"China on the move" is a phenomenon in the country that describes two specific periods in a year when whole China packs their bags and either sets their foot towards the "never seen" capital city Beijing or the countryside where their hometown is and (grand)parents reside. When the whole China is on the holiday, the touristy places as well as key commuting points as airports and railway stations are insanely crowded. By insanely I mean unbelievably unbearably packed. In Seoul I saw an advert in subway saying that Seoul alone expects a quarter of a million Chinese tourists only during this one week. The money Chinese tourists are taking out of the country during the October holiday is said to be 72 billion US$. So you can imagine the scale of human power China has..
Besides those locals on the move, there are always those too ignorant ones who don't give damn about what's going on or expats who haven't found themselves Chinese lovers whose parents to visit. Double of the latter reflects my situation. However, since I just returned from my week in Seoul, I am happy to stay inside, cook, clean and stay in bed as long as it is time to turn off the lights again and repeat. In fact, going out is actually not even recommended, firstly, because of those third-tier-city Chinese who are exploring Beijing and have never seen a foreigner before. They will not only take a 5-minute pause from taking "piece sign" selfies to stare at you, but they will also make their way up to you and ask for a "piece sign" selfie together with you. This usually happens with me if I go outside of town. Last time when I was visiting Laolongtou, the starting point of the Great Wall, I hit my record - I got asked 3 or 4 times during a day to take pictures with some stranger Chinese. So if you long for some fame, move to China and preferably to a city with less than 10 million inhabitants where you can be The one and only rockstar foreigner, or as they say - Laowai. However, escaping from these less aware Chinese is not the only reason I have put myself on a "bed lockdown". The AQI (air quality index) app, my sincerest friend here in Beijing, which is like the grandmom who would tuck your shirt in your pants so you would not catch the cold, showed yesterday over 300. And when the AQI grandmom hits the dark red color, which is the last level in its measurment meter, this means that "all outdoor activities have an evidently harming effect your health". Even if you wear a mask. Coming from Estonia, each winter there is a considerable possibility to get caught by a snow lockdown. Now I got to experience one stemming from the freaking AIR. How ridiculous it sounds! Unfortunately, the difference between snow and air is that snow is something tangible. If it is there, it is there. If you are trapped in a 5 m deep snow, you are trapped. Noone can deny it. Pollution, on the other hand, while being also seeable, a serious smog, can easily be mixed with fog. If the Government would decide to restrict access to all of the AQI apps, as it has done with Facebook, Google, Instagram, Twitter (you name it), the people would be quite helpless. The severity of this mass scale problem could only be counted by number of heart attacks and deaths each day. Now, until there is no reason for them to do so, we can calmly continue relying on our AQI grandmoms.
I live together with three Chinese boys who all do not come from Beijing, thus I have been left alone in home. If you ask from anyone what are your plans for the holidays, they always respond "spend time with the family". This is because, holiday as such is happening twice a year, on specific times: during the Golden Week 1-7 October and during the Spring Festival, Chinese New Year week in early February. There is not much flexibility in choosing your holidays. These are the two weeks set by the law and these are the two times when the whole China is on the move to visit their families across its vast territory. They really should learn from The Netherlands for example, where holidays even within country with this size, are divided across counties in different times, aiming to avoid higher consumer demand and thereby increasing prices during holiday periods. After having lunch with Mandy yesterday to send her off to Wuhan, her hometown 1200 km from Beijing where her grandparents live, I asked when she saw her family the last time. She said it has been 8 months. This means the last time was during the last holidays, the Spring Festival. I was struck by the fact that this happens within one country's territory. In fact, I actually think that the distance is not the reason. The cause is in personal relations and precisely in lacking of those. Young people do not make an effort to travel to see their family. This is actually very contraversial to the principles of their upbringing that mostly bases on Confucius teaching, because the Confucianism sets the respect for elders (and for your husband) in the core of its study. This is another reflection on how things are in constant flux and evolvement in China. All in all, I am really happy to stay in, avoid the human pools on streets and the invisible devil of polluted air.
