GUANGXI 2: BEIJING

Itinerary: 14th-16^th January, Beijing, 17th-19^th January Guilin, 20^th January-7^th February Xingping, 8^th-9^th February Guilin, 10th-13^th February Beijing.

 I sleep reasonably well and wake up to a pleasant morning, I have no ill effects remaining from the previous nights so feel pleased about this, however I don't feel hungry so I just walk to the bar for a coffee, being unable to eat breakfast. Following this I spend most of the morning writing and updating my blog. Today is a day to relax and unwind, so I've planned to have a walk and do a little photography around the hutong.

I ask the girl at reception to call a couple of the hotels I'm staying at later to check a couple of things and she is only too happy to oblige: remembering my experience in Mancheng when I had to ask Iris to help me out of a jam I make sure the booking for the next day is confirmed: also I ask about the transfer from Guilin to Xingping, possibly by boat. This is certainly possible but may be somewhat complex and require a Chinese guide. I resolve to look into this when I arrive in Guilin.

 I have a light lunch of spaghetti in the bar and walk out in the early afternoon. I need a couple of items, pens and razors so keep my eyes open for a convenience store. I walk out to Houhai through the hutong which is one of my favourite walks in the area, and fetch up in my favourite little bar there, before Great Leap at about 3pm, returning to the hostel at 5.

Some of the old houses in the hutong.

A gift shop window in Houhai

Some of the bottles in my favourite bar in Houhai.

"Ringo" at Great Leap.

 I spend some time on Skype to Sarah and my parents: the next time I can do this I will probably be in Guilin.

 That evening I walk out for a curry in my favourite Indian restaurant in Beijing, a small place in the hutong, and have planned to do some night photography with the Nikon. Sadly the battery is dead and needs charging so this turns out to be impossible. Dismayed, I go back to Great Leap before returning to the hostel to charge up my camera and have a couple of draught beers in the bar.

Walking through the hutong at night is rewarding as I find something hard to come by in China: peace and quiet! Also these narrow alleyways are mysteriously atmospheric with red lanterns glowing in the streets and the windows, and old-fashioned street-lights. Occasionally I pass little fruit shops where the Chinese are still out buying supplies. Steam rises from stalls selling dumplings and baozi, steamed buns. The air is filled with the aroma of spices and other things which combine to create a foreign miasma: a part of being in another land is of course, that everything smells differently. I notice a photographic shop nearby so resolve to try and get a spare battery for my camera.

 The next morning I get up later than I had intended, about 9am, and do a little writing. I'm not hungry but force some toast and coffee in the bar. Today, owing to the early train to Guilin I'm transferring to a hotel next to Beijing West railway station: it's a Chinese hotel that looks quite good except all the reviews say they only accept Chinese debit cards and don't speak English, so I make sure I have plenty of cash and have asked the reception girls at the hostel to check the reservation for me. Owing to last night's disappointment with my camera I've charged up the battery but I notice there is a photographic shop near the hostel so I try and obtain a spare, but this proves to be impossible as they don't have this type of battery: probably because the camera is an older model, so I suppose I can try and get one from Taobao (Chinese online market) or through Sarah: she may be able to send one from England. Following this I return to the hostel and re-pack my bags very carefully.

 Check—out is at 12 noon however I can't check in at my new hotel until after 2pm so I arrnage to have my cases in safe storage while I have lunch in the bar: a very good double burger with a couple of draught beers! I try not to think of the immense train ride to Guilin the next day: and I tend to dread the subway ride to Beijing West from where I'm staying as it's long, (about an hour) crowded and tiring: it's virtually impossible to get a seat. At any rate by 1.30 pm I'm ready to go so I say goodbye to the reception girls, (called Sarah and Cherry) and set off for Beijing West. As always, the stations are crowded and frantic with hurrying hordes of travellers: it's a literal rat-run,, although this time I actually strike it lucky and manage to get a seat for part of the journey, so arrive at the hotel around 2.30. Beijing West is the busiest I have ever seen it: much worse than last year. It can be confusing to the new traveller, as it's difficult to describe navigating this enormous and utterly chaotic travel exchange. It's worth remembering that this is possibly the world's busiest railway station, with most journeys across China during Chinese New Year passing though here. On the subway trains there are large numbers of what I assume to be Chinese migrant workers. They don't tend to have suitcases: instead they carry all their worldly goods in huge canvas sacks or in some cases, sealed paint buckets. There is something fascinating but rather sad about this.

