Nine things you did not know about #ModiInChina

Worried about big takeaways

In the days leading up to PM Modi's China visit, senior officials in the government were concerned about the lack of a major, tangible outcome that Modi could show case back home. The MEA officials were hoping that China would agree to the river water data sharing agreement during the PM's visit. Despite hectic parleys, efforts fell through. The Chinese are concerned that if they agree to share data about the Brahmaputra river with India it would be a tacit acceptance of Delhi's claim that Arunachal Pradesh is a part of India.

Let's do it at prime time

The original schedule sent by the Chinese officials to Delhi suggested that the Yoga-Taichi performance take place early in the morning, which is usually when people exercise. But that would have meant that the event would have happened at 4.30am in India when most people would be fast asleep. The Indian side requested the Chinese to schedule the performance in the afternoon so that people back home could view the live coverage from Beijing. Officials are hoping that the powerful visual imagery will make up for the lack of a substantial outcome.

Show more of Xi

CCTV News is the English propaganda arm of the Chinese state broadcaster. Even though the channel has hired many international journalists and has bureaus across the world, its sole agenda is to propagate the Chinese government's world view. Before coming back to meet PM Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping travelled to Belarus. On the day he arrived, the 8pm prime time broadcast led with a story on the Chinese President's day in Minsk. The second story too was about Xi in Minsk. In fact, it was word for word the same story as the one that ran first. Initially, it seemed like there had been a production mistake. But later a CCTV hand let the cat out of the bag. The rundown team at CCTV English has explicit instructions from the channel's management to show as much of Xi as possible. Often, they are told to run the same story, back to back, to showcase what the president has been up to.

Breaking through Great Firewall of China

Modern day Chinese leaders are as obsessed with the Great Internet Firewall as ancient emperors were about the Great Wall Of China. The Great Wall couldn't prevent Mongolian invasions and the Great Firewall cannot stop those determined to sneak into the dark side of the online world. Virtual Private Network (VPN) servers are in demand in China. Services like Express VPN, Hide My Ass, VPN.AC help those interested break through the Chinese firewall for a nominal monthly charge. The VPN servers are based across the world, often in the United States; those providing VPN services and the Chinese internet slayers are constantly playing cat and mouse. People usually subscribe to such services for a short period, because sooner than later, the government pulls them down. But they soon reappear under a new name.

Young China's latest fad

The new generation of China seems to find Tai-Chi old-fashioned and slow and is taking to yoga in a big way. More than 1,000 big and small yoga centres have opened up in Beijing alone and according to conservative estimates, there are more than three lakh active Chinese yoga practitioners in the capital. Classes run through the day and yoga centres are packed with students. Yoga has also penetrated the countryside and now there are yoga centres even in small towns in remote parts of China. Like Indian culture, the Chinese too lay a lot of emphasis on the coming together of the mind, body and soul. The Chinese youth are fascinated by the deeper meaning of yoga and some of the youngsters this reporter spoke to said doing yoga had been a life-altering experience for them.

"Indians obsess about the border"

Upon speaking to a cross-section of Chinese officials, experts and citizens, one gets the feeling that the Chinese feel that Indians are obsessed with the border dispute. Some Chinese citizens told this reporter that India and China should freeze the issue of the disputed boundary and focus on areas of convergence. The border dispute is the last thing that comes up for discussion when you are chatting with an ordinary Chinese people about India. Trade and Bollywood are usually amongst the first. While in India, the fissures over the border take up a lot of national bandwidth and air time, the Chinese seem most oblivious to the problems along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

Less freedom is OK

There's been a lot of talk in the international media about how dissent in China is growing and the country could be on the cusp of an implosion. But most young people we encountered in Beijing and Xian are quite at ease with the restrictions the Chinese system imposes on their freedom. When asked about curbs on internet and political freedom, a young citizen at Beijing's Communications University said, "Freedom has two coins, look at what China has been able to achieve in the past few years because dissent is not tolerated. In India, you keep fighting among yourselves and little gets done".

Beijing is no Moscow

In Moscow, the Russian authorities impound the cameras of journalists who film without permission. Despite being a communist nation, the Chinese police are far more considerate. Officers politely tell journalists not to shoot in areas where they don't have the necessary permission and then keep an eye to ensure that their instructions are not being violated. There are no heavy-handed tactics used against journalists. The Chinese state seems less paranoid about what might appear in the press than it was a few years ago.

Selfies with fake terracotta warriors

When the Indian media delegation landed at the Terracotta Museum on Thursday morning, they were in for a rude shock. Despite being accompanied by officials from the ministry of external affairs, private media was not allowed to enter the complex. The MEA officials tried to explain that the journalists had accreditation passes issued by Beijing. But given the language barrier they made no headway and the media delegation was forced to stay out while PM Modi surveyed the terracotta army. To kill time the Indian journalists got selfies clicked with the fake terracotta warriors at the small shops outside the museum. Some carpers complained that it was a conspiracy by the PM to keep nosy journalists at bay.