China without Frames

China without Frames

by Waqas Hassan

While our stay in china we are going to observe everyday life and trying to convert our experience in writing which is supposed to be publish at university website and for that reason it is recommended to us to choose a name/title  for our series of essays.

 I choose this title China without Frames, the reason behind this name is very specific because in this 21^st century where media frame everything for their own interest and until now we knew china through vary lenses of different countries media. But now it is great opportunity for us to look and observe china and specially Hangzhou very closely on spot without any lenses or frames and getting real time information about the society, culture, system and everyday life here without any frame by any media.

19^th Asian games in Hangzhou 2022

The official logo of 19^th Asian games in Hangzhou

After my first impression and getting more involve in society the thing I recently observed in Hangzhou is people passion for sports and excitement for 19^th Asian games which will be host by Hangzhou in 2022 from 10 to 25 September for 15 days and Hangzhou will be the 3^rd Chinese city to host Asian games which is great honor to this city.

Although Hangzhou is more famous because of west lake, university and atmosphere of this city but at the moment people are talking about Asian games because this event going to change their lives in two dimensions the first one is about their daily life their sports activities and most importantly their economic conditions and the second dimension is about government policies and how its effecting people.

If we look on first dimension I can express my observation here how people are preparing and excited for Asian games, I observed and asked questions to locals and they explained to me that now more people are in sports since Hangzhou is accepted for venue of Asian games, an old man with his young grandson in university ground explained me that since he heard that they are going to host he is bringing his grandson for practice, I also met a girl siqi lu on running tracks who wants to participate in marathon, she said it will be honor to participate at home.

Furthermore if we talk about economic status which is going to change in some years, a taxi driver was very excited and he thinks that these 15 days will be equal to a year for him in the sense of earning money, a bar owner explained me through his translation APP that he is looking forward for this event to change his economic situation for life, there are many other example which I collect in last two days about people excitement but all of them is not possible to share here.

In second dimension which about government policies and their effects I believe it is to broad but until now I just observed three very important things, the first thing is government improving transportation system and making it eco friendly and more speedy especially between Hangzhou and Ningbo, Shaoxing and Huzhou because these cities will be part of competition venues of Asian games and these improvements are directly benefiting people here and also contributing to nature.

The second important factor in government policies is that government moving all the industry from this city to another places which will affect people life I don’t know how much and to know this fact I need to ask officials but on the other hand it will be great addition to atmosphere and will make Hangzhou more green.

Hangzhou sports park stadium under heavy construction

The third thing was shocking for me and that is beggar and homeless people, I visited several countries very rich one and socially strong one but everywhere I found beggar and homeless people but I never see a single homeless person in Hangzhou until now and due to this curiosity I asked many people about this thing and the answers made me more surprised when people said that governments moved all the beggar and homeless people from this city even now they are moving jobless people out of this city just because of coming Asian games to make good impression of city, but the good thing about this fact is government offer thousands of jobs to poor people in this city or in another city to save their lives from misery.

Other then this aspects there are many other aspects which will change the destiny of this city for example the scope of tourism will enhance in Hangzhou, the cultural exchange will boost here, a new orientation of Hangzhou toward world will begin, and importantly a healthy and sporty society will be raise here.