Recently cities in China have been boiling hot. Temperatures have been reaching almost 110F, especially in Shanghai.
Since the cost of electricity is too high to run the air conditioning, locals have started camping out in the local Ikea department stores.
So if you go to Ikea in Shanghai, China, you’ll probably notice there are quite a few people sleeping and napping in the couch and beds section.
Some even take their shoes off and make themselves comfortable like they were in their own home.
Besides leaving for lunch and going to bathroom, some of them will spent all day snoring in the stores’ bed until the store is closed.
(苹果日报)
Trish
It is no different than the people who camp out at the Super Wal-Mart’s here in the US. I am not sure why this is so funny. It is a commentary on how bad the economy in China is and the promise of lower cost electricity by building The Three Gorges Dam was a farce, especially for Shanghi. The Chinese government distroyed countless villages, historical sites, precious history, holy sites, and caused a major shift in the planets weather systems and for what? So their people can sleep in the department store’s?
The Chinese Government needs to start paying attention to its heritage, be proud of its people-both those who adhere to the old ways and the new and stop forcing change on it’s people. China is an amazingly beautiful country with a rich diversity of people. Instead of repressing those people, help them thrive, and you will have a booming tourist trade to start with, and enough money coming in so that your people will be able to afford to pay the electric bill and not have to camp out in the local department store!
Bill
I do not agree. You are free to rant your opinion, and here is mine, from the other side: I think the government is doing a great job for the people. The economy is incredibly well. Millions had been left out of poverty. All other problems will be solved, in time. But the economy comes first, this is something everyone who complain (ironically mostly non-chinese) fail to see – you must have $$ first to do anything at all. And that is why I believe the government got it right. Grow the economy, don’t give in to whatever the other countries demand, only when you have a true powerful economy can you have the money to do anything else.
Bill
Oh BTW, as usual, I work for the Chinese government, and I am a spy who steal American secrets, as expected from someone who say anything nice about the Chinese government.
Trish
I see your point ‘Bill’, but what about all the flooding that ‘The Three Gorges Dam’ was supposed to eleviate? The flooding is worse than ever. Where is the lower priced electricity that was promised?
You missed my point. Every government has its flaws, *especially the US*, but when your country has a *great economy* but it’s people cannot afford the electric bill, something will give eventually.
Being blind to the plight of the poor is a government’s biggest downfall. Simply saying that “Millions had been left out of poverty” in a country of nearly a billion leaves out a millions of people. The US’s blindness to the poverty of its poor was grossly exposed during the whole Hurricane Katrina debical.
Disagree
Trish,
Was the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority), which President Roosevelt initiated, a ‘farce’ as well? Sixty, or so, years ago many in those necks of the woods said it was. And, many homes, family farms, businesses, etc. now rest under man-made lakes.
But, look what the TVA did for the poor, undereducated, economically deprived country folks.
Tourex
Can i use their kitchen to cook dinner?
DARKWING DUCK
FREE RENT AND AC.
DAM I DON’T BLAME THEM. IT HOT OUTSIDE I TYPING ON THIS BLOG FORM A STORE IN CHINA.