People. People everywhere. People pushing past each other on the crowded streets, pouring in and out of the tightly packed stores and stands. People selling everything, anything, the scent of it all wafting thickly between the crowds. A generous layer of smoke settles all around, coming from a cigarette in nearly everyone’s hand. This is how Amy Liao ‘21 remembers China from her fourth grade visit.

Liao has been linked to China her whole life. She lived there from ages one to three, and both of her parents came from China. The first time Liao traveled back to China was when she was a toddler, and all she knows about that trip is what her parents have told her. However, Liao went back again in fourth grade, but this time she hated it.

“You know China has, like, the overpopulation issue,” Liao said. “And like you could really tell, there was so much pollution, and like everyone smokes.” Liao continued to tell about why smoking was such a problem for her. “In China, you walk everywhere, because no one needed a car because everything was in walking distance since there was so many people, and usually people don’t own a car, so we walked everywhere, and we had to smell the gross smoke, and that was, like, not great.” 

Liao’s father, Junlin Liao, is also connected to China. He has traveled to China four times since leaving in 1999, and describes the changes since he left.

“The fast urbanization left little room for private spaces. Everywhere I went, there were always people. Whenever there is a need to go to the bathroom though, I miss America dearly. One of the greatest national priorities of India is to build toilets. For China, it should be to properly manage them.”

Like her father, the worst part about China in Liao’s opinion was the bathrooms, or lack thereof. She says that it’s really hard to find a public restroom, and a lot of the businesses don’t care about your needs to use the bathroom, they just care about your money.

“They don’t care about, how like, customers feel, and stuff like that, they just want to sell you stuff,” said Liao. “So like you have to go to like a big business to like, find a bathroom. If you were just walking along the street and you needed to use a bathroom, you would have to find like a big business or restaurant, but not just any restaurant,” Liao said. “It has to be like a big one like KFC in order to use the restroom, cause those are like the only places to, like, use a bathroom.”

One of Liao’s friends, Breda Gao ‘21, has known her since first grade. She also has connections to China. Gao lived there from second to third grade, 2008-2009. Gao said that she enjoyed China, but, like Liao, had a problem with the toilets.

“There was squat toilets, and then normally they would flush, but the ones in public places, like a park or something, would just be long rows, with a divider instead of stalls, so there would just be a long row with everyone’s, like, pee, and it only flushed every hour, so that wasn’t cool.”

When asked what words she would use to portray Liao, Gao described her as outgoing, and really talkative. Gao also claims that Liao puts a lot of effort into everything she does, like school and projects.

The best advice Liao has to give whether traveling to China or not, is to be cautious.

“I think you just have to be like careful,” Liao said. “In whatever you’re doing, like not just going to China, but going anywhere, like trying new things, you just have to be like aware of what could happen, and I think that’s the best piece of advice I could give anyone.”