Beyond Basic Needs

Yesterday, we went to visit a mega house of a friend’s friend in the suburb. I have never seen a residential house that big anywhere, in Canada, or the States, let alone in China. It is built upon a space where 6 houses were originally situated. To give you a sense of what I mean, I snapped a shot of their dog house in the back yard. Holy macro!

The mega house has only one floor with the height of two stories. No matter how much heat is supplied, you feel the need to bundle up inside. To have dinner together, we used a small end portion of a gigantic dinner table that can seat 26 people. You feel the need to raise your voice inappropriately. I am also concerned about how much one has to travel to fetch a glass of water to ease the thirst.

The floor has terra cotta tiles throughout. Yet, like walking into any Chinese family, we took off our shoes and changed into their slippers. I would probably have someone custom design a shoe washing machine and a dryer so that we could keep our shoes on along with our decency.

I guess if you can have a house like this by spending only one dollar of your one thousand dollars, probably you don’t think so much about your basis needs. You will just go out and get the house.