You can run but you can't hide

Thanks to our friend Peter, this weekend edition of the blog is coming to you from 22° 32' 2.26" N (latitude) and 113° 55' 8.67"E (longitude). Check out the Google Earth website if you'd like to see the actual image of the Nanshan Hospital.
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/download.php?Number=628175

Today marks the occasion of Richard's first "field trip" since arriving at Shenzhen. He has been hospital-bound because of his headaches and the rather exhausting daily rehab sessions. We went out with a few other patients to Sea World this afternoon and sat outside Starbucks with our drinks, whiling away the afternoon talking and people watching. Afterwards, we went to a Tex-Mex restaurant to have an early dinner. It was a morale booster for Richard to feel like he's a part of the world again.

As usual, our presence at Sea World attracted a lot of gawking. There were three of us in wheelchairs (Richard, Debbie and Marija), Nick who walked unassisted, his wife Maria, Debbie's friend Sue, and myself. We had a heck of a time getting Richard and Marija to the bathrooms since there were numerous steps even to get into the main area of the restaurant and the facilities were not handicap accessible. But we got plenty of assistance from the restaurant staff and passersby.

When I was growing up in Hong Kong, I did not recall seeing any people in wheelchairs on the streets, shops or restaurants. I just surmised that there weren't any handicapped people living there. The only people who were visibly mobility-challenged were beggars sitting silently on the street corners. People generally ignored them or cast furtive glances their way. The infirm and handicapped were hidden away by their families to lead life as hermits. It was also the same way in China. This practice probably discouraged anyone from advocating for the rights of these individuals. Hong Kong has made great leaps and bounds in the recent years in remedying this situation while China remained the same.

In terms of the attitude towards the handicapped, I'm seeing more understanding and compassion in the majority of the people that we've come across here. When we visited Shanghai and Hangzhou about five years ago, Richard was still mobile but had to use a cane to walk. While visiting Zhou Zhuang, a tourist attraction, we had to cross numerous narrow arched stone bridges. People around us grew impatient because Richard had to walk very slowly on these bridges. They clucked their tongues, cursed, shoved and cut right in front of him making every crossing an ordeal. I cannot see the same thing happening today in Shenzhen although I have a sneaky suspicion that this courtesy is granted more frequently to foreign guests than to Richard who looked like a local.

Now and then, we still catch glimpses of the mistreatment. Yesterday, I went with Kim Poor's friend and fellow Arizonian, Marija, and her family to Lowu Commercial City to do some shopping. The place was even more of a madhouse than usual because it was the weekend. It was wall to wall people. After just a few hours, we beat a hasty retreat. As we reached the head of the taxi queue, I walked ahead to ask the taxi driver to open up the trunk so that I can put Marija's wheelchair in. The driver responded by stepping on the gas and speeding ahead to pick up another passenger at the adjacent queue. This repeated itself four different times.

Meanwhile, I'm standing amidst the gas fumes with Marija sitting flabbergasted in her wheelchair. She was trying to comfort her 4 year old daughter, Sienna, who was on her lap because the youngster was both tired and hungry. Marija's mother, Sonia, was equally exasperated . She had purchased so much stuff that she was lugging a huge suitcase filled with her purchases. When the sixth taxi finally arrived, a man and a woman jumped the queue, cut in front of us and started to open the door of our cab. This prompted spectators to cry "Yu mo gow chor!" ("You've got to be kidding!" in Cantonese) The interlopers quickly withdrew and scurried away from the angry mob. In the mean time, someone got the attention of a policeman who was standing a few yards away. It was his job to see to the orderly loading and unloading of the cabs in this area. He had observed the fiasco with great detachment so far. People started to motion impatiently for the policeman to come over to intercede.

As we hurried over to the cab, several men in our queue volunteered to assist Marija into the cab. One man spoke soothingly to Sienna in broken English to ask her to wait while I helped the cab driver load the wheelchair and suitcase into the trunk. All these good samaritans spoke Cantonese and from their accents, I'm sure they were from Hong Kong. I've never been more proud of my heritage. Richard and I have experienced similiar discrimination and mistreatment by taxi drivers in the U.S. Therefore, I'm not condemning Chinese cab drivers but all cab drivers who are too apathetic and lazy to do their jobs. I hope that there's a special place for them in hell.

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