Ok, I’m sure you’ve all barely slept with excitement waiting for the next instalment of yesterdays thrilling Top 10 15 16 or 17 things about the UK.

Unfortunately H is in one of her lazier moods today and was still asleep in bed when I called her at 2:45 pm. So, we’re still not finished today, she’s got a couple more which I’ll have to post separately if she ever gets round to it.

Anyway, here we go:

9. Old houses
UK houses are full of history. Some of them are hundreds of years old. If you drive along streets, you will find yourself in an ancient country. Amazing!

Some people criticized China only like new stuff. Old houses are torned down replaced by skyscrapers. Well, it’s not we don’t like old stuff. Here are the facts why we do this:

a) I remember when I was a child our house was built with mud.  Along with economy development, houses were replaced with bricks but majority household only built ground floor. As economy further prospered, we started to learn how to add one more floor on top. And of course the houses would be torned down again since the existing ground floor wouldn’t handle the added weight. According to western “old” theory, we probably still live in mug age. And mug age was only 20 years ago. (However, when we knocked down the houses, we still use the old bricks. Does that count into house ages?)
b) Population further escalating: since One Child Policy introduced in 1980, China population still displayed vigorous CAGR growth: 1.1%, from 990 million in 1980 to 1.3 billion in 2007. Don’t’ even mention population growth before the policy. We need new houses for the growing population.
c) People from rural are flourishing to cities. According to statistics, from 1980 to 2005, China urbanization doubled its size, shared 44% of total population. Cities would inevitably adjust themselves to torn down old buildings to build skyscrapers by fixed land.
d) In old China family, every family member was living under same roof as possible. With same structure of several neighbors, they formed so called courtyard houses (I am not talking about king/queen houses). I can not even tell how many people lived in that small courtyard. As young generation like me, we need modernization/more space. i. Beijing Hutong: mostly are changed into hotels. ii Shanghai Taikang lu which are famous for old buildings, now are converted into shops

10. Toilets on streets
It’s fun to see there are open toilets standing on the downtown of Manchester city. Picture is displaying below and I don’t know how to proper describe them. I know some guys are weeing on the street. In our culture, guys are at least hiding in the corner. But apparently this toilet can handle 4 men at the same time. I wonder when they look among others, do they feel embarrassed? When Dingle was doing wee, I tried to look from every angle, but he kept his head down. This picture is taken after he weeed.

11. Lounge
In the UK the fireplace is the focal point of the lounge. Fire is great. It makes room so warm and cozy. TV always stays in the corner. The setting encourages conversation, helps to build connection and harmony.

However in China, TV is always the focal point. I am thinking of putting a fireplace and move TV in the corner so Dingle would spend less time in playing games and watching DVDs.

12. Expensive but weird public transportation
UK public transportation is very expensive versus other countries. Once Dingle and I went out for
a big night so we took bus. The trip is about 15 min long; round trip. They cost us RMB 80 for 2 ppl! In my hometown in Jiangsu, it probably would only cost me RMB 1 to take 2 hours long in pubic buses!

Furthermore, in UK, for whomever drive you off can’t wait along the bus side which means you need to wait in the cold weather all by yourself. In addition, bus drivers don’t take consideration of women or disabled. Dingle and I were waiting at each end of the bus stand despite dingle advice of where he stands is where the bus would stop, but my position was escaping all the wind. So when bus came, discard my wave and trembling face, it came all the way to dingle. So I ran to Dingle, the driver pressed horn. And the horn was so loud and it woke up all the passengers in the bus (UK doesn’t press horns so often). The bus driver claimed he was afraid I would run off the road. How could that be possible??? When we asked when was the last bus coming back, he even didn’t know!!!

13. Common lands
There are many lands that everyone can walk on or pass by. They are referred as common lands. Basically nothing on common lands but grasses. Don’t you think it’s the waste of resources???