Apart from the huamn rights abuse, sounds greatAh, those clever Chinese. First they invent gunpowder and a few other essentials of modern civilization. Now they're gunning their economic engines. Yet who would have thought that, after a millennium of poverty, they'd already do so many things better than we?
In fact, compiling a Top 10 list of what China does better than Canada isn't easy. There are so many items. To whittle it down, let's assume it's unfair to count anything related to cheap labour.
So we won't include the wonderfully thorough mop-ups of supermarket spills: The staff don't plunk down those yellow you-can't-sue-us caution signs. They actually fan the floor with a broken sheet of Styrofoam until it is dry.
Nor will we mention the exquisite, free head-and-shoulder massages that come with every shampoo and haircut.
And we will only sigh with envy over bicycle couriers speeding theatre tickets to you the same day -- free.
Frequent travellers will love this one: Even remote rural hotels in China, not previously known for world-beating hygiene, now routinely slip blankets, quilts and coverlets into freshly laundered duvet covers. No more puffy bedspreads and nasty polyester blankets that cover guest after guest without being cleaned, which is still the practice in most of our hotel chains.
Considering how cheap labour is, it's astonishing that so many Chinese facilities offer free automated lockers now, the way European airports and train stations do. No more old-fashioned keys to form a lump in your pocket -- just a slip of paper with a randomly chosen number that lets you retrieve your belongings. Stores like them because they cut shoplifting; customers like them because they reduce schlepping.
Not all progress is good. Taxis, subways, trains and elevators barrage you with non-stop ads on flat-screen videos. Some city buses feature live television. Who wants that? Pickpockets, probably.
For this list, we won't count minor things, either, like the narrow plastic bags that department stores and offices offer on rainy days to sheathe your dripping umbrella. Or the invention of the electronic fly swatter, which electrocutes without squishy messes (and is now available in dollar stores in Canada).
On this list, we won't count mega things, either, like the soaring architectural wonder of China's airports -- even in provincial capitals like Fuzhou -- awash in natural light. (Not to mention that you can understand the public announcements, and the restaurants are much better.)
We won't include the vast subway and highway systems and huge underground garages that Beijing, Shanghai and Canton have built in astoundingly little time. Or Shanghai's magnetic-levitation train, the first in the world, which accelerates to 431 kilometres an hour in 2 minutes and 53 seconds. Even the Germans who designed it can't afford one for themselves.
No, for this list we were looking for truly brilliant ideas, the forehead-slapping kind, the ones that make you say: Now why didn't we think of that?
1. Cellphones
By any standard you can think of -- coverage, price, ubiquity -- China's cellphone practices beat ours. You can use them in elevators, subways and parking garages. They work in Tibet, at the Great Wall, in remotest rural China, which is more than you can say for Ontario cottage country. Patients, doctors, nurses and visitors use them in hospitals, too, with no apparent ill effects.
It's a cheap, pay-as-you-go system, with no stupid monthly contracts or credit checks. The phones are so cheap -- even sidewalk cabbage vendors have them -- that China is now the biggest cellphone market in the world. With 300 million in use, each one telling time, wristwatch sales have plummeted.
"We're a nation of thumbs," a young Shanghai woman told me, meaning that Chinese use cellphones like BlackBerries, text-messaging friends 24/7, at 1.6 cents a pop. The Chinese never got used to voicemail or answering machines; installing home phones was equivalent to two years pay in the 1980s, so the country leapfrogged over landline technology right into cellular.
Chinese author Qian Fuchang even plans to transmit a novel -- about an extramarital affair -- via text-messaging, one 70-word chapter at a time.
2. Informative stop lights
In Tianjin, a city of 13 million people, traffic lights display red or green signals in a rectangle that rhythmically shrinks down as the time remaining evaporates. In Beijing, some traffic lights offer a countdown clock for both green and red signals.
During a red light, you know whether you have time to check that map; on a green light, you know whether to start braking a block away -- or to stomp on the accelerator, as though you were a Toronto or Montreal driver. (That's probably why Montreal has a few lights with countdown seconds for pedestrians.)
3. Transit debit cards
Wouldn't it be great to have a single debit card for buses, subways -- and taxis? That's how it works in Shanghai. Passengers don't have to fumble for exact change on buses and subways, or line up to buy tokens or tickets. Taxi drivers don't have to make change, or get ripped off by counterfeit bills, a real plague in China. And they aren't loaded down with cash, which would make them tempting targets for robbery.
(In another transit plus, forget those illegible handwritten taxi receipts we get in Canada. China's taxis automatically print out receipts with date, mileage, taxi medallion number, even the start and end times of the ride. That certainly would help you recover the Stradivarius you inadvertently left in the back seat.)
