BEIJING (AP) - In a matter of days, hundreds of thousands of visitors from more than 100 countries will flood into China’s capital, where non-Chinese faces are still a rarity in some neighborhoods.
The Beijing Olympics will be the largest gathering of foreigners in China in recent history - the biggest foreign influx since the Mongol invasion - and a social experiment of sorts for a country that is overwhelmingly monochromatic.
Having been to China a few times and living in Taiwan for a couple years, I can relate to the “white foreigner in China” reaction from many Chinese who have not had the opportunity to get up close-and-personal with foreigners. Although in big cities like Beijing and Shanghai where there are literally millions of foreigners, there will not be much “surprise” for most Chinese. Plus, most tourists, even the most daring don’t linger far from the “tourist friendly” areas of any part of China.
This will however be a very interesting social experiment, as the AP aticle linked to below states. Foreigners, especially Europeans and Americans are used to being able to do whatever they want when they want, and you can’t so that in China. Traffic is a good example. In the U.S., when an idiot, or an airhead wanders into the street into oncoming traffic, cars stop. Red lights, stop signs, these things are followed for the most part. They hardly mean anything in China. Stepping out into traffic in China WILL get you to a hospital quickly. Traffic is only a part of it, an example of the differences between East and West. There are much more important and serious things that can get an ignorant Westerner in trouble.
Not to be a downer, most of the interaction should be nothing more than a lot of fun. I wish I could be there to take it all in.
Source: Beijing Readies for Influx of Foreign Visitors, AP
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