, I really appreciate nature. But economic wealth is appreciated by more people, especially those who control a lot of it. 

I explored a little bit around. There used to be two gates connecting our university (Chinese University of Geoscience) to Central China University of Science and Technology. Both gates are blocked now, by the other side, which is more dominant. It is usually the more dominant ones who close the door to others.

When I was a kid, I often roamed around the hill nearby. Now it took me quite some time to find an entry to the hill. Several decades ago, there were mostly small bushes around the hill. Now there are many tall trees. This kind of change is evident everywhere in China. China is a much more lush land than before. I guess this is because people no more seek biofuel as cooking fuel. Leaves and twigs are no more actively collected for cooking. Leaves are left to rot, becoming fertilizers. Trees are growing much better. The increasing amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere also helps. Overall, the increasing use of fossil fuels greatly greens the land of poor countries. This obviously doesn’t sit well with people from rich countries, especially those associated with Green Party. This must be a major reason why fossil fuels are demonized by the dominant class.

April 28

We live in an apartment complex with six buildings, three in each row. Between the buildings is the rest area. The usual occupants are the very young and the very old. There grandma and pa met some old colleagues and friends. 

One was an old lady, the mother of an old classmate of auntie. Her daughter is in US now. The daughter went back Wuhan last summer, and promised another visit the next summer. Now the temperature is getting higher, and the summer is getting closer. Yet her daughter doesn’t have any itinerary yet. The old lady asked auntie if she could send her daughter a message, informing the daughter auntie’s whereabouts. This might remind the daughter her mother is waiting for her.

The old lady doesn’t want to ask her daughter directly, worrying this might increase the tension between them. Her daughter, like everyone else, has multiple obligations, career, kids, and everything else. The old lady is eighty five. Her husband died last year, shortly after her daughter left. There is a nanny taking care of her. Apparently, she is very sensitive to the nanny’s feelings. 

We heard that an old colleague of grandpa had broken bones. We paid him a visit. He was in bed, with a broken back bone about half year ago. Now he is much better. He can sit up on the bed. His wife had broken legs earlier. Both of them got broken bones from riding electric wheelchairs. They are of the same age as grandpa, around ninety years old. They lived alone and wanted independence. They used electric wheelchairs, which got them everywhere. But electric wheelchairs were not stable on uneven roads. Both fell off from their wheelchairs and got their bones broken. Now their son and daughter in law have moved in to take care of them.

The whole family looks very happy during our visit. What else can they do? We can’t do much. We might be happy anyway.

When we walk outside, I usually hold the hand of grandma or pa. I can feel the grip of their hand tightening when going down slopes. Slopes can be slippery. It’s their natural reaction.

April 29

Astronauts then and now, Scientists then and now 

Astronauts used to be the elites among the elites. Every astronaut was a national hero. Each astronaut was supposed to be selected from the millions and go through gruesome training to be qualified.

But in this age of commercial space travel, anyone with enough cash or befriending the owner of a spaceship can be an astronaut. Any old lady in their eighties or nineties will do. However, not a single expert told the public that space travel was leisure. Instead, experts told us that astronauts would experience extreme pressure during takeoff. Only the chosen few can withstand such a stress. I was a little boy then. The speed of acceleration didn’t seem high to me. But like most questions I have, I kept it to myself.

Now we know that every expert in the space industry lies. There’s not a single exception. 

Scientists, especially physicists, used to be the elites among the elites. Prominent physicists, such as those involved in atomic bombs, were national heroes.  Einstein was supposed to be the greatest genius of all time.

Science was once the domain of the exclusive few. It was said that only three persons understood relativity. But in this age of affluence, science has become the pastime of many. In particular, relativity is relatively easy to understand. Soon quite a few realize that Lorentz transformation and relativity are logically inconsistent. 

However, not a single authority is willing to acknowledge the fundamental flaws of modern physics in general and relativity in particular. Instead, authorities relentlessly denigrate the dissidents, calling them amateurs, as if only salaried employees are qualified to make sound judgments.

Every authority in the physics profession lies. Is there a single exception?

