Anyone been to China?

[Unkotare]

BTW you'll see the craziest driving in the world in China, and the people really know how to drink. They drink rice wine (which taste like whisky) like it's water.

Actually, it's usually made from sorghum, and it is a big stretch to say it tastes like whiskey.

 

[Rocko]

BTW you'll see the craziest driving in the world in China, and the people really know how to drink. They drink rice wine (which taste like whisky) like it's water.

Actually, it's usually made from sorghum, and it is a big stretch to say it tastes like whiskey.

I'm not a big hard liqour connosseur, except for voka tonics, but whatever they drink tastes like gasoline. They slam it down and yell gumbye. I'm speaking from experiance. I was there on business. Every dinner we went to, they made us takead multiple shots and us drunk.

 

[rdean]

Anyone been to China?

Marco Polo

 

[Unkotare]

BTW you'll see the craziest driving in the world in China, and the people really know how to drink. They drink rice wine (which taste like whisky) like it's water.

Actually, it's usually made from sorghum, and it is a big stretch to say it tastes like whiskey.

I'm not a big hard liqour connosseur, except for voka tonics, but whatever they drink tastes like gasoline. They slam it down and yell gumbye. I'm speaking from experiance. I was there on business. Every dinner we went to, they made us takead multiple shots and us drunk.

That's gan bei, and you say it before you take a drink, like 'cheers!'

 

[MeBelle]

Don't call them "sticks." Devote the all of ten minutes it will take to learn how to use chopsticks. It's not difficult, and it will make you look like much more of a civilized visitor. Before you leave, make yourself eat with chopsticks for a couple of days at home and you'll have it mastered for the rest of your life. Certainly most people/places will be happy to provide you with at least a spoon if you need it, but if you can eat without being afraid of chopsticks you won't look like some helpless, overgrown baby.

Meanie!!
I have some pinched nerve issues that are being dealt with but at this time don't have full faculties of some of my fingers.

 

[MeBelle]

Good news!!!

Learned yesterday that we will be visiting north of Hong Kong!!

I'm still laughing!!!!

 

[Esmeralda]

Good news!!!

Learned yesterday that we will be visiting north of Hong Kong!!

I'm still laughing!!!!

Why are you laughing? Sorry, I don't understand.

Does north of Hong Kong mean mainland China? Will it mean Quanzhou? I've been there and to Shantou, which is also north of Hong Kong. I flew to Hong Kong, and from there took a ferry to the mainland and went by car to Shantou and flew to Quanzhou. This was over 20 years ago, though. A year ago I went back to China but to Shanghai and Beijing. China has changed a lot in 20 years. However, most people do not speak English. Hope you will have a guide. If you are staying in Western style hotels, you don't need to take a fork with you. Also, you will find food that is Western. I would suggest getting a guide book, however. I travel a lot and find a good guide book invaluable. Recommend Eyewitness Travel.

 

[Saigon]

I was puzzled by the 'laughing' bit as well.

The first time I went to Hong Kong I was surprised by how much land north of Kowloon is part of Hong Kong. I went up to visit the Thousand Buddhas Pagoda (?) and a couple of other sites that seemed some distance from the city, but that are still in Hong Kong. It's an interesting area.

 

[waltky]

Granny says if ya go...

... wear one o' dem coolie hats...

... so's dey'll think yer one o' dem...

... an' fit in...

... an' dat way dey won't rip ya off...

... atta tourist traps.

 

[Esmeralda]

I was puzzled by the 'laughing' bit as well.

The first time I went to Hong Kong I was surprised by how much land north of Kowloon is part of Hong Kong. I went up to visit the Thousand Buddhas Pagoda (?) and a couple of other sites that seemed some distance from the city, but that are still in Hong Kong. It's an interesting area.

I didn't have much of a tourist experience in Hong Kong, or at all during my first trip to China 22 years ago. I went with a Chinese friend who was studying in the US. In Hong Kong we stayed with her 'aunt,' who was actually a close family friend. Her husband was away, and it was just we women, three of us. She made a special chicken soup that was for women, meant to improve female health in some way. It tasted awful. Then we spent a lot of time shopping, looking for good deals on Jade and gold. I am not a shopper and am not into jewelry, but it was kind of interesting. We also spent some time getting my visa for the mainland. One day we met up with a 'cousin' and her husband and child and went to the water park for the day. Watching dolphins and whales do tricks is another thing I have no interest in, but I went along because it was polite. Another time her 'uncle' took us out to eat and we had 'hot pot,' which I'd never even heard of. One morning, we had tea at an outdoor 'cafe,' and I ate a couple of steamed dumplings. This was in their totally non-Western neighborhood. For the rest of my 3 week trip, everything I ate ran right through me. I lost a lot of weight, which I was actually happy about.

On the mainland we also stayed with relatives. First we stayed at her brother-in-law's apartment. He and his wife were higher ups in the local 'party' and they had the most beautiful and beautifully furnished apartment I've ever been in. Gorgeous.

