In Another Dimension
British Columbia: The coastal area of this province offers what is probably THE most spectacular introduction to Canada. Deep blue ocean, snow-capped mountains and beautiful green islands. A definite eye-opener.
Vancouver Airport: In China, airports are mostly populated by the beautiful people, the wealthy elite who can afford to fly. Pudong International in Shanghai, despite its grand design, is actually rather spartan and empty given how large it is. There are a few ridiculously overpriced restaurant/cafes serving pretty crappy food, so it’s pretty much down to business: you get to your gate and get on your flight.
Vancouver’s International Airport threw me headfirst back into North American society. The arrival area was an absolute zoo: Fat tourists, bratty kids, baseball caps and baggy pants abound. The food court was absolutely enormous, crammed with all the Starbucks, Roots store and National Geographic souvenir boutiques you could possibly desire. Businessmen on cell phones were no longer the majority; they seemed vastly outnumbered by the families arguing over who was going to drag the suitcase around. Middle Class World, I missed you.
Cultural Diversity: Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, West Indian, African, South American, Arab, Central Asian, Russian, European: you name it. The Canada Customs agents were mostly non-White: I thought it was great to see, helps to dispel the “blonde hair and blue eyes” nonsense.
Canadians Love Their Beer: The talk of the land when I arrived was the rumour (now confirmed) of a merger between Molson Breweries (based in Montreal, naturally) and Coors in the US. Beyond the usual “merger of equals” business spin, it sounds more like a takeover of Molson. Leave it to beer to bring out nationalist sentiments; some articles decried the fact that Budweiser is now the best-selling beer in the country, and others made fun of Molson’s “I Am Canadian” marketing campaign. “I Was Canadian”, anyone?
Consumer Overload: Despite the fuss many of us makes about the rise of China’s reckless consumerism, North America is still ahead by several billion light years. Thousands of flavours of everything, product tie-ins all over the place, a logo plastered in every nook and cranny; this land has been at this game for decades, and man does it show. It feels like a society that has reached a stage where it has nothing more to do than invent new flavours of Twizzlers. I spent twenty minutes trying to decide what Iced Tea (out of 20 varieties) I wanted, then I wandered over to the Intel Centrino promotion booth for some free internet access.
Dressing for Diversity: It’s strange to be back in a place where, for the most part, people don’t dress to indicate their social status. Gone are the golf shirts, man purses and leather shoes. In comes a wide array of clothing, looks and hairstyles. If it’s comfortable, wear it. It makes even “liberal” Chinese cities like Shanghai look like dreary examples of communist conformity. Conformity with capitalist characteristics, that is.
Driving: How can there be so many cars and so little noise? China Patrick is confounded by this. What is noticeable, especially from the vantage point of a plane, is how much the automobile dominates this society. Cities seem inhabited by cars rather than people.
Everything is a road, a highway or a parking lot. People drive everywhere, whether they need to or not. The roads are rammed with commuters and families rather than blue trucks and CCP sedans.
However, it is a breath of fresh air to be back in a place where a car is merely a mode of transportation, not a flashy show of wealth and power. Most Buicks are pretty dumpy in Canada.
There are more people riding bikes in Montreal than I remember. Interesting.
Internet: Blazing fast. Hello BBC, Blogspot, Typepad, Livejournal. Gmail works amazingly well, as does Yahoo Mail (almost instant page loading, words I would never associate with that service back in the Middle Kingdom). I guess the Canadian government has better things to do than filter the hell out of every page on the net.
Television: It’s almost scary how slick the production values are. Too bad they are mostly wasted on crappy ads trying to push useless products.
The sports networks are as entertaining as always, thankfully, with all the plays of the week and the over-excited sportscasters.
And the news says bad things about people in power. In fact, the news consists mostly of people saying bad things about people in power.
Food: Roast Beef sandwich…Caesar salad….sooo heavy…can’t…move….
Night Lights: I completely forgot that Canadian cities keep their lights on at night. Montreal lights up like a Christmas tree, with each downtown skyscraper trying to best its neighbours (no neon though, thank god for decent taste).
Montreal: The city hasn’t really changed at all (unlike the typical Chinese urban area, which re-models itself every month or so). There is one new office tower of notice downtown, but that thing has been under construction since 2000 or something.
In many ways, Montreal is the exact opposite of Chinese cities. Many of the Middle Kingdom’s urban areas look physically wealthy (glass towers, glitz everywhere), while the population is still pretty poor. In Montreal, the physical city looks rather funky and disheveled (lots of old buildings, the avenues aren’t twenty lanes wide, the skyscrapers were built decades old), but instead the people come across as wealthy.
Advertising: Canadian cities, unlike their Chinese counterparts, don’t have every foot of every building covered with giant, ugly and offensive billboards. I kind of like it. Capitalism with classy characteristics.
China: Starting to miss you already.
Coming soon: my last China travel journals.