April 30

Food stamps 

Grandpa dug around those old stuff. He found some food stamps.

Several decades ago in China, one needed food stamps, in addition to money, to buy food. Food stamps were rationed by the government. Without food stamps, you would starve to death, even you might have money.

There are two types of food stamps. One is local and one is national. The top two food stamps are for Wuhan, local ones. The bottom one is for national. With local food stamps, you can buy food at Wuhan, or whatever locality. With national food stamps, you can buy food anywhere in China.

Food stamps were issued to urban residents only. Peasants don’t have food stamps. Peasants couldn’t move to cities. One reason is that they couldn’t get food stamps. They would starve to death. 

Urban residents were only issued local food stamps. Wuhan residents only got Wuhan food stamps. In this way, local residents couldn’t move around. This is easy for government to manage people.

Only when you have an official duties to visit a different place, you are issued national food stamps. The ownership of national food stamps was a great privilege.

Food stamps were a great way to control people. From the pictures, food stamps were issued at least to 1990. They were abolished later. But new measures are created to control people, many in subtle ways. Carbon tax is such an example. Carbon tax makes travel, and everything else, more expensive.

May 2

A day or two ago, I saw a lot of wreaths at the front of a building. Some guy just passed away. I went closer to have a look. It was someone mommy and I know about. He was a faculty member at the University. He enjoyed painting a lot. Many people were familiar with him. I bumped into an old couple there, old colleagues of grandpa. They said that the man died of lung failure. He passed away very quickly. They said several dozens passed away last year.

Grandma once said she doesn’t like to live here. People die constantly. Indeed, when I was here in 2017, a close friend of grandma died. Many residents here are in their eighties and nineties.

Last night, grandpa had a serious difficulty breathing. Auntie massaged him for an extended time before grandpa finally recovered. Auntie is really magic! But it puts a lot of pressure on her. Most people prefer to relegate the responsibility to professionals. They would call ambulance and let medical staff deal with the problem.

People at the old age dance precariously around the edge of life. 

May 4

Cashless society?

China has a reputation of being a cashless society. It is often said that one could not function without a cellphone. This is my experience so far for someone without a cellphone.

When I attempted to buy a subway ticket at a ticketing machine, I tried to put a bill into a slot in the area that labeled cash. But I couldn’t find a slot. I was conscious of my own dumbness. So I persisted in looking for the slot, until someone else came along at a neighbouring machine. I asked him to help me locate the slot. After some attempts, he announced the slot was sealed. Apparently so few people were using the cash function. The company simply sealed the slot and stopped the function. 

It should be obvious that the slot was sealed. But I was so sure of my dumbness that I thought somehow I failed to locate the slot, until someone else came along to point out the obvious. On other issues, the public is oblivious to the obvious, even after I came along to point it out.

I went to the customer service and bought a ticket all right. The ticket can be used on all public transit. 

There are almost no cash users. But all grocery stores I encounter accept cash, so far.

Stalls in the school cafeteria don’t accept cash. Auntie pays for everything with her cell phone. But auntie is out this afternoon. I have to try my luck. It turns out that some stalls do accept cash. But they don’t have changes. In one stall, they took less. In another stall, they took less and asked me to make it up next time when auntie makes the payment. 

With auntie makes almost all payments, I have managed to survive without a cellphone so far.

May 5

Grandma: The Ping Pong Player 

We wandered around at the campus and saw the union building. We went inside. At the third level was the ping pong hall. There are ten tables inside. We bought a pair of ping pong bats. After dinner, we went to the ping pong hall. Grandpa couldn’t climb up to the third floor. He stayed at the ground floor.

It was pretty busy there, with only two or three empty tables. Auntie and I played a little bit. Then auntie went downstairs to walk grandpa home. Grandma and I continued. It turned out that grandma is a pretty good player, at least from my perspective. We can play back and forth for many rounds. Other players were a lot more competitive. 

