so how did Chinese people wash their
clothes well it might sound like a
rather mundane subject but let's try and
make it interesting right because
believe it or not there are quite a few
differences now on the subject of
clothes I'm actually on my way to go and
fetch three new suits that I've had made
at my tailor so it popped into my head
since I've had a couple of times when I
don't know foreigners or acquaintances
who come here are kind of a little
confused as to how washing clothes works
here in China because number one there
are no laundromats so you can't just pop
down the road and get your clothes
washed for you there are plenty of dry
cleaners however but a bit can be kind
of expensive I mean I rely on dry
cleaners a lot for my suits and shirts
ends up being about 10 RMB per shirt to
get done you know it's not incredibly
expensive but at the same time you know
it's nice to be able to wash your own
stuff so let's talk about how Chinese
people wash their clothes and the
differences between you know West and
East now there are a couple of concepts
which I wasn't really used to when I got
your number one people don't wash
underwear and socks together ever and
this is on advice from their doctors and
I suppose it makes sense if you have
athlete's foot or some kind of fungal
infection on your feet there's a chance
especially if you're a woman anyway that
some kind of fungal bacteria could
transfer over to your nether regions
which is very undesirable so I guess
that makes some sense so you will be
berated by your wife or your girlfriend
or your Chinese friends if they find out
that you're washing your socks and
underwear together not only that but
actually the washing machines are quite
different you'd you know the typical
washing machine that I saw growing up
and that I saw when I was touring across
America and you know that I've seen
pretty much my whole life all those you
know it kind of looks like a big box and
on the front you open it up you throw
your clothes in you slam the door shut
you know and go ahead and wash and
usually right next to it you have a
tumble dryer which is another thing
which you don't find here in China which
looks very similar in fact but here in
China the washing machines are all these
sort of top loading deals these top
loading jobbies where you just pop the
lid off throw your stuff inside press
Start and you know way it goes I must
say that these top loading ones are very
very good and I personally actually
prefer them to the ones that we use in
the West
number one they take up less space it's
easier to like put clothes in and take
them out you don't need to be bending
down a nut sounds stupid but quite
honestly you just throw the stuff in on
the top open it up pull the stuff out
you know and yeah they work really well
but something really weird is how people
dry their clothes here and as mentioned
before there's no such thing as tumble
dryers here now again it has to do with
the Chinese idea of health and medicine
and things like that and they believe
that it is incredibly well
only healthy way to dry your clothes is
of course in the Sun and that's because
they believe it kills the bacteria and
all of that kind of stuff and you know
there is truth to that of course UV rays
do you know take care of a lot of nasty
little bacteria however there is one
thing that people don't seem to
understand which has always boggled my
mind here is that at least in the cities
here pollution is a huge huge problem so
you're leaving your clothes outside to
get dry in this sort of horrible
polluted
dusty air because yeah it's dusty a lot
of construction going on and you get all
this sort of concrete dust and
what-have-you so yeah your clothes
although they they come out dry first of
all they're quite stiff because if you
let something drip dry outside they
don't doesn't make them soft but then
they're also kind of smell like
pollution and are a bit dusty depending
so it's not ideal I wouldn't say it's
ideal but it's the way it's done here
and the idea of actually having a tumble
dryer or some kind of clothes dryer is
very alien to people here similar to the
way that they don't have dish washing
machines in their houses either and
although you might see something that
looks like a dishwasher in a lot of
kitchens it's actually a UV sterilizer
you know and it's there just to kill the
bacteria it's not actually there to wash
the dishes so anyway I thought instead
of me just talking about it thought I
don't wash some clothes
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nice and clean
well thank you very much guys for
sticking through on this rather
interesting topic I know it's maybe not
the most fascinating topic in the world
but you know at the end of the day it is
these simple things which you have to
really sort of understand if you're
going to come here and spend a little
bit of time in China one other thing
that you have to take into account is if
you stay at a hotel or something like
that as a businessman or something they
do provide sort of dry cleaning and
washing up services however they won't
wash your underwear just so you guys
know there's something about that that
just refused so I don't know wash them
in the sink or bring a whole lot of
extra pairs I don't know anyway guys
that's it for this one thanks for
sticking through and as always you know
the drill stay awesome
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