The more you read about this vast country, too big to take it all in in one go (or two, or three for that matter), when you're planning your independent trip, the more you discover what's there, in my case the more places I'd love to go to. There is so so much to see, even before the developments the Olympics and the Shanghai exhibition, have brought along. That said, the two global events have caused a lot of irreplaceable damage to architectural features China donned prior to the extensive and ubiquotous so-called development and cultural aspects and landscape-wise before yet has brought new ones, too.
Yes, you can indeed say comfort has become a bit more reachable to many families: those who were expelled from hutongs and moved to newly built flats with private toilets, for example. Hutongs traditionally have a toilet in the ends of the street for its inhabitants and general public, whose hygine levels are substandard. No cubicles, no doors, no flushing, nothing.
Landscape is stunning, its colourful ethnic diversity other than the majority of han, main religions like Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, diversity of food, their behaviour and way to going about their business, their concern or lack of it towards energy and waste, their shopping addiction,
People know about its cities' pollution levels, its invasion of Tibet, its issues with violation of human rights that organisations claim and fight, its economic growth and ambition and market adaptability, its mafia-like doings to our eyes, and have a simplistic view of Chinese food. Yes, Chinese eat dog in certain places and a lot of other things i had never seen in my life!
WE know about the Three gorges, and the tea and rice, and that they use chopsticks and their spitting. Much as this may seem enough to have a vague idea of China, this is a remote approximation to its richness and diversity of aspects which puzzle the most avid traveller.
Yunnan in the south looks stunning; the national parcs around Hong Kong, the landscape around Shanghai and the far north east are sights to behold, and all within accessible distance from these three top city destinations! Just to name a tiny few. I felt powerless, frustrated and unable to decide where to go when planning my trip in front of this vast number of beautiful and interesting places. Plan carefully and stay realistic, it's way too big to cover the whole of china in one or two goes, so take it easy.
What comes to my mind when i think about china now:
The size of things, long distances. Feet hurt of so much walking. Metro transportation.
People are rude in our standards, the push and elbow and nudge their way to squeeze into the trains and they work their way onto a seat, no thanks. Spitting and extraordinarily long pinkie finger nail to use it a a toothpick, yuk!
the art of noodle making.
Security in metro stations and to enter buildings,
Children's clothes are tacky, their bum - clothes pants cut open for easy access to poo.., now matter how cold it may be
the intricacy of cut paper
people don't smile, i used to mention it when we made someone smile!
how horrible the female shoes are (as well as clothes for that matter) - except for the fabric mary janes I bought - best shoes i've ever had for 2.5€ (for even for 100€- not kidding).
China is an absolutely fascinating place but it requries some distancing from what's going to happen to you there. It's not necessarily because you are a foreigner or a woman that you'll be rejected and taxis will turn you down and refuse to take you on. You need to take it at a stride, to experience with different ...attitudes to whatever you would in Europe. It's just a completely different outlook to everything.
inconsistency of placename's spellings - crap when it comes to looking them up on maps.
