Log Forty Three – The Great Firewall of China

September 15, 2018

Welcome Back.

Its been many months since I last wrote and that has been largely due to not travelling since October last year.  The travel drought has now broken and we are back on the road, this time it’s China.

Airport Design

I have to say something about airport design that we have all experienced.  Modern airports are amazing spaces accommodating huge numbers of people.  These public spaces are flooded with natural light through the expansive use of glass.  The downside is the early morning flight and the rising sun blasting through the airport. It’s like a death ray and it’s always where you are trying to enjoy a coffee or worse, deal with security.   The solution; between 6.00am and 8.30am everyone gets free disposable sunglasses.

Beijing

We have all heard about the air pollution and those stories are not exaggerated.  However apart from the air the city is very clean and well ordered.  No graffiti, no homeless people, no beggars, no litter.  The traffic is heavy but well behaved and no road rage.

This is a city of 24 million people, more than the entire Australian landmass.  And yet it is a very safe city with very limited crime.  The police don’t even carry guns.

How is this achieved I wonder.  It seems the answer is cameras, lots of cameras, thousands of cameras.  Cameras are everywhere from the tops of buildings, to poles in the street, on building corners, in hotel corridors and on traffic light poles.  Everything and potentially everybody is covered by a camera.

Beijing is a place where things get done.  In just twenty five years they have gone from 2 urban rail lines to about 38 commuter lines today.  Long winded consultation or community protest does not interrupt this city’s drive to modernise.

Beijing is a high tech city.  Everyone has a smart phone and yes chatting or texting when driving is as endemic in Beijing as in major city.

A cashless economy is reality for young people who are rapid adopters of new technology.

The streets are filled with VWs, Audi, Lexus, Range Rovers, Porsche and the majority of the motor scooters are electric which makes for relatively quiet streets.

In contrast to this acceptance of high tech is the China firewall.  This firewall is as great as the Great Wall with a similar philosophy behind its design, to minimise disturbance of the social order.

 

 

A traveller to China must be prepared for no Facebook, no Google and slow or interrupted email services.  Of course the upside is that you can enjoy the isolation like the travel experience of 30 years ago when daily contact with home was simply not feasible.

Beijing is a city of multi storey shopping centres filled with Prada, Gucci, Rolex and Cartier stores.

Final comment on Beijing:  I will be more understanding of Chinese signs in Sydney and Melbourne after appreciating the English signs in their capital city.