 On arrival at the hotel, which is about 5 minutes walk from the station, I'm pleasantly surprised to find that the staff speak English: (all the reviews said they didn't) and they take VISA which is most convenient. However the room isn't ready yet. I've come across this before in China and have learned not to bother remonstrating about it: so I find a bar off the foyer and have a relaxing (if rather expensive at RMB 38) beer. The hotel foyer is pleasantly spacious and modern. After about three-quarters of an hour I go up to the room and something odd happens: my room is on the 18^th floor, the top floor of the hotel. When I enter the lift and press the button the lift only reaches the 12^th floor then goes back down to the ground floor! (In China this is referred to as the 1^st floor, as in America: the Chinese tend to copy America quite a lot.) In frustration I ask a Chinese guy why I can't get to the 18^th floor and he explains that I have to touch my key card onto a pad in the lift. Wondering whether I've got some privileged penthouse area I try this and it works.

The room itself is delightful: very spacious, Japanese style with a futon bed, very modern and tastefully furnished. It's one of the most attractive rooms I've stayed in during my time in China, spotlessly clean and I'm so pleased with it I wish I were staying longer. I'd like to Skype my family from here but I won't have time as I need an early night. The shaower is also excellent with the drain around a central slab that you stand on and very hot.  

  

I change and walk out having decided to visit Houhai: the subway ride isn't as long but it does have 2 changes. Houhai is the area I first stayed in when I visited Beijing last year. Once out however, I begin to worry that I might need my passport to to enter the subway station as it's inside the railway station which you need your passport to enter. However this turns out to be unjustified as there is a separate entrance.

On arrival in Houhai I'm dismayed to find that many of the restaurants I visited last year have disappeared, and the buildings are deserted with hoardings in front of them,. I walk into the hutong nearby where there is another bar like Great Leap that does good burgers and wings, but this is closed too! I'm bemused as all of these places were very successful and I wonder whether this one has just closed for the holiday. At any rate for the second time my dinner plans are frustrated so I look around a few other restaurants. 

Some of the bright lights in Houhai: the area can have an electrifying atmosphere at times.

 One looks very good and is open but is clearly in process of refurbishment and has no customers, which is always a bad sign. So I finally fetch up in the little Indian restaurant I went to when I first came to Houhai, although I have a much plainer dish than the previous night. I've been before so I know the food is good and reliable if rather expensive, then again Houhai is a busy tourist spot. I suspect it is being gentrified like NanlogouXiang nearby.

Tonight I can record some of the atmosphere of the hutong at night. They are quiet outside Houhai, so I walk to Great Leap through them, stopping at a small shop to buy some food for tomorrow's train journey to Guilin. There is an air of mystery about the hutong: I imagine they would make the perfect setting for a thriller, romance or horror story, and I experience a sense of wonder, of entering a different realm.

I return to my room before 10pm and fall asleep to the sound of a waterfall playing on my PC which feels appropriate here. Tomorrow I'm undertaking the longest stage of this project: the ride to Guilin in Guangxi, South China.

GUANGXI 1: ARRIVAL IN BEIJING

 I join the quiz night at Route 66, have a pizza for dinner and as planned, I have what I don't eat packed away as lunch tomorrow on the train. The pizzas are very large here and defy all but the biggest appetites. I have a great time. My team wins every prize which is marvellous but also rather embarrassing: we get so much booze delivered to our table that we give some of it away, in particular about a gallon of rum and coke. There is enough to share with everyone. Perhaps needless to say I get pretty drunk and there's a singalong on KTV following the quiz. I can't remember what time I went home but I imagine it was around midnight or maybe later. The next day I wake up with a dull hangover and have forgotten parts of the evening. I can't remember performing in the Karaoke so when someone sends me a photograph of myself in action I groan with embarrassment. I look like some old fart in his second childhood who should have given up such things about 15 years ago!

