What's so different about the Republic of China?

China. The word conjures up images of a suppressed society where people are appointed jobs and paid similar wages. However, China is very similar to our home country in more ways than I thought:

People choose their own occupation. But they are also struggling with a high unemployment rate and college graduates worry about securing jobs. Many young people decide to attend graduate school to make their resume more appealing

Health care is not provided to the masses - people rely on their jobs to provide health insurance. Without insurance doctor visits are quite pricey and once retired, you need to arrange your own health coverage.

Women are getting married at a later age. The average engagement age for is around 27 (I'm right on target!) However, engagements only last a few months and weddings are arranged solely by the parents.

Newlyweds often struggle to afford a home of their own.

BMWs and Audis share the road with clunkers and 20 year old tuk-tuks. There is definitely a separation between lower, middle and upper class society.

But, China has some interesting differences....

Young people live with their parents until they are married. Once they start working, they send their parents money every month. (Our Chinese friends made us feel like neglectful children). This may be China's form of "social security," since people are not entitled to anything from the government when they get older.

But... Grandparents usually raise their grandchild. It's not considered an inconvenience to shuttle your kids off to your parents. They are expected to raise them while you continue your career.

Did you catch that I mentioned child, not children? The one child cap in China is still a reality. If you live in a big Chinese city and have more than one child, expect to pay a find of 10,000 RMB (that's about $1500). To put that in perspective, that's about the annual salary of a lower class worker. If you're a teacher, doctor or other type of civil servant, you no longer have a job. Two children are allowed in rural areas, only if your first born was a girl.

The one child law may be a blessing in disguise because of the hefty price tag on education. Parents who want their child to attend a prestigious college better start saving before conception. They can expect to pay thousands of US dollars just to put their child through pre-kindergarten. Children start competing for seats in well known schools starting in first grade. But, the money seems to be a wise investment for parents who will eventually earn a cut of their offspring's salary.

As we mentioned before, social media websites and the press are censored. This stems from China thinking they own Tibet and Taiwan and the hushed events of Tian An Men Square in 1989. Makes me very grateful for investigative journalism and our transparent government.

Like Japan, the number of people in the service industry is much higher than we're used to. There are generally two people working a bus (a driver and a fare collector), and restaurants or shops tend to have more servers than you'd expect. Perhaps the hardest phenomenon to explain is the dual use of both traffic lights and traffic directors in most major intersections. I don't know if the idea is to catch light runners, or just help to usher in the new traffic bosses, but in every city we've been to it is not uncommon to see as many as six people directing cars and people (they just use whistles and pointing to reinforce what the lights already say). Is it a case of job creation? Pedestrian safety? I don't know.

-Jenn : )
P.S. For those of you interested in some of the places we've visited, we'll update our blog with short photo posts when we get away from China's firewall.