Originally Posted by
Robert C
n all thought, you are correct, there is a huge difference in how people in China are treated based on if they are presumed to be poor and if they are presumed to be wealthy. The first clue is the word used to distinguish the two classes in China. It translates to, "important people," and ,"not important people."
I was, in particular, shocked by guards chasing away bicycles from the front of Beijing Walmart. (Now, for those uniformed, a Walmart is in China on the side of an upscale locale.) It was OK for the cars to drive up and park at the building, but bikes had to park on the other side of the street. The same was with my Beijing hotel that had an exclusion zone around it, where bikes were not allowed, with guards on duty to monitor safety and chase away the bikes.