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China Elevator Stories
“Where Do You Live?”
I recently took my children swimming at a pond in Siping.
07/08/2025
Ruth Silbermayr
Author
I recently took my children swimming in Siping. They introduced me to the Siping West Lake Wetlands two months ago and knew the place from their grandparents, who had purportedly taken them there in the past.
My younger son always went into the water to play and usually just stood there or walked around in the water. It isn’t very deep, and he knew not to try swimming, since he hadn’t learned how to swim in China—as is very common for Chinese children.
Some Chinese learn swimming as children if they grow up near the sea, and a few of my students in Tai’an could swim because Shandong Province is located at the sea. Now, Tai’an is still a few hours from the sea, but many had gone to places such as Qingdao or Yantai, which are located at the sea and offer great beaches for swimming. Some of my students were also born in places in Shandong that are located right at the sea and had learned swimming as children. But in other places, I have found it very common that Chinese don’t learn how to swim and can’t swim as adults. Many of my students still weren’t able to swim and had never enjoyed the pleasure of taking a cool bath in the sea or in a lake in summer. Some do go to a beach (often with friends) and just stay there to eat Chinese-style barbecue at the beach (a common holiday activity in China) or play volleyball, but don’t actually go into the water. If they do, they may only go in with their feet, but not actually go swimming in the sea. Now, certainly, this can be fun too, but they are basically missing out on one of the most fun activities there is—swimming!
Austrians tend to learn swimming as children, and finding adults who can’t swim is a bit harder than it is in China. I learned swimming when I was about five years old, as did most other kids my age.
In the Austrian countryside, most people tend to go swimming in summer, and there is a wide variety of pools available: There are public and private outdoor swimming pools, lakes, and rivers, and Austrians enjoy going to Italy or other countries for their summer holidays to spend a week or two at the sea, which was also a common activity in my family growing up.
We tended to go to Italy, which took us six hours by car (unless there was a traffic jam at the border, which was still a “real border” featuring real people checking passports, which was common as well). I remember us sitting in our car with one of our parents (the other siblings sitting in the other car with the other parent—we were eight children, so my parents always had to drive two cars to take us somewhere). The borders were filled with cars from Germany and Austria being stuck there for a few hours, and we were sweating in the sun as our car’s air conditioning didn’t work (or it didn’t have one—I can’t remember if cars in the 1990s already had such technical amenities), but certainly, the car’s inbuilt fan didn’t work.
Upper Austria is famous for its many lakes, which are usually both beautiful and a great place for cooling down in summer. Upper Austria also features other beautiful natural scenery (as shown in the second picture in this link), and most Upper Austrians I know who grew up in the countryside enjoy doing outdoor activities in summer, such as biking, swimming in a lake, climbing a mountain, or similar activities. Barbecue is also pretty common and a fun activity many families enjoy.
Upper Austria also features some amazing rivers, including smaller ones such as the one that ran through the village I was growing up in. Its color was turquoise, and it was extremely cold, but people would go there in summer and try out how long they could stay in the icy water one stretch at a time. Some were able to stay longer, others not so much, but it was always a great place to go on extremely hot summer days.
In Vienna, where I later lived, people tend to go to the Danube to swim, which is supposedly clean enough. I took my older son there when he was a toddler, and he enjoyed being taken into the water when he was small.
I also went swimming at a natural pond near my place on the outskirts of Vienna (where I lived before moving back to China), but the sexual harassment in Austria had become so extreme that I had to stop going after just a few visits—it simply wasn’t safe.
I had also stopped wearing skirts in the summer in Vienna because of harassment from strangers, catcalling, the stalkers I had already attracted, and all the other unwanted attention that comes with wearing a skirt—or rather, with being a woman who isn’t yet of granny age. Not that older women are immune to harassment either—there was even a news story in Austria about a man raping an elderly woman, which is deeply disturbing and sick behavior.
