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Zheyang Soohoo / Reuters
Men row a boat carrying a child on a lake in front of recreational vehicles (RVs), during a camping trip at an RV park on the outskirts of Beijing on April 14, 2012. Chinese buyers bought an estimated 1,000 RVs last year, but experts say the RV business is about to take off in the country.
Reuters reports — Dong Xuemin can't wait for weekends when he heads out with family or friends to the mountains north of Beijing or to a lake for a picnic.
Terril Yue Jones / Reuters
Dong Xuemin poses in front of his RV and boat at his storage company in Beijing on April 17, 2012.
Dong is a "Red Ant" - a member of a club of urban Chinese who'll find any excuse to hit the road, not in ordinary cars, but in recreational vehicles, those quintessential Western chariots of leisure transportation used by "Snowbirds" in North America typified by white-haired retirees heading south for the winter.
Read more stories from China on Behind the Wall
"RVs have a long and glorious history in the West," says Dong, 41, who runs a logistics and storage business in Beijing where he stores his RV, boat, all-terrain vehicle and motorized surfboard. "Chinese are the same; we love the outdoors. So we're learning the American and Western RV culture." Read the full story.
Zheyang Soohoo / Reuters
Children sit around a table as they play inside an RV, during a camping trip at an RV park on the outskirts of Beijing on April 14, 2012.
Zheyang Soohoo / Reuters
People light a fire on a barbecue grill next to RVs during a camping trip on the outskirts of Beijing on April 14, 2012.
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China will never be the same now.
The rich and powerful have discovered new toys and play grounds for themselves . It is a shame that the average Chinese citizen can't enjoy these things also. The people at the top do not realize that this type of lifestyle will breed unrest in the little people as they will want this also. They are playing with fire and do not even know it.
Oh, my heart bleeds! Give me a break, China has not been the same since the communist take over, or since the massacre at Tienanmen Square. There are many, many people in the US that can not afford these items, I'm one of them... Should my local government be worried about 'unrest'?
I've worked with a lot of people from China, many uneducated... They seem to have a way of excepting their lot in life unlike people from the Western nations.
The guy in the beginning of the article is either a small business owner or manager. How is that any different than what we have here? He's not super rich.
Welcome to America
Note to self: Learn the secret to grilling noodles and rice.
I don't think they know either. Look at 'em. It looks like they just dumped a bunch of dry noodles on a grill and lit them on fire.
Lolwat
I have a lot of Asian friends, not just Chinese, Japanese too. From my understanding, they have their only view upon life. As a general speaking. Their view is pretty simple, how much you make how much you have. And that is why they invest heavily in their children's future, wanting that their children can have more. Most of them will not compare themself with others, and they do not care about their government or what happen around them, may be that is why they usually have a happy and peaceful life.
Old man--no offense, but you're very naive. Maybe your observations is base on the China of Mao and those who left knowing little else. I've lived in China now for 7 years---two key points for you:
1) Chinese and Japanese cultures are very different and shouldn't ever be lumped together.
2) I'm American but have never, ever seen people who are more concerned with keeping up with and exceeding the Jones (or I should say, the Zhangs) than Chinese people. Why do you think China is now the home market for most luxury goods in the world like LV and Coach? If you are a woman in her 20s and 30s in Shanghai, you are likely to have spent a month's pay or more on an LV bag--the same one everyone else has, just to maintain face. It is ALL about face here, and money will rarely be spent on high-priced goods that can't be shown off in public. Perhaps you should take a trip here and see the Ferraris, Jaguars, and Porsches that line the streets more by the week. Or maybe see why so people who cannot drive, have no need to, and don't even want to, do whatever they can just to have a new car to sit outside their apartment building.
Just an old man
Hi old man,
" I have alot of Asian friends, not just Chinese, Japanese too. " Did you know everyone is related somehow?
So all the sex your havin is incestual. Just sayin.
How do you buy these when making $1.63 a day????????????????????
Bill,
You need to do a little research before you make such ridiculous statements. While wages in China are lower than the U.S., they are not that bad off. The Chinese are also very good at saving what little they do earn. That is how they are able to buy a new Buick (made in China) where more ar4e sold than in the U.S. They do not play the American game of keeping up with the neighbors, they just decide what it is that they want, and then save until they can afford it.
That is a very true comment SlingBiker. Unlike Americans who use credit to buy what they want, most in China and other Asian countries do it how we did back before credit became king....they save until they have enough money to buy it outright. And tell me who is happier, the American buried under mountains of debt...or the Asian who bought there car/house/stuff outright and has no payments to make?
A low rural wage is china is more like $1.67 an hour at purchasing power parity... About a dollar in nominal terms. In the big cities, the minimum wage is often around $2.32 an hour, also at PPP. Remember, that China keeps the value of its currency artificially depressed to increase exports to us, so the PPP number is more indicative of spending power domestically. I believe that forced laborers in China's labor camps get more than $1.67 a day.. Hehe.
The ones that make the $1 or more up to 3 or 4 dollars per day or even4 $ hr dont buy these thinks. Its the rich elite that can afford them. The ones that make a living by selling their substandard goods to USA. Usually upper management or CEOs. And they love Buicks. Smile and enjoy your chinese made goods. America is sold out.
Ans we have a large defense budget to protect us from China? Why is our defense department so bloated? Both Russia and China are consumers not foes. Let's quit building to fight WWIII like it will be WWII. The Red menace is gone. We need that money to help replace our infrastructure and for national health care.
