Things That People Never Told You About Living In China

Although spitting is something that many might expect to see while on a sports field or on the street, anyone living in China will be accustomed to seeing people spit almost everywhere. Like in several other Asian countries, members of the public have no problem spitting on public transport or even in buildings. The government has attempted to control this issue due to concerns for health, believing that spitting spreads disease but it turns out that belief is completely overblown with no real evidence to support it. The real (though much less objective) reason for objecting to public spitting is just that it seems, well, gross. It's also posed a major problem for tourism in the country, as visitors have been put off from traveling in public knowing that many Chinese residents have no problem spitting in the direction of others or even at their feet. To be clear, this isn't about disrespect or marking one's territory or anything like that. It's simply part of the culture and the people who live there don't seem to have a problem with it in general. Spit happens.

No one likes traffic jams, even if they're a part of everyday life that can't be avoided. Being in Los Angeles means you anticipate long, four-hour blocks of bad traffic twice a day and being in New York means you just don't own a car, ever. But spare a thought for those driving in China. The rapid increase in the number of people owning cars and the lack of modernization of the road network has meant that it isn’t unusual to see lines that stretch back for dozens of miles with hardly any movement. In 2010, one massive traffic jam near Beijing was reported to be more than 62 miles long. It was so big that it lasted for almost nine days, trapping the drivers on stretches of road where they had to pay hiked up prices for food and water. Like a lot of older cities across the world, cities in China weren't built with a lot of cars in mind. Urbanization will always (always) lead to traffic problems in any city, and those issues become even more pronounced in places like China. It's simple math. There were two million cars in China in 2000, and in 2010 there were five million. That's a lot more cars and the cities can't handle that kind of growth without massive and comprehensive road development and upkeep. Finally, China's version of Driver's Ed isn't great, leading to a lot of new, inexperienced drivers clogging up the already-too-small roadways.

As a result of the terrible traffic situation, China has done everything it could to build up its public transportation system. Not only does China have the largest highway system in the world, it is also responsible for creating the first commercial high-speed magnetic levitation train service in the world. Their rail system includes trams, subways, and lightrails with over a thousand different stations. If you're traveling across the country, you can even buy a ticket for a bunk to sleep in.

China is notorious for its internet piracy, with millions of people choosing simply to download the content rather than pay for it. This has led to record companies taking a novel approach to monetizing their music in the country. Instead of selling CDs in the traditional manner, record companies offer songs on sites like Baidu and Google for free. At least this way, they gain some revenue from advertising as users get their music from the official source instead of a torrent site. Lots of albums to listen to you while you sit in traffic for nine days, covered in spit!

The smog in China is so bad that sometimes it blocks out the sun. When Beijing was hosting the Olympics and didn't want their ceremony ruined by sun-blocking, poisonous smog, they ordered half the population to just stop driving for a while. It's the kind of order that can't be enforced year round, unfortunately but it gave Beijing blue skies for a couple of days! The rapid industrialization of these areas, the growth in the sale of motor vehicles, and the increased output of factories has led to an increase in chemicals in the air. As a result, air quality has diminished significantly and smog threatens the likes of Beijing on a daily basis. Recent studies have shown that thousands of people are killed every day through heart and lung problems caused by the pollution. People wear face masks when in public in an attempt to protect themselves from the toxins. Kind of puts the spitting into perspective; you'd be spitting too if the air you breathed was sometimes so polluted that it completely obfuscated your view.

With more than a billion people to feed, street vendors play a significant role in providing meals for people. What many people don’t realize about these Chinese street vendors is that they do not take hygiene and safety as seriously as many others in different countries. Studies have shown that the lack of regulation means that some are prepared to take liberties in the cooking process, leading to food that has been found to contain materials such as urine and raw sewage. In fact, some of the most popular cooking oil used is actually made from illegally recycled garbage.

Although many people know the Chinese government carries out a strict censorship program, it may come as a surprise to learn just how widespread it is. Almost every foreign website is officially banned in the country, meaning that popular social media and news sites are prohibited and blocked through firewalls. The entire censorship technique is designed to try to control what content citizens in China receive. This includes certain parts of China's history, pornography (obviously) and a lot of films and TV shows that might surprise you. Wonder Woman, The Simpsons Movie, 50 Shades of Grey and Back to the Future are just some examples of utterly harmless movies that have been banned. (Well, maybe it's fine that 50 Shades of Grey was banned...)

Finally, an adorable entry! There are some parts of rural China where the police have abandoned using dogs to help tackle crime and are instead relying on the efforts of geese to keep the peace. The Xinjiang province in northeastern China is one such area that has begun to train the birds as a replacement. According to the state-run newspaper, the geese are just as vigilant and loyal as the dogs, but are more aggressive and able to work with multiple birds in a flock. They won't fall victim to recent ploys to drug guard dogs with food, which granted thieves easy access to official buildings.

Although the Western world uses disposable diapers for their children before they are fully toilet-trained, the tradition in China is different. It's common to find parents with children using open-bottom pants that allows them to urinate or defecate anywhere. Literally, anywhere. You could be eating next to a food cart, and a patron with a child could suddenly lift them to the side, and you'll see something brown plop right out onto the ground. There are actually several advantages to using open-bottom pants. They generally allow for children to be trained to use the toilet much more quickly and gets rid of the need to clean and change spoiled clothing.

Tipping is, in general, a weird and confusing process. It's not necessary in some places in America because the waiters and bartenders are paid a fair wage, but in plenty of other places in America it's absolutely necessary because the staff isn't paid enough and they depend on the kindness of the customers so they can pay their bills. While tipping isn't necessary everywhere, most people wouldn't turn down a tip, but be careful in China. There's no such thing as tipping in the Chinese culture. In fact, if you try to give someone a tip for their services, they'll find it offensive. Generally, the only places that accepts tips are tour guides and hotel bellboys.

As a way to save huge energy costs and ensure power consumption doesn’t cause blackouts that would cut the electricity supply across the country, central heating has been banned in huge areas. This essentially means that a large number of people have to live in freezing, cold temperatures in the winter. Even when going to public buildings, people have to bundle up because they might not be adequately warm. Westerners typically find it unusual to see swathes of people in thick winter clothing while indoors.

One of the strangest things about living in China is discovering that almost every worker gets the same vacation time. It isn't common in the West for the entire nation to go on vacation together. In China, a government-mandated vacation schedule effectively forces workers to take time off at certain periods. Unfortunately, this puts tremendous strain on public services such as transportation as everyone is using them during the vacation times, but still it's nice to live in a place that respects the idea that we weren't put on this planet just to work.