During our play, a guy came along. He said tentatively, “Is this Mrs Miao?” It turned out that he was a student of grandma many years ago. His wife was also a student of grandma. Their son is in US, working on driverless cars. The couple just retired. But they look really young. Later a young looking lady approached us. She introduced herself as the sister of our old neighbour. I asked her about the situation of my old buddies, an elder brother and a younger sister. She said the daughter of the elder brother just got married and the daughter of the younger sister is going to US for graduate study. It is quite typical for people to marry late and it is quite typically for people to go to US to study.

I am glad grandma is doing well on the ping pong table. Hope we can play more often.

May 6

A short tour 

After raining for several days, it is cloudy today. Auntie and I managed to convince grandma to take a short tour. Grandpa is quite weak. He doesn’t want to go.

Our university used to be on the edge of the city. Right now, the place has become one of the centers of the Great Wuhan. Auntie planned to visit a university at a place once way out of city boundary. The university is called Wuhan University of Economics.

Half an hour of taxi took us pretty far. The road condition is excellent. Along the road were forests of tall buildings. Several years ago, all these land must be farm land. 

We could have exited the taxi a lot earlier. We already saw the gate of the university at the opposite side of the road. But on the way, the taxi driver talked about how strict the company was to the drivers. (The company is like a Chinese uber.) We were worried the taxi driver might be punished if we exited earlier. The car drove a lot longer before taking a U turn and stopped at the gate we spotted earlier. But still, taxi is extremely cheap in China. 

As usual, one needs ID to get into the campus. But this time, ID has to match your picture. When we got in, grandma’s ID matched her face all right. But when we left, identification failed and failed again. We were stuck at the gate. Finally, the security guard came along to instruct grandma how to face the camera. Now there is one more kind of experts and one more kind to expertise: How to face a security camera.

The university itself is very beautiful. Mummy said she likes man made landscapes, which are manicured for beauty. The university has certainly made a great effort maintaining the cultivated landscape. Auntie took several pictures, which are included below. 

The university is beautiful. The university is immense. But the university seems totally deserted. There was not a single soul in the giant basketball courts. The sport field is absolutely empty. It is a Sunday. Probably all students are in dorms, busy online.

As mentioned earlier, the university is called Hubei University of Economics. In the campus, there are several statues of prominent economists. One is Keynes. I happened to write a paper on Keynes on the way to Wuhan. The link is provided below. Unfortunately, my view of Keynes is less flattering than the view implied from the statue.

Grandma is worried about grandpa at home. We only took a short walk before returning. After we exited the campus, auntie called a taxi, Chinese uber. A taxi arrived within two minutes, although I thought it is a very remote place. On the way back home, we talked with the driver. He was from Enshi (恩施), a remote and beautiful place in Hubei. When he was young, he gave up a government job in that place and moved to Wuhan to try his luck. The pride of his life is his son, a sophomore at Chinese University of Science and Technology, a top university in China. His major is nuclear physics. The father is very proud of his son’s choice. He said that nuclear technology in China is the best in the world. Apparently he is very familiar with the university system in China. He is a very devoted father. 

The short tour gives us a glimpse of the grand scale of Wuhan’s urban expansion. In China, most resources are concentrated in the political centers. If British Columbia is in China, UBC, SFU, and UNBC would all be in Victoria. With the vast expansion of Wuhan, many people are attracted to the capital city of the province. Few people will be left in the rest of the province. Mummy said that in many places in China, houses are worth less than ten thousand US dollars. This is not surprising, given the tremendous increase of capacity in the large cities.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/380210671_On_the_rapid_change_of_Keynes'_ideas

May 9

Design and operation in a prosperous system

We live close to Optics Valley. This name apparently parallels to Silicon Valley. Optics Valley is supposed to become the high tech hub and the high end commercial center. The grandeur of its subway station reflects such an ambition. Several massive escalators connect the subway station to the commercial district. But none of these escalators are in use. They have been cordoned off by temporary construction walls. Probably the number of visitors to this area couldn’t justify the operation of these massive escalators, which would cost tremendous amounts of electricity.

