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SATURDAY Vanguard, AUGUST 3, 2019—29
By Soni Daniel,
Shunyi District, China
Skyscrapers
everywhere
The spectacle is ubiquitous! The
beauty charming! And, as the big bus
screeds to a halt, more than ten Android
phones are desperately jostling to get
the whole frame of the sprawling
edifice, which houses one of the most
iconic companies in China, Alibaba, the
online business leader in China, which
has brought fortune and fame to the
country and its owners. Skyscrapers
constitute one of the single most
domineering structures which define the
Chinese landscape and skyline.
As they take prominence, they also
unconsciously add boundless beauty
and elegance to the country’s
picturesque. Skyscrapers are
everywhere in China and they come in
different shapes, styles, height, colours
and occupy varying spaces. Like human
beings who are everywhere in the
country, skyscrapers welcome visitors
and citizens anywhere they turn to in
the world’s most populous nation.
The tall structures, which have
become an integral part of the Chinese
culture and daily living, stretch from
town to town, district level to
municipalities and dominate physical
state of the country. Although Wikipedia
puts the total number of skyscrapers in
China at 1400, it is doubtful if the
number of the towers can easily be
counted. This number outclasses the
figure in the United State, which is put
at 700 plus and that of Japan at 230
plus.
Topping the list as the tallest building
in China is the Shanghai Tower with
128 floors hitting a height of 2037 feet
or 632 metres, which was completed in
2015. The Ping An Finance Centre in
the city of Shenzhen with 115 floors and
599 metres or 1965 feet which birthed
in 2016, comes second followed by the
Guangzhou Finance Centre in the city
of Guangzhou taking the third place
with 111 floors with a height of 530
metres or 1740 feet. This was also
completed in year 2016.
These amazing structures can
sometimes blur one’s vision as many of
them stretch from street to street. In
some cases, the rows of skyscrapers can
stretch for up to two kilometres with
same colours, designs, height and
width. As one moves on or goes about
China, the towers appear as if they are
coming towards them or fading away
from their sight depending on whether
they are in a car, in a train or flying.
From the moderate towers of about 10
floors which appear to be average
height, one comes across the very tall
ones of 100 plus floors kissing the skies
and looking heaven-bound. One thing
defines all of them: class and elegance
and they bear the marks of modernity.
No decrepit buildings are in sight
anyway in Beijing and they are well
spaced. None of the towers is built
haphazardly or made to obstruct a
road, water line or electricity facilities.
Spectacle with plants
and flowers..
One clear feature around each tower
is that there are expansive woodlots that
effectively compete for space with the
high-rise buildings for the use of the
community. The woodlots provide
natural spots for relaxation, sports and
endless engagements with nature and
escape from searing temperatures.
Even more beautiful is how the
trees are planted on a measured
straight line and flowers of different
colours are used to design attractive
patterns around some major highways,
streets and public squares. The
ornamental decorations around the
Beijing Olympics Square, which can
aptly be described as one of the world’s
most beautiful sites, speak eloquently
about what the Chinese can use trees
and flowers to accomplish.
The men and women who tend the
flowers work with such level of
commitment and dedication to the job
as if all their lives begin and end with
flower. They just don’t seem to be tired
removing weeds, planting new trees,
pouring water, or trimming flowers all
day. And without mincing words, they
have successfully made a spectacle with
plants and flowers on every roadside,
public square and institution. The
resultant effect of this aggressive
grooming of flowery plants and trees is
that China has consciously been
transformed into a country with vast
swath of woodland anywhere one goes.
Thus, our visit to the Chinese
Agricultural Museum brought us face
to face with the story of the country’s
long standing quest for food sufficiency,
the pioneers of its agricultural
revolution and the avalanche of its rich
In warm
embrace of
Chinese
skyscrapers,
noodles,
hospitality
food and plant stock as well as its value
chain.
Work over religion
even on religious days
in China…
A typical Chinese pays more
attention to their work than religion. It
was on Sunday that we were taken to
both the Beijing Olympics Square and
the Great Wall and nobody talked about
any religion or even mentioned any of
the temples that abound in the
country throughout our visit to the two
sites that were brimming with tourists
from all parts of the world. The workers
at the two sites were actively attending
to visitors, selling their wares, including
alcohol, artefacts and Chinese
delicacies as if there would be no
tomorrow. All through our visit to many
cities in Beijing and other districts, we
did not come across anyone preaching
on the street or any religious sect or
group mobilising their faithful for any
form of activity as is the case in our
dear country, Nigeria.
Effective technologydriven
security
system…
Security is tight and working in
China. The system is technology-driven
and for that reason hardly does a
policeman come out with gun to the
street. After my stay in China for the
first ten days, I was only fortunate to see
a neatly-dressed policeman in his
immaculate blue and white uniform
standing at attention at the Tencent
Headquarters in the city centre where
we visited on Thursday. He looked
smart and stern but eager to act in case
of any threat even though he was not
wielding any weapon as a Nigerian
policeman. Then, I came across some
junior police officers at the Pearl
Market, a huge arcade for cheap silk
goods the previous day. Again, they
were unarmed but made effective use of
their walkie talkies and could be seen
moving spiritedly from point to point
checking the output from their
ubiquitous Close Circuit television sets
to determine if there was anything to
worry about or not.
Noodles eaten with
passion, communal
spirit
The Chinese love and consume
noodles with unbridled passion. In
every hotel and restaurant in the city of
Beijing and the other districts, the food
serves as a staple, the equivalent of
foofoo and vegetable soup, amala and
ewedu, tuwo etc in Nigeria. It is a
delight to watch a Chines family eat
noodles. They come in groups to enjoy
themselves. It is rare to see a Chinese
enter a restaurant alone to eat or drink.
As if it is a rule, they prefer to come as
family members or as a group of friends
or social category to enjoy themselves.
They eat very fast with the chop stick
which we found very difficult to master
despite many of them trying to assist us
to use the device. And they eat good
portions of food, taking a long time to
do so. The other day, we watched with
admiration and awe how a family of
four relaxed and effortlessly
‘demolished’ a large pot of shrimps
pepper soup, which goes for 110 Yuan
plus other side meals including noodles
and assorted vegetables in a typical
Chinese restaurant.
When that pot had been cleared, they
ordered for another set of food and
drinks and we had to leave them behind
as their discussion continued just as the
food kept coming for them. But we
really loved the way they ate and
discussed various issues even though we
did not understand the topic of their
discussion.
The following day, two Nigerian and
one Sudanese journalists, who were
thrilled by the way the Chinese family
enjoyed their meal, opted to eat the
same portion of meal but we could
neither finish the delicious pot of
shrimps nor were we able to ‘deploy’ the
chop stick instrument effectively despite
the previous day’s lesson the family had
taught us.
Warm embrace of
Chinese people
The Chinese love visitors, especially,
people of colour unlike what obtains in
other climes, where blacks are held in
contempt and disdain. As we walked along
the streets or visited public institutions, the
Chinese showed enthusiasm in welcoming
us and posing with us to our greatest delight
and surprise. One woman actually tapped
us at the Olympic Square and asked his
Kung-fu-loving son to take pictures with us.
And as we made to leave, she requested us to
take pictures with her; and we did. This was
the trend all over the other places we visited
in the country.
All we could muster to the Chines was:
Xiexie, which is translated: Thank you!