Every day sounds like the Fourth of July in Zhengzhou.
The crackling of exploding fireworks can be heard every few hours somewhere in the city. Sometimes it’s a holiday celebration, but more often than not the cacophonous display signals a personal event like a wedding, graduation or a new job.
China invented fireworks, some say as many as 2,000 years ago, when bamboo rods were lit on fire and produced a deafening sound that was thought to scare away evil spirits. Today China is the world’s largest manufacturer and exporter of fireworks. Based on my experience in Zhengzhou, the Chinese must also be the biggest users of pyrotechnics.
Unfortunately, the fireworks industry here has few safety regulations. Eleven people were killed and 17 injured Friday in an explosion at a fireworks factory in the southern city of Cenxi. Dozens of people have died in accidents at Chinese fireworks plants in recent years.
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The chalk in my classrooms is as fragile as an old lady’s bones. Chalk it up to faulty Chinese manufacturing.
Almost every time I write on the blackboard, the chalk breaks. Classroom floors are littered with the fragments, and the powdery white residue gets all over your hands and clothes.
I don’t know how they make chalk in China, but they need to upgrade their standards to clean up this blackboard jungle.
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Toilet paper in China is used to wipe faces as well as feces.
Since most restaurants don’t have napkins, it’s not unusual to see someone whip out a roll of toilet paper while eating a meal and tear off a piece to clean their hands or mouth. Many Chinese diners also carry around pocket-size tissue packs for the same purpose.
Supermarkets carry rows and rows of toilet paper, but it’s almost impossible to find paper towels. Very disappointing, considering that paper was invented in China.
