Live to Earn

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Happy Monday! Most of us are toiling away at our jobs on everyone's favorite day, Monday, the beginning of most people's work week.
However, this day has little significance for Chinese people outside of the state or factory jobs.

Anyone who has been to China knows that the work week/work hours can vary HUGELY depending on area. In the north, I lived in the center of the biggest city of Inner Mongolia province, and I would struggle to find a shop that could sell me something at 9 AM on the way to work. On my way home after a night class at the university, I'd watch half of the shops close down, with only the BBQ restaurants staying open into the night hours.

Head south to Guangdong, and you would be hard pressed to find anything ever close. If it's in the service industry and privately owned, expect it to be open. Water stop and need to get a jug delivered to your house at 2 AM, call them up, and you got it. Out of smokes? Call the shop downstairs, they will send them right to your door. Craving dim sum? You better believe it's open 24 hours.

This open all the time nature of Guangdong, and Cantonese people goes hand in hand with their relationship with business and money. When the port of Guangzhou was opened up to the world, Cantonese people were some of the first to experience international trade, and being far from the political influence of the capital, they held onto this reputation and allegiance to the coin, rather than the leadership, for much of it's history. Compare this to the north, where people have either had state jobs, or never had the opportunity or experience to be involved in business, and you will see remnants of this lack of entrepreneurial spirit in the way society works there.

In this video above, you can see that some enterprising people in Guangdong have found a way to charge people to float through the flooded subway system. On construction sites, you will often see workers selling snapping turtles, as well as other animals they come across when digging a new site.

This entrepreneurial spirit isn't only limited to Guangdong, but I get the impression that they do it best. Another example of how different China can be vastly different between towns and provinces.