The design and construction of the subway station started about ten years ago, when China was at the peak of its optimism. Today it has become much harder for the majority of the population to project a rosy picture into the future. Correspondingly, people have been much more cautious about spending. The expected crowd in the high end shopping district doesn’t materialize. The massive escalators lie idle.

But these escalators, and the structures come with them, have long term effects. Without these escalators, people  have to walk on their feet. The underground tunnel was built around the escalators. It was up and down very often, to accommodate the whole structure of the escalators. It wasn’t supposed to matter that much. It was merely an auxiliary pathway. Few people are expected to use it. Now, without the escalators, it has become the only pathway. Walking through the tunnel is quite difficult for old people and people with luggage. 

If escalators were not part of the design, the tunnel would be much easier for pedestrians to navigate.

This is a problem of a prosperous society in decline. You can’t just return to an earlier simple way. The complex structures will continue to cost you, to haunt you, even when they are no more in use.

Many people are puzzled why earlier complex prosperous societies eventually failed. The answer is a lot simpler than one might imagine.

May 11

A fighting boy

Grandpa can’t hear. He rarely talks. Occasionally, he would say something.

Tonight we are having dinner together. He talked about a colleague of him. Once that guy came to complain about me. He said that I beat his son. Grandpa was puzzled. His son was several years older than me and much bigger than me. Grandpa checked with me. I took off my clothes, revealing many bruises. It was I who was beaten very badly. But I beat his son into crying. 

I don’t have a recollection of this incident at all. Probably it buried deep in my memory, like so many other times I got beaten. 

May 11

The origin of the optics valley 

Where we live used to be the edge of the city. It is muddy all around. It has a mundane name, Lu Lane (魯巷). By our university, there was a small neighbor, Telecom Research Institute. In those sleepy years, there were few phones in China. The Telecom Institute, like so many other places, was sleepy.

Then came the explosion of telecom industry. The Telecom Institute spins off a company, which plays an important role in this explosion, at least locally. Optics fiber was quite prominent in this transformation. The mundane Lu Lane was renamed fashionable Optics Valley (光谷).

An old middle school classmate of auntie came to dinner with auntie. His family was an old neighbor of us. We joined as well. He graduated from the Geology University, like so many other kids from the University faculty and staff. After graduation, he didn’t want to stay in geology, which is muddy and mundane. He joined the telecom company we just mentioned.

By the standard of Huawei, it was not a very successful company. But still, he had a good ride in its global expansion. 

Among their classmates, there is a billionaire. His name is Ma Hong (馬宏). His father, Ma Jingxian (馬景賢），was a colleague of grandma. The father also had business acumen. He set up a company while he was a faculty member at our university. He died unexpectedly on an operation table for gallbladder surgery. He was very young, in his early fifties (?). His wife died earlier. This left Ma Hong an orphan as an undergraduate student. He took care of his younger sister while growing up.

Ma Hong got his PhD in our neighboring university and became a faculty member there. Later he ventured into the business world, like his father. After working in several companies, he eventually took control of a company in his hometown around 2010. In 2019, the company went public, making him an instant billionaire.

His company specializes in infrared technology. This technology has become very popular in surveillance. 

Prominent places, such as government buildings, are usually guarded by many people, day and night. At night time, bright lights beam up to detect any potential threat. With infrared cameras, there is no need to turn on light. This is more low key and more effective, as infrared cameras only detect warm bodies, such as humans. 

In the past, the temperature of each and every one has to be measured individually. Infrared cameras can detect people with fever easily in the public. This has become especially important during pandemic.

 As the dominant player in the infrared industry, his company is valued very high. Some of his classmates, who participated in early rounds of funding before IPO (initial public offering), became multimillionaires. 

Just a month ago, in April，news of his detainment appeared. There is no explanation for this. In China, prominent people are often detained without official charges. 

China has been a land of opportunity for Chinese in the last few decades. Quite a few become billionaires. But there is always a potential danger accompanying this opportunity.

May 13

Hanging train

Grandpa can’t walk much. But he watches a lot of TV programs in Singapore. One TV program was about hanging train in Wuhan. He recommended grandma and me to visit there. 

