Lost on Planet China

Title: Lost on Planet China

Author: J. Maarten Troost
Published: 2008
Read: January 2011
Number of pages: 382
Non-fiction
Where I obtained the book: Barnes and Noble
How I discovered it: read and liked one of Troost's other books, The Sex Lives of Cannibals 
My grade: B

This was a very insightful and interesting read about the author's travels to China when he took a few months off and toured the vast country. He went all over: Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Macau, Tibet, and Manchura. It was the next best thing to actually visiting China myself, actually, it was probably better because this book really didn't make me want to visit China that much...not that I ever did in the first place, but even if I did, this might make me change my mind.

I'll start with the positives first. Troost really liked Tibet and said it didn't feel like the other parts of China he had visited because the people were much more friendlier and the air was a lot cleaner. He and a friend hiked to Tiger Leaping Gorge (so named because apparently a tiger leapt across it) which is supposed to be beautiful, but exhausting to hike. There's also the fact that since they're right by the Himalayans, the air is very thin and it's very easy to get altitude sickness. (Hmm, I'm not making a very convincing case for Tibet, am I?) 

The part of his journey I found the most fascinating was at the very end when he went to Manchura which is in the northeast part of the country, bordered by Russia on the north and east and by Mongolia on the west. Obviously, it's very cold up there. He visited a sanctuary for Siberian tigers, which, according to the author, make lions look like house cats, they're that big. He saw six tigers and the biggest one was ten feet long. They viewed the tigers in their natural habitat in a small bus that had no special protection and he started to get nervous when the tigers got on their hind legs and pawed at the windows. However, when a caged SUV appeared, the tigers ignored the tourists because they know it's lunchtime as live chickens were released for their dining pleasure. The tigers also snack on cows, pigs, and ox. When they left the park, one tiger followed them out and they had to chase it big into the enclosure with the truck. I do think that would be a neat place to visit, though I sure wouldn't want my car to break down...

Troost reiterates the point that China (specifically the big cities like Beijing and Shanghai) is crowded and polluted. It is a country of one and a half billion people, so it's probably not a big surprise it's very polluted. He's someone who's traveled to quite a few places all over the world and said that the pollution was probably the worst he's ever seen it and one city he visited in particular was called "the most polluted city in the world!" (Not the kind of superlative you'd want for your city!) 

Because of the population, China has a one-child policy and because boys are more revered because they can continue the family names, girls are often aborted or put up for adoption for people from North America or Europe looking to adopt. Troost points out the obvious: that boys greatly outnumber girls and they can't continue the family name if they don't have a family to do it with. 

Not surprisingly, if you're a tourist from the West, you will most likely get rip offed. Troost wrote he finally learned how to bargain for things and felt like a smuck in particular when he paid 160 kuai for something that he found out later was actually worth 10 yuan.  10 yaun equals a dollar and a half, but I have no idea what equals a kuai. (Or how to pronounce it).

Troost and a friend met up with a man who offered to show them around the city they were in at the time and he told them that the Chinese will eat anything with four legs except for a table and anything with two legs except humans. Of course this means they eat dogs and cats which is one of the major reasons I would never be able to visit China. If I tell myself that they're just mangy alley or tom cats, then I can handle that instead of cute little kitties who like to curl up and purr in your lap. However, I think it's a little extreme that they skin the cats while they're still alive. (Well, at least in a market the author saw them doing that in). Geeze, I've seen people on competitive cooking shows get chewed out for not properly killing a crustacean in the most humane way possible. I'm guessing there's no Humane Societies in China.

The author touched on politics, the language, the food, the fact that the government keeps a tight reign on their people and you will never read a bad thing about China in the papers, but he didn't talk about the time zones (or zone, I should say). Did you know there is only one time zone in China? And this is a country that's about the same size as the United States. That would be like if the U.S. had one time zone, which is just...weird.  

If you're thinking about or planning a trip to China, I highly recommend this book. (It may change your mind about going, or it may give you some ideas about where you'd like to visit!)