travelling - opens up eyes and mind

before i visited shenzhen and guangzhou in mainland china, i used to have this thinking: these mainland chinese, poor things, when they come to s'pore, they must suffer from a technology shock. how they would marvel at our advanced transport system, the skyscapers and the wide range of goods available at our huge shopping malls.

would they know how to use the handsfree taps, those that use sensors? would they know how to travel on the mrt, lrt and the public buses?

all this idea changed when i visited these two places in january this year. i found that their trains have features that are better than ours. like the trains in hong kong, they have this light indicators near the door panel that shows the train route, the point you are at and the direction of travel. as a visitor, i found this feature very helpful.

and when i used the toilets at the train stations and the shopping complexes, i found out how misplaced my own apprehensions for them had been. most of the taps in these toilets also use the latest technology; they are hands free.

but, as i have mentioned earlier, the manners and behaviour of the people have not kept pace with the kind of infrastructure and the new technology. just as we are not gracious enough; they are far from gracious.