I just took a 3-week road trip in Chinas relatively poor Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, immediately followed by a 3-week road trip in Indias Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh surrounding its capital Delhi. The contrast between the two countries could not have been greater: China has gleaming new highways even in remote mountainous areas, beautiful new urban parks and landscaped streets in even minor cities like Xichang and Miyi that few foreigners have heard of, and no visible abject poverty anywhere urban or rural. India was the complete opposite: congested potholed roads everywhere, homeless people sleeping in roadside tents in cities and villages, and even in Udaipur, reputedly Indias most beautiful city, you cannot walk a few steps in its streets without stepping on cow dung or being run over by a tuk tuk. Not to mention Agra, which is literally an open sewer as soon as you step outside the gates of the Taj Mahal.
From my personal experience, I have to agree with the author and make the conclusion that he dared not state openly: although we would like to believe otherwise, the Chinese totalitarianism has worked out far better for its people than the Indian democracy.
我刚花了3个星期的时间,在中国相对较差的四川, 云南等省自驾游,紧跟一个3周的自驾游在印度的拉贾斯坦邦和北方邦邻近首都新德里。
两国之间的差异已经大的不能再大了:中国在即使是很小的城市,如西昌, 米易,都有闪闪发光的新公路,即使在很少有外国人听说的偏远的山区,美丽的新城市公园和风景优美的街道,随时随地城市或农村你看不到有明显的赤贫。
印度是 完全相反的:拥挤的凹凸不平的道路随处可见,无家可归的人睡在路边帐篷里的城市和村庄,甚至在乌代布尔,据说印度最美丽的城市,你不可能走在街上几步而没 有踩到牛粪。更何只要你踏一步就到泰姬陵的大门之外的阿格拉,这就是一个开放的下水道。从我个人的经验来说,我不得不做出的结论是:中国的极权主义比印度 的民主要强得太多了。