4. Adult playgrounds
Hate paying those gym club bills? Loathe huffing and puffing around buff bodies in spandex? Beijing provides free outdoor exercise equipment in neighbourhoods throughout the city: walking machines, ab flexers, weight machines and rowing machines in bright reds, blues, yellows and greens.
Adult playgrounds get everyone out in the fresh air, especially seniors who might stay shut in at home. Teens like to hang out there, too. And it sends a not-so-subtle propaganda message about the benefits of healthy living.
5. Anti-theft slipcovers
What do you do with a purse in a restaurant? It can slide off your lap, and looping the handle over the back of your chair is an invitation to a thief. In China, when you sling your purse or laptop or coat over your chair back, a waiter hurries to toss a tasteful slipcover over it. It foils thieves, and also protects coats from food spills. Some restaurants provide hooks under the table for purses.
6. Daily banking
We feel so lucky when a bank branch in Canada opens for a few hours on Saturday mornings. (Notice the long, long lines?) But Chinese banks are now open 9 to 5, seven days a week. Even on New Year's Day and other national holidays, at least some branches will open for business. The ones that are closed post helpful notices directing you to the closest open branch. And, yes, they do have a full network of ATMs.
7. Wireless service bells
Trying to flag down your waiter for a glass of water? Just press a made-in-China gizmo at your table. Your table number lights up on a panel inside the kitchen and your server is soon hovering by your side. The bell also eliminates that annoying waiterly interruption: "Is everything all right?"
The same gizmo in spas alerts masseuses when you're demurely under the sheet and ready for their attention.
8. Parking data
A celebrity I once lunched with was an hour late because he couldn't find an empty parking spot in downtown Toronto. He had driven to a dozen lots, each time finding a wooden sign plunked at the entrance smugly announcing that the lot was full.
In China, roadside electronic billboards not only give directions to nearby lots and garages, they crucially reveal how many empty spaces are left.
9. Computer seating maps
Canadian concert halls will tell you that Row DD, Seat 81 costs $74.95. But where on earth is it? At the Shanghai Grand Theatre, the black granite ticket counter is embedded with a Samsung computer screen which lights up with the event you want to see, showing unsold seats, colour-coded by price, and the sightline to the stage. There is even a bar stool on which to perch while you consider your choices.
Movie theatres offer the same service. You choose which film and what showing, and the screen in the counter shows you what's unsold. After you make your choice, you can go shopping or enjoy a latte until show time. No one will take your seats.
10. Free hemming
This doesn't count as cheap labour because only three people service an entire department store. In Canada, hemming a new pair of trousers adds at least $10 to the cost, plus two trips to the tailor. And you have to try them on again while you get measured.
At the No. 1 Department Store in Shanghai, the salesclerk measures you while you are trying on the pants, asking: "Will you be wearing these with high heels or flats?" If you decide to buy them, she scribbles the length on your receipt. You head to what looks like a gift-wrapping station where a man measures and chalks the pants, scissors off the surplus and flings them to two women behind him. One hems the raw edge on a machine and tosses it to the other, who stitches the final hem on another machine and presses them.
Even with two customers ahead of me, I swear it took under three minutes in all to get two pairs back.
When I tell the woman ahead of me that stores in Canada don't do this, she's astonished. "Really?" she says. "How inconvenient."
From cells to bells, 10 things the Chinese do better
Moderator: Edi
- The Grim Squeaker
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 10315
- Joined: 2005-06-01 01:44am
- Location: A different time-space Continuum
- Contact:
From cells to bells, 10 things the Chinese do better
link
Photography
Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
Genius is always allowed some leeway, once the hammer has been pried from its hands and the blood has been cleaned up.
To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.
- Brother-Captain Gaius
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 6859
- Joined: 2002-10-22 12:00am
- Location: \m/
Am I the only one who expected something different under "Adult Playgrounds"?
Agitated asshole | (Ex)40K Nut | Metalhead
The vision never dies; life's a never-ending wheel
1337 posts as of 16:34 GMT-7 June 2nd, 2003
"'He or she' is an agenderphobic microaggression, Sharon. You are a bigot." ― Randy Marsh
The vision never dies; life's a never-ending wheel
1337 posts as of 16:34 GMT-7 June 2nd, 2003
"'He or she' is an agenderphobic microaggression, Sharon. You are a bigot." ― Randy Marsh
- Admiral Valdemar
- Outside Context Problem
- Posts: 31572
- Joined: 2002-07-04 07:17pm
- Location: UK
Eh, when more than a couple of percent of the populace can enjoy that stuff, I'll be interested. HK may be amazing, but then that was down to the Empire building it up first. Most of China is still a shithole and they still have a rather inept and corrupt gov't. Beautiful as the nation is, I'd only visit, not live there, at least now anyway.
