China-Curiosities

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Facts usually not found in travel books or magazines:

4 BIGGEST ANNOYANCES in CHINA: smelly/suffocating/squatting hole toilets, spitting (loud, everywhere, constant and disgusting), cigarette smoking (non-stop, even in airplanes), people peeing on the streets.

Playing cards for money is extremely popular. Everywhere, from streets to parks, to restaurants and roads in the middle of nowhere. Huge gamblers.

School is paid and costs a lot to the Chinese. Our guide's brother is in HS, which costs a fortune: $100/month.
Medical and hospital care are also very expensive. Traditional Chinese herbs are cheap and available everywhere.

There are 5 "Autonomous Regions" in China. These "states" have a large population of minorities and are only "theoretically" autonomous.

Air and water pollution horrendous. Literacy rate 86%. 8 languages plus dialects. Religion officially atheist but Buddhism (mainly) , Taoism, Christianity and Islam practiced.

Policeman do not carry armies at all. No one does. Crime is practically non-existent among civilians. Very gentle people. The contrast happens when it comes to business and money: foreigners get tagged with absurd prices (10-100 times more), but negotiation is expected to bring the price down some. Western businessmen go crazy with the "deals", negotiations, etc.
Also, the Chinese government executes more people per year than any other nation.

Head massage plus hair wash and dry: one dollar!!!! Wonderful feet massage too. The very best. How not have 1 or many sessions per day while in China?

Although the Chinese writing "symbols" are so ornate, intricate and hard to "draw", people usually gathered, peeked and pointed to see me handwriting on my diary!!! They found it interesting!!! Go figure!

English translations, from Caca-cole (coca-cola)to entire paragraphs which made absolutely no sense, were great fun, generating lots of laughter.

Food can be incredibly inedible to "very delicious", like they always translate. We ate more than well. It helps if you stick to the many vegetarian choices. Vegetarians won't starve in China.

Tea: day and night, the Chinese people carry their containers of green tea. Tea houses: they looked cozy but Amanda always smiled and said "tea house, hummm!!!", as she has learned about what goes on behind the doors... sex shops.

Patient people. Hardly any horns blown in the crazy traffic, and we didn't witness any accidents either! All forms of transportation flow randomly but usually without incidents. People appear calm, relaxed.

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Photos

Gambling
Extremely popular

Osteoporosis
Diet poor in calcium. See woman on left of pic.

Comments

[JOY]

WOW
HOW AMAZING TO BE ABLE TO SEE ANOTHER CULTURE AND LEARN ALL THERE IS ABOUT IT!!!! MEMORIES ARE FOREVER. CAN'T WAIT TO SEE ALL YOUR PICTURES!!! HAVE FUN. LOVE YOU ALL JOY

[Patricia Somewhere]

Pics
Hey Joy. Are you sure you want to se ALL the pictures? There are 700+ of them!!!

[Joy]

Of course, I wouldn't miss it for the world. If I can't be there myself the next best thing is someone else's pictures!!! I'm thoroughly enjoying each and every excursion and experience you are able to have through your eyes!! Have a great journey!! Love ya Joy

[anonymous]

I loved the discription that you made about China....

[Patricia Somewhere]

thanks
Glad you liked it. It's always a pleasure to share.

[Chris and Nikki]

I really enjoyed this blog, it's completely different to any other I have read about China. I'm going to China in a few weeks so will be taking on board what you have said.

[Patricia Somewhere]

How nice...
...to hear that blog was useful. have a wonderful trip and be "open" to experiment and experience. "Boa Viagem" (have a good trip in Portuguese).