5 Things I Loved and Hated about China

We have been in China for 4 months and 1 day. Wow, that is pretty amazing espeically becuase it is about half of the total time on our trip so far! However, I am really glad we have spent so much time in the different regions and cities of China. It has been very fulfilling.

For the record we hit the Yunnan Province (Jinghong, Dali, LiJiang), Sichuan Province (Songpan, Wolong, Chengdu) and Tibet (Lhasa and hiking around) as well as these cities: Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Xi’An, Chengdu.

I decided to do a 5 things I Loved and Hated about China.

Here are the five things I loved:

1. The People. The Chinese were incredible and blew away any stereotypes or things I had heard about them. They were incredibily friendly and lively (even if a bit loud). We made a number of friends with people thoughout the country and a number of people bought as dinner and hung out and talked with us. We learned a lot about their own opinions about China and abroad. Isn’t that most of what traveling is all about?

2. The Historical Sites. Wow. China obviously has a lot to offer here from LiJiang and other preserved Chinese towns to The Great Wall and the Teracotta Warriors. Almost every region has some kind of fabulous historical structure. I was truly awed even though we had to miss many places we wanted to go (Pingyao, Hangzhou).

3. The Food. Dim Sum and Buns were expected but some of the spicy Sichuan dishes were pretty incredible and some of the most hot dishes that I have ever had that were still edible. The most unexpected but wonderful food I found was in the Muslim Quarter of Xi’An (showed to us by a local who bought us dinner there). My mouth is watering again…

4. The Geography. The Yunnan and Sichuan Provinces are definitely high on my list to hit again. I really recommend to people thinking of coming to China to take a close look at the Sichuan province (especially north and west Sichuan) while planning your trip. We learned too much too late but it is really beautiful and much more accessible (and cheap) than Tibet–no permits. They have glaciers, mountains, forests and, of course, Pandas. Regardless, there were many other places that we didn’t make it to that we want to see such as Guilan (and regions around it).

5. The cities. Ok. Let’s just say it–Hong Kong. HK was pretty amazing and I am glad we spent 20+ days there. I have always had a super-strong desire to go there and I wasn’t disappointed. The hills, the water and the food. A wonderful combination. Beijing was also very interesting and the French Concession area of Shanghai was quite cool. Chengdu was a great, green little city that is quite livable.

5a. The Chinglish or funky use of English by the Chinese

Ok. Fair is fair and here are 5 Things I Hated about China:

1. Censorship of the Media. I know, I know, an American bitching about no freedom of the press in China. What a surprise? However, during our four months here I really internalized what a big deal this is…I mean, the Chinese government tries so hard to curb all information its citizens see and this has some terrible consequences. All newspapers, newscasts, websites, blog sites (including this one or Ways that Are Dark) are limited, modified or are blocked. Of course, they seem to do this out of fear that there will be some kind of backlash (e.g. T. Square) but the resulting consequence is that people don’t have enough information to react against say, the air pollution problem in Beijing or the child slave labor scandal where kids were making bricks, and beaten for it, while their parents looked for them. This really limits the people’s power to solve some problems for its government. For example, take the Mothers Against Drunk Driving grassroot effort that has done the U.S. government’s job there about addressing drunk driving. Or, the activists role in improving the environment in the U.S. or E.U. Hey, China government–throw yourself a bone!

2. Air Pollution. Oh my god–it is bad. Worse than even Athens on a hot day. It is so bad in Beijing and other places that it has completely affected my views about the environment. If more Chinese people were allowed to travel to the U.S. you would think it would raise some questions for them to be in New York and wonder why the air pollution isn’t worse than it is. No real curbs on air quality are happening here and what will the Chinese people do when it begins to kill millions of people a year (and not just the hundreds of thousands it kills now). All travelers to China wonder about this train wreck and many of us predict that this is the biggest world threat to it’s sovereignty.

(That’s not a cool evening mist she is playing around in!)

3. Queueing. Ok. Maybe a little less important than air pollution but I cannot possibily express how much this drives me crazy so I will refer you to Francie’s post on the subject. I do want to say that, while I like the monthly practice Queue day that Beijing is having for the Olympics, I have to say it’s not going to work. Hate to be a naysayer but what I have learned is that all hope of queueing goes out the window when a Chinese person really really wants something. The second that one person gets out of the queue–everyone is going to get out of the queue. But it does leave us for that delicious moment when we read the Olympic news story about U.K./German’s reactions and incidents. Yum and fun.

