Originally posted by laurence
Hi Ian (AinuLainour),
I wish I could give you some c00l words of wisdom on China. Just relax! Also, you\'re going around the time of the Beijing Olympics so the place will be buzzing! It\'ll also change you\'re life! It sure did mine! Know that Chinese is pretty much one of the hardest languages on the planet. Go nuts (like on guitar) speaking the language. It\'s so rewarding!!! Or humiliating.
Watch out for luke warm buffet meals! I got really food poisoned in Wuhan before going to Beijing and Shanghai. Don\'t drink the tap water!!!! And watch out for thunderboxes (dunnies/toilets). They seriously honk! Iv\'e literally seen a girl (classmate) come running out of a latrine in a remote area of China crying and throwing up! Not a good sight. Although, kinda amusing!
They tend to treat foreigners like movie stars over there so enjoy the hospitality! I once signed autographs for over an hour over there. The Chinese people (by and large) are extremely nice to foreigners! So it\'s best to be nice and polite to the locals. And modest/humble! They will value this. I hope I\'m not generalising too much!
The main thing is to enjoy yourself! This trip will further shape you into the fine young gentleman that you\'re becoming. And the experiences that you\'ll have will last you a lifetime. I\'m sure that the adventures that you\'ll have will become legendary stories that you\'ll be amazing your grand children with.
Have a great trip man!!!
Chris.
Loved speaking Chinese, but admittably others in the group and myself got a little irritated and were shouting \"Boo yao!\" at the worst hagglers until we left for Hong Kong.
The street vendors were relentless but welcoming in China, however in Hong Kong they were sometimes outright unfriendly.
I can\'t stress how lucky I was with the food, at one point I felt terribly sick but turned out to be fine. Though two nights (about 4 days apart) I allegedly ran out of the hotel room and woke up outside, waking up my friend as I did not carry the key in my pajamas lol
When not dealing with the vendors I tried very hard to be patient, stern and polite which seemed to work out quite well if I do say so meself
Our hotel in Shanghai was located just outside a poorer area but also by a night market and \"Shanghai Times Square\". That was a load of fun, and my last night in China (flew to HK the next day). Picked up some DVDs (Chinese war epic and Sweeney Todd
) and a wooden carving of Confucius and bought some candy for the plane ride... which I gave to a homeless lady after feeling a little guilty of buying for myself.
I still haven\'t mentioned the many factory visits lol there was silk, pearls, jade and more.. it was insane watching so many different varities of artistry at work firsthand.
It was strange getting so much attention (photos, a few autographs) and really quite awkward at times. Japan was similar in this respect though it was still rather funny.
The trip was too much fun and I\'m glad that I took a reality check whenever something seemed too great to be happening or in my line of sight. I am fortunate enough to have seen the Terracotta Warriors in Xi\'an, walked up the Great Wall at Badaling, witnessed a Hong Kong afternoon from the top of a mountain, prayed at a Buddist temple in Hong Kong, and haggled a chess set from 1800 yuan to 700. Damn right, it was a good time
Cheers Chris!
