26.08.09
With man flu in tow, I have an activity rate of about -5 for the morning and so do practically nothing, the afternoon however is very interesting. Me and Jenny decide to take a walk around the Muslim Quarter in Xian, which just breaks all stereotypical images you have of religions and how people should look. Compared to the other markets in China it's selling so many different things and is like a toned down version of the market in Marakech, really bizarre for the middle of a massive Chinese city. The women wear hijabs and burkas and the men head caps, with their clothes having a distinctive Arab flair. There is Arabic calligraphy as opposed to Chinese characters on the shops and around the quarter and occasionally people will talk in Arabic.
A walk around the city walls and the parkland that surrounds it, has us land in a traditional Chinese dance performance and singing, which is 'interesting'. Also in the park are the communal exercise bikes and machines which seem to feature in much of China. It's such a good idea and there is the usual collection the older Chinese generation on the machines doing their afternoon routines. We really should adopt this idea in the UK.
Jenny also solves the conundrum of how so many Chinese people can afford to go to the tourist sites today. She says that there is only a small percentage of people in China who are actually rich and can afford to spend money on cameras and gadgets and travel around, while the majority of the country is extremely poor. This very small percentage is smaller than in other countries, but when you have 1.3 billion people it equates to around 97 million people, more than the whole population of the UK, who have enough money to buy what they want, travel around the country and support a huge (and expensive, even by UK standards) domestic tourism industry.
That solves that one then.
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