Traveling in China.

So, as some of you may know I'm traveling in China at the moment. I lived here for about 3 1/2 years when I was a toddler and I speak enough of the language to get around. Anyway just wanted to "blog" about some experiences. Might add to these if there is any interest.

Also please ask questions!

-Driving in china is nucking futs!!! 1/2 the cars straddle two lanes because you can never predict when the car in front or behind is going to cut in line and you will need to move. Cars share the road with thousands of electric scooters, small motorbikes and bicycles. These other vehicles don't follow any rules either and cars have to continuously negotiate their way around them at all times. Having said this drivers are far better at navigating said obstacles than most anywhere else. I've yet to feel in much danger being in a taxi despite all the chaos. Also drivers rarely lose their temper at any of this, they just navigate around it all.

-Food is for the most part cheap and good! Street vendors abound and can be found in any sized city. Often there will be many areas where block upon block is nothing but hawker's stalls. Aside from staying away from some of the obvious stuff (seafood sitting in hot glass cases) these vendors are safe to eat at and serve some awesome food for cheap. Even restaurants are cheap though. Example we had a meal today consisting of 3 dishes (vermicelli, jiaozi, stir fried rice) and two large beer (=4 reg beer) for about 10 bucks CDN (9 US).

-The price of other consumables depends very much on where you shop and whether you want a knockoff or the real deal. In large cities like Shanghai and Beijing you can spend more on hand bags and clothes than you would in Paris, and yes these would be the real thing. Go into the smaller local stores though and you can pick up clothing and other accessories for far far less. Good looking t-shirts for something like 3 or 4 bucks US. And you can get cheaper. Try to avoid buying anything at any of the big tourist traps, real rip off most of the time.

-In the big cities the Chinese like to spend on clothes and by and large there is more variation amongst the fashions than in the west.

-Seems on the net people either complain that there are no sexy women or there are tons. The truth lies in between but lies closer to the later. (1) you obviously have to be into Asian women! (2) almost ALL the women here like to dress sexy, high heel shoes and short skirts regardless of whether they really are sexy or not. This means that in the big cities there are "head turners" every 10 seconds. But of course it also means there are more average women wearing the same skirts and heels.

-This is MUCH more of a no holds bared capitalist country than the US or most anywhere else. That means buyer beware!! So long as you have your wits about you, you should be OK. There is a HUGE influx of poor rural people coming in from the country side looking to make a living. Most of these get factory jobs, work at restaurants, drive taxis etc etc... The vast majority are honest and hard working. However where there are tourists there is money and where there is money there are scammers. Always go with your gut feeling and take much of what you are being told with a grain of salt. Taxi drivers for example are well known for telling gullible people "Oh sorry that hotel is closed due to renovations etc etc then take you to some other establishment for which they get a fat commission". Or take you round 10 blocks to get you to somewhere 2 blocks away. Having said all this so long as your wits are about you and can brush off the rude encounters most of the people you meet are really very friendly and helpful.

-Don't come to China expecting western standards or those of Tokyo. China is a different country and though very modern in places like Beijing and Shanghai rural standards still apply all over the place, GET USED TO IT! Squat toilets, spitting on sidewalks, small children releaving themselves in the street, NOISE noise noise, staring at people etc etc... abound all over the place.

-The country side is really quite beautiful. Get outside any major city things start looking like rural country side very quickly. Small towns and farms are everywhere. The Karst geography can be stunning!

-The transportation network is very well developed and getting from point A to B be it 10 miles or 1000 miles is not difficult on average.

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Sounds like they have one foot stuck in the third world-that's the part that would interest me.

How about hotels? Nice? Pricey, or not so much?

Food. Are you eating things you've never seen before, or can you find identifiable chow? What about reading road signs, menus, etc. Any english at all? And locals; what do you figure is the percentage of people that might know a bit of english? Could get lonesome if you don't know the language and have no one to talk to.

What parts of China have you seen? How long will you be traveling for?

Again, thank you!

Hotels are not pricey for the most part. Sure you can find the same 1000 bucks a night deals as anywhere else but for about 40-50 bucks US a night you can usually find a comfortable room with TV, clean bathroom, clean sheets and even free internet! You may have to put up with dirty carpets and the smell of smoke though. Breakfast is often included as well. Course things very a lot depending on where you go.

Not eating anything I haven't seen before but then being 1/2 Chinese I've seen just about everything before :) Also I'm willing to try almost anything once so that part doesn't bother me that much. I don't like Seafood though which is everywhere. In any major city you can find just about anything you would like to eat. In smaller cities you will still be able to find something you can eat trust me. However be wherry of special orders they might not understand why or what you are talking about even if you ask in Chinese. Both my parents are vegetarian and despite China being the home of traditional Buddhist vegetarian cooking a lot of places don't know what my parents are really asking when they say they want something vegetarian (and they are asking in Mandarin).

As for language you will be fine in the major cities at the major tourist attraction but not knowing any Chinese will be a pain in other places. That's fine if you don't mind putting up with said pain though ;) Major highway signs are all in Chinese and English and tourist signs are often in English as well (or some form of mashed up English). However most other signs are not.