- Danny Bhoy
- Jedi Knight
- Posts: 718
- Joined: 2005-03-24 07:48am
- Location: Singapore
- Lord of the Farce
- Jedi Council Member
- Posts: 2198
- Joined: 2002-08-06 10:49am
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
- Contact:
Re: From cells to bells, 10 things the Chinese do better
Hell yeah, I definitely missed that. Especially considering that it only cost about 35 yuan (about AUD$5~7) for a nice haircut and the head/shoulder/arm massage, even in cities.Nor will we mention the exquisite, free head-and-shoulder massages that come with every shampoo and haircut.
IIRC, the cost of calling an Australia number using a Chinese mobile phone, is about the same as mobile-to-mobile in Australia.1. Cellphones
3 x . If that's accurate, even if we assume that every mobile phone owner has 3 phones in use, we are still talking about at least 10% of the population having a mobile. Or 15 times more mobiles in use than Australia has people.The phones are so cheap -- even sidewalk cabbage vendors have them -- that China is now the biggest cellphone market in the world. With 300 million in use, each one telling time, wristwatch sales have plummeted.
Going from memory based on my last three visits to China, these are getting more and more wide spread. Though admittedly, my visits were limited to the Guangdong (or Canton) province.2. Informative stop lights
In Shenzhen and Guangzhou, when I last visited, even fairly small department or chain stores provided this service.10. Free hemming
"Intelligent Design" Not Accepted by Most Scientists
- Dahak
- Emperor's Hand
- Posts: 7292
- Joined: 2002-10-29 12:08pm
- Location: Admiralty House, Landing, Manticore
- Contact:
Re: From cells to bells, 10 things the Chinese do better
many European countries the saturation of cell phones has reached, or exceeded, the number of inhabitants of that countryLord of the Farce wrote: 3 x . If that's accurate, even if we assume that every mobile phone owner has 3 phones in use, we are still talking about at least 10% of the population having a mobile. Or 15 times more mobiles in use than Australia has people.
IIRC in Finland, almost 100% of the populace has a cell phone...
Great Dolphin Conspiracy - Chatter box
"Implications: we have been intercepted deliberately by a means unknown, for a purpose unknown, and transferred to a place unknown by a form of intelligence unknown. Apart from the unknown, everything is obvious." ZORAC
GALE Force Euro Wimp
Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority.
- Ace Pace
- Hardware Lover
- Posts: 8456
- Joined: 2002-07-07 03:04am
- Location: Wasting time instead of money
- Contact:
Re: From cells to bells, 10 things the Chinese do better
We've passed the 102% in Israel.Dahak wrote:many European countries the saturation of cell phones has reached, or exceeded, the number of inhabitants of that countryLord of the Farce wrote: 3 x . If that's accurate, even if we assume that every mobile phone owner has 3 phones in use, we are still talking about at least 10% of the population having a mobile. Or 15 times more mobiles in use than Australia has people.
IIRC in Finland, almost 100% of the populace has a cell phone...
Brotherhood of the Bear | HAB | Mess | SDnet archivist |
-
- Fucking Awesome
- Posts: 13834
- Joined: 2002-07-04 03:21pm
Of course they are somewhat less skilled at things like "providing clean air and water", "combating crushing poverty" and the ever-important "preventing peasant uprisings."
The End of Suburbia
"If more cars are inevitable, must there not be roads for them to run on?"
-Robert Moses
"The Wire" is the best show in the history of television. Watch it today.
"If more cars are inevitable, must there not be roads for them to run on?"
-Robert Moses
"The Wire" is the best show in the history of television. Watch it today.
- Grand Moff Yenchin
- Sith Devotee
- Posts: 2728
- Joined: 2003-02-07 12:49pm
- Location: Surrounded by fundies who mock other fundies
- Contact:
In the list nothing beats the shampoo massage. Barber shops in TW also do it.
Also note that the author mainly mentions the more developed areas. IIRC everything outside of these areas is shit. China is also the only place you can find people shamelessly mass producing "black heart" products.
Also note that the author mainly mentions the more developed areas. IIRC everything outside of these areas is shit. China is also the only place you can find people shamelessly mass producing "black heart" products.
