The Blind Advantage

Sidewalks all over China have about a 1-2 foot section where the brick or concrete has been replaced with this, for lack of a better term, bumpy strip. I have wondered off and on for years what it's for. It doesn't seem to matter how wide or narrow the sidewalk is, which city I'm in, this strip is almost always there. When the sidewalk is really narrow it is the sidewalk. I was especially confused when in Suzhou, the sidwalk didn't have it and they then proceeded to tear up the bricks and install it. After a trip to Shenzhen I noticed they had painted a pedestrian on one side and a bike on the other, so I assumed it must be a dividing line, but that never seemed quite right, espcially since sometimes the strip runs down the middle of the sidewalk and others is all the way to the side. How are you supposed to walk or ride on the three inches left on the other side?

After 2 years of living in China I have finally discovered it's for blind people. It is to let blind people know where to go. The amount of thought and money that has been put into the care and help for blind people to navigate the city, know where curbs are, lead them to a counter to buy metro tickets and know when to stop is astounding!!! I am impressed. I am also incredibly confused.

1. Why are blind people so special??

2. As with most things in China, this idea has only been half-way thought through.

3. Why just this form of help? You see brail ocassionally, but traffic lights don't make that beeping noise so the person can know when to cross.

4. What about all the other handicap people in China?

If you're in a wheelchair you don't get special help navigating the system like say, an elevator or a handicap stall. Shanghai is in the process of building this beautiful and very extensive metro system. There are many stations where you cannot get up or down to the platform if you are in a wheel chair, because there is no elevator or it is broken. My favorite was Jinshajia Metro station. If you are in a wheelchair it is impossible to get from the above ground line 3/4 to the below ground line 11 unless you get out and walk down the stairs or your friends carry you like a king (which I saw happen twice in one year.) Occassionally you'll find a bathroom with a handicap stall. My favourite sign in China might be this one, technically correct:

At this point you must be thinking with 1.5billion people we must see a lot of blind people. We've seen a few blind beggars (a person maimed so they can beg, ala that scene in Slumdog Millionaire where the little boy gets acid thrown in his eyes to make him blind. If you come to China don't give money to these people, it just propagates the system.) But a non-beggar blind person...Once, maybe!!

So where are all these blind people that the government has so generously catered for?

Vietnam

So, it has been FAR too long since a post has been made to this our blog from China. As it stands, I am writing this from an internet cafe in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) Vietnam. We are here for the lunar New Year. 2011 is the year of the Rabbit (兔子) and we have been lucky to see the New Years festivities here in Vietnam. Here, they call it "Tet", but for all intents and purposes, it's the same. It's a time for lion dances, praying to the god of luck, spending time with family, and setting off fireworks. Vietnam is a beautiful country, which we have seen on both a long-range bus trip (from Saigon to Nah Trang) and on the train (from Nah Trang back to Saigon). We spent most of our leisure time on the beach, enjoying the....infrequent sun, and reading. All in all, your basic beach vacation, except all in Vietnamese. Our Chinese language skills are ZERO help here, as Vietnamese resembles Chinese in no way shape or form.

Saigon is an interesting city; lots of mopeds, scooters, and motorcycles. We saw a museum that commemorates the Vietnamese struggle first against the French and later against the Americans. This museum has replicas of the tunnel system used by the VietCong, as well as photos of the buddhist monk who burned himself to death to protest the war (Thích Quảng Đức). The photo is disturbing, so only go to the wikipedia page at your peril.

We ate Pho many many times, and I tried the all-in-one Pho, tonight which has all the good stuff in it (tripe, tendon, well-braised brisket, top round, and meat balls)

DELICIOUS!!! Something about fish sauce and lime juice that makes my mouth water.....

Aside from the mopeds, scooters, and motorcycles, the other vehicle we see a lot is the cyclo, which is a kind of rickshaw. It looks like this.

We saw foreigners and Vietnamese alike riding in these, but never took one ourselves. They're really only built for one person to sit in.

We did a basic walking tour around Saigon which included the museum I mentioned, a Catholic church (it's nice to see religion being practiced. The Vietnamese are also Buddhist and Muslim), an old colonial French Post Office, and a flower market. Kristy and I have been debating if the flower market is a weekly thing, or something set up just for Tet. We ended up at the rooftop bar of a hotel to watch the sun set over the city. Saigon is polluted, but nowhere near as polluted as Shanghai, so we were able to watch the sun set in the nearly blue sky. SO nice!

As I write this it is roughly 26 degrees Celsius here in Saigon, while back at our apartment in Shanghai, the temperature is 3 degrees. We are not excited to be returning. Kristy still has two weeks left of her break from school before her spring term begins again. We are already thinking about where to go for Easter.... Japan, Cambodia, Thailand...?