Well. I know, I know, English teachers say never to begin with “well”, but I will. “Well” has a nice feeling to it, like you’re about to begin a tale of sorts.

Before I start my story/semi-rant, I’d like to point out that I do speak in generalisations. Not all of what I say will be applicable everywhere in mainland China. Really, you will be pleasantly surprised sometimes. :-)

Travel in China: The Bad

Most (mainland) Chinese tourists are very unpleasant, but sometimes quite amusing. For instance, every large tourist attraction has a rock (with the name of the place carved into it, usually in red letters) or a “traditional” style gate out the front. Generally you see people (usually groups with their uniform hats, who are led around by a guide with a flag and a megaphone) posing (and I really mean that in a “poser” sort of way) with the usual V-signs and strained cheesy expressions in front of the aforementioned edifice. Next, is the actual antics of these amusing people… The bus drives into carpark. Disembark. Pose in front of rock. Hop on minibus/chairlift/etc to “main viewing point”. Take photos. More posing. Get back on minibus. Go home. All of the aforementioned happens in the space of about half an hour. It’s really quite scary. And really common.

Most (mainland) Chinese men are chain smoking (you can smoke anywhere — smokers paradise, really!), constantly spitting (quite vocally), cocky (to an extent) and unfit. Really. It was really suprising to me, in a country with few overweight people (though it’s increasing), that people are actually very unfit (or just lazy when it comes to travel?). I’ve walked up quite a few Chinese mountains (Huang Shan, Lu shan, Jiuhua Shan, Kongtong Shan, Song Shan, and Wudang Shan… all… with… steps!) and observed. Usually they need to stop every 5-10 minutes for a rest. And then a smoke every 30 or so. All of the aforementioned mountains had chairlifts, too. The tourist mobs use the lifts.

Most (mainland) Chinese know next to nothing about the outside world (esp. Geography — they’re like the America of Asia). While this is in part to due to the nature of the government (ie: totalitarian fascist state — it’s definitely not Communist anymore) and the nature of the schools, it also extends to the national psyche. Curiosity and creativity is repressed (or at least there is limited opportunity in the education system) and perhaps because of this, suppressed by the individual. Time and time again, I’ve had to re-iterate that not everyone from overseas (the view is literally you are “Han Chinese” or “foreign”) has lots of money and a great job, and the reason why it’s easy for us (ie: “foreigners”) to travel in China is due to the very good exchange rate for us (not for Chinese who wish to travel overseas though). Also student backpackers have to be frugal. Despite being very fiscally responsible normally, when it comes to travel, (most) Chinese forget all that (and assume we are the same — ie: we are “rich Americans”).

The ticketing systems for many areas are very convoluted and incredibly mean. First a ticket to get into the area (usually between 30Y and 150Y). Then another to see place X (+10 to 20Y). Another for place Y. Then another to cross a bridge (+5 to 10Y), etc. This really leaves one with a bad taste in the mouth… and all these prices add up. I won’t go on about the toilets.

All (mainland) Chinese yell. Almost all of China is noisy. There isn’t much of a thought about noise pollution. People yell into phones. Yell at each other (and they’re not angry — it’s just the norm). Play their music openly, and loudly (really Chinese pop music is utter crap, eclipsing Western pop in idiocy… There are 10 [really terrible] mixes of the Numa-Numa song… I heard the same pop songs all year…). Cars, busses honk by default. It all accumulates into a sometimes unbearable white-noise, for those used to something different.

Travel in China: The Good

It’s not all bad however. If you can accept the fact that most parts of China are 2nd world, the odd place 3rd world, and a few otherworldly expensive places are 1st world, then it’s actually okay. It’s actually more than okay. China is an interesting and vibrant place, teeming with life and that constant rapid pace of “development”. There are even places to be found which offer moments of solitude. It also has excellent food (especially since different places have interesting local cuisine and your standard bowl of noodles is never the same wherever you go). The people really are friendly and helpful (when they don’t want your money), even if their habits/manners do sometimes seem a little lacking, different, strange, antisocial or just plain disgusting. I’ve had people offer me a bed/couch at their home, shout/cook me meals, and take me to meet their family and friends. Granted, if you know at least some Mandarin (beyond “Hello”, “Thank you” and “Good-bye”), this makes things so incredibly easy for getting along with people, and people’s respect for you will increase greatly!

Eating in China is very uncomplicated and easy affair (food is very important, and I agree!). Scraps are put on the table. You can slurp your soup, your tea and your noodles, and bring the bowl to your mouth to eat. Just remember to always bring your bowl to the serving bowls/plates/etc and not the other way around. The other big faux pas is to leave you chopsticks stuck vertically into your food (it looks like incense sticks, which are used to remember the dead).

Nice places to visit

• Tibet — it’s not China (though nearly all mainlanders will disagree, the rest being under house arrest :-S). It’s amazing. And a little sad, because of the repression. But still truly amazing and beautiful…
• Xinjiang (”East Turkestan”) — again, not China (people aren’t Han and speak a completely unrelated language). It’s a central asian state. They really like foreigners (and really, really dislike the Chinese). Avoid “Kanas” and the tourist stuff close to Urumqi (just another Chinese city), as it’s overrun with mainland Chinese tourists. Visit Kashgar! Kashgar! Also, Karakul Lake (there’s a nice guy offering a yurt and a few meals with his family). Good stuff.
• Northern parts of Guangxi province and southern parts of Guizhou province — not too many people travel to these places… There are numerous small Dong/Miao/etc (they’re not Han Chinese) villages. I could only visit Zhaoxing [Guizhou] and Chengyang [Guangxi], but they were both great.
• Southern Gansu province — beautiful place generally (and not very touristy)… Maiji Shan Grottoes (near Tianshui) are good.
• Suzhou, Jiangsu — numerous beautiful gardens, and an great museum by China’s only decent modern architect, I.M. Pei.
• Shanghai — enough said. It’s the best big city on the mainland.

