My two week trip to China: a summary
I learned that in China (or at least in the places I’ve been, which were Suzhou, Hangzhou & Shanghai) (Els, darling, here’s some more “China”-info)
- people spit in the floor everywhere. The moment they feel some uckus coming up, they spit. I think it’s gross. - Todlers pee whenever and whenever they need to. The sidewalk, inside a store (that one was really gross), in parks. ANYWHERE. They have special pants which are open between the legs so that the kids just have to crouch down and pee (and one time: poop). - Cashiers and ticket salespeople are -compared to the Belgian ones- impolite and even rude. I don’t know why this is the way it is. - if you’re blond, have a fair skin and light coloured eyes (like me), people WILL ask to take a photograph with you (which I’m oky with). Or ask you if they can take a photograhp of you (Which I’m also okay with). Or will photograph you without asking and without your consent (which I’m absolutely not okay with. I’m not some animal in a zoo, for fuck’s sake). This will most certainly happen in smaller city’s (such as Suhzou and Hangzhou), but less so in big big cities like shanghai. Though in touristic places it will also happen, because Chinese tourists are not used to blondes the way the locals are. -Poeple like to eat fried chicken feet. It seemed disgusting to me so I didn’t try it. It’s something you see everywhere in China and nowhere in Belgium. -people honk all the time. Cars, e-bikes, busses, taxis. Honk honk honk all day and night. When they pass another vehicle, when they want to pass another vehicle, when they make a turn...ALL THE TIME. In Belgium you’re only allowed to honk if you’re in a dangereous situation, like when the car in fromt of you suddenly brakes and you’re in risk of clashing with it. -The food was good. When you’re in a restaurant, you order at least three different dishes. They will be brought to your table in large bowl or on large plates. Every person at the table has a little bowl in which they put food they pick from these large bowls/plates with their chopsticks. There tend to be no sepparate chopsticks for picking things out of the bowl, which would be seen a bit unhygiegenic in Belgium; But I’m okay with it. (Silke, dear you would hate it and proably not eat anything there. You basically share your cutlery with everyone at your table). -There are a lot of poor people and beggars. There are also some really rich people. -If you want to take public transport you have to be assertive to the point of agressive. Otherwise you’ll never get on the bus/metro (=subway) because they’re full all the time. You have to puch and pull your way in (and out). -If you don’t deal well with large groups of people in a big mass aroud yoou (like me) DO NOT visit the Bund in Shanghai a night/in the evening because there will be way too much people and you WILL have at least one panic atack (I had three in total: one on he way there -the crying kind- one when I was there -I felt like I couldn’t breathe and I was crying and trembeling- and one on the way back -more crying and trembeling and breathing problems. To me, the sight of the Bund was not worth the absolute anguish I went through in order to get there. You can find enough pictures of the buildings online. If you have social anxiety: DO NOT GO TO THE BUND AT NIGHT.
That’s all I can think of for now. If you ask me personally about it, I’ll probably tell you a lot more.
Love,
Jo