1st Plt. Comm. of the Warwolves
Member of Justice League
"People can't see Buddha so they say he doesn't have a body, since his body is formed of atoms, of course you can't see it. Saying he doesn't have a body is correct"- Li HongZhi
Member of Justice League
"People can't see Buddha so they say he doesn't have a body, since his body is formed of atoms, of course you can't see it. Saying he doesn't have a body is correct"- Li HongZhi
- LordShaithis
- Redshirt
- Posts: 3179
- Joined: 2002-07-08 11:02am
- Location: Michigan
They had better get it together in China. They're going to be running the world after the fundies destroy America. We're going to be teaching our children that rain comes from God's tears in science class while the Chinese invent teleportation.
If Religion and Politics were characters on a soap opera, Religion would be the one that goes insane with jealousy over Politics' intimate relationship with Reality, and secretly murder Politics in the night, skin the corpse, and run around its apartment wearing the skin like a cape shouting "My votes now! All votes for me! Wheeee!" -- Lagmonster
- Lord of the Farce
- Jedi Council Member
- Posts: 2198
- Joined: 2002-08-06 10:49am
- Location: Melbourne, Australia
- Contact:
If rural Guangzhou (where most of my family on my dad's side lives) is any indication, things has definitely been improving quite significantly in the past decade or so. If nothing else, many roads are (judging by my last visit) almost as good as any that we have in Australia - and considering the potholes and crappy repair jobs all over some of the urban and suburban roads here, sometimes much better.Grand Moff Yenchin wrote:Also note that the author mainly mentions the more developed areas. IIRC everything outside of these areas is shit.
"Intelligent Design" Not Accepted by Most Scientists
- Grand Moff Yenchin
- Sith Devotee
- Posts: 2728
- Joined: 2003-02-07 12:49pm
- Location: Surrounded by fundies who mock other fundies
- Contact:
Guangzhou and most of the southeast is usually considered as the better developed areas. The Chinese governement seemed to have emphasis on these areas to attract foreign companies. Shen Zhen developed rapidly for such reasons. The term "Inland China" is sometimes referred by the coastal provinces to the more undeveloped inlands.Lord of the Farce wrote:If rural Guangzhou (where most of my family on my dad's side lives) is any indication, things has definitely been improving quite significantly in the past decade or so. If nothing else, many roads are (judging by my last visit) almost as good as any that we have in Australia - and considering the potholes and crappy repair jobs all over some of the urban and suburban roads here, sometimes much better.Grand Moff Yenchin wrote:Also note that the author mainly mentions the more developed areas. IIRC everything outside of these areas is shit.
1st Plt. Comm. of the Warwolves
Member of Justice League
"People can't see Buddha so they say he doesn't have a body, since his body is formed of atoms, of course you can't see it. Saying he doesn't have a body is correct"- Li HongZhi
Member of Justice League
"People can't see Buddha so they say he doesn't have a body, since his body is formed of atoms, of course you can't see it. Saying he doesn't have a body is correct"- Li HongZhi
Is that so rare? I mean I know in Melbourne they offered it in certain stores (most stores down Chapel for instance had it), and it's pretty common here in Greece too.Alex Moon wrote:I remember reading this a while ago. Personally, I'm not impressed. Except for the hemming thing. I'm insanely jealous of that.
Η ζωή, η ζωή εδω τελειώνει!
"Science is one cold-hearted bitch with a 14" strap-on" - Masuka 'Dexter'
"Angela is not the woman you think she is Gabriel, she's done terrible things"
"So have I, and I'm going to do them all to you." - Sylar to Arthur 'Heroes'
Around here it's pretty rare. I get my suits from work, since I get a 25% discount and the gal who measures them is very good at it. However it costs me about $10-20 and they get sent out to be done., which can mean a wait of up to 5-6 days. It would be nice to get them done immediately.Crown wrote:Is that so rare? I mean I know in Melbourne they offered it in certain stores (most stores down Chapel for instance had it), and it's pretty common here in Greece too.Alex Moon wrote:I remember reading this a while ago. Personally, I'm not impressed. Except for the hemming thing. I'm insanely jealous of that.
Warwolves | VRWC | BotM | Writer's Guild | Pie loves Rei
-
- Fucking Awesome
- Posts: 13834
- Joined: 2002-07-04 03:21pm
Hell I got better haircuts for $2.25 in Beijing than I do when I shell out fifteen fucking dollars over here.In the list nothing beats the shampoo massage. Barber shops in TW also do it.
The End of Suburbia
"If more cars are inevitable, must there not be roads for them to run on?"
-Robert Moses
"The Wire" is the best show in the history of television. Watch it today.
"If more cars are inevitable, must there not be roads for them to run on?"
-Robert Moses
"The Wire" is the best show in the history of television. Watch it today.