I started this post with the intention of talking about differences in Chinese life and Canadian life. More of a complaint about why Canadian life is so much more convenient than Chinese life. But as I was typing it, I realized how silly it was and how silly I was. Of course, it’s nice to have things at my fingertips but I have been spoon-fed everything. I can have out-of-season fruit sent from half-way around the world, all for the low cost of unnecessary carbon emissions. I can drive to the corner store or to work in the heart of downtown every day at the low, low cost of a tank of fossil fuels. I can wear winter clothes indoors during the peak of summer for the cost of oh-so-familiar smog-warning days. I can go watch the basketball game and have friends eat the wings of 40 chickens in the span of two hours. We don’t stop to think about these things because Toronto life is so busy and these are things we just do. At least that’s what it felt to me.

Living in China for two years has been the best thing I could have done. My eyes have been opened and my life has changed in so many ways. Even before I came to China, I was already trying to do the gung-ho save-the-world by being the change you want to see in the world deal. Then I came to realize that they still do that in the rest of the world. My grocery store here doesn’t get out-of-season fruits and vegetables. If the farmers here grow them, they sell them. It’s as simple as that. They don’t import from half-way around the world. They sell local, at least more local than, say, Loblaws (aka Canadian Safeway). I love mandarin orange season. It’s probably the sole reason why I don’t get sick here. If my 中百 (Zhōngbǎi) supermarket doesn’t have mangoes, I don’t eat mangoes. What my 中百 has, I buy. But they did bring in a box of Sunkist oranges at one point but I refused to buy them and bought the local ones.

Depending on who you talk to, the population of Wuhan is eight to 12 million people. That’s a lot of people. There’s a lot of cars in Wuhan but you also haven’t seen how many buses we have here. They’re finally starting construction on the subway system, too. I’ve always heard how our subway system is crappy and small, I even thought Montreal had it better than us. But Shanghai’s subway system is huge and they stop at major tourist locations. Hong Kong’s subway system is pretty awesome, too. But Hong Kong, in general, is teeny tiny in comparison to Wuhan. I remember walking on the streets two Octobers ago with a girl friend and walking way too far because we kept looking at the map thinking it was bigger than it actually was. We missed our turn to the jazz club where we met some interesting German characters staying at the Shangri-La.

China isn’t all for saving the environment either, though. When I arrived in Shanghai, my impression was how much waste was being produced by everyone. Take-out containers from street-food vendors. Individual plastic bags, not 4-cup cardboard cup holders, for your drinks from McDonald’s. We have so far to go as a global community to stop our destructive behaviours.

I’m tired. Time for bed.