Then we went to her parents' apartment. I slept on a wooden bed, no mattress. I remember one day very distinctly: I was sitting on the bed writing in my journal, and her grandmother came in and sat on the floor across from the bed and just watched me. I was a whole new thing to most of the people I met between Hong Kong and Guangzhou: they had never seen a Caucasian except on TV or in a movie.

My friend was very busy with seeing relatives she hadn't seen in a couple of years, and I sat around a lot listing to very loud and fast Chinese for hours at a time. We did a little sight seeing. There was a sight seeing day in Guangzhou and a tour of the porcelain factory her father managed. A friend of hers spent a day taking me to a beautiful park, the kind of place you see in paintings with lots of water, hills, and bridges.

An uncle in Australia died, and there was a memorial service. I was the designated photographer for them while they chanted and burned fake money and incense. The nuns and monks were funny because they sat around smoking & with their feet up on the tables and didn't act at all pious the way Western monks and nuns do. ~There were a couple of visits to temples and some other sight seeing; a big thing at that time was looking at some of the new 5 star hotels being put up. They were very proud of those things. She had told me I didn't need to get a guide book before going as she would be with me; but, in the end, I wished I had one, but too late.

I've got some great pictures, but they are from before digital cameras, so I don't have a way to put them up here.

We ate dinner every night Chinese family style with 2 or three main dishes in big bowls and each person with their own rice bowl. Everyone dipped their chopsticks into the main bowls and held the food over their own rice while eating it and then having a little rice. I was already good with chopsticks before I went so it was no problem, but the mixing saliva thing was something to get used to. But, when in Rome....

One day we ran into a former high school teacher of hers and were invited to her home, where I also met her husband, also a teacher. They talked about their experiences during the Cultural Revolution when they were taken away from teaching and were made to labor on a collective farm. Really amazing.

Those are some of the highlights. Overall, it was a very interesting trip. Oh, and twice, I was offered in a kind of half serious half joking way female infants born to a couple of my friend's cousins we visited. It was the grandmothers making the offer. The expression on the mothers' faces was shock, horror and fear. I declined, of course, and we all kind of laughed it off, and the mothers looked so relieved.

 

[Esmeralda]

Second, you have completely missed the point of my post, apparently because it was understated. I think my experience was vastly superior to a typical tourist experience, vastly. And I am extremely thankful I had such an opportunity.

I was not the only Caucasian people in Hong Kong or Guangzhou had ever seen, obviously not. But in the two cities I stayed in between those places, yes, in those days, most people had never seen a Caucasion in person. They were not tourists cities, they were ordinary cities. When I walked down the street, people turned to stare, especially school children. I have pictures of little girls pointing and giggling at the 'white' person. I asked my friend why her grandmother came into the room to just watch me, and that is what my friend told me, because her grandmother had never seen a Caucasian before.

When I said we did things I wouldn't do normally, like shopping or going to a water park or eating food my taste buds weren't used to, I did them happily without a complaint. As a traveler rather than a tourist, one is more interested in immersing oneself into the culture than seeing the 'sights.' I had a very amazing and unique experience.

 

[Saigon]

Certainly I think it is possible to go to places where we are either the first white person some local children have ever seen - or at least the only one they have seen recently!

Of course we can't know if we are the first, second, or fifth tourist to pass that way in the past year, but it is a strange and often slightly eerie experience to be in a place so remote that local life stalls while people come to check out the white person. The first time it happened to me (in rural Moroco) that kids wanted to touch my hair, look into my (blue) eyes and touch my clothes I found it really disarming.

I haven't had it often, but once in rural Moldova and once in Burundi have stuck in my mind. In a country the size of China, I am sure it must happen quite often.

I once stayed on a tiny atoll in the Philippines where I asked someone whether other tourists ever stayed in the village - sure, he told me, we had an American couple here just last year!

 

[Unkotare]

Everyone wants to believe the "I was the first white person they'd ever seen!" bit, but it's almost never true. Everyone wants to feel special, I guess. When travelling, I think it is much better to be humble than special.

 

[Saigon]

Unkotare -

Ironically, I think it is the more humble travellers who are likely to go to places where extremely few travellers ever go.

Being the first white person some local children have ever seen doesn't make a person special - but it may make the person FEEL special for a while, and so it should. It is a special, humanising experience.

 

[Unkotare]

As I was saying..........

 

[Esmeralda]

Certainly I think it is possible to go to places where we are either the first white person some local children have ever seen - or at least the only one they have seen recently!

Of course we can't know if we are the first, second, or fifth tourist to pass that way in the past year, but it is a strange and often slightly eerie experience to be in a place so remote that local life stalls while people come to check out the white person. The first time it happened to me (in rural Moroco) that kids wanted to touch my hair, look into my (blue) eyes and touch my clothes I found it really disarming.

