4ever Discovering
China: The Good, The Bad, and The Beautiful
It Is Time to Tell All; The Secrets and Surprises of China (Danielle’s Edition)
Well my friends, we have safely made it back on Taiwanese soil, and I can say with confidence it is good to be home. I had an amazing trip around China; however, I was looking forward to flying back to my home away from home, and sleeping with my own pillow again (yes, I brought a pillow with me from Canada). Overall, our trip was INCREDIBLE. Words can’t describe some of the amazing landscapes I saw, and bucket-list worthy things I did. Emily and I decided before we left for China we wanted to make this trip one for the books; and boy, was it ever. We reached five major tourists cities in two weeks; I swear we spent more time at the airport than in the city some days. China is so big, we decided that flying was our best option if we really wanted to see everything on our list. So we pulled out our passports, packed our ‘carry-ons’ (definitely oversized and overweight), and boarded 8 flights in the span of two weeks. On the plus side, you could always count on a western toilet when you were in the airport!
My first impression of China was not necessarily the greatest. It is so different than Taiwan; it is crazy to think that two countries can be so close to each other; yet, so different at the same time. Even when you compare China with Hong Kong they are polar opposites. Hong Kong is so diverse; everywhere you look, there are tourists and people from all over the world around you. It is such an international city that offers so much to learn and explore. When we arrived in China, I found that people stared A LOT. I honestly looked at some people and wanted to ask them if they had ever seen a white person before. I felt really out of place. This surprised me because I thought they would have seen a lot of foreigners travelling around before. It’s not like we went to remote areas where there was nothing to do; everywhere we went was tripadvisor rated so I thought we would be in the clear. Apparently not. Never in my life have I felt offended, and like a celebrity all at the same time. The amount of people who came up to me and Emily to ask for our pictures was ridiculous. I have no idea what they are going to do with the photos, but I can just imagine I am on numerous people’s fridges. By the end of the trip, Emily and I got really used to waiting for each other as someone stopped to take a picture. It was almost like a game: did people prefer to take pictures with a blonde or brunette (a.k.a. Elsa or Anna in their mind).
Next to the absurd amount of pictures taken of us, there were also some other ‘strange’ things I noticed about China. As you can imagine, China is pretty cold. Beijing is just as north as Toronto when we look at a map, so we were hit with a lot of cold, dry air when we landed there. Similarly to Taiwan, people in China ride scooters around the city as the preferred form of transportation. The only difference is the temperature. When you are riding on a scooter, you are fully exposed to the cold air. As a solution to stay warm, every scooter I saw was equipped with, what it seemed like, oven mitts attached to the handle bars. I thought it was a great way to keep your hands warm, although wearing a normal pair of gloves probably would do the trick as well. It looked a little ridiculous when people were riding around with their oven mitts and wearing slippers on their feet. It was quite the sight to see.
Now, I know you’re all wondering: was it clean? When some people think of China, the first word that sometimes comes to mind is ‘unclean’. I always thought of ‘busy’, but after visiting there, I think it’s safe to say both words can work. Believe it or not, it wasn’t as busy as I was expecting. I thought being in China over Chinese New Year would be wild! I thought people would be partying in the street, and there would be fireworks everywhere. Well, one out of two isn’t bad. We saw lots of fireworks, but not so many people (thank goodness). It wasn’t until we were walking around Shanghai when we met the mass amounts of crowds. It wasn’t very enjoyable. During Chinese New Year, a lot of people leave the major cities and head to their hometowns to enjoy the holiday with their families. This meant that tourist areas like Beijing and Xi’an were not as busy as I anticipated. It was pretty awesome; however, I would have like to learn a little more about the traditional Chinese New Year celebrations. We were told that some temples were having gatherings, but no one could really tell us exactly where they were. Very convenient…
Along our trip, there were a few instances where I felt a little uncomfortable with the cleanliness. Before coming here, I had read a few blogs about people seeing locals using the public outdoors as their own washroom (or in layman’s term, pooping in the streets). It wasn’t until Emily and I were wandering around the backstreets of Xi’an when we saw this child squatting on the sidewalk. I didn’t think anything of it; I thought he was looking at something on the ground and needed to get a closer look. It wasn’t until we had to walk right past him when I realized he was taking a dump in the middle of the sidewalk. I looked around and saw that his parents were just watching him do it. They probably told him to do it! I just looked at Emily in disgust. The worst part of all was that the kid was so small, you really couldn’t tell the difference if it was human feces or dog poo. That’s how they get away with it I guess. It totally ruined my day.
Although I saw some pretty strange and unpleasant things (I will probably be scarred for life), this trip to China was still incredible. In every country you will experience some good, some bad, and some ugly; however, people always forget to add the beautiful. China has some of the most scenic areas I have ever travelled to. Our trip to Guilin was absolutely breathtaking; taking the bamboo raft along the Li River was one of the most peaceful things I have ever done. Seeing the giant pandas in Chengdu was totally worth the trip, no matter how inactive they were. Travelling to Xi’an to see the Terracotta Warriors was amazing; it’s not everyday you can see such an important part of history. Walking along the Bund in Shanghai at night was a surreal experience; it was such a colourful and lively atmosphere, it was inspiring. And lastly, visiting the Great Wall of China in Beijing was simply incredible. Sometimes I feel like when I’m travelling for a long period of time, I forget that I’m doing something amazing. It was that moment when I was standing on the Great Wall, with no one around me, where I felt connected with myself again. I was standing on one of Wonders of the World, and couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It is those moments that help me remember how grateful I am to be able to travel and follow my dreams. China was amazing; I can’t foresee myself travelling there again within in the next few years, but I know I will be back one day. I’m not finished with it just quite yet.
