China, the middle kingdom as a whole

I'm flying out of Tianjin, China today for South Korea. Maybe it'd be worthwhile to report some findings on the world's largest country while I'm still here.

With plenty of exceptions, it seems like most Chinese people believe that every American (including myself) owns one or more guns, and that if you walk down a street in America there's a ~50% chance you will be shot; because I'm the only American friend of a few Chinese people, I am now the the average height of all Americans; the normal house size everywhere is what you might expect to find in a new Midwestern suburb or Southern manor. Half or more of Chinese people haven't heard of, or know nothing about, the Dalai Lama. Past wars are frequently talked about, either a cab-driver sharing in camaraderie on having defeated Japan together in WWII, or justifying the world's second largest military budget with The Boxer Rebellion as a cause. Despite having little more than practice and routine training, the military is often on the news and related magazines are readily available in stands around the cities.  Work uniforms seem to be more popular here than in the US. In addition, I suspect they could historically be traced back to some American or western WWI or WWII uniform.

There is a general sense of happiness in a surprisingly many people and also a sense of ignorance, but somehow these two impressions seem unrelated with just an impressionable preponderance, and lack correlation. Chinese and generous definitely go together, on more than one occasion a friend or almost total stranger would insist on paying for food or drinks, always within memory citing because I was a "guest." People's opinions of their culture, government, and current events vary as much here as they do in the US, though there is a tinge more nationalism and ample more conservatism here.

Every tourist destination seems to be packed with people daily from a little after opening until closing, I definitely found this devaluing the experience of several places. Very natural scenic places would often have a very artificial walkway or amenities that I found very surprising or would have found very out of place in the US. I think China's immense population leads to the creation of a plethora of simple jobs in order to combat unemployment. I would guess what a modest restaurant does in the US with a team of 10 people on a shift, the average Chinese restaurant would hire at least 15, and probably 20, people to do. I saw on a billboard a list of government-approved virtures, which included 奔小康 (bènxiǎokāng). This translates to "strive for a relatively comfortable life," and seems to come from Confucius' idea of 小康, which is described as a "near-ideal state of society, second only to Datong." Perhaps ideal isn't feasible for this vast population with the current level of technology.

I was able to see a lot of China, but from so many conversations with other travelers I know there is much much more. If I am fortunate enough to return here in the future, I think the best or most interesting route of travel will be to go along the perimeter of China and see the people who claim Mongolian, Kazakh, Muslim, Tibetan, Burmese, Thai, Vietnamese, etc. decent.