Now, certainly, this behavior didn’t just come from strangers, but also from co-workers and other men—most of whom certainly weren’t in my group of friends—who used to be decent and polite people, at least when we met up in the past. Certainly, one of them didn’t show appropriate behavior a few years later, when he became the lawyer of my ex-husband and helped him never see my children again during the divorce proceedings. (I mean, he’s a member of the Austrian Freedom Party, and his father has some kind of leading role within the party in his hometown—so what else would you expect?)
But he certainly was friendly enough in the past, and we enjoyed some great adventures in China together. But oh well—these kinds of people simply don’t want for women to become mothers, for mothers to raise their own children, or for Chinese-Austrian children—who, in his mind, supposedly have some kind of inferior genes—to stay in Austria in the future.
We don’t want Austrian society to become contaminated by people who are Chinese, do we? (Chinese-Austrian, to be correct—but Chinese in his mind.) Just kidding—but this is approximately how these people think.
Anyways, he used to be friendly in the past, but I realized his behavior towards me seemed to change either once I got married or once I had children. In either case, a friend thinking he has a right to get a say in your life, or determine how your life is supposed to unfold, certainly has some kind of control issues.
Now, with members of the Freedom Party having become plentiful, I believe that, in order to keep the courts more neutral, it should be mandatory to publish which political party each judge votes for each year. People should have the right to request a judge who does not vote for the Austrian Freedom Party—especially if they have children with a different nationality or mixed heritage—in order to ensure they are not treated detrimentally or unfairly by someone who does not apply the law equally to everyone.
Back to the men in Vienna. Since many of them don’t seem mentally well to me, swimming has unfortunately become a thing of the past.
I used to wear skirts during summer when I was a student (about 20 years ago), but I stopped in recent years—before moving back to China. I haven’t heard many stories from other women experiencing the same level of sexual harassment, but I believe they likely do as well. I’m certainly not the only one who has had to deal with out-of-control men who haven’t learned to respect boundaries. I believe my parents’ generation did learn these things, as they definitely behaved differently in public.
Back to Siping. I bought a swim ring for both my sons, as they couldn’t swim but did want to try it out. The lady selling the swim rings had a small stall that was located at a crossroad near the Siping West Lake Wetlands. They are a bit outside town but still easy to reach from the city by car. I usually take a cab, since I don’t have a driver’s licence and since cabs aren’t expensive at all, with prices starting at 5 Yuan (0.60 EUR or 0.70 USD) for a ride. Going there usually costs around 13 Yuan (1.55 EUR or 1.80 USD).
Blown-up swim rings were located outside a small container, and she would go inside to get new ones, which were still packaged, if you bought one. The container featured a TV and a bed, as is common for people who work during the day, so they can enjoy a nap.
I initially thought she was living there with her daughter, who was also spending time outside at a plastic table that was placed in front of the container, and who also went swimming during the day, as her mother told us.
My older son, who loves snakes and who has one toy snake he plays with frequently (whom he takes anywhere we go), forgot his snake at her stall when we went back to the pond. So I contacted the lady, and we went back on our way home around 6:30 p.m.
She didn’t actually live there but was packing up her stuff as well when we arrived.
She then asked us:
“Where do you live?”
My son: “Near the university.”
She: “I live close by. I can take you back to the city with me, since I am going home anyway and I am here by car. It’s hard to find a cab here.”
My sons were a bit wary of the stranger, but seeing that she didn’t quite look like a murderer (though some certainly don’t look like ones), I agreed to take her car.
I found this to be one of the most heart-warming experiences in years, since I have experienced that society has grown colder, people have grown less willing to help other people—at least in Austria, but I believe also in China—and most people think that everyone just needs to be out there and fend for themselves. At least, that’s my experience. Certainly, you might have a different one. Feel free to share your experience in the comments.
She was so courteous as to take us to near where we lived, and we said goodbye and I thanked her for the ride.
In my experience, such things used to be common, even in Austria, but have become so rare that an event like this will certainly stay in my mind for a very long time, since it is such a kind gesture in times like these!
Have you ever been offered a ride in China?