Living in the Chinese Incubator by Kyle Bailey

It is generally accepted that living in China must be quite an interesting experience and it is; but what is it exactly that makes China so different from anywhere else? There are so many cliche reasons that are bandied about; the culture, the language, the food etc. and there is no doubt that all of these things played in part in capturing my initial fascination with the region. However, there is one thing that is so obvious it is sometimes not always apparent and that is the shear scale of everything here. My first experience in China was arriving at Shanghai airport in 1998 as a crew member of the 'Elbe' cable lay barge. We were to picked up by bus and taken to the harbour to board what was to be my home for the next 6 or so months. Stopping at a red light we faced an awe inspiring horde of bicycles on the other side of the intersection; they stretched five lanes wide and almost an entire city block back, all poised and waiting for that light to change. The barge superintendant, a humourless German named Lutz, sat studying this in deep thought, he then turned to me and with his limited English proceeded to sum up the essence of what makes China so interesting "So many bicycles; and if every one of these has a car, it is hell!" 10 years on I am living in what should be "hell" because most of those people now do have cars and yet with each challenge, China adapts and the whole thing keeps going. In 2005 I travelled around the south of China with my friend Vernon; one day while observing four layers of packed highway in Guang Zhou he said "China is just chaos but somehow it works". I see China as an incubator for problems that the rest of the world are going to have to deal with at some point in the future but because of the scale of everything in China, everything is magnified and cant be ignored for very long as things can be other places. When too many people use disposable chopsticks in China, because of the population size, the effects are immediately evident because forests start disappearing; when buying a car becomes the latest craze the roads clog up and the air becomes unbreathable. The result is that the Chinese people have to think on their feet and act quickly to keep things going and that is what I find so interesting about China.
It is a great experience to be in the middle of all that China is doing at this time and I am sure that I am going to be able to bring many valueble lessons home with me one day.