China is considered to be one of the leading societies that continue to outperform other countries in terms of arts and sciences. The country with the largest population on earth, China has increased its global outreach and has recently crossed borders to strengthen political alliances.
But beneath all its fame and charm, China also has its own dark secrets. And when it comes to incredibly disturbing events, China has a lot to offer.
1. DRINKING POLLUTED WATER
The boy drank water near a polluted stream.
This boy drank water near a polluted stream in Fuyuan country, Yunnan province. This photo was taken on March 20, 2009, just two days before the Water World Day that is observed on March 22. According to Project Partner, having 360 million people struggling with the poverty crisis, about 95 million people in rural China still lack access to clean water and about 2.5 billion people do not have access to adequate sanitation. Because of this, over 6 million losses of lives are reported due to water-borne diseases and disasters. All of these happen due to political and socioeconomic challenges that the country and its people continue to deal with in the present.
Fishermen rowed their boat through an algae-filled lake.
It may look like a masterpiece of Van Gogh but according to Avax News, it is actually real-life fishermen rowing their boat in the algae-filled Chaohu Lake in Hefei, Anhui Province on June 19, 2009. Water pollution in China is a no-shocker. China’s water supplies have gotten so degraded, especially since half of its rivers and lakes are extremely filthy and polluted. China has already invested about $7.4 billion for the construction of the water treatments for the country’s eight rivers, which include the Chaohu Lake. China’s goal is to provide about $850 billion to improve the water supplies in the country and another $170 billion for environmental protection in the next five years, which experts believe may do little to reverse the damage done by decades of pollution and overuse.
3.GNAT ATTACK
A giant swarm of gnats attacked an entire province.
Another disturbing effect of water pollution in China happened at the East Lake of Wuhan, central China’s Hubei province on November 27, 2009. According to the The Guardian, a great swarm of gnats, small biting flies or mosquito-like midges, gathered on the railings along the lake. The heavy polluted waters stank of seasonal nutrients that the gnats, Chironomidae, are often attracted to. They appear due to the stench of water pollution and they leave once the temperature drops, which may take a month according to experts. If you think a typical home fly is disturbing, imagine a swarm of flies invading your neighborhood!
Human fetus is being served in soup.
( Due to horrific nature of its image, we decided to not post the actual photo.)
The Seoul Times reported that some Chinese people are known to eat babies, shocking the entire world. They consider this to be a delicacy that contains expensive herbs on top of the baby mixed with chicken meat. The Seoul Times added that the folks from the southern province of Canton (Guangdong) are using the “baby herbal soup” (also known locally as “spare rib soup”) to increase overall sexual health, power, and stamina. One local reporter was quoted saying that this problem is caused by the Chinese people taking too much attention to their health as well as the country’s one-child policy.
More than 15,000 dead pigs were found floating in a river.
South China Morning Post reported a final estimation of about 15,000 non-living pigs pulled from the Huangpu River on Tuesday, March 13, 2013. The pigs were tested positive for porcine circovirus, a common swine disease that does not affect humans. The actual tally of the pigs found in the river was claimed to be concealed by the government. Huangpu River runs through Shanghai, China’s commercial hub. Shanghai had been seeking to become an international financial center and the images were a huge embarrassment for the city. This major scandal emphasized once again China’s troubles and controversies with food safety standards.
6. THE “HAPPY GYMNASTICS”
China’s sports schools excessively train young children to become Olympic champions
In the photo, a coach wipes away the tears of a girl who is feeling exhausted during gymnastics lessons (the “Happy Gymnastics” as the principal, Zhu Zengxiang, coins it) at Shanghai Yangpu Youth Amateur Athletic School in Shanghai, China. Daily Mail reported that this is just one of the many disturbing and heartbreaking photos of underage gymnasts placed in sporting schools that are designed to train future Olympic champions. Apart from the tender age of these kids, they are also being harshly pushed to their physical limits. China’s sports system has been immensely successful until the recent Rio Olympics (2016) wherein, for the first time, they only won two team bronze and was criticized for their “robotic” style.
7. MONKEY TRAINING
Monkeys are trained for traditional and special celebrations.
In this photo, a monkey catches knives as it stands on a board during a daily training session at a monkey farm in Baowan village, Xinye county of China’s central Henan province. According to the International Business Times, monkey breeding and raising are illegal throughout China. However, the medium-sized village of Baowan has become a breeding ground for monkey and their trainers, with “monkey busking” to remain as a pre-modern tradition. The monkey is an important symbol of Baowan. Traditionally, they have relied on monkey busking to make a living. Performance monkeys are in high demand for Chinese New Year celebrations.
8. THE YULIN DOG MEAT FESTIVAL
Chinese celebrates 10-day festival eating dog and cat meats.