As for traveling I'm traveling with my parents right now which sucks :( But I guess it beats not being here at all. It's also really helpful as both are fluent in Chinese (Both my Chinese mother and white father).

with your parents who I don't know, in a heartbeat!

I hope you're taking lots of pics; some pix of those signs in mangled inglesh can be fun, too.

nt

Why doesn't their version of the USDA close the vendors with inadequate refrigeration? Why don't they have something like the DOT to set traffic standards?

Simple, they are still very much a communist country. Rapid economic growth is currently their goal and spreading the wealth far and wide. You should see the big cities growth here is UNBELIEVABLE!! Anything that stands in the way of that, well it stands in the way of that and won't be implemented, looked at etc etc...

One of the greatest countries on Earth. 10,000 times better than Korea was.

Korea is so much more developed than China at the moment. I can see that as being both a postie and a negative.

my favorite cuisine. Jiozi, Hot and Sour soup, fried onion cakes, steamed buns etc etc etc... (would write the pinyin for these but it would take too long).

I love it here. I am at peace and found my long looked for home.

I am an American, but China will be my home along with Thailand. I just love it here.

1000000 times more than South Korea, where I was before.

manage to fall in love with another. I'm Canadian but the same thing applies there. I am a STRONG believer in the idea that a hell of a lot of the worlds problems could be vastly mitigated if everyone took a few years out of their lives and lived somewhere out of their normal comfort zone and experienced the world in someone elses shoes. So much political hatred stems from a profound amount of ignorance about the world at large. 20 years ago my parents came close to living here permanently (we did live 4 years). Since then we have traveled to a number of other places where we feel we could be equally happy living out our lives. More people need to experience this feeling!

Question. What turned you off of S.Korea?

DO NOT DRIVE. In big cities cabs are cheap and easy to find. If you don't speak Chinese hotels will help you out and carry a card that has your hotel name on it. Unlike many US cities they have subways and a good train system as well. While the local population bikes around, you might not feel brave enough to bike on street where the bike lanes often become extra car lanes.

Food is cheap but so is Hep A so get you shots if you plan on eating off street vendors and the such.

In the big cities there are plenty of high end shopping areas. And yes oddly enough the high end stuff is cheaper here than there. But most westerners like to goto the knock off stores and they are easy to find. Heck most tour books point them out to you. If your in the big city and your expecting sort of traditional Chinese outfits you'll be disappointed. Pretty much everyone dresses in western clothes.

Basically money talks. People in general don't tip at western standards so tipping can make you valuable friends. And of course avoiding long lines by bribing is also possible. The country side and the gardens are really amazing.

The air quality in the cities is horrible. Prepare for 1970s LA smog standards all day everyday. The best is to hope for some sky clearing rain.

Damn right about money talking. But that's also a double edged sword. People expect that you have a lot of money to throw around because you are white and will treat you accordingly. At knock off shops and small stores always haggle. The first quote they give you is usually 2-3 times the price you can get the item for. But don't be stupid about it either, don't haggle at restaurants or higher end malls and the like, or for street food.

Yes the smog is horrible horrible horrible but you actually get used to it quickly. I'm amazed that so many Chinese smoke so much in addition to breathing in shit loads of smog every day. Lung cancer is a HUGE growing problem here and you can see why.

the trans-siberian railway. i would like to go into mongolia also. but i want to actually spend some time in each of the places rather than just the train with half hour stops.

i would also like to visit not just the large cities but the rural areas you mention.

what parts of China are you visiting ? are you taking pics to show on here ?

traveling through some of the most remote towns and villages in the world. Which would both be a positive and a negative. I'm currently in the south of China. My parents arranged the trip as a sort of nostalgic trip through places we lived 20 years ago. I personally would prefer to be in the North and feel like I'm tagging along a lot of the time but it's still better than no trip :) Yes I'm taking lots of photos and will post them on a web site when I get back. Though my photos tend to be more artistic than informatory so not sure they will give anyone much of a feeling of what it's like to be here.

I love China. I was there six years ago to adopt my youngest daughter. Someday I want to go live and teach English
there. Are you teaching English there?

the places we visited when we live here 20+ years ago. Back then my parents taught English here (I was 2-3 years old at the time).

and one was what a friend from there called "the old culture area" in Tianjin. Unfortunately (!) it was rapidly being torn down and rebuilt in a new "old culture" style because of the upcoming Olympics. In your travels have you seen any places like that, that still exist in some cities? What are some of your favorite places in China? I'm especially interested in out of the way or off the beaten path types of things that most regular tourists never see.

Also have you seen any interesting things in Anhui province? My daughter was adopted from AnQing so we will most likely being going to that area some day.

Lucky you! Guilin is really far down there on the map.

I have been to China three times but have stayed mostly in the north. My girlfriend is from north of Harbin, and visiting was quite an experience. (I have pics if you're interested.)

Most recently I took my teenage daughter to Shanghai, Xian, and Beijing. It was surprisingly easy to travel with only English, although as you said things are different outside the city.

Have been on those sleeper trains and they are great, although space is at a premium. Wonderful way to see the countryside.

What do you recommend seeing in southern China (or elsewhere in the country for that matter)? Outside of Heilongjiang, I've mostly been to tourist locations, although Hua Shan was a spectacular and very Chinese tourist area.