Canadian journalist, author and ex-red guard Jan Wong offers a list of "10 things China does better than we do." I’ll concur that (coastal) China does beat Canada in many of the points she mentions - banking hours and cell phones particularly - but as someone who has lived in Singapore for half a decade, it should be noted that many of the items on the list are done far, far better in the city state and elsewhere in Asia.
1. Cellphones
By any standard you can think of — coverage, price, ubiquity — China’s cellphone practices beat ours. You can use them in elevators, subways and parking garages. They work in Tibet, at the Great Wall, in remotest rural China, which is more than you can say for Ontario cottage country. Patients, doctors, nurses and visitors use them in hospitals, too, with no apparent ill effects. …
July 11th, 2005 at 8:31 pm
Alright, the Chinese definitely have better cell phones, but I am in the far northwestern region of Shaanxi Province and am staying at the “best” hotel in Mizhi county. The article said hotels even in remote areas are getting better well let me tell you, no matter how cheap the labor is here, the towels haven’t been cleaned in a month, I am sick off the food, and there is enough hair in my shower drain you’d think it was a barber shop!!! Luckily I expected worse and am enjoying the service, mostly out of sympathy since the young girls at the hotel work 18 hours a day.