 I've planned to get the bullet train to Beijing at just before 12 noon, so I have a leisurely breakfast, pack my computer and accessories so I can keep in touch with Sarah and my family. I want to dismiss work from my mind, so won't be going on my work email for a few weeks. I check and re-check everything, and empty my fridge of vegetables and eggs which would only rot if left there, so I give these away to a friend of Iris who is taking care of my house plants while I'm away. Finally the time comes, about 10.30 am, for me to go. Owing to the deep cold in northern China I have to put on several layers of clothing and at times it feels as if I were dressing in a spacesuit or a deep-sea diving suit. I have an inner layer of a T-shirt, pants and socks, a second layer of a long-sleeved T-shirt, jogging bottoms and more socks, then a third of trousers or jeans and a sweatshirt plus thick socks. This is followed by a hoodie and two coats, gloves, hat and walking boots. It takes about 15 minutes to put all of this on.

 Whenever I set out on a journey like this I have the feeling of travelling: it's indefinable, just a sense of being on my way. I try to think only of the stage immediately ahead, like the taxi ride to the railway station, which always forms in my head as “airport”. I found out a little while ago that I'm not alone in thinking this: it seems to be due to the fact that Chinese railway stations have the feel of an airport and they behave like airports with baggage checks, passport checks, chicanes and huge LED screens for information.

 I watch the landscape flash by from the window of the train and recall the very first visit I made to Beijing last year at around this time.  

 Chinese New Year has fallen early this year, it is the Year of the Rooster. I have with me the pizza from last night which I kept in the fridge and it's kept very well. It forms a good and satisfying lunch on board the train, and I make a mental note to try catching an earlier train next time so I can have lunch in Beijing, which is what I did the first time.

The most tedious part of this journey is always the transfer from Beijing West railway station to my accommodation in Dongcheng North, my preferred area to stay in. I know the Beijing subway well enough by now to find my way there without a map, but it takes about an hour with a line change and there is never anywhere to sit as it's so crowded. Finally I arrive at my hostel, the Dragon King,where I've stayed before and check in just before 2pm. Throughout the journey I've had this dull and steadily worsening headache along with attacks of nausea which make me wonder if I'm about to be sick. I don't overindulge like this too often but I always regret it when I do, perhaps like most of us. I'm meeting my friend Phantom later this evening and I don't want to spoil it so I hope I can dispel this!

 I request a room change as the door handle is broken, and this is no problem. The staff here are unfailingly cheerful, helpful and polite: nothing seems too much trouble for them, so following this I have a strong black coffee in the hostel bar and a bowl of mushroom soup, which helps to dissipate my hangover and this gradually recedes over the course of the afternoon.

It's a very pleasant bar, often quiet, tastefully decorated and does a good selection of Western food and breakfasts!

 I spend my time setting up the internet connection on WIFI so I can contact the outside world. It's very slow however and my VPN responds below par: I draw the conclusion that such programmes work better the further away you are from Beijing, possibly the epicentre of the Great Firewall.

 A hot shower dispels the remnants of my alcohol-induced headache and I walk out to meet Phantom at Great Leap at 5pm as arranged.

We have an extremely pleasant evening although it gets off to a poor start as the restaurant I wanted to visit has closed down for repairs. Gloomily we discuss alternatives and we try another one on NanlogouXiang Bar Street. However we can't get a decent table for some reason so we don't stay and Phantom shows me a second one which we accept: the décor is pleasant and there is plenty of choice on the menu.

I order too much food, going for deep-fried battered squid rings, crab claws, garlic bread and beef skewers Turkish style (or possibly Mongolian) It's very good but I just can't eat much to my dismay: possibly my stomach is still rebelling from yesterday, plus I'm rather tired out.

 Following this we walk to the bar we visited last time, which we find out does bar food, so I make a note of this for future reference! We sit and talk about life and art, I discuss experimental photography and take some photos to illustrate my point. 

We empathise, argue and laugh, the kind of conversation you have only with close friends and which I miss: the kind of talk I have in England with Sarah. I pace myself on beer this evening though. Finally we fetch up in a little bar which does Japanese food and it looks very good. Another one for the list on future occasions.  Phantom won't let me pay: I tend not to fight this as I honestly never win!

