Suzhou is a city with long history, however I spent my first
ever visit to China mostly in its most modern part: Suzhou Industrial Park. The
name is a bit misleading, as it is actually a whole district including housing
estates surrounding the factories. It has been built up to the best modern
standards, although that means that if some local clues were removed, it could be
placed nearly anywhere in the US or Europe. The sheer size of the place is
astonishing: countless factories occupy plots of about half a kilometre side
each (except from Samsung factory, along which you one drive and drive and
drive…), laid on square grid of streets. The most humble streets are dual
carriageways, all have separate wide lanes for bikes/scooters, main roads are 4
lanes wide in each direction. It looks like there were very few limits in place
constraining the architects.
It is not the most pedestrian friendly environment, as
crossing the street is a long walk, but with distances here, most travels
involve some means of transport anyway. Central reservations always have tall
and wide hedge – it does not only complement garden-like arrangements outside
pavements, but prevents pedestrians crossing the roads. What happens on the
streets is actually one of the obvious differences between otherwise
western-like style: although traffic lights are generally obeyed, speed
restrictions seem to be loose, and there appear to be no rules regarding
driving on appropriate lane (or even within one lane), methods of overtaking,
changing lanes, joining traffic etc. Lights and horns are in constant use. That
can be experienced especially when riding taxis – really thrilling stuff.
Especially that they are old and worn (typical is 500k+ km driven VW Santana
- there are many makes and models known locally only), rarely with working
seatbelts, but each equipped in acrylic guard surrounding the driver to protect
from abuse :)
Cars
seen here aren’t at all different from the Europe, if anything, there might be
even bigger disproportion between number of top class makes and rest of vehicles
(possibly highlighted by naturally large American cars). Lorries on the other
hand are all of local origin, of impressively big load capacity, and above that
typically overloaded. Outside lane is the kingdom of electric scooters, which
is fine until it gets dark, as to save energy for propelling they drive without
lights on, so one quickly learns to beware of their whisper when crossing the
street.
Although it looks a bit wild, traffic actually flows smoothly (literally, as
seen from the hotel) and considering number of vehicles, 2 incidents seen over
a week of time I suspect were on average as likely as problems caused by
elderly ladies on double roundabouts elsewhere…
The houses surrounding the industrial zone are blocks of
flats of around 20 floors each. I could see neither too many parking spaces nor
obvious underground car parks, so I suspect they will soon struggle with that.
Apart from the fact that blocks aren’t the most friendly environment to live,
taking into account number of inhabitants, idea of individual houses for 1
billion people would be impossible to achieve even in so vast country (and for
sure not in densely populated Shanghai area). I’m sure it is also with economy
in mind. Nevertheless countless cranes are present everywhere, erecting more
and more of them. That shows how China can sustain 2 digit growth rate – this
country literally grows in one’s eyes.
Side effect of this growth is pollution and I was worried I
would never see the Sun, but by the end of the week it appeared that it is
possible (although it could have had something to with slowing production due
to Labour Day long weekend). Not that I've seen much of light, enjoying ‘cosiness’ of
factory I came to from dawn to dusk…
 |
| It is not a fog limiting the visibility... |
The factory is actually cleaner than some
(most?) UK sites I’ve been to, equipped in modern machines, with all good
health and safety policies in place – again, if not for the Chinese
descriptions and food in the canteen, one could be convinced it is let's say in Germany.
The workers also did not seem to be dying at the machines, though I’m sure this
does not represent standards (of their lack) possible to find in textile
business in remote areas.
Since I mentioned food, it should be obvious that real
Chinese cuisine is only remotely resembled by what is offered in takeaways.
First of all it is fresh – made from raw in front of you and I doubt meat was
defrosted before. Fresh can be as literal as frogs in aquariums next to fridges
with skewers in self-service hot pot place. There are many more types of
mushrooms in one dish that British children will see in supermarkets for the
whole life, and more cabbage than the Polish use in their meals. And then there are spices, with unusual flavours and their
combinations, all biased more towards hot side. ‘Interesting’ I thing is the
best word to describe them, as in case of noodles in cold sweet sauce, half of which appeared to be actually long, chewy mushrooms. Or tofu in chilli (‘fried
teabags’):
tasteless inside, burning on the
surface.
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