Final note from China

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Just as we did from Japan we wanted to write a bit of a summary about our time in China and whilst we have spent longer here than we did in Japan we don't think of ourselves as the oracle on China we just thought we'd put across some of our views...

We arrived in China from Japan wondering what similarities we would see between the two countries but are leaving realising that the two are vastly different, opposites in many ways. China has grown on us during our time here, we were surprised by the aggressive nature of many locals we met when we first arrived but we are leaving with many fond memories and some good friends.

In summary...

Our biggest highlights:

- Walking the Great Wall between Jinshanling and Simatai
- Trekking the Tiger Leaping Gorge near Lijiang
- Seeing the incredible Terracotta Warriors
- Cycling along the Li river in Yangshuo
- 'Drifting' down the Longjin River in Yangshuo
- Exploring the hutong in Beijing
- Sampling the street food in Hubu Alley in Wuhan
- Sipping wine in the Cloud 9 bar in Shanghai with Ron
- Doubling our money in a Macau casino
- Seeing the sunset over Hong Kong
- The Yunnan province

We liked...

- the hard sleeper trains - so much better than we thought they'd be
- the food, we never had a bad chinese meal
- Mama's Guesthouse in Lijiang (well loved it really!)
- the kind locals who occasionally paid our bus fare
- cheap beer, accommodation, meals
- Chinese/German beer - Tsingtao, we loved it!
- how cheap it was to hire bikes
- how helpful some local people can be
- Chinglish - 'English' signs that took a lot of deciphering but made us laugh


We didn't like...

- the spitting - men, women, children - noisily!
- chinese tourism - the fact that you had to pay for everything, there were lots of hidden costs and the entrance fees were relatively high
- queuing (or lack of)
- the littering
- the fact that at a crossing a green man means nothing - well not to taxis, buses, bikes and scooters anyway!
- how confrontational some local people can be (in contrast to the above!)
- the call of 'looky looky' which was almost always followed by an arm grab and a drag into the shop in question
- the toilets - enough said
- "I give you cheapest price" we'd rather they were honest and said ' I'm going to try and screw you for as much money as I can'


We didn't know...

- How stringent the passport checks would be for the entrance to HK and Macau
- That you can only book train tickets from the town/city you are leaving from - tricky if you want a quick departure
- That any post you send will have to be checked thoroughly at the post office - don't seal a parcel!
- Any Mandarin before arriving - not much better now! very hard language!
- How trendy pop socks are - Chrissie's Granny would have been very at home here!
- How censored the internet is


We would recommend a trip to China and would suggest that if you do plan a holiday here you don't miss out the Yunnan province as this has been our favourite part - very beautiful and relaxing and a great escape from China's polluted cities. It was well worth us getting new visas to explore this part of China.

We are now looking forward to experiencing a new country as we head off to Vietnam tonight for the next chapter of our journey.

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Comments

[marney]

world tour scam
must be very sad that you are leaving chinatown.get the train to the scottish highlands from piccadilly station,i believe it looks a bit like vietnam up there which should suit your dodgy photos.missin you madly .....harry can you hurry up and get mary pregnant so you can come back home? by the way showed a picture of no 3 pooch to alf..think he is now in love and has asked for her number!,xxx