I saw a very different side of Zhengzhou today.
I walked a couple of miles from my hotel to Wanda Plaza, a modern megamall of the type you would find in a prosperous U.S. suburb. Only bigger. All the familiar names were there: Starbucks, H&M, Calvin Klein, Nike, Haagen Daz. Lots of high-end clothing stores, electronic stores featuring the latest devices, a demonstration of fancy massage chairs, and new Chinese cars on display. To get my Western fix, I ate at Pizza Hut and had dessert at Dairy Queen. The Pizza Hut was more elaborate than the ones in the U.S., with an extensive menu that included steaks and three-course meals in addition to pizza and pasta. I had a tasty spaghetti dish with bacon, onions, mushrooms and green peppers, and washed it down with a refreshing peach iced tea that had actual peach slices at the bottom. And yes, the tea really had ice — the first time I’ve seen an iced drink in Zhengzhou. At Dairy Queen, I had a cone with soft vanilla ice cream dipped in chocolate sauce. Just like they make at home.
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I also checked out the Walmart there, which is about the size of the Rose Bowl. Since just about everything in a U.S. Walmart is made in China, I thought maybe Chinese Walmarts carried nothing but American goods. Fat chance. I don’t spend much time at Walmart in New Jersey, but it did seem that the store at the Zhengzhou mall was brighter and cleaner than the ones at home. They’re all packed with shoppers, though. I guess the Chinese like a bargain as much as we do.
Prices at the mall were considerably higher than in the local shops near my hotel. And the clientele was also much different: mostly teenagers and young families who are obviously part of China’s growing middle and upper-middle class. I realize now that judging Zhengzhou by walking around my hotel neighborhood is like evaluating New York by spending 10 minutes in Greenwich Village. Zhengzhou is a big, diverse city (about 3 million people) that can’t be summed up in a single phrase or with a snap judgment. I’ve yet to see large parts of Zhengzhou or the new Central Business District on the eastern edge of the city. That’s the area that “60 Minutes” used to illustrate its story earlier this year on China’s “ghost cities,” huge new developments that are largely unoccupied because they’re too expensive or remote. I’ve heard conflicting stories about Zhengzhou’s new district. Some say it’s mostly empty, while others say that “60 Minutes” exaggerated the situation and that there are quite a few businesses and residents there. I plan to find out for myself in the coming days.
The only disappointment at the mall was the lack of Western toilets. The only ones I saw were the traditional squat versions I wrote about yesterday. I hate to harp on this, but if China wants to really be a modern society, it needs to get its bathroom act together.
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Though it’s been sweltering since I arrived here, I’ve yet to see the sun. Zhengzhou seems to be enveloped in a permanent layer of smog. Whether that’s caused by pollution, global warming or something else, I don’t know. But I doubt I’ll see the sun again until I return to the U.S. or visit another part of China where the skies aren’t as predictably gray as a Confederate regiment.