The hutong are quiet tonight and slightly mysterious.I guess it's about 10 o'clock by the time I get back to the hostel. The bar is quiet, just a couple of expats there. This hostel is very popular with foreigners. I go online for a short while and turn in for the night. I feel very tired, but have had a really wonderful evening.

GUANGXI: PROLOGUE

As I am now on the eve of my journey to Guangxi, I'm filled with mixed feelings. Chief among these is the anticipatory anxiety I tend to feel on the approach of any long journey. This normally passes when I do begin the trip: it also brings to mind a fundamental change in my thinking. I have almost forgotten life in a small village where I rarely went further than a few hundred miles away and the longest journey I made in most months was with Sarah to go shopping. I feel I want to share the story of this, as it's been so long in the planning. I've spent weeks on it, preparing the itinerary, obtaining the train tickets, booking the hotels and hostels, buying things I need like cases and equipment, almost as if it were an expedition. I feel as if I have never known a life not filled with long train journeys, flights, meeting strangers, talking with people whose language I do not know.

I'm reminded of the great adventure novels of the 19^th Century, forerunners of today's fantasy writing, like Rider Haggard's “King Solomon's Mines” and “She” , and Conan Doyle's “The Lost World”. I remember reading them as a boy, and there is a pattern to the way the story unfolds. (The reader may also find parallels in the writings of Edgar Rice Burroughs.) Typically, they begin with the revelation of an obscure and incredible manuscript obtained in mysterious circumstances, to a rich individual or group of individuals. (Haggard himself was already rich when he wrote King Solomon's Mines) . Contained in this manuscript is the story of a wildly remote and fabulous place filled with imagination-defying wonders, which compel the protagonist(s) to attempt a perilous voyage there, often in search of a distant ancestor or to prove a theory. All of these stories are deeply atmospheric, highly dramatic and masterpieces of story-telling which justify their place in literature.

I can't pretend to reach such dizzying heights of story-telling, but I would like to try to present this experience as an adventure of sorts. My manuscript, of course, is no inscription on a piece of ancient cuneiform, or parchment written in Aramaic, Greek or black-letter Latin, being nothing more mysterious than my Lonely Planet travel guide. The place I'm hoping to reach is Guangxi, a seemingly vast area of mountains, valleys and rivers in South China. I've never travelled such a distance by myself in a foreign land. (2110 km or 1311.093 miles) 

At the time of writing, I've successfully obtained my return ticket from Guilin to Beijing. This has been very difficult; as I did it online this time, and actually visited the travel website to book it fifteen minutes before it was released. Here's what happened:

Online booking services in China (in English) announce the availability of tickets at 5pm (1700hrs) 11^th Jan. (Remember that we can't get them sooner than 30 days before travelling at present.)

At 4.45pm on Jan 11^th: (16.45) I go online.

At PRECISELY 5PM (1700hr) I refresh the page.

Instantly the page changes to SOLD OUT!

In confusion I call Phantom, Abby, Iris, Seven and Adrian, looking for an explanation and a decision to make. There is only one option not booked online. The Chinese are helpful but unsure what to do; Phantom, Iris and Seven suggest it's better to go to the railway station as they are more up to date and Chinese websites are not too brilliant!

Adrian reckons the Chinese options are open before foreign ones. I can only get a 2^nd class option on the fast train: Adrian's advice: Book it NOW!

So I go with his suggestion. The transaction is simple and successful, and I'm glad to have got it completed, but again am baffled by the seeming complexities of obtaining train tickets in China.

The next day I ask two of my students to help me collect the tickets from the station, which we manage successfully, and I take them to lunch as it is my custom to do in gratitude and as a mark of Chinese culture.

Today has been a day of cleaning, and final preparations. All necessary research seems to have been completed.

Tonight there is a quiz night at the pub, I guess I'll go and try to relax. Also I'll treat myself to a pizza, and if I don't eat it all I can take it on the train for lunch!

CLOSING DOWN FOR THE WINTER

 As Chinese New Year approaches the Universities begin to close down for the winter break. A subtle change occurs as slowly, the food shacks around the area begin to either limit their opening hours or close down. There is a shift in the atmosphere as at times, there are fewer people about. On most days the heavy smogs continue to blanket the area, causing people to cancel non-essential plans involving travel. I organise two meals out with Chinese friends and am very disappointed when these are cancelled owing to the poor visibility. Sometimes the area is alive with people, at others quiet and and downbeat. A steady migration of students with wheeled suitcases begins: a phenomenon that I observed last year. This will gradually increase until it becomes an ant-like procession, almost a swarm, of movement.