Residents of the southern Chinese city of Yulin have started killing and eating dogs early this year to celebrate the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, to avoid animal rights campaigners, as Independent reported. About ten thousand dogs and cats are expected to be used for meat during the 10-day festival that takes place in Guangxi Zhuang, an autonomous south-eastern region of the country. There have been mass petitions for the festival to be banned but the local governments are unable to prevent it since this is organized by private businesses. Vendors say the animals are humanely put to sleep, but one activist found dogs skinned alive, bludgeoned, and put to their last breath in public.
New-born baby found with a tail.
PZI People reported about the 11-month old baby, Yangyang, (pseudonym), who was born with a 6-inch tail in Yibin, southwest China’s Sichuan province. Doctors believed that his spine was not properly developed. It was also a shock because Yangyang’s mother had not been told about any abnormality during prenatal examinations. His family nicknamed him “little monkey”. His family was hesitant to get the tail removed but he was able to have his operation last May after developing weakening in his legs. Yangyang was later diagnosed with neural tube defects. The cause of Yangyang’s disease is caused by a deficiency of folic acid that the child’s mother could have taken in the form of supplements during her pregnancy.
GRANULAR BLACK LIQUID COVERED CARS, HOUSES, AND EVEN PEOPLE.
At around 8am on November 14, 2016, a community in Hangzhou was stunned to see “black rain” falling from the sky, based on a Rachfeed report. The grainy black liquid drenched cars, houses, laundry, and people. It was the first time for many locals in that area to experience that certain “phenomenon”. The “black rain” was actually the result of an accidental rupture of a tank filled with raw petroleum powder leading particles to float up into the air before raining down on the locals. Air pollution is one of the biggest problems in China that constantly poses a huge threat to the general public’s health. It’s such a big problem that Chinese people are now buying “fresh air” from malls!
LOCAL RESIDENTS MAKE AND EAT URINE-BOILED EGGS.
The Virgin Boy Eggs (VBE) is a famous commodity and delicacy in Dongyang, province of Zhejiang, eastern China for thousands of years now, Gizmodo reported. The key ingredient is young boys’ urine, which are collected from primary school toilets. These are just regular chicken eggs but soaked in a pot of urine then brought to a boil. The egg shells are cracked to allow fuller penetration and are bathed regularly with fresh piss to prevent them from overheating. Each egg costs about $0.25, which is four times the amount of a regular egg. The Chinese tradition reveals the VBE to provide improvement of a person’s blood circulation, invigoration, and reduces risks of heat stroke
12. A “NAIL HOUSE”
Houses stand firm amidst construction and development.
This is a photo of a “nail house” in the middle of a new highway in Wenling, China. A dingzhu—or “nail house”, also technically known as a holdout, is a property of a resident who refused to accept the compensation for its demolition, The Guardian explained. Many Chinese residents do not accept the government’s monetary offer to make way for new construction because they consider the sum to be too low. This forces the builders to intricately construct their way around it, leaving it behind as an eyesore and a bother. Being an eyesore aside, it actually looks pretty interesting.
Vehicles queue at a checkpoint on the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau Expressway as shown in an aerial footage of the 62-mile traffic jam that lasted over 12 days, Mirrors reported. This happened to the poor folks attempting to traverse the Beijing-Tibet expressways. Northern China, including Beijing, was even put into a smog alert because over 750 million vehicles went on a holiday during the Golden Week. Starving drivers who got stuck in the traffic had to pay ripped off prices for goods—2 yuan ($0.3) for an egg, 3 yuan ($0.4) for a cup of water, and $8 for a cigarette packet.
14. NOVELTY BUILDINGS
Bizarre designs of structures continue to dominate in China
This is the “Objectecture” in Tianze Hotel in Hebei. It is the 10-storey high effigies of Fu, Lu, and Shou—the Chinese gods of good fortune, prosperity, longevity. China is known to build enormous, carved Buddha into mountainsides and a hotel entrepreneur wanted to keep this tradition by establishing this trio of habitable gods in the middle of Hebei, east of Beijing. Shou, the one with the white beard, welcomes and houses the hotel’s best suite. China is known for unconventional architecture such as a space caterpillar egg; a cluster of space eggs; a phallic skyscraper; a gigantic bottle representing a liquor company; and a building-size homage to the phone handset.
15. EXOTIC FOOD CHOICES
A Wal-Mart in China sells crocodiles, sharks, and other exotic animal parts.
These are clearly crocodiles in the frozen meat section of a Wal-Mart in China. Typically, we feel at home when we visit a Wal-Mart store to buy common goods, but this Wal-Mart in China offers the not-so-common finds you may not actually want to binge on. According to Buzzfeed, China accounts for 10% of Wal-Mart’s international sales due to their diverse and exotic, if not eccentric, food choices such as Snickers with batteries, live frogs, black chicken, turtles, whole sharks and assorted reptiles. It seems that in China, everything that crawls and creeps is edible to the Chinese. While they may sound disgusting, they’re totally common in China.
In the photo, full-face masks cover up women’s faces for sun protection while enjoying the beach.
