Couchsurfing in China by Stephan Orth

Author:Stephan Orth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Schwartz Books Pty. Ltd.

BEIJING

Population: 21.5 million

PINKLAND

IN PINKLAND, THE trees and flowers are pink; the water, the stones and even the snow are pink, as are the houses, roads, cars, tanks, food, medicine and the walls that separate the country from the rest of the world. In Pinkland, there are no marriages, no class distinctions, no prisons—just love and liberty. If someone causes other people pain or harm, they will be immediately expelled. Citizenship, including a passport, is only granted to women and gay men. Straight men will be issued with visas for a maximum stay of ninety days. Decisions about permanent residency are made during a personal interview at which the applicant must wear pink clothing. The color pink stands for adjectives like sexy, pure, feminine, romantic, soft, relaxed and erotic, among others. Citizens reject bad colors such as black, blue and green; dye their hair pink; and wear pink-tinted contact lenses. Pinkland is a dictatorship, the currency is the pink crown and the emblem is two necking flamingos.

(Source: Pinkland information brochure)

THE CAB RIDE from the southern train station to where Lin lives on the eastern fringes of the city takes more than an hour, even in ideal traffic conditions. Beijing is huge, even by Chinese standards: a megacity with 6 million cars, 391 subway stations and more than seventy universities. Sluggish streams of vehicles edge along the highways, polluting the air; on the sidewalks, pedestrians with breathing masks hasten to their next appointments.

Since I’ve been traveling for a couple of weeks now, I should no longer feel a surge of awe and excitement at the sight of a cluster of high-rise buildings. But during this drive, I see so many newly built districts, and newly being built districts, that I wonder whether this reinforced concrete madness will ever end. Or will China just keep on building until there are no high-rise-free square miles in the whole country? Also striking are the giant propaganda billboards at the roadside; there are considerably more than on my last visit four years ago. In terms of self-promotion, Xi Jinping is as keen as Mao once was.

“Socialism with Chinese Qualities to Gain New Victories,” “Realize the Great Dream” and “Great Struggles for a Great Project”—the slogans are presented in large yellow lettering against a red background. China is not hiding that it’s heading for the top and aims to have a leading global role in the military, technological and economic sectors by 2049. From the Chinese viewpoint, Western dominance is merely a roughly 250-year interlude in history; after all, pre-1800, China had already been a world power for many centuries.

To realize this “great dream,” there has been worldwide investment. The One Belt, One Road initiative—the new Silk Road—attracts trading partners with heavy credit for gigantic infrastructure projects. When Portugal was wallowing in its financial crisis of 2010–14, China was busy buying up companies and took over the port of Piraeus in Greece. And in Africa, China has long been the most important trading partner and is involved in more than one-third of all infrastructure projects.

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