  

 I continue with my preparations for my Guangxi journey, making advance hotel bookings online. I have come to rely wholly on my computer: it would be a disaster if anything were to go wrong with it: perhaps I shouldn't tempt fate by saying so!

I become anxious: there is something about the pace of Chinese city life, and also the time of the year that is stressful: exams, marking and travel preparations combine to create an anxiety-inducing situation. It's hard to cope with at times!

 There are fewer shacks to sit and have a beer in now, and some colleagues are leaving China soon. There is a developing air of things closing down. I see a few people when I can, and have more or less stopped cooking elaborate meals: I just don't have the time or energy, although I do make a big paella which I eventually freeze as potential lunches next term. Sadly when I do this I make a large quantity of fish stock and when I pour it into a glass heat-proof bowl, the bowl explodes and floods my kitchen with fish stock! So the time I would have spent cooking is spent cleaning it up! I suppose the bowl must have become brittle over time: Sarah tells me this happens occasionally. However it is very annoying to have to mop up your lovingly-crafted food from the floor!

I settle for a prawn cocktail or two!

 I store my Christmas tree away: I'll have to find a home for it next year when I go back to England, and I spend as much time as I can preparing. This means printing travel information and shopping. I need a new diary and a carrying case for my Nikon camera which I'm still learning to use! I manage to get these in town: there is a photographic shop there, it's a fairly long journey unfortunately but necessary. I also buy a new wheeled suitcase as my old one is becoming somewhat battered owing to fairly frequent use!

 There is something of a party season and a few people organise some evenings out. For some time I've been trying to organise a duck banquet but haven't been able to get it off the ground. So I email a few people I know from the pub to suggest the idea again and await a response of some kind. What eventually transpires is rather odd: some colleagues are looking to organise an evening out as well, but are unsure what form this will take. By the time my pub friends come back to me they suggest a Tuesday night: I'd originally wanted a weekend but I think some of them were away. So I give them the address of the restaurant. By this time my colleagues have also arranged an evening out: on the same evening, at the same restaurant! What is more both groups want to go out afterwards and have a singalong in a Karaoke bar! Well I can't attend both parties and feel like Solomon: very awkward. In the end I go out with the first group for the meal and the second group for the singalong. I feel like the Robin Williams character in the film “Mrs Doubtfire” where he has to attend two meals in the same restaurant. But as the party rooms are separate this does not prove to be too embarrassing and everyone is OK with it.

  

  

 There is little left to do now, except obtain my return ticket from Guilin to Beijing which has still not been released. At the time of writing they are expected to be released at 1700 hours today., Wednesday January 11^th 2017. I do feel anxious to get this sorted out, so I'm going to try and book it online: if that fails I will need to ask the help of my students or a friend! For the present I'm looking at spending my time washing clothes, packing, cleaning and last-minute shopping.

NEW YEAR 2016/17

New Year's Eve is something I've shifted my values on since I've grown older. When I was in my 20s/30s I used to see it in every year: in fact I did so last year and never recorded it in this blog, so here it is: I went into the old town with a couple of friends I sadly no longer see, but we saw in the year as I recall and had a very nice time. The Chinese love it! So here are a couple of photos from last year!

When I came to China in 1997 I stayed up till past 4am and called my parents, pretty drunk and they found it hilarious. Fancy dress parties and staying up till sunrise were part of the picture when I was younger. Now I don't feel the same, but I don't mind. Of course what I've no intention of doing is staying at home, however the nearest thing to a celebration I can find is a plan to drop into Route 66 for a few festive drinks, so I'm sure this will be fine, it's like a traditional pub night in England!

