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I choosed going to China, because I considered the country very special and full of secrets. The last standing Communist empire with a magnificent history.
China is a mysterious country. The country is so big that you can keep on travelling around for years without seeing or experience all of it. The people is not unfriendly as a lot of travellers claim but the Chinese are Chinese, which means that have their own behaviour and habits that you don't see anywhere else in the world. People don't speak English but must of them try to help if you ask. The worst thing is buying tickets for trains. Our first experience from buying tickets occurred in Canton where we arrived from Hong Kong only to go to Guilin. It was a kind of culture shock to arrive to a train station that was overcrowded. We were the only not Chinese in the area and everything was written in Chinese. What should one do?? The crews lining up to the ticket offices were so long that we would never make it until in a couple of hours, besides we didn't know where to line up. There were so many people and so much noise that you got more confused, and people was really starring although I am Asian looking. After trying a few crews without luck a Chinese guy and a policeman helped us buying the tickets, even though neither of them could speak English.
The Chinese trains are overcrowded and sometimes not that clean. There is people sitting everywhere and people are smoking even though there are prohibited smoking signs. Every time the train stops people rush out to buy a lot of food and in a second everybody is eating rice or noodles. It is worth to travel on Hard Sleeper instead of Hard Seat if you are going fare. Just make sure that your bed is not next to the exit because of people rushing in and out.
What attracted me about China was the atmosphere, the way people behaved, the mentality etc. China is nice but it is a very tough country to travel in. You are using a lot of energy in everything that you are doing caused by the lack people speaking in English. Fortunately we travelled with our Chinese friends, which was an enormous advantage in both the sense of language and in meeting other Chinese people.
The food was in general very disappointing for me. In Guilin, Yangshuo and in South the food was good but in Chengdu and in North it was really bad. But don't confuse, in Beijing there is plenty of McDonalds and I think they have the largest McDonalds in the world too.
The Chinese tend to use too much oil in their way of cooking, which made you feel like eating junk food all the time. Though we tried some weird dishes as bamboo rat, snake and horse. The dishes were not that bad as it sounds, but I must admit that the rat made me feel sick. In fact I don't think there is an upper limit for what the Chinese are eating as long as it is not poisoned.
Another fact about China is the huge amount of Chinese tourists. Of course it is their country but it annoyed me sometimes being surrounded by loud speaking Chinese. So if it is possible, TRY to avoid tourist traps even though I might be difficult if you want to see the main attractions.
China is not a county I would rush to go back to, but then again, there is something about it that makes it unique and attractive. Besides I am convinced of the future power of this huge country in addition to its growing wealth. Imagine how much the purchasing power of 1 billion people and be. I understand why the United States is trying to improve both the political and economic relationship between the two countries despite that China is still trashing the human rights for their people.