These Chinese women in “facekinis” enjoy an afternoon at the No. 1 bathing beach in the northern city of Qingdao. Cautious beach lovers on this coastline have taken skin protection to a heightened level and now use “facekinis”, which are masks that shield the face from exposure to the sun, the Telegraph explained. These self-styled full-face protective masks can come in different colors and designs. Chinese women continue to stand up for the right to bare nothing because having a lighter skin tone and a face with no wrinkles (which are caused by UV rays) are important parts of the famous Asian beauty standard.
A museum is dedicated to the history and genealogy of watermelons.
According to Atlas Obscura, the 4,000-square meter Daxing Watermelon Museum was founded in 2002. It exhibits the history of the watermelon from its birthplace in southern Africa to its eventual ascent into space. Like literally, it covers every aspect of watermelons, from their history, to their growing methods, and to China’s “watermelon culture”. You don’t have to worry about getting drenched because this futuristic museum is only packed with wax watermelons displaying variations of watermelons around the world. Ancient Chinese poems, informational signages, and plaques that make reference to this fruis are also on display. Even the whole building itself is ornamented with an impressionistic watermelon entrance.
A retired teacher gnawed on a younger man after being shoved for a subway seat.
( Due to horrific nature of its image, we decided to not post the actual photo.)
According to the Huffington Post, the man is a 67-year-old retired teacher, only identified as “Chen”, from Guangzhou, China who brutally attacked a 28-year-old man identified as “Wu” over a subway seat squabble on Monday, October 8, 2012. He boarded the subway at around 8:30 in the morning when he was shoved out of his seat by the younger man who scrambled to get a seat. He reprimanded the young man for not respecting the elders. Witnesses said that Chen punched Wu first, resulting in the fight. It ended with Chen repeatedly biting Wu until they were both drenched in blood.
19. “BODY DOUBLES”
Chinese elites hire people to serve their prison sentence for them.
According to Luxury Launches, the pictures above are of Gu Kailai (right), the Chinese woman accused for the murder of Neil Heywood, who hired a body double to serve her prison time. In China, the rich and powerful can actually hire “body doubles” to do their prison time for them because of the system of “replacement convicts”. The practice is so common that they even have a term for it: ding zui [ding (substitute) zui (crime)]; in other words, “substitute criminal”. This so-called substitute criminal system is just one of the many ways China’s extreme elites are able to live by on their own rules.
Split-pants worn by toddlers enable them to poop everywhere.
Chengdu Living narrated about the Kai Dang Ku or the open-crotch pants, also known as split-pants or split-crotch pants, that are worn by toddlers and younger children throughout mainland China. This is an eco-minded, if not a bizzare action fit into the Diaper Free movement, which bases their movement on the idea that diapers are bad for the environment. This unusual attire is an old-style of potty training which remains to be popular since it allows babies and kids to easily use the bathroom whenever they want. However, these restrooms may not be an actual restroom at all. In China, it would not be strange to see a Chinese mother holding her pooping baby over a public trashcan.
Chinese soldiers undergo intense training for ultra-precision
According to Oddee, a small but very sharp pin is placed facing upwards through the Chinese soldiers’ collars to always keep their chins up. China is known to have a magnanimous reservoir of military resources. But the Chinese soldiers go through different precision methods when in training. The intense training includes wiring their arms to poles to ensure uniform arm height while marching, jumping through rings of fire, breaking slabs of concrete with their heads, and playing a life-and-death game of “hot potato” with a real grenade. With how dangerous all these sound, you can’t help but be thankful that you’re not in the Chinese military.
22. “CELLPHONE LANE” FOR TEXTING PEDESTRIANS
A cellphone lane has been created for texting pedestrians.
Smartphone addicts have been given their own walking lane so as not to bump into normal walking pedestrians in Chonqing, China, Pultastic reported. The city authorities have designated a 30-metre (100 ft) “cellphone lane” for people who use their phones while walking. But then again, it is a direct copy of the 18th Street, Washington DC in July which was created for an experiment into crowd behavior by the National Geographic TV Channel. More and more people have been inclined to the idea of “distracted walking”, which is a real problem in the present. But it seems the people of Chonqing don’t really see this as a huge problem.
IT’S NOT ACTUALLY THAT SURPRISING TO SEE SUCH DISTURBING IMAGES FROM CHINA. THE COUNTRY HAS A VERY LARGE POPULATION, WHICH MAKES IT HARDER FOR THE GOVERNMENT TO MAKE SURE THAT EVERYTHING IS DONE RIGHT AND THAT EVERY CITIZEN IS SAFE AND HEALTHY. EVEN WITH THESE PHOTOS, HOWEVER, WE SHOULD STILL TRY TO HAVE AN OPEN MIND AND NOT NEGATIVELY JUDGE CHINA AND THE CHINESE PEOPLE. CULTURES ARE DIFFERENT FROM COUNTRY TO COUNTRY, AFTER ALL.
TRUE ACTIVIST