The post about China that was never posted
But you never got to hear about China! The following text was written on the 6th of May, but never posted because it was never finished according to Fia... Well here it is! Enjoy! Ni hao! Wow, it feels like we have spent ages in China, although it has only been nearly 3 weeks since we crossed the boarder from Mongolia. So, where to begin? Well first of all, there was a remarkable change to wake up in China the day after the border crossing (which happened during the night). The landscape was totally different. It felt like we had gone trough the empty dessert and into a greenery that was so much more fruitful and so much more alive. We went by kilometer by kilometer with plantations where the locals were working. As the train started getting closer to Beijing we saw some amazing scenery. Mountains, rivers, bridges and tunnels. Compared to the vast steppe of Mongolia, where we could go for hours of nothingness, we now saw people! Villages, bicycles, motorbikes, children, life! This was one of the best parts, even though we didn't see the Great Wall. We had sat the alarm not to miss the glimpse of the Great Wall as we turned up northeast towards Beijing, but somehow we managed to miss it anyway. It must have been to far away for us to see.
Beijing. What to say? We were thrilled to be back. Not only was it ten times more beautiful in springtime, all green and so full of life, there was also so much more street food! It was November when we visited last time, and because we did all of the major sights then, we now decided just to enjoy the city. We stayed at a really nice guesthouse called the Red Lantern House, which was situated in one of the most genuine hutongs. We bought 1 yuan food sticks right outside, and we had a walking distance to most of the nicest areas in Beijing. During our days in Beijing we had so much food, that when we left we were already sick of dumplings, rice, noodles and egg. And bread. Phew. We went for massage, both foot and body, and one day we rented bikes to explore the hutongs, but most of the days we just walked for hour and hours... We went to a hip art district and strolled around for a few hours, which was nice. A few days earlier we had actually met an art student from Xi'an, who convinced us to go with her to an exhibition that was held by her university. It's hard to say wether it was her enthusiasm about Chinese art, or if it was our excitement to be able to communicate with her so well in English, but we ended up buying four of her paintings! They were soooooo beautiful! And who knows, one day she might be famous?
China, China, China. They are so many people here. The magnitude of the population has effected the people in many ways. It's very easy just to say that they are impolite and that they don't know how to wait in line. But we have to give them some credit as well, I mean, the fact that there are so many of them has made them world champions in forcing their way through a crowd. Why? Because otherwise they would never reach their goal. Yes, they do spit in front of your feet, but where else would they spit? There are feet everywhere! Furthermore, they seem to have adapted some very practical qualities; like sleeping everywhere and in any position. They don't get easily embarrassed, that is of course if you don't start talking to them or if you avoid kissing in the subway. They are very social with one another. For example when we travel with train, and people are literally mingling their way through the wagon. Fia asks Billy "Do all these people know each other or what?". They don't. They just talk to each other like they are all old friends. And it's completely okey to go to the toilet next to a stranger. In many situations where we are extremely uncomfortable, the Chinese people feel right at home. For example, when we had to take a one hour and forty minutes train ride in the standing class carriage. It would seem impossible to fit in 1 more person but they manage to squeeze in 10 more. They are yelling and screaming loudly at each other; "move aside" and "move further into the wagon" but no one really seems to bother. They are climbing over people to fill up their tea cup with hot water from the samovar. It's all about their tea. And their instant noodles. There is nothing weird about climbing over an overcrowded train wagon to fill up a tea bottle?! They are just used to being many, and their used to being close, and having to share space. Sleeping next to a stranger could be a Swedes worst nightmare. As you can hear we have been struggling, but we are also sort of enjoying it. Being out of your comfort zone and realizing it's actually doable makes you want to go there more often. And man, are we going there!