Unforturnately Blackbelt, you military industrial complex disagrees with you. They need to continue to find immaginary enemies in order to justify the bloat miltary budget. How else are they continue to line their fat pockets?
US maintains a strong defense posture because US wants to stay on top and could not tolerate the rise of another nation and perceived threat to US domination and hegemony.
Mannnnnn ! Did you see that picture ? That is one serious pile of weed them guys are burning. Look and suck it up and inhale too. No wonder the Chinese are so dang happy. They don't even roll it up no mo.
No ants and bees we don't need. Alcopogo Gold is BAD ASS weed. BAD ASS.
Fran NJ,
Doesn't look like any quality weed I would want to smoke. Looks more like the crap the Bedouins might sell you in Egypt - all stems and no buds.
Chinese weed is some high octane @!$%# man. Is that the first time you saw it?
I can see it coming. Won't be long and we'll be buying Chinese made RV's at Walmart.
Not a bad idea, certainly would cut down the price of a RV and makes it more affordable to ordinary folks.
God help the pedestrians.
Hey, I think it is great that some people are able to go out to the country or lake and enjoy themsevles in a pleasant and social way that is peaceful and happy. I am not able to afford to do that at present, but I am still happy for them. I do not care who they are or what country they are from. They seem to be taking care of family and having a good time.
So, the Chinese are just like Americans. They love the outdoors and spending time with their families. Wow, what a surprise....
Yea I know. Just think if we didn't kick them out the first time.We could be Chinese/American brother and sisters. Just think how much nicer the world would have been. One big happy Chinese / American inbreed family.
Two nations with so much in common. All related to one another and nothing to fear from one another.
Could have been, would have been. Should have been.
How come the Americans don't give a rats ass about the American Natives ? What everyone else does seems to fasinate them though. Weird world we live in.
Ahhhhhh, Oooohhhhh, wee likey too dwive ArrVeee likey yoo Amewicins doo. Ahhhhhhh, weee havee fun tooee!!
Ok, Scott, so how good is your Mandarin?
Lame, Scott, really lame.
Scott, apparently you think this makes you sound like a Chinese person. You don't get out much, do you?
So interesting that the Chinese government doesn't like the "west" and says how bad the "western" culture is, yet the people of China, you know those average citizens that work in the factories, the offices, enjoy / embrace "western" ideas, and lifestyle.
The next 10 years will be very interesting to watch. When the people of a country rise up and speak as one, changes happen. Just sayin.
Isn't that nice. We here in America on the most part can't afford to use out RV's because of the price of fuel. Maybe we should just sell all of ours to the Chinese.
Used rvs along with Harleys, collector cars and fast boats are being shipped to china every day and have been for about the last 5 years. More every day.
Human nature IS the same everywhere. When the communists ran the country, they replaced human choice with society wide doctrine. The Chinese Communist party stays in power by giving people the freedom to start busineses, work, make money. Same for Japan. Under the Imperial Emporer, individualism was squashed and a society wide set of rules applied to everyone. After WWII, when Japan became a democracy, individual work and goals and rewards were allowed and encouraged. Yes, their cultures and history are different, but human nature is not. There are people in the US, China, Japan, whose only goals are status and money. There are dirt poor and homeless in the US, in Japan, in China. Usually, the rich and connected could care less. In between, you have a spectrum of working poor, working middle class, middle class, high middle class, and well off. Some of these people are content. Some care about others. Some want more. What's new.
Funny how things work...Now they're goin RVin and we're ridin bicycles....
Starting the fire on their bbq grill like that using straw and paper, wont be long before they have a nice burnt down camper...
Good for them, I'm for everybody in the world to have a better and more enjoyable life. I don't subscribe to the fixed pie view. It unfortunately appears that the world works that way. If humans limited their population growth, everybody could achieve a higher standard of living. If I had a boat, an RV, this that the other and medial work still had to be done I wouldn't mind doing it. The way it is now the poor gets the crappy work that doesn't even get paid, while the wealthy doesn't do much and gets all the money. There is enough natural resources on this planet for everyone to live a good life. I believe in a distant future, more equality will be achieved. It is a matter of evolution at this point, when the lazy and greedy gets kicked out of the gene pool.
It is hilarious, regardless of the hard-core regressivity of a nation of 1.2 billion people falling in love with huge gas-guzzling American style RVs. That's REAL bad.
But I gotta say, thet picture of the Chinese feller tryin' to start a fire in a campsite cookin' grille was surenuff a hoot. I'm grinnin' and sayin' to myself, here's these two Chinese tryin' t' learn how t' be, uh, dudes. Good ol' boys. Git after it, y'all! They needed a sixpack of Bud on the table.
I don't reckon there's enough deer in China so that pickups with gunracks are gonna get popular. Besides, them Chinese authorities don't fool around with THEIR gun control!
@Fran NJ: I don't care how bad America is sold out to China The actual level of China holdings in our debts is about 16%, I read somewhere, but they control American industry-- what's left of it-- by providing the parts and subassemblies without which virtually no product of American manufacturing-- uh, assembly-- would ever leave the factory. Our capitalists have done exactly what capitalists will always do: looked for the maximum profit, and saw that lower wages to workers in other countries making what Americans used to make will yield that greater profit, with much less environmental responsibility required. They've sold us-- our job security, our entire way of life-- out for healthy quarterly bottom lines and golden parachutes.
But don't be silly. That ol' boy in the photo had never started a fire outdoors in his life. He surenuff wouldn't have the sophistication to possess a quantity of Nebraska ditchweed, much less sinsemilla.