China was a beast. It was amazing, frustrating, beautiful, chaotic, pushy, breathtaking and so rich with history. I don't want to sound like our trip was horrible, because it wasn't, but it was definitely a rough ride at times. I wouldn't be surprised if at some point in the past China all got together and collectively decided to make their country next to impossible for tourists to travel around. I felt like a first time tourist - lost and completely taken advantaged of. Like we were locked into tourist traps, nickeled and dimed left and right, and left alone with no way to get information.
Oh man, and the people! We actually did meet some really nice Chinese locals (of which I will tell you more later), but if you have heard any stereotypes of the Chinese being loud, pushy, and dirty.... it's totally true. It really is a completely different world over there! Gosh, there is so much to tell. Before I tell you about our itinerary and the sights, let me give you a better idea of what the culture is like over there. We experienced so many strange and downright crazy things that I had to create a list of them! About halfway through our trip, I ran out of paper and forgot to write more down just because they were so commonplace after a while.
Here are 10 things we learned that will give you hopefully a good, yet small representation of what it was like for us to travel around China.
1. Nobody speaks English (or reads it).
If you are going to China, just expect nobody to speak English. Yes, you will run into some Chinese tourists who speak English, or if you are really lucky, they know they area and can give you information. But I can't tell you how many times we walked up to booths and offices labeled, "Tourist Information," (in English) and not one person spoke a lick of English. [This is even in nice hotels and train stations!] And I'm like, then why bother to have the sign in English?! I guess it shouldn't be that frustrating, but it was at the time. We were literally dropped off by the train into multiple cities and had no idea where our hotels were, how to get there, what to do, or anything.
I guess there just aren't enough English speakers who travel through China on their own for the Chinese tourism board to bother learning/teaching English. And I guess it is our fault that we expect the whole world to learn English. It's funny because we met a few Chinese people who were shocked that we didn't learn Mandarin before traveling. They were really floored haha. (And I'm like, I'm not going to learn one of the most difficult languages in the world just for a 3 week vacation...)
Sidenote: we got a tip that if you need someone who speaks English, look around for a young-looking person wearing glasses, because they are most likely a student and have learned English. And guess what, it worked! Like every time.
We didn't have any hostels or apartments booked ahead of time, because here in Thailand you get a much better deal if you just walk in. But that is NOT the case in China. We ended up walking around Shanghai for 2.5 hours trying to find a place that wasn't full and was in our price range. After finally finding a hostel, I found the nearest computer and booked everything for the rest of our trip - I was not going to do that again haha.
Going along with no one speaking English, the taxi drivers don't read the roman alphabet letters, and they won't even try to understand you when you say the street names. So you must get everything important translated for you before you go to China. It will save you gobs of time!
3. There are tons of people, and most of them smoke.
Especially in the big cities (most notably Beijing), everybody smokes! I honestly think that the people don't know just how bad smoking is for you. I feel like the rest of the world is scaling back on the whole smoking thing, where it is like glorified in China! The tobacco stores look like high end jewelry stores and parents don't seem phased by blowing smoke into their children's faces. It is actually super sad when you think about it.
It's true also about how polluted the air is in the cities. So polluted that we could look straight at the sun in mid-day because it was orange/red. Having the pollution there made the smoking worse. And I guess the smoking makes the pollution worse too. An unfortunate downward spiral...
4. Bad manners? The best way I can describe it is there is no difference between private and public behavior.
It's been said before that Chinese people don't have manners. And that is what it looks like! They burp and fart loudly, sound like cows munching their food, push people over like it's the apocalypse, shout at the top of their lungs while on the phone, and you can't go 10 seconds without hearing a horn honk or someone hawking a nasty lougie. It's ridiculous! It comes across to us foreigners as being rude and disgusting. But not for them. That's just how it is. I think they are just in survival mode, you know? They are constantly surrounded by SO many people! In order to get anywhere, they have to push and shove for their lives. Basically, traveling in China is a BATTLE. You must fight for everything, and it almost becomes a habit. I remember lining up to get onto the plane back to Thailand and found myself kind pushing people to keep my place, until I realized what I was doing and I felt so bad! Haha, I had to remember these were sweet and reserved Thai people that would give me space :)
In a nutshell, there just isn't any regard for other people or for public appearance. If an old man wants to listen to some music, he will crank up the volume on speaker phone, even if it is 5 am on an overnight train. If a little girl has an itch, she will drop her pants and scratch that itch to no end, right in the middle of the train station. If a lady has a problem with a merchant, she will scream, throw her fists and everyone around will join sides like a scene in "West Side Story."
5. If an epidemic broke out in China, everyone would die.
I had heard the warning before to always carry toilet paper with you, and I was prepared for that. But something I didn't know is that they don't have soap anywhere! Literally, the one and only public soap dispenser that I saw in all of mainland China was in the Shanghai Museum. So no toilet paper, no soap. What do these people USE?! Ugh, so I this is where the 'dirty' stigma comes from... well that and constantly throwing trash on the floor.
