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Ok, I apologize. The title has nothing to do with urine in your beverage. However, this is all about China and what we Americans do not remotely understand about them. Last month, a virgin visit to the middle kingdom genuinely opened my eyes to the misconceptions that the American media have led us to believe.

The average American doesn’t give a damn about China or Chinese people. They are simply the source of communism and occasionally good fast food. So for all of you who could care less about the largest portion of world’s population, I’m sorry to bore. For the remaining two people, let me try to relate what I saw.

In the county side, the people are farmers like you would find in any other third world nation. A simple life far away from the malls and insane business centers that make up the world’s major civilizations. They don’t know anything about America except that a bus with a bunch of them on it passes by every now and then. In the cities, however, they are not the oppressed victims of cruel inhumane communistic treatment that we think they are in. Their malls are 10 stories high with everything of everything. It was a Wal-mart, self-contained in its own city. The people walk from home to work and work to clubs, etc. Advertisements were flung across some of the world’s tallest structures. Their cell phone networks were so strong, I could feel the cancer growling from within. They were Americans, except not so pale. Truly, this was a shock for me since I expected to see a subdued crowd who was scared to speak in fear of the government castrating them. In fact, it could be argued that the Chinese people are more free than Americans are. It is true that freedom of speech is not quite to our Eminem level as of yet, but the societal tax structure is much less imposing then our own. The Chinese appeared to be learning quickly from their American brethren as individuals were flirtatious, impetuous and have a rising affinity for divorce. After the reclamation of Hong Kong, China’s cities have been flooded with western influence, uncertain if that is to be considered a positive phenomenon.

The baseline point is that the American government and media have given China an outdated image. The reason behind it is most likely some stupid political dinosaur policy left over from the McCarthy days. It’s beginning in the cities and likely to spread quickly to the masses. China is becoming America with rice and noodles. Whatever lord exists, please help the planet because the last thing needed is for Britney and Justin to sell another couple billion records. Seriously though, China is up and coming. FYI. I personally believe, taking into account the trends of western capitalistic society, that this is an acceleration into our own oblivion.