Under The Pedal: 5 Nov 2009Greenbrae

5 Nov 2009
Greenbrae, Marin - Burlingame 40.6 miles (65 km)
When we had breakfast I asked Goerge's mom her address where she was born in China, I think maybe when I come back to China I can help her find some clues, but his mom can not remember so clearly now.

The same way as the first day I started my American trip but opposite. When I came back to San Francisco I went to China Town to have a look. To my surprise, I did not know why China Town looks like this: dirty, unfriendly and the people themselve don't have Chinese faces from a Chinese view. In my mind European countries or American cities should be very beautiful and clean, but it is not ture, in Paris all over dog shit on the street, in Munich and Switzerland a lot of cigarette butts on the street, of course Beijing I should say is dirty also, but this China town is not only dirty but also low decoration, their advertising style is last centery 80s in remote countryside in China, but there is the biggest China Town in the world and it is in America where it is the most developed country in the world! I do not know why, but it makes me think back to last centery in China. I pushed my bike down the street, I tried to smile to China Town's Chinese, but I did not get any reply, but the cold face. Their look seems to ask me, are you all right? why smile to me? I think we are from the same background, we should talk easier than others, but I can not conmunicate with them. The most funny feeling for me is I think their faces are not very Chinese who live in mainland China. Today I went to China Town, what I want to find is the feeling back in China, but it failed.

When I was in Europe and this time in America a lot of people asked me, do Chinese eat dogs? I think most of Chinese people do not eat dogs, some minorities in China are prohibited to eat dogs, in my opinions, just Cantonese eat dogs, not only dog, they eat everything in this planet. I do not know why, and mostly Chinese outside Chinese is Cantonese, so when foriegers see Cantonese eat dogs, it means all of Chinese eat dogs. In China we also has a lot of rumors the same as Chinese eat dogs, for example, we think German is a very cold and unfriendly nation, but when I was in Munich the local people are so friendly; we think American old people will die lonely, because we believe American people do not mind family, but I think it is not ture, at least in California. I wrote a long article about if Chinese eat dog or not, what I want to say is if you want to know a real country or real culture, you MUST go to there and figure it out.