Many new projects in Wuhan are built in Optics Valley. This project is no exception. Grandma and I took a taxi ride. On the way, the driver seconded as a tour guide. The hanging train, or sky train, project is quite far away into the east. But Huawei (華為), Xiaomi (小米) and other high tech companies set up their regional headquarters around there. It has since become the center of Optics Valley, which now includes a large and expanding region. The original Optics Valley is marginalized. This is probably one reason why the construction of the Optics Valley Square subway station was sharply curtailed. And a large finished part is not in operation. (I studied the map quite closely. Eventually I realized only a small portion of the design was built. That is why it was so difficult to reach the station.)

The station of hanging train is a great sight. The station and the tracks are quite high up so the trains are hanging quite high. The hanging train is a kind of sky train. But it doesn’t sit on tracks. It is hanging on a track above. Part of the floor of the train is transparent. You can look down to the ground. It is purely a tourist design. The ticket price is also tourist price. Thirty yuan one way and forty yuan one day pass. We took one day pass.

(almost) all passengers are tourists. Most are in groups, probably organized by local authorities. There are old people groups and family groups with small kids. The view along the way is magnificent. One side is the largest managed green belt I have ever seen. The other side is wilderness, to be transformed in the future. The managed green belt is of Singapore style, but at a much larger scale. 

(almost) everyone, like us, took the ride to the final destination. It is a wild area with no building in sight, except the train station. The tracks extend further ahead, but not much. According to the introduction, the train line will extend a lot further. But there is no sign of any construction around. 

Grandma and I walked around. There was a gate some distance away. We went there to check out. The security guard told us that it’s a social welfare institute. What is it for? The guard said, “Have you seen any beggars on the streets? They are all rounded here. We provide food and shelter for them.” 

We then return, enjoying the magnificent view one more time. When we get off the station, a taxi was just unloading a passenger. There are so many taxis in Wuhan. 

The taxi driver is pretty young, his son in grade five. I asked him about kids education. He said with a recent policy, only fifty percent students can go to high school. The rest will go to trade schools. 

June 15

Last night, I had a gathering with high school classmates.

I didn’t plan any gathering with old classmates this time. Grandpa and ma have some difficulty, especially in a new place. I mostly stay with them.

An old classmate just got his WeChat installed. He avoids WeChat for a long time because most information in job places are transmitted through WeChat. Without WeChat, he avoids most messages from the administration. Now he is retiring in a few months, he wants to get more connected. He installed WeChat and we chatted. I told him I am in Wuhan. He organized a gathering.

Ten classmates came. The most unusual one is a microscope surgeon, just retired. He briefly talked about what he was doing. After surgery, many people feel weaker than before. This is because many  severed small neurons are not reconnected. With microscopic surgery, all small neurons are supposedly reconnected. This service is obviously in high demand by those who can afford it, i.e., those politically or financially prominent. He described a typical scenario in his surgery. An army of representatives from a plethora of medical companies stand by, ready to provide anything the surgeon might need.

A classmate testified his power and prestige. When he visited the surgeon in Shanghai, the surgeon invited him for dinner. The two were served by four medical representatives. They were not served by waiters, but by four high salaried medical representatives, who were eager to pay their restaurant bill. In fact, he hasn’t paid for anything for years. He doesn’t even know how to make a payment. By serving the ultra powerful and ultra rich, he himself becomes quite powerful and rich.

He has a four storey house in expensive Shanghai, with many fruit trees in his yard. He and his family (his wife and daughter) even avoided to get vaccinated, a rare privilege in China. This also shows that the medical community know vaccination is harmful. Mass vaccination is a form of humiliation and control. Mass vaccination is imposed as a political tool to further domesticate the masses. It is never a measure of public health.

Most of my classmates were born in 1964. They retired or will retire in 2024, this year. Many are quite relieved to retire at the climax of the social cycle, when the pension payments are very generous. There is going to be a change in pension system at the end of the year. It is expected that the new plan will be less generous. So they prefer to retire in time to lock into the current system.