4. Chinese Tour Groups. My eyes turn red with anger while just typing those words. Imagine some of the most rude people you have ever encountered. But, as one person pointed out to me, it is probably not that they are just in a tour group but that they are more of an upper class sort of people. Well, you can take that little flag you walk around with and shove it where the sun doesn’t shine while speeding down the road on your tour bus. Nuff said. The Chinese tour groups were especially offensive in The Jokhang–a religious site for the Tibetans…and while we are on this subject…

5. Treatment of the Tibetans. I was going to say something about this but instead I will just tell this little story. I was at a travel agency, in Lhasa, trying to write with a pen and the ink dried up. So, I grabbed a second pen and tried to use that one. I laughed and looked at the travel agent (who was Tibetan) and he looked at me at laughed and said “Sorry, made in China”.

Ok, that is it. We are about to get on a Bangkok Airways flight to Thailand and I am going crazy with excitement!

Something to look forward too…

Partly due to our mellow last 5 days in Lhasa, we haven’t put up any new photos recently, HOWEVER, I have 23 rolls of film waiting to get developed in Bangkok. These are photos from almost our whole time in China, the last 4 months. I can’t wait!!! I will post as soon as as I get them from the lab.

The smell of the Mekong

En-route back to Bangkok Greg and I have a 24-hour stopover in Jinghong, a small town on the Mekong in southern Yunnan province, not too far from the border. As soon as we stepped off the plane the smell of the river, the tropical vegetation, the humidity, and the rich soil hit me and it brought back all these wonderful memories of SE Asia, but Laos in particular, where we spent lots of time on the Mekong as well as many other rivers. Thinking back about all the countries we’ve travelled through I realize just how much I loved being in Laos. Right now it is still not over-run by tourists (as Thailand is in many places) but that’s starting to change as it becomes “discovered” as the special travel destination that it is. So people, go visit Laos now! You will not regret it. However, don’t go with a big list of must-see destinations and sites. Instead, take some good books, ride the slow-moving river boats, eat lots of river fish, and visit some remote villages.

Queueing – Chinese Style

This morning at the Lhasa airport, Greg and I had a classic experience trying to check in for our flight. As much as I have fallen in love with China, one thing I will not miss is the challenges of waiting in long lines.

Here’s what happened: A tour guide was in line a few people in front of us with the ID’s of all 20 or so of his tour group members. As soon as he got to the counter, and the others in line realized that he was going to stand there and checkin 20 people, they started surging forward and trying to get ahead. Greg and I did our practiced routine of standing in a semi-circle shape and using our arms to prevent people from getting in front of us (that sounds extreme but it is a basic necessity!). After the “surge” happened, all the tour group members that had bags to check started trying to edge their way past everyone (using their baggage carts) to get to the counter. At this point a guy in front of us started arguing with the tour guide guy and within a few seconds they were in each others faces, another guy was trying to hold one of them back, and then a few seconds after that there were 2 security guards trying to break it up, but they had trouble because the line (or rather the mass of people) was so tightly packed at this point that it was difficult to push through. Finally however, the guy stormed off and everyone else started trying to get ahead in line once again.

Realizing what mess it was going to be trying to check in the bags of 20 people that weren’t actually able to get up to the counter, the airline employee decided to open a counter about 30 feet away to also check in for our flight. Greg and I ran over there only to be stuck behind a bunch of people that got their first. We were rather frustrated because we had already been waiting in the other line for almost 30 minutes. I managed to edge my way in front of a few people through physical force. By the way, I think foreigners are targeted by line cutters simply because they usually aren’t comfortable with physically pushing someone out of the way! I’ve gotten used to it by now…

So we finally get to the counter and I’m waiting for the employee to finish typing so I can hand her our passports. A guy on my right tries to extend his hand with his id card further than mine so that the airline employee will grab his next and check him in. So I hold our passports even further out until the employee indicates to me that she sees that I am first. Ha. Then another tour guide holding about 10 id’s shows up on my left, seemingly from nowhere, pushes me aside and tries to hand the ID’s to the employee. I was very frustrated by now but I think Greg was just laughing to himself. I yelled at this guy something in Chinese that I can’t remember and pushed his arm back. He looked at me like I was crazy, as if he had been in front of me in line the whole time. I stepped in front of him to block him from the counter and at that point he realized I was serious and gave up. A minute or so later the employee finally grabbed our passports and we were saved from the rising tide.

On a related note, Beijing is apparently having a monthly “Queueing Day” in order to prepare for the Olympics. On this day Beijing residents are supposed to practice orderly queuing. I wonder if it will help?