My experience with Surveillance cameras in China!
In June of 2019, I spent ten incredible days exploring the cities of Shanghai, Suzhou, and Hangzhou in China. It was my first trip to China — I was traveling to the country all by myself to attend a student conference. I couldn’t wait to explore China!
After arriving in Pudong International airport, Shanghai following nearly 15 hours of travel from Delhi, I still needed to get into the heart of the city. The fastest way to do that was to take the Shanghai Maglev, the world’s fastest train that travels at speeds up to 430 kilometres per hour! It’s something you must experience when you visit Shanghai!
This train only takes 8 minutes to get from the airport to Shanghai. The ticket costs 50 Yen for regular economy and 100 Yen for VIP. I took VIP and was alone in the car. There’s a monitor on the ceiling that shows you how fast you’re going. I kept watching the numbers go up as we picked up speed and soon the buildings and scenery outside were zipping by! This Maglev train is so much quieter, All I could hear was a gentle hiss!
From there, I stepped out looking for my hotel in People’s Square, which is one of the main squares in Shanghai. One thing that caught my eye immediately was the presence of Surveillance cameras all around me. I’m familiar with the idea of surveillance cameras but not on this scale. Initially, it all seemed like a virtual cage — like some large-scale, life-sized version of Big Brother.
It was almost like, I was under someone’s watch constantly and each of my steps was being tracked. This started to haunt me.
With fancy equipment and facial-recognition tools, these state-of-the-art surveillance systems aid China’s enormous “social credit system” that ranks its citizens based on their behaviour, and doles out rewards and punishments depending on their scores. I remember how I had seen on youtube, a demonstration video of these systems, where it showed how these cameras were able to recognise the person, retrieve his official identification number in no time. The system was capable of sifting through billions of records, and then displaying details of the persons education, family ties, links to an earlier case and recent visits to a hotel and an internet cafe in split of a second. This simulation, offered me a look at a system that now peers into nearly every corner of Shanghai, and I was very much at its peril.
But to my surprise, within in a couple of hours, I was accustomed to this presence of cameras. And this initial anxiety turned into my biggest reliever. Instead of being haunted I felt relaxed and at total ease. I felt more safe and secure. There wasn’t an iota of tension of loosing stuff or theft because I was so sure that everything could be tracked in no time.
What was also very evident was that these camera’s had led to several positive social impacts on the general public. Everything around me resonated in perfect harmony — absolutely no litter anywhere, no traffic-light breaking and no cases of theft or misbehaviour. All this made me fall in love with the place in no time.
My another worth mentioning encounter with these cameras came when I tried crossing the street when the lights were red. My face made it to the billboard almost immediately. My photo kept flashing on the billboard. Everyone around me looked at me and made me realise I had made a mistake and should not repeat it again.
Wherever I went, these cameras followed me, but not the fear. I was at total ease in China during my stay. I departed for home with quite a few ideas that must be implemented back home in India for the better of the society.
What an adventure! I hope you enjoyed coming along on my first trip through China! If you did, please give it a thumbs up and leave me a comment. Also, please subscribe to my page so you don’t miss any of my upcoming content!
