1 Billion Chinese Can't Be Wrong

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Nov. 24 - 27: Xiamen, China

Upon arrival in China, we were very impressed. Everything was super efficient, even more so than Singapore. We were in and out of customs in under a minute and our baggage was sitting waiting for us as soon as we got there. Xiamen is a very clean, modern city and not how I had pictured China to be at all. Xmas commercialism was booming ( I didn't even think that would exist in communist China), nowhere was crowded, there are beautiful parks and gardens everyone, a lovely island across the port where old colonies influences still abound and no pollution. I had read in lonely planet that 9 out of 10 of the world's most polluted cities were in China, they must be really bad compared to Bangkok, but Xiamen was definetly not one of them. Now, it must be kept in mind that Xiamen is one of 4 Special Economic Zones in China so I don't know how indicative it is of China as a whole but it gave us a little sampling of the much bigger, fascinating country that unfortunately we do not have more time to explore but that has now come to the top of the list of places to return to.

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