Lest you think Guangzhou, China is all about flowers and hot middle-age moms with the fashion sense of a 14 year old, let me tell you about some of the other cool things in the city. There are crazy Chinese medicine men, esoteric Qigong dudes, and “normal” people showing extraordinary proficiency in music, dance, calligraphy and common sense.
A few hours outside the city is Lo Fu Shan, one of the pre-eminent Taoist mountains in China. Although not as well known as Wudang Shan and Huang Shan, nevertheless it was and is very important. Ge Hong, who lived 283-243 CE, cultivated immortality on Lo Fu Shan. One of our teachers of medical Qigong and internal alchemy was head abbot at a Taoist temple located on the mountain. There is a major private hospital which was founded by one of his student just outside Guangzhou that integrates both Eastern and Western medicine.
In the city we study with another teacher who combines traditional Chinese medicine, Yi Jing, and internal alchemy. He is one of the few doctors in China that can still use the single needle acupuncture technique (Yi Zhen Fa or Du Zhen Fa) to treat you. In the old days, the best lineage trained doctors could diagnose you just by looking at you. They could select one point to use and successfully treat you in just a few or even one treatment. We are quite fortunate to study with him.
The city is also the home of Dr. Sun Yat Sen, the founder of modern China. Our family system of Kung Fu has a connection to him through the Hong Men Hui. Dr. Sun was a member of the organization and it played an instrumental role in the founding of the Republic and the preservation of the real Chinese martial arts. My grand teacher, studied with the head of this organization.
The city’s shopping district still preserves some of the old architecture. Since the city is semi-tropical, it gets almost daily rain showers, which must keep the Guangzhou dragon (Long in Chinese) pretty busy*. The city’s old buildings were built out over the sidewalks so you could walk and shop without getting wet. It is one example of a practical Chinese solution to a very real problem.
Of course, if you need a break from training and shopping, you can always relax on the river walk in the colonial district. You never know what you’ll find…
On one side, the river walk has no guard wall. That’s right, no stone wall and no guard rail. It’s a 10 foot drop right over the edge into the Pearl River. Unless you can free climb up a stone wall, or your companion carries a rope and crampons, there’s no getting out if you fall in.
In China, danger is also opportunity. The lack of a guard wall creates an opportunity for a small businessman to thrive. Under an elevated bridge that takes you above the walk to an exclusive hotel, we watched an enterprising entrepreneur set up a fishing business one night.
His girlfriend helped him squat a section of the walk as he set up the lines. He had about a dozen rods which he cast out into the river and braced in metal brackets he wedged between the flagstones. When we asked what he was doing, he told us catching fish to sell in the local restaurants. The restaurants want fresh fish every morning and it pays pretty well.
You have to give the Chinese great credit for their culinary culture. While they are limited by the quality of their ingredients from a pollution/organic standpoint, they appreciate fresh food and expend great efforts to prepare it well. Nothing short of Haute French cuisine comes close to the care and skill employed by even the average Chinese chief.
As we watched the fisherman work all 12 lines with a skill that bordered on effortlessness, I told my interpreter that “In the US we have codes requiring safety railings because if not people would fall in, sue and win big money.”
I asked her if China had safety codes for this sort of thing.
Laughing, she said “It’s not like in America. People here have better sense than to walk up to the edge of something and fall in. If you tried to sue in China for something as stupid as falling into the big old river they would say to you ‘Who told you to go to the edge and fall in!’”
It seems like common sense is still relatively common in China!
* In ancient Chinese culture, dragons are often associated with rain, weather and water. Each city, region and body of water has its resident dragon which determines local conditions based upon the orders of heaven.
Thanks for the article. I have to disagree with your point on common sense though. Common sense tells you that accidents happen and that the obvious thing to do is to try to prevent them. Tell me how much common sense there is in not having a wall when a four-year-old runs to the edge, trips and falls in.
To Shawn,
This is a good article. I was born in a city near Guangzhou, so I have no difficulty in understanding every thing you mentioned in your article. You have sharp eyes but kind hearts. Thank you for trying to understand China from Chinese point of view, as well as using your common sense.
To John,
If like what you suggested, accidents did happen, then the responsibilities falls heavily onto the parents or guardians who should have accompanied the child. In China, parents’ responsibilities, other than just feeding them and giving them educations, are protecting them from dangers until they’re old enough to judge the dangers themselves.
Parents in China normally would teach their children as early as they can walk about the dangers around, and how to avoid them. Also, on top of just repetitive telling them the dangers, they also won’t let their children run outside of their sights and reach.
These parents’ behaviours, in some western people’s eyes are over-protective. That maybe true in some sense, however, different country has different problems, and sometimes to tacle these problems, the people themselves have to find their ways.
Just like in America, there’s no strict law prohibites people from buying guns, so people feel unsafe not knowing if someone someday you encounter would point the gun at you without a reason. To protect themselves, they themselves have to buy guns, not to shoot, just in case. Similarily, China has its problem, also hugh, child smulggling. Every year, there’s 70,000 children being smuggled in China. How to tacle this problem? Other than heavy punishment, and tracking down the smuggler groups from the police, the only way Chinese families can protect their only child (remember their one child policy) is protect them this way. Though over-protective, but better than losing them forever, isn’t it?
Therefore, if accidence did happen, people would normally blame themselves rather than the government, because just like Shawn says, if you try to blame someone else, they would ask you in return, ‘Who told you to let go of your child to the edge?’
That’s called common sense in China.
Thank you for your sharing your thoughts and experience with us. Guangzhou is a beautiful area.