A few thoughts on China...

Robin here. I just wanted to make some notes about random things we’ve noticed about China. It is an amazing country, and I think that in general Americans really have no idea what it is like here. Most everyone we’ve met has been friendly and if they know any English are very eager to use it—even the construction workers who love to shout out “hello.” Those who don’t speak any still go out of their way to help the hapless Americans who have learned only to say “Nee hao” (hello) and “xie xie” (thank you). Tom was able to get the hang of a few more words, such as “train station” at which point they assume you can speak Chinese and start talking as if you know what they are saying. All you can do is nod and smile.

They love to play cards here. One of our favorite things to do in both Beijing and Xi’an was to find a park, grab a couple of beers and play cards, alongside dozens of Chinese doing the same. We never did figure out what they were playing, and some games involved cards that we didn’t understand; but they were just as fascinated with our game of Spite & Malice. Some folks would stop and watch for 20-30 minutes staring intently at what we were doing. On our train ride from Xi’an to Guilin, Tom even taught one of our cabin mates the game and played a hand with him.

I’ll never look at Chinese food the same again. The good food is fabulous, and some is so far out of our realm of understanding it was hard to eat, though we always at least made a good showing. Many of the restaurants have photos with all of menus, because so many Chinese are illiterate, to say nothing of the tourists. But looks can be deceiving—tripe can look like noodles and fish can be a bit sneaky. One place had neither English nor photos, so we had no idea what we were going to end up with. Turned out to be a large pot of boiling water that became kind of a Chinese fondue.

If I never see a Chinese-style toilet again it will be too soon. And one thing that I’ve noticed that I’m just fascinated with is that you seldom see babies with diapers. Babies not even walking are usually clothed in pants with the crotch and bottoms split open. Every now and then you’ll see a parent or grandparent take the child to the curb and encourage them to go. At this point I realized that what I thought was dog poop (and there are a lot of dogs here—which based on some menus, they will eat as well as have as pets) may well be baby poop. Made me watch my step even more closely.

As a pedestrian you have to learn to negotiate traffic, as you are at the bottom of the heap after bicycles, motorcycles, cars and buses. It’s really a game of chicken and you have to learn when to give way or get run over.

And finally, the growth. The juxtaposition between the old—ancient, really—and the new is everywhere. No matter where you look, if there are signs of people, there are signs of construction. I feel sure that if we come back in a few years, there are parts we wouldn’t even recognize.

It’s Tom now, and I concur with Robin on the above and will add the following: I often think of the U.S. as the center of capitalism, but the Chinese are born capitalists. They are constantly looking for ways to earn money, from hawking goods and services to passersby (we hired two of our guides after being approached on the street) to charging a few yuan for posing for an interesting photo (see the cormorant fisher and the woman with her baby in a basket).