On the Friday before then I start booking hotels for my Guangxi voyage, and having finished my assessments in the morning, spend two hours in the afternoon finding suitable places to stay and making the reservations. I still don't manage to do all of it: one thing I do decide to do on account of my train to Guilin leaving so early, is to stay as close as I can to Beijing West railway station, so I find a place 10 minutes walk away. I stop for the time being and and go out for a few beers at R66, where I bump into the usual crowd. I don't stay too long as it's a little dull: I imagine people are saving themselves for tomorrow. Anyway the next morning I finish my reservations and partially clean my flat: it hasn't been done properly for about 2 weeks owing to various commitments and I'm becoming embarrassed about it! I know Iris has a friend who does some cleaning for the other teachers but I prefer to do it myself as I'm unlikely to be satisfied with anyone else's work. The kitchen still has pots and pans in it from my prawn curry of last week! I go out for some noodles, write some blog entry and do a little shopping.

Thinking about wishing people a happy new year I feel uncertain about this in such troubled and volatile times. How can we expect happiness when faced with political uncertainty in Europe and America, the danger of populism giving rise to neo-fascism and on a domestic level, the impending loss of my village community in England to urban sprawl? So I wish for a hopeful new year, after all I'll see Sarah again in the summer!

At any rate New Year's Eve is more or less as expected, however the weather is terrible: heavy smog again and snow. I have to hail 4 taxis before finding one who will take me on the meter. I can understand taxi drivers wanting to charge a bit more in such awful weather but remember that the Gregorian New Year is not a Chinese festival. So I tend to object in principle when they try to overcharge me : so do the Chinese for that matter! I arrive a bit early with few people around yet so I have something to eat as I wait for it all to wind up, but it's OK in the end,, I have a good time although I only stay till 11.30 owing to the terrible weather. I have thoughts of being stranded and begging to stay on someone's sofa!  

The next morning I wake up as usual and open my curtains to a whiteout: opaque whiteness like the inside of a ping-pong ball. Completely surreal. There is a ghostlike quality to everything and an eerie silence permates everywhere.

I'm a bit tired of going out and the weather is so horrible that I treat myself to a couple of nights at home!

I read some travel blog somewhere which describes somebody's pet hates about China: one of these apparently is being called “lao-wei” meaning “foreigner” but having the same negative connotation as “gringo” or the “n” word, pretty much what we tend to do in England. Actually I couldn't help wondering if China was the right place for this chap: he came across as not liking the people very much and if that's the case are you in the right country for you? But it did remind me of my own frustrations so I listed these but to balance it have also listed my 10 likes about China.

1. Mundane jobs become huge projects: Maybe it's the same in principle in any foreign country when you don't know your way around, but obtaining a simple product like emulsion paint turned out to be prohibitive in China and halted my painting project! Changing money at the bank, buying train tickets, simple household goods like a pop-up toaster or a standard lamp, all of these require a team of assistants to achieve and seemingly endless time and patience. It's a good job I'm not looking for a house!
   
   
2. Driving: It would be false to say the Chinese are the world's worst road users, but they hover precariously between caution and irresponsibility, the Chinese idea of courteous driving to be moving slowly when performing a dangerous manouvre usually prohibited by road law in order to allow anyone in the way to move so as to avoid being squashed. They drive vast cars not much smaller than American RV's along narrow hutongs, use cycle lanes and hard shoulders as extra traffic lanes and in short drive everywhere except up flights of stairs. Nothing short of an earthquake would cause them to halt their vehicles for any reason!
3. Electric Scooters: These are everywhere and while they may be a green and cheap form of transport they are also silent, very fast and driven with reckless abandon, often with children aboard. One has to be alert all the time to dodge these deadly missiles, sometimes referred to as “buzz-bombs” and “stealth bombers!”
4. Endless noise from house renovation: There does not seem to be a week that goes by without my having to wear ear-plugs to mufflle the ear-shattering noise generated by mega-heavy-duty hammer drills being used in the flats, or heavy hammering. No day is sacred: Sundays are often blighted by this racket, and it made me particular unhappy to hear it on Christmas morning! The only piece of good news is that DIY doesn't seem to exist in China, at least in these buildings, so it tends to stop at 6pm.

