The country is so big that we really underestimated the traveling times in between. The trains are very slow in china. They are so old, you feel like you are in a old western movie. Also the People walk on the trails so the driver has to honk every second of the ride. The busses are crowed and cars drive like crazy, as we may expect in Asia. However, coming from Japan and Korea it was still something to get used too.
Visiting the big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai showed us that the country can be very modern. Especially Shanghai is very western and very easy for travelers. Beijing is much more traditional which makes it also more beautiful. But compared to the cities, the country side is really undeveloped. Nobody speaks English: we had to speak sign language for almost 4 weeks. There are no tourists or at least it feels like that there are no tourists (only Chinese!). Even when we took a plane, we were the only western people in the planes.
Wherever we went , we were the biggest attraction. We thought that they should be used to westenr tourists, but somehow everyone wanted a picture of us. Sometimes to tried to be sneaky and hide their phone to take a picture, but most of the time they screamed: Hello or Nihaooo and asked for a picture with one of us (most of the time it was Lea or Tom). One moment in Dali was our highlight. We were just chilling at the lake when a boat full with Chinese tourists arrived. All of a sudden, we had 3 children sitting on our laps, 5 people standing behind us making the peace sign and 10 other people taking pictures. But not enough: everyone wanted a picture with us. So this whole scene went on for 15 minutes just switching the children on our laps and the people standing or sitting next to us. It was hilarious seeing these people going crazy to get a picture with you!
The countryside in china is a (the) real adventure. It's nothing like any of the other countries we have been to before. The lack of English and western tourism make it sometimes very depressing to travel. But on the other side most amazing. We remember places like Thailand, overcrowded with annoying tourists. We kind of developed a bad habit against the "normal" tourist. But, the countryside, is most beautiful while it is still there!! The Chinese are building everywhere like crazy, removing even mountains to build their high ugly buildings to house (more like store) their 1.3 billion people.
We are glad that we went before every beautiful thing in China will be destroyed by pollution and buildings. in 5-10 years we'd like to go back to see what is left. Will Yangshuo still be magical? or will you only see buildings instead of mountains, the start of that was showing already.
All by all, China is something different. Especially the people. Tom likes to phrase them as barbarians. Why? They will fight for everything, their spot in the train, bus, car, plane, waiting lines. If they give up a spot, it simply means they lost. Unacceptable. Toilets smell like sewers (always), people spit, fart, burp everywhere even restaurants. They have no manners.
Yet still I do wonder, is it better then at home? We are always afraid what will someone think of me when I do this or that. In china it is, I do whatever I want and no one cares anyway. If you want you can pie on the middle of the road and no one bats an aye. Weird, awesome, place that China.
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