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Published: December 14th 2008
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Please note, that the following is based upon our own personal experiences in China and they are our own personal thoughts. We're sure that anyone coming to the UK would observe our behaviours and find them unusual too! 😊
China was certainly a 'throw yourself in at the deep end' experience and was exactly what we both wanted - to experience a culture totally different to ours!
Weather We knew it would be cold in China however it was very, very cold so we were really pleased to have put the thermals in the travel packs. There was evidence of smog and generally a dirty atmosphere, but we feel very lucky that we had some beautiful blue sky's.
Habits Apart from being quite loud and impatient, the Chinese have some interesting habits which I'm pleased to say are much less frequently demonstrated in the UK.
The main one we experienced was spitting, mainly by the men. I'm not sure what was worse, the horrible sound beforehand or the projected spit of up to 2 metres.
The other habits which really shocked us was the dropping of litter wherever they wanted. The most shocking was beside litter
Beautiful Clear skies
Temple @ Summer Palace bins, but it happened everywhere in towns, city's on transport and people were even throwing plastic bags full of rubbish into the Yangtze River. On a positive note, this did give the government a good reason to employ people to sweep it up. They are proud to say that everyone in China has a job - that is apart from the homeless or those with disabilities who are just stared at and are not really regarded as part of the population. In one case we observed a girl with a prosthetic leg hauling herself onto the bus with everyone staring, even the bus driver. Even after the girl had made it to the safety of a seat the passengers continued to stare at her long after the bus had set off again.... which brings us to.....
Staring at us was the final habit. We did not see many other 'Whities' (as we were called once!) or "laowai ",meaning old foreigners as they often called us and we believe this is why they found us fascinating to stare at for minutes at a time. Although "laowai" is better than "yangguizi" (a derogatory term meaning "foreign devil") and "dabizi" (meaning "big
nose").
Family This is perhaps the most important thing for the Chinese. Several generations all live together in the same houses (Parents - please don't get any ideas, we love you all, but this would be going too far!!!) and the grandparents look after and really bring up the grandchildren whilst the parents go to work. This reminds us to mention that the babies and toddlers who were dressed in layers of quilted clothes to make them look like little puff balls! They also had a split in the back of their trousers which was used for them to go to the toilet through whilst being held over a public drain. We guess this saved the adult time in undressing the child - this was quite a grim sight to see at times.
Communist Country This strictness of communism is evident more so in Beijing than anywhere else we travelled in China. In certain places people seemed restricted and perhaps even controlled, there were excessively large numbers of military personnel and police present at all times. There were not many smiles on people's faces, which is very sad indeed. However on our Chinese cruise we were amazed at
Big Brother is watching...
Beijing closely controlled the difference in the people when they started to relax a little and acted quite like mischievous children to a certain degree with new found freedoms. We also felt controlled as our web access was either very slow or blocked altogether going through the web filtering/monitoring servers.
Chinese Toilets The squat style toilets were simply disgusting. Most were dirty and smelt awful. There were a few western style ones which strangely had the seat removed. We are sure things will get worse in some of the other countries we will be visiting so we will be experts of the hovering technique by the time we get home! Interesting whilst waiting at Shanghai airport we saw a public information documentary targeted at the Chinese passengers (we believe) instructing them on how to use western style toilets. Although we didn't see any we heard that there are signs in some public places where western toilets are installed asking people not to stand on the seats and squat!!
Chinese Transport Public transport in China was cheap and pretty good - the bus was approx 10p for any length of journey, the subway was approx 20p and our long distance sleeper trains
Accident...
Encountered on the way from Chongquin. Driver was ok. (1st Class - although not equivalent to UK 1st Class) worked out to be about £40 a journey. It has certainly been an experienced being squashed in with the locals and battling to get onto the buses with the locals pushing from all directions - whatever happened to personal space!!!
Bicycles are fast being replaced by mopeds, and people are clearly becoming "car hungry".
Whilst on 4-5 hour train journeys we saw the attendants entering the carriage and start to make sales pitches for toys, toothbrushes and lucky charm pendants to the passengers. We guess these were special discounted offers but no-one we saw took these offers up.
No road safety - considering the volume of traffic, the aggressive driving nature and the total lack of road rules we were amazed that there were hardly any accidents. However we did encounter several accidents on the highways mainly due to poorly maintained vehicles being pushed to their limits.
Chinese Food Absolutely nothing like the number 33 and 46 specials back home. The food is fresh, tasty and free from most flavour enhancements that you get in the UK. The range of foods is staggering and there seems
no limit to the types of living things that can be consumed. Meat usually comes on the bone and most of the time with the head of the creature too. We're sure this won't be the last of the interesting foods we see on our travels.
Old meets New There is evidence of a new China emerging from within the younger population. In the same way the traffic heads for the same space and somehow avoids a collision so it seems true for the old customs meeting the new. They shouldn't be able to co-exist but somehow they just do. Perhaps the Chinese culture is far more tolerant than first impressions give.
Poverty vs Wealth The divide between the rich and poor in China is very evident. We saw a hard working man with his bicycle loaded up with wood to keep his family warm being overtaken by the affluent business man being chauffeur driven in the latest Audi A8. Its a mad mad world out there.
Construction Country We saw a huge amount of new construction and building work going on everywhere we went, the wealth from the cities is certainly expanding out into the surrounding
Wonderful foods..
We love haggling for foods from the street sellers. areas. This could well mean that locals are inevitably forced out as new expensive houses are erected. We guess this is true of any large economy on the up. There was absolutely no sign anywhere of the credit crisis impacting the average person on the street but this may simply be a delayed reaction.
Summary It is a country steeped in thousands of years of history and the vision from the 2008 Olympics still stands 'One World, One Dream', this does seem a big ask based on what we have experienced but it is a great start. China appears to have begun a new epic journey of discovery (especially in the major cities such as Shanghai) and hopefully one that will bring us all closer together.
All in all though, we have had a great experience in China. We have met some very nice people and have been fortunate to have seen some spectacular sights and beautiful scenery, and not to forget catching up with Markie Boy!!!
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Keith P
non-member comment
Have just caught up with your travels in China and it made for very entertaining reading. Sounds like you've had quite an experieince travelling through the different regions of this vast country. Looking forward to catching up with your next installment and glad to hear that you're having a great time.