6. Relieving yourself is nothing to be ashamed of!
I'll never forget the way a father pulled his kid's pants down, picked him up, and carried him over to pee into the trash can... right next to the People's Monument in Tiananmen Square.
Oh man, so many funny bathroom experiences. Not only have I become super comfortable with using squat pots, but I have learned the hard way that sometimes using the toilet is a very public experience. Many times there are no stall doors, or if there are doors, they don't close all of the way and people yank them open every 5 seconds anyways. One time I was holding the stall door closed (because, you know...) and from the other side, someone started yanking. I held it firmly to signify it was occupied but then she abruptly pried it from my fingers, waltzed in and started changing the trash can liner. It was the cleaning lady! As she left, she turned and smiled at me. She had nothing to apologize for, that's just the way China is! Nuts.
I think train stations have the worst public toilets. They literally have troughs [see photo above] where you just line up side by side and go! One time I was waiting in line for the bathroom and we are lined up kind of in front of all the stalls (because let's be honest, they don't really make lines in China) where everyone was watching a lady relieve herself because there was no stall door. People weren't even trying to avert their eyes! She was just squatting there defecating and everyone was nonchalantly observing her efforts.
7. Chinese people really are friendly and outgoing.
Here in Thailand, it's the local culture to be afraid of 'losing face.' Not in China! I guess because the people have been trained to not be ashamed of anything, they are really outgoing. There was this little toddler who you could tell just barely started walking, he looked up at me and sort of stumbled his way towards me with this huge slobbery smile on his face! He came right up and put his little hands on my legs for support. He was adorable! Usually little kids are terrified of foreigners, but in China we were greeted many times with wide eyes, big smiles and excited demeanors.
8. Keep all of your receipts!
After paying for our first room, I had to unload a bunch of papers, so I threw the receipt of payment away and then when we tried to check out the next morning, they wouldn't let us leave! I didn't have the receipt and apparently it was a big issue. They had to call the cleaning lady to search through our trash for it. When it didn't turn up, they did end up letting us go, but the concierge was NOT happy about it. So make sure you keep all your paperwork, always.
9. Being invited by strangers for tea or coffee is a scam.
I had been warned about many scams in China, but I had never heard this one before. I'm not saying that everyone who invites you for tea is out to get you, but for us, that WAS our experience. Luckily, we had the honest response that we don't drink tea. Then they would change the request to coffee, where we respond we don't drink coffee either. This is when the person would get a bit frustrated and they moved onto alcohol, where you guessed it, we don't drink that either! Then in almost a panic they would ask, "What DO you drink?! Juice? Water?" The first time this happened to us, the desperation made us feel uncomfortable and on edge so we knew to politely decline. And then when it happened two more times in different cities, we knew for sure it was a scam.
10. Resorting to McDonald's is not as shameful as I once thought.
We've lived away from the States for 6 months now and yes, we have had times when we break down and have to have some Western food. But never McDonald's. Saraburi has a KFC and Pizza Company, the latter of which we do visit about once every 1-2 weeks. Also we occasionally grab some Italian or Mexican food when we are down in Bangkok for a weekend or something. But pretty much every day we eat local Thai food, either at school or our night market. And it's awesome! Thai food is delicious, fresh, and just amazing. Chinese food, NOT so much. I did find a couple things that I liked - Shanghai noodles, chow mein, that sort of thing. But the Chinese palette is just so different from ours! Like way different.
A lot of our meals were made from family marts and I do say this with shame ... McDonalds. I had never really been to that point where you can't find any food that will settle well in your stomach as well as satiate it. And when you get to that point, you are desperate. We saw a McDonald's and went straight in. Biting into a hamburger was such a relief at first, but then afterwards, we felt gross. Like just really heavy and all of our energy sucked out. Our dinners ended up being a cycle of first, Chinese food, (and if we had a bad experience), then buying snacks from family marts, then not feeling satiated and resorting to McDonalds, where we then felt sick and went back to Chinese food. Again, not every Chinese meal was bad, we did come across some winners but needless to say, we were SO excited to come back 'home' to Thailand. So it's true what people say about American-Chinese food being better than actual Chinese food, in my humble opinion. After multiple tries and fails with the local food, I didn't feel as guilty entering those blessed 'Golden Arches.'
This was more of the 'fill-ins' of our China trip: the things that happened in between seeing the sights, the stories and memories that you reminisce for years later. So I posted this first because I wanted to make sure they were documented somewhere. Jonathan is working on gathering all of our pictures, so I will be putting the "Part Two" blog post together soon! Part two being our actual itinerary - Shanghai, Beijing, Xi'an, Zhangjiajie, Guilin & Yangshuo, and Hong Kong. The whole sha-bang!
Be looking for it real soon...
Wow! I mean holy cow, what an experience! I think I would have nightmares about going to the bathroom in public if I had had your experience! So glad we can have privacy here. :)
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