Most of them are very successful and wealthy, with their children studying overseas. But the future is less promising than the past.

Their own careers are ending. Their children’s careers are fledgling. The attention of many are on their parents, if they are still around. They talk about various issues of their aging parents. Few like old people, except their own parents. 

June 19

Xinxin and I are in Nanjing now. Cai Bin and his family, (his wife and son) are really warm. We have a great time here. They have hosted Sufey and Simon before. They are really kind to our family.

The second day, June 18, the big family had lunch together. My auntie has four sons, Cai Bin being the second. All four, and their wives, came. The matriarch, at 91, herself came. Another auntie and her family came as well. It was a great gathering.

After lunch, Cai Bin and his wife toured us around. First they brought us to the North Shore of Chang Jiang (長江). North Shore is covered by lush forest. Few people walked into the forest. It is a wild forest in the mega city. Then we visited Nanjing Eye at the South Shore, the traditional city area. It was a beautifully managed river side park at a grand scale. It was already very late when we came back.

The third day, June 19, Cai Yong, the youngest brother of the four boys, and his wife, brought us for a tour. First, we went for a tour in Xuanwu Lake (玄武湖），a beautiful city lake. Then we went Ming Tomb and Sun Tomb. Nanjing had been the capital city of many dynasties, including the capital city of the Republic of China. It left behind many historic sites. When we climbed up the top of the mountain, everywhere our eyesight can touch is green. It was a rainy and misty day. My eyesight is limited. Still, the sight is very different from my imagination of a Chinese mega city. It was a beautiful day in the lush green.

It is early morning. Xinxin and I are leaving soon for Zhejiang, where my auntie and uncle live.

June 21

In Huangyan (黃岩）

We are in Huangyan, i.e., yellow rock, now. The specific place is called Jiaojiang (椒江），named after the river running along.

It is a small city by Chinese standard, and a tiny town several decades ago. But it is a very modern city. Like most other modern cities, it starts to create ancient style buildings.

We went to visit a block in the middle of the city. The whole block is entirely built in the traditional Chinese style. The buildings, the small rivers, the tiny bridges, the trees and bamboos. This is the most beautiful Chinese style buildings I’ve ever seen. They are much more beautiful than the genuine ancient Chinese buildings. Large glass windows, generous landscaping, clean water flows. These are impossible in genuine ancient buildings. Large and strong glass is a relatively new technology, only available around 1980s. Water flows on flat land is quite static and hence not very clean. It only becomes clean with the help of water pumps. Low cost water pumps are a relatively new technology. Generous landscaping requires large piece of land. Prominent families live in prime locations, where land prices are high. The ancient famous family gardens I have visited are relatively small. The only exception is the emperor’s palace. But the palace structure focuses on dominance and intimidation, not on relaxation.

Overall, I really enjoy the old street (老街）。 Then I heard a story about its construction. The construction of a new block in the residential area necessitated the relocation of the originally residents. Many residents resisted the forceful relocation. To speed up the process, the mayor, in a meeting about the construction, declared, Whoever disobeys me, I will have his whole family destroyed. It is this kind of coercion that makes the beautiful block possible. Probably behind every great cause, there is a great crime.

June 26

I am at the Tokyo airport now, soon to be home.

New developments in China are beautiful everywhere. Yet there is widespread pessimism everywhere. This is not as contradicting as it seems. Great things are expensive to maintain. When expectation turns sour, heavy buildings become heavy burdens. A good example is the tallest building in Jiaojiang, my home town. As the tallest building, it is visible everywhere from the distance. It is also an unfinished building, standing at the very centre of the city. 

China today is a paradise for consumers. Food and service is so cheap, so great. China today is a paradise for the retired. Retirees are often better paid than their working children. Certainly they hold a lot more properties, often bought at a much lower price many years ago. But young entrants to the job market are struggling with low pay.

There is no light at the distant end. Last year, birth number was less than ten million. China has 1.4 billion people. With life expectancy of 78 years old, it takes more than 15 million babies a year to maintain a flat population structure. The deficit is staggering.