If we were going to be totally honest with you, we didn’t know a LOT about China when we started planning our trip. It’s the most populated country in the world, with 1.35 billion people living here. There’s pandas. Sights like the Great Wall and Terracotta Warriors. There’s a lot of wealth. Practically everything is made here…
So, as you can see – we didn’t really know a lot. That meant we also didn’t really know what to expect. We had our fingers crossed that our experience would be similar to that of India – where we were expecting the worst, only to be pleasantly surprised that it was nowhere near as ‘bad’ as what we’d read.
We’re one week into our trip to China and I can now say that it’s nothing like we imagined in would be, in both good ways and bad. Here are just some of our first impressions of China.
No one speaks English – but there’s English everywhere.
This totally surprised us. We were totally expecting have to write down detailed instructions on how to get from A to B before leaving our room each day, because once we’d leave the sanctuary of our multi-lingual hotel, we’d get hopelessly lost. This hasn’t been the case. Shop signs, road signs, directional signs, transport and transport announcements are all in English as well as Mandarin. It’s made exploring on our own relatively straightforward, and we’ve only gone the wrong way once…
Chinese food is so good!
Ok so we haven’t exactly been too adventurous yet, and only trying things that we know however it’s been SO delicious, which has been really surprising. We read pretty much everywhere that what we think Chinese food tastes like versus what it’s actually like is completely different. We never really ate the cuisine back at home, so we didn’t know what to expect, but can now say that dumplings are pretty much the best thing ever. We may very likely turn into dumplings by the end of this trip…
We’ve inhaled more second hand smoke here than ANYWHERE else in Asia.
Not joking… the prevalence of cigarette smokers here is unbelievable. As you walk down a crowded path, you honestly can’t see half the peoples faces, as they’re lost in a sea of smoke. They smoke everywhere – as they’re walking, in taxis, restaurants and even just outside the train platforms even though its not permitted. Other countries we’ve visited have also had an abundance of smokers, but they’re different here – like they have zero concerns for how their smoking affects anyone else, and will puff straight into your face without thinking about it. Our lungs are suffering already.
Hostel accommodation in China is BRILLIANT.
This is our first time staying in proper hostels everywhere we go, booked through Hostelworld. We did so because we figured that hostels would be the only place we’d likely bump into other English-speaking travellers, and hopefully the staff would be able to speak English too. Not only has that been the case, but the hostels offer incredible value. So far they’ve always been well positioned (close to transport), we’ve had our own private rooms and bathrooms, the rooms have amenities such as wifi, tv, kettles, hairdryers and air-conditioning – and pretty much all our rooms are less than $30 AUD a night. They’ve been better than half of the more expensive HOTELS we’ve stayed at around Asia.
Bare bottomed babies, toddlers and children use the street as a toilet.
Seriously. I’m yet to find out why this is, but I can’t even begin to tell you how horrified I was to walk down the street in Beijing, when all of a sudden I realised the small toddler in front of me was wearing crotchless tracksuit pants, and then all of a sudden they squatted, right there in the middle of the footpath to wee everywhere. This has since happened several times – small children using the street as their toilet. Why?! There are public toilets everywhere in China – why go in the street?! I have no idea why they do this, but rest assured I’m determined to find out.
- Update – I’ve since found out this is because the majority of locals simply cannot afford nappies. All well and good, but with the public toilets so common place I really can’t understand why they can’t go in there to do their business, instead of in the streets…
It’s so LOUD. ALL THE TIME.
One of the reasons we loved Japan so much was how quiet it was – the locals polite, quiet, reserved, never speaking too loudly, no pushing, no shoving – it was orderly. That is NOT the case here in China. As I write this, I can hear a dozen or so conversations going on. All at full volume. There is no such thing as an ‘inside voice’ here – everyone is loud, whether that’s on their phone, speaking to the person next to them, communicating with staff, disciplining children, or actually yelling across a crowded restaurant. It’s unbelievable. And then there’s the pushing and shoving….
China is so… normal?
Despite some of the more peculiar differences, what has astounded us the most is just how… normal it is here. Teenage girls are taking way too many selfies. Teenage boys have their eyes glued to their phones, watching anime. Mothers are running after their children. Men are in a hurry to get to work in the mornings. The old couple sitting on the bench bicker with each other. People are riding bicycles, motorbikes, driving cars and catching the subway. They grab food on the go, have a meal with friends. Talk on the phone, and go shopping. I don’t know why we thought it would be any different here – but China really just is another country, with people speaking another language, that for the most part – go about their days just as we do.
Safe to say, we’ve had a much smoother start to China than what we were expecting, and it’s been such a relief. We’ve been fortunate to see blue skies, enjoy lovely sunny weather, eat delicious food, stay online, navigate around on our own and see some of the most incredible sights – and we’re only one week in. We can’t wait to see what else we come to learn about China as we explore the rest of this vast country, but if it’s anything like what we’ve experienced so far… well, who knows – but we might just have to come back to see more!
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