5. Honking Horns: the Chinese love their car horns and practice using them at every opportunity: this can create monumental anxiety ans you would normally only hear this kind of honking in a disaster film!
6. Backpackers: Blonde, usually American, German, Scandinavian and occasionally British, overwhelmingly female, hot-pant and flip-flop wearing, with huge packs on their backs and full of undergraduate expressions like “Awesome”, these dreadful people blight the experience of everything you do when visiting a place like China. Epitomising middle-class privilege and with mildly contemptuous expressions on their faces, they seem oblivious to the fact that very few people have the opportunity to go around the world doing just as they please. Naive, often supported by wealthy families or with established professions to return to, they tediously write travel blogs about worthless husbands or wimpy boyfriends they have left behind to “find themselves”. Expect ersatz lectures on climate change, globalism, computer science, politics and general drivel about their “awesome” lives! Plus a panegyric about the benefits of “backpacking!"

7. Smog; Nightmare subterranean gloom descends on Chinese cities in winter, acrid tastes permeate everything and everyone wears a mask. It's truly horrible and makes me long for fresh air!
8. Internet Access: Too much has been written elsewhere to weary anyone with the details of this: but it's so slow, intermittent and dependent on VPNs that suffice to say when you can't talk to your family overseas, you are frustrated beyond endurance! Some have left China because of it!
9. Here today, gone tomorrow; The Chinese are so friendly but their friendship sometimes seems based on your novelty value or a perceived indebtedness especially if you've bought them dinner! One day you'll send a text or email to a Chinese friend and receive no reply: then you'll send a raft of follow-ups until you realise they've lost interest in you. It makes me feel like a discarded toy: unpleasant!
10. People who persist in talking to you in Chinese when it's obvious you can't understand a word they are saying! This is so embarrassing and has made me walk out of restaurants so often I've lost count!

10 Likes;

1. The People; The Chinese are so pleasant, courteous and helpful, even when they don't speak your language it's impossible not to like them! They are also a deeply humble people and overwhelmingly hospitable!
2. The Culture: There is a richness about Chinese culture rooted in its history. Even in this ever-changing modern land you will find the Chinese playing simple instruments, practicing Tai-Chi or even quietly playing Mahh-jong by the roadside! Fireworks are everywhere especially during Chinese New Year!
3. The Landscape: The natural beauty and diversity of China is truly thrilling. It's a shame I can only experience a part of it but after Guangxi, if I could visit Tibet I would have ticked off most of my “bucket list!” Some parts like the mighty Yangtze river you can find out about online: there are enough blogs and images for you to have a taste!
4. The Variety of Cuisine: At it's best, Chinese food is unbeatable: this is tempered by the fact that you often find truly awful food as well, but once you begin to know your way around you find endless variety, colour, taste and sensation!
5. The Architecture: Fascinating, diverse and steeped in history, Chinese classical architecture is truly glorious. I feel privileged to see a small part of it. Sadly I don't have the same degree of enthusiasm for modern Chinese architecture, but sometimes you can be very impressed, especially in Beijing and Shanghai.
6. The Trains: Cheap, punctual, efficient, comfortable and fast, China's rail service epitomises the modern Chinese economic miracle. The rail network connects China comprehensively and if there is a downside, it's incredibly busy: the Chinese prefer this as their method of travel!
7. The Hutong: These warren-like alleyways of China's cities are an unmissable part of China: quietly fascinating, they form the essence of Chinese community, with a real pulse of life within. Here you can lose yourself in old China and escape the monolithic, headlong rush of the city outside. How long for, I don't know, as the Chinese government seems to place little value on them and they are disappearing rapidly as China continues its breakneck pace of modernisation!
8. The Customs: Sometimes baffling but always interesting: a Chinese wedding,if you can attend one, would be an experience. The holidays are times of family get-togethers, eating dumplings and cooking. If you are fortunate enough to have a meal with the Chinese, they will not allow you to pay!
9. The Hospitality: The Chinese are incredibly welcoming: walk into a restaurant or bar and they will clamour for you to sit and join them, buy you endless drinks and food and will be offended if you try to pay! If you need help they are only too glad to provide it often without being prompted. They will invite you to their homes for dinner and if you buy them a gift will buy you a bigger one!
10. The Arts: Chinese music, dancing and calligraphy are endlessly engaging and fascinating. You will see human beings performing acts of agility you never thought possible and in Beijing opera see inimitable costume and performance art. Modern art is a little conservative, but still well worth seeing!