First Impressions of Australia and Cultural Differences (Life 🚌)

Transport

Press the button, have conversations, and keep LEFT

1. Magic button

I’ve never expected that in order to cross the road, I have to press the button. If China applies this, I guess drivers will go crazy.

2. Keep left

Here you need to keep LEFT (which is the opposite to China), no matter whether you are walking, driving or standing in stairs or an escalator. So, there’s one conversation being repeated many times in my first few months here:

“What are you doing?” My friend looked at me, a bit confused.

“Ah, sorry.” I realised that I walked to the wrong side (driver’s side). Again!

3. Quieter roads

It’s much quieter here, because unnecessarily beeping your horn is illegal across the whole country. 

4. Public transport

Similar to China, you need to press the stop button before you get off. But here you won’t be notified for every stop by a loudspeaker, which is a bit hard for newcomers. I need to check GPS for my current location or looking outside constantly so I won't miss my stop. However, the bright side is it provides you with a relatively quiet environment on a bus :)

The other noticeable difference is friendly human interactions on the bus (I found it’s not so common in other bigger cities in Australia though). When getting on the bus, you can often hear a passenger and a bus driver greeting each other, such as: “Hi, how are you?” Before getting off, the conversation changes to:

“Thank you/Cheers!” A passenger expresses thanks to the driver.

“Bye, have a nice day!” Responds to the driver.

Comments: I love this. The simple conversation can make each other happy. My friend told me it first started in the hills region. Because of the long drive, people liked to cheer up one another.

Sharing Time

1. Download the MetroMate app. It has a Real-Time indicator, predicting how far away your bus is.

2. Get a driving license in your home country

Buses do not cover everywhere. Therefore, if you want to explore some regional areas, having a car could make your life much easier. Be aware that getting a full-license here takes a much longer time than China.

City’s Vibe 

Multi-cultural, clean, relaxed, and quiet evenings

1. Clean

Walking on the street, everywhere is so clean and tidy. Locals tend to leave their bags on the ground as well as sitting on the floor. While in China, our floor is not clean enough to do that at the moment, I believe it will happen in the near future.

2. Low-rise and multicultural buildings

Adelaide does not have many high-rise buildings, which adds an approachable touch to the city. Also, you will find they have a lot of historical houses. They even have a monthly-long History Festival. People can explore the past by attending exhibitions, tours, talks or workshops. Therefore, the city’s heritage and character get well conserved. So amazing, considering the city is only less than 200 years old.

Walking along these old streets, I feel grounded. Also, each building looks very different too due to its multiculturalism. Only by appreciating them has already made me get lost in their uniqueness. I couldn’t help myself taking thousands of photos and getting so excited to share them with my family and friends back home straight away. That eventually blended into my daily routine, walking around my neighbourhood after dinner (my discovery journey).

South Australia State Library

3. Greenness

I am impressed by this. I came here in summer, and I still remember that sunny afternoon, at Magill campus. Students were sitting on the lawn, chatting, laughing and reading. Some were taking a walk through it with relaxed smile. Seeing that made my heart so peaceful and tranquil.

The Botanic Garden

However, in China, we can only look at the grass from a distance. Why?

Well, two main reasons. One is the usage of grass/lawn doesn’t play a very important role in China. It’s not common for us to have a wedding or picnic there. Second, our large population means we are more likely to face a potential issue, lawn might get damaged. But the department who maintains these areas does not have much funding, so they don’t have the full capacity to tackle that issue. Therefore, in China seeing a sign outside of the lawn becomes so common. One sign I really like is: Do not disturb. Tiny grass is sleeping. 

4. Relaxed pedestrians

Pedestrians looked more relaxed and walked at a rather slower pace than people living in Beijing or Shanghai. For locals, it seems that nothing is more important than enjoying life and having work and life harmony. For example, staff at my uni usually leave office really on time. Also, evenings are very quiet here. At first, I was wondering where people are. Here are my findings by asking my friends.

Two main reasons. One is compared to attend post social events among colleagues (which is quite common in China), they would rather wind down and recharge themselves or spend time with their families. The other reason is if they have gatherings, they prefer to entertain at their own cozy houses instead of public places.

Comments: I prefer this type of lifestyle, because, for me, balance is pivotal. But again, it really depends on each individual’s value. We need to know what is important to us.

Reminder

UV intensity is very strong here, so please remember to wear sunscreen every day 📢.

I learned this the hard way. Before coming to Australia, people always complimented me on my pale skin. But no one mentioned that anymore when I returned home after 2 years.

I felt a bit upset. Why?

Here comes another very interesting cultural difference. In China or most Asian countries, light skin is considered to be pretty, so skin-whitening products are very popular there. Deep down, it associates with social status. In ancient China (agriculture dominated), people who were involved in labour work (normally worked outside), so they tend to have darker skin. Another reason is from a beauty perspective, for an Asian lady, having fair skin makes her facial features stand out more.  

However, in western countries, to get sun-kissed look is their goal. Tanned skin indicates that you have money and time to go to luxurious islands to enjoy the sun. Nowadays, it is becoming a sign for fitness too. It shows that you are an outdoor exercise activist.

Therefore, in Adelaide, you can rarely see people with umbrellas in summer. I still remember, once when my Chinese student saw me using an umbrella on a sunny day, he asked: “Oh, is it rainy?” 😛

Comments: for me, we should always love the way we are, no matter dark or light skin. But staying healthy needs to be a priority though. 

A nice surprise

Finally, I don’t need to carry toilet paper everywhere anymore, because it is provided in all public restrooms here. While in a large population country like China, officials curb the excessive use of toilet paper by restricting supplies.