Observations of Different Norms

I have realized that many of the things which I am shocked by here are observations of different norms. For instance spitting. I don't mind it outside any more, but inside it's gross. When you look at the tradition of removing the phlegm from  the body as necessary, it makes since why China is so worried about H1N1 being introduced here. They would have a real problem if it became widespread here as the hygiene is very different. Because people spit in the street it would be hard to keep it from spreading really fast. Matthew and I asked Jinpeng about spitting and if they spit in the province he is from. We haven't seen him spit like the locals. He said that spiting is all over China, anywhere we go there would be spitting. He just doesn't like it so he doesn't do it. I find this interesting. He grew up with the tradition of removing the phlegm from the body yet he does not do so. It seems like many younger people in China do not spit but that it is mostly the population over 30 that spits. This is not to say that I haven't seen younger individuals spitting it is just the great majority of those that do spit are older.

Another thing I do a double take on is when I see is little kids being encourage by their parents to pee on the street. It seems rather common for kids under, I'd say, the age of 7 to just pull down their pants and go. At Green Lake I saw a mom take her daughter, pull down her pants, and tell her to pee right in the middle of the walkway. There was a little bit of dirt there but it was still on the sidewalk. Walking to the zoo I saw a little boy and girl peeing on one of the planted trees. They just whipped it out and went. Yesterday Matthew and I were reading in the gardens at our apartment complex. I thought it was really pretty clean here. I watched a mom take her daughter, probably a year or so old, who was still wearing the pants which are open crouched, and make peeing noises as she held her over a tree. The girl's sister, I assume, ran over pulled down her skirt and leggings and peed on the walkway, missing the dirt around the tree. I try to avoid stepping in puddles, but now I will definitely go out of my way to walk around them. Matthew and I seemed to be the only people fazed by it, although we pretended to not be. Everyone else acted as though it was normal.

I see little kids playing in the gravel around the trees on the sidewalks and I think "don't let your kid play there, please." Then the kid sticks some in their mouth. That always gets a reaction from the parents. Not only are these trees a place for kids to pee they are also a place where people who get motion sickness on the bus, drink too much, or get food poisoning are sick. I try not to look. But the number of trees around bus stops that get extra nutrients is pretty high. Matthew thinks that some of it may be spilled food. I think he is right sometimes. I wish he was right all the time.

For the most part Kunming is a clean city. There are lots and lots of workers with bamboo leaf brooms sweeping the streets and sidewalks. This keeps the city pretty clean. It is amazing the number of workers. They sweep up the leaves and the things people just throw on the street as they know it will be cleaned up. I don't think I would want to see the city if there weren't all the workers cleaning. It would be a huge mess as no one really seems to think about what they do with their trash. If it is large it goes in the trash receptacle but if it isn't and their isn't a receptacle close they don't go out of their way to get to one.