In general, try and avoid all medium-large sizes towns and cities as they all look the same. Really. And it’s not particularly pretty. Try and escape to the countryside, and a few villages/towns which are “undeveloped” (or “developed” only to a lesser extent)… It’s worth it.

So…

If you stay in any country long enough, you’ll definitely see both the good and the bad (of the country, the country’s people, and of people in general). This is a double edged sword — your preconceived ideas of the place will most definitely be shattered, but on the other hand, you actually know something about the place, it’s people and even possibly more about yourself (such as how you react to certain situations, different environments, customs, cultures, etc).

Lastly, in order to get the most of your experience backpacking, you need to be prepared to get your feet dirty and really go out on a limb! Try and have a conversation with your 100 words of mandarin, take up that offer to have dinner with someone’s grandma, let someone practice their English on you, etc, etc. :-)

Well I’m finally back again. I now have a job. Granted, it doesn’t pay very well, the hours are long, there aren’t really any breaks to speak of… but at least I have a job (and free coffee and quite nice food!). If you ever happen across Stuzzi (on High Street, Northcote) feel free to say “Hi” to the resident dish pig.

Latest fashion transgressions

After being in a western cultural vacuum for over 9 months (well okay there was Westlife, Backstreet Boys and Linkin Park — but they’re not what one would call culturally significant), I again find that many people (and unfortunately now my little sister) have no clue.

• Fluro! (My little sister has succumbed to this “retro” style… And I thought we left behind the fluro and lycra for good?)
• Emo (Anyone seen that Sprite billboard: “If emos are non-conformist, Why do they all look the same?” — it’s sheer brilliance)

And amusingly enough, the thick rimmed glasses are still around (I also recently found a pair in my nanna’s garage of funk, but promptly misplaced them somewhere). Personally I think only the Blues Brothers should be allowed to wear them. I was thankfully wrong about the shoulder pads.

My new toy

After about two months of consideration and two weeks hard work, I now have a white/pearl Asus EeePC 4G. :-)

I can say with pride (and a hint of smugness) that due to my foresight (ie: use a flexible style), this site works quite well on the 800×480 screen.

If you’re interested in one, check out EeeUser.com, as it’s more informative than the Asus page.

So. You’re traveling and decided to do it on the cheap, and head to a Youth Hostel. It’s actually okay: hot showers, clean beds and (sometimes) warmed/cooled rooms. All for 15 yuan (insert alternate currency here) a night for a dorm room.

But then… you get… a SNORER! Not a light one, but one who sounds like strangulation times one-thousand (that’s Strangulation 1000^tm).

The resulting situation is tragically predictable (kind of like how it’s not a good idea to keep people in a building after a plane has flown into it, if you’ll excuse this crass reference). Unless you’re Chinese, and then you’re lucky enough to have the ability to sleep anywhere, any time, and in any auditory situation (damn, I envy them in this regard).

The moral of the story is: if you snore, please, please, please, please sleep in your own room (or give out free earplugs or at least hugs and/or apologies). It’s for the greater good of all the others in the room who would otherwise have no sleep and be cranky like yours truly is this morning. Thank you. :-)

You must visit this mountain before you die. Seriously.

As you can probably see, it was fairly cloudy and foggy. The result was an mysterious, ethereal and overall stunning atmosphere. Alas, it also made taking photos quite difficult with my fairly basic camera!

The ascent wasn’t too difficult — about two and a half hours of climbing steps. What was a hassle, was the many workers hauling goods up the side of the mountain with us (to supply the hotel and other commercial operations at the summit). This led to some tight and potentially dangerous situations. For the lazy, there was the option of a cable car, at the not-to-cheap price of around 85 yuan (to put things in perspective, a bus ticket from Yancheng to Nanjing is about 80 yuan).

It’s really hard to illustrate the sense of scale there was when climbing Huang Shan. In the photo above, you can make out people climbing a near-vertical staircase… Unfortunately, I could not fit both parts of that peak into the shot from my vantage point.

The fog was clearly visible and semi-fluid… It often seemed like an peculiar organism.

See all of the photos in the photo gallery.

Nanjing

Nanjing ( lit. ’south capital’ ) is certainly one of the more beautiful cities in China — trees line virtually every main road, and the city itself is bordered by mountains, the Yangtze river and the old city walls. There is a certain charm to the place which is not seen in Beijing, which supplanted it as national capital.

We (most of us GAPers from Jiangsu) all tried to visit the Nanjing Massacre War Memorial, but, alas, it was closed for renovations (until November!) Slightly peturbed, we visited the Xuanwu lake. The lake (and the couple of islands in the middle) were impressive, and much fun was had playing pirate with the electric boats. Had a good lunch, then some tandem bike shenanigans.

Zhenjiang

The last stage of traveling to Zhenjiang was the spectacular — a huge suspension bridge spanning the Yangtze river. One could see the barges slowly ploughing the river, carrying all sorts of cargo.

This (I dare say) “junket” was financed by the local government — I suppose they figured it was in their interests to have lots of foreigners looking at the various things they chose to show us — a special school (for mainly the deaf), a bamboo screen factory (woven by hand, often taking several weeks for each piece), a clothes factory, the old administration complex (quite a few European buildings), a model farm, a new school (and became an instant celebrity. hah!) and a temple.

Two other GAPers were there with Joe and I — Andrew and Hugh. It was good to catch up again, and various amusing things transpired involving beer which I shall not go into much depth about.