Clichés

Today was my last day in Yantai. To say goodbye to this small pocket
of the world, I went for a long, rambling walk. I ended up in a small
park, tucked between some large roads, an apartment complex and a
banking center. I observed an motley caste of very regular people who
were also spending a Thursday afternoon in the park. There were some
old men who were also sitting serenely or napping. Several gaggles of
old women laughed and gossiped loudly. A few young people walked
through, looking as though they had just come from the shopping center
nearby. In the shallow pond that comprised most of the central area of
the park, a man waded through lily pads to collect plastic bottles. It
was unclear whether he was being paid to do this as part of the park
maintenance or whether he was doing it to collect a recycling fee from
the bottles. About 10 middle-aged people practiced some kind of
singing choreographed show in one corner. Several pairs of
grandparent-and-single-grandchild wandered about, playing on the
playground and everything else.

People are still people.

That being said, I am going to mention how I've had quite a real,
clichéd China experience in some ways. I saw a dog meat store while
wandering around today. Yesterday, a little girl with three pigtails
ran past me and said; "您好阿姨!" (basically 'hello aunt' - a greeting
phrase used to address an older female stranger that we were taught in
Chinese class but that I actually never expected to hear), I've
haggled at night markets; I've watched people pee on the sidewalk;
I've used the infamous squat toilets. Some other little things about
Chinese people: they spit - and by that, I mean they wind up and hawk
spitballs; also, socks and sandals = absolutely acceptable.