I haven't had it often, but once in rural Moldova and once in Burundi have stuck in my mind. In a country the size of China, I am sure it must happen quite often.

I once stayed on a tiny atoll in the Philippines where I asked someone whether other tourists ever stayed in the village - sure, he told me, we had an American couple here just last year!

I was with a Chinese person from that area. She was a student in the US, not a US resident or citizen. She was not a Chinese American. She is the one who told me most of the people had never seen a Caucasian in person. I didn't bring it up, she did. I didn't imagine it, and I don't know why it is such a big deal or unbelieveable, and I have no idea why someone would want to brag about such a thing. It just is. She was very, very Chinese. I doubt she would be thinking that was something I wanted to hear; it simply would not be in her frame of reference. I am very surprised at the scepticism about it, but it seems mostly to come from someone who has probably never even been outside the US.

I have no idea why someone would 'like to think' that they were the only white person these people had seen. It was not my idea; it was my friend's idea, someone who grew up in that area. I also never met anyone else who spoke English except my friend and one or two of her friends who were also university students. She had to translate everything for me, which was very difficult for her, and lots of times, I just sat for hours listening while she talked to relatives because it was just too much for me to expect her to constantly stop and translate or even summarize what they were talking about.

First off, this is 22 years ago and not in places in China where a tourist would normally go. If there would be Caucasians in those cities, it would be for business purposes, not tourism. But the businessmen I saw were from Taiwan, not from the West. Also, people were poor then and did not travel. Probably most of those people had never been outside of their cities. In the time we spent in those two cities, I did not see another Caucasian. It was an odd experience for me to be the only white person. I've have never had that happen before or since.

China is vastly different today than it was 22 years ago. I know because I was there just this past year and saw the difference.

 

[Saigon]

Esmeralda -

In the time we spent in those two cities, I did not see another Caucasian. It was an odd experience for me to be the only white person. I've have never had that happen before or since.

It is a very odd and humbling experience, and I find your story entirely believable - and rather special.

It isn't something any of us will experience more than once or twice in a lifetime.

 

[Esmeralda]

Unkotare -

Ironically, I think it is the more humble travellers who are likely to go to places where extremely few travellers ever go.

Being the first white person some local children have ever seen doesn't make a person special - but it may make the person FEEL special for a while, and so it should. It is a special, humanising experience.

Seriously, feel special? I don't get any of this. It didn't make me 'feel special.' It just was. How oddly some people look at things. I thought it was interesting, that's all. What was oddest to me was being the only white person, no other white people anywhere I went for about a week and a half. That was memorable impression. I had never experienced anything like that and it gave me some insight into others that happens to in the US, being a minority race and being mostly surrounded by white people all the time. Which is something maybe younger people don't understand because things have changed so much in the past 40 years. When I was in high school, a school of 2000 students, there were only about 5 black kids there. That experience in China gave me some insight to how they must have felt most of the time, living in an all white neighborhood, going to an all white school.

 

[Saigon]

Seriously, feel special? I don't get any of this. It didn't make me 'feel special.'

Well, ok, to me it was quite a unique moment. I was quite young at the time, and it made me reflect on some of those big questions about identity and humanity. It's something I always remember about Morocco, and I have forgotten much of the rest of the trip.

As I said, it's something I've experienced only 2 or 3 times in my life, and on each occassion it's been something very humbling, something that gives me pause to question my life in relation to those of the people around me.

I found seeing a lion for the first time very special as well - no doubt other people's experiences are very different.

 

[Esmeralda]

Seriously, feel special? I don't get any of this. It didn't make me 'feel special.'

Well, ok, to me it was quite a unique moment. I was quite young at the time, and it made me reflect on some of those big questions about identity and humanity. It's something I always remember about Morocco, and I have forgotten much of the rest of the trip.

As I said, it's something I've experienced only 2 or 3 times in my life, and on each occassion it's been something very humbling, something that gives me pause to question my life in relation to those of the people around me.

I found seeing a lion for the first time very special as well - no doubt other people's experiences are very different.

Perhaps it is the use of the word special that is the problem. To you it may mean one thing, but in American vernivcular these days, it can be sneering and derogative. It's like 'pathetic.' The literal meaning of pathetic comes from pathos, great pity. But it is used nowadays to sneer at and denigrate.

What I felt most was lucky to be going through the experience I was going through, though it was also quite challenging, and I was much younger and had far less experience traveling than I do now. I wish I could redo it now, I'd be able to appreciate and handle it much better.

~The humbling part for me was being the only Caucasian around and being, except for one or two students, whom I saw only once twice, other than my friend, the only person who spoke English. No one spoke English. That really does give you a different perspective because, as a native English speaker, I am used to someone usually speaking English wherever I go. Even people from other cultures, Europeans, and these days Asians too, expect to be able to use English when traveling because it is the most widely used international language. But it was being the only person of my race that was the most overwhelming feeling. Almost a little scary in an odd way.