A lot of people that we have met have been super friendly and helpful. Many Chinese people that manages English have approached us when they have noticed that we have been lost. There are often street signs in English, but in the train and bus stations it's mostly just Chinese characters. The best thing to do is just to show your ticket to a Chinese person and look like a question mark and they will point and show you where to go. Otherwise, we have relied on train numbers and trying to compare the Chinese characters on our tickets with the ones on the board/ sign. Beijing with it's population of over 22 million people (!), have four main train stations. They are airport sized, huge! And the train system is very well developed. You have to stand in line to get your ticket validated before you can even entrance the train station. Then you have to scan your bags. After that you try to find out which waiting room your train will depart from (like a gate at an airport). From the waiting room you will board the platform, showing your ticket again, and then a third time before actually getting on the train. Your attendant in the wagon will collect your tickets to keep track of when you have to get off. In the hard sleeper there are six bed bunks without doors. The locals obviously can see that we are foreigners and they are happy to help us in many ways. Some of the locals are just starring at us, completely fascinated by our behavior and our looks. A lot of people have approached us and asked if they could have a picture taken with us. Some people have been taking photos of us without asking permission. When we visited Huang Shan mountain, a lot of younger people were really curious of us. We got hundreds of "Hello" just walking by. Sometimes "Nice to meet you", "How are you", "Where are you from" and then they start laughing and giggling. Many younger people want to practice their English with us. What we have found is that many Chinese people are very shy with us at first, but when you actually start talking to them they get super happy. But after a while, when you have been feeling like a monkey in a cage for a few days to many, you start getting very annoyed by the staring. Sometimes we just want to scream "Leave us alone"!
The Chinese people love to eat, and they do it very loudly. As a Scandinavian, you often wonder if they are joking, smacking their food around in their mouth. They're not. It is not uncommon that you see grown ups walking around in their pjs in the middle of the day, which is also something we would never see at home. And they never go anywhere without their tea bottle, in fact, hot water is available everywhere, and often for free because of the tea obsession. And the small kids don't actually wear diapers, they have pants with an opening between the legs, and when they need to go, they just go, everywhere, anytime. Very practical. The Chinese people seem to be very good at being tourists in their own country, as we have met sooooo many more domestic tourists than foreign ones. They are extremely ambitious about the history and visiting all the ancient sights, much more ambitious than us. Another thing they are also very ambitious about is their vacation photos! Everywhere you see so many people posing, seriously arranging every picture. They often travel in big groups, you recognize them by the fact that they often have hats in the same color and the guides have a walkie talkie, those groups are very noisy. Though we have met a lot of younger people traveling alone, for example Will, he was traveling by himself to Huang Shan.
One thing that is very sad about China is the way that you see animals treated in some places. Small kittens and puppies in very tiny cages, fishes in plastic bags, and crickets... They actually sell crickets because they like the noise, apparently they think it's calming, so on several markets you can buy them in different settings. As many of you know, Fia eats meat occasionally, but after ordering fried chicken in Shanghai now is a full time veggie (at least during the trip), the chicken consisted of nothing else but bones?! No meat whatsoever.
We could never make sense of Shanghai. In the one hand, a neighborhood could be very business like, exclusive with expensive boutiques etc. On the other hand, on the smaller back streets, there would be an animal market. None of the two was attractive for us.This phenomenon with the animal markets in Shanghai, was partly responsible for the bad feeling we had about the city. Sure, Shanghai has the coolest skyline we've ever seen, and it's really fascinating to see Europe disguise itself in some of the buildings. But compared to Beijing, Shanghai feels boring. It's fancier and cleaner than Beijing, but lacks the charm. Although you have seen pictures, we could never imagine how beautiful China is! The nature is incredible! The mountains are so high, completely covered in green, the valleys are so deep, in contrast to all the fog in the big cities, the countryside air is clear and fresh. We have figured out that some of the most common things to grow must be tea, tomatoes, rice and berries??? We had a religious encounter with nature in Huang Shan, also known as Yellow Mountains. We were lucky to bump into an extremely polite, Chinese man, Will, who stayed at the same hostel as us. We ended up hiking the mountain together, and he convinced us to take the western steps, which is the hardest but most rewarding way to hike the mountain. And yes, of course it was extremely exhausting, BUT so rewarding! The views were incredible. We spent one night at the summit, enjoying both sunset and sunrise... We stayed in dorm rooms, and there were exclusively Chinese people and us. I think during the 3 days that we spent in total in the city of Tunxi and the Huang Shan area, we met maybe 10 foreigners maximum, and thousands of Chinese people.
As wonderful as it is, traveling around, it's also exhausting. We always have to be one step ahead of ourselves, buying tickets, booking accommodation, trying to communicate, learning Chinese (we know more than 15 words by now...!). It's not exactly a relaxing vacation. Right now we feel that we will probably do ourselves a favor if we try to slow down a bit. The Tibet travel permit takes two weeks to arrange, and you have to have a guide plus a daily schedule on where you will be in Tibet. The Nepal visa is easier to get but we have decided to skip both Tibet and Nepal to fully focus on India. And hopefully, we will slow down a bit and maybe stay a longer period of time in Kerala. To breathe...! Sometimes it feels like we have already over dosed the world and that it's hard to really enjoy it.