5 Observations in China

Our family spent a couple days in China during the National Day Golden Week in October - which is just as alarming as it sounds. Roughly what this translated to was that there were a ton of Chinese tourists that came from the more rural areas to the cities. Kind of like if everyone from the midwest descended on Washington D.C. during the 4th of July.

While I am nowhere near expert enough to tell you how to plan a vacation there, I can certainly tell you things I noticed. So, here are 5 observations I had while we were there.

1. Foreign tourists attract a lot of attention. Especially if you are blonde or have obvious facial hair.

I'm sure you can't tell from this picture, but Jorge was DELIGHTED to be a chinese superstar. After he got his first taste of fame, he would place himself a safe distance away from me and open his arms wide, palms inviting. He was ready for any photo op that would present itself.

I got you, girl:

2. Being Asian doesn't mean you can't also be racist.

There are literally no words for this. If this offends you, take comfort from the fact that apparently guarding the Great Wall was a major endurance event and if that was still the case today, he would never had made it as far as he did.

 3. People will park anywhere they damn well please.

We visited the Great Wall of China as part of a large tour group and once we got there we all kind of separated. Our blonde friend quickly had a line of strangers waiting for her to take pictures with their babies (outshining Jorge, much to his chagrin), and me and Jorge felt like it was our duty to traverse as much of the wall as we could - so we did.

I am going to tell you something now that is 100% the truth, but I don't want to let it deter you from visiting China. Its just the damn facts as I saw them. 

People let their children poop almost anywhere. 

As we were slowly making our way up the wall in a sea of tightly packed tourists, we noticed a woman crouching with her child outstretched in her hands, almost as an offering to an ancient god. Well that god was the god of making it work, dammit. She had pulled her kids pants/underwear to his knees and folded him into a kind of vee, butt at the bottom, and allowed nature to take its course. Nature DID take its course, all over the Great Wall and people were tap dancing their way through it, without a care in the world. This was an instance where I was glad for my, as Jorge calls it, "farming girl's" body. I hip bumped those poor Chinese people straight out of my way so I could make it as far from the scene of the crime as possible. They were no match for this corn fed, whole milk weaned American. So, just a word of caution - if you're on the Great Wall, watch your step.

But, I digress. This post is about the fact that we endured ALL OF THAT only to make it back to our tour bus, thinking that we were going back to our hotel.

LOL.

You see, people don't care where they park, or how they block you in, or if you can leave. Apparently since we were one of the earlier tour buses to get there, we were near the front of the parking lot and everyone else just blocked us in. As you do.

But, if being trapped on a tour bus for 6 hours is the worst thing that happens to you in China, then you've quite literally dodged a pile of feces.

4. Red is a ceremonial color.

I literally snapped this picture over my shoulder without looking with some crappy point/click camera as we were in a rickety boat moving through Xitang Water Town. Yes, I am patting myself on the back about that. Our guide let us know that while red is a traditional color for ceremonial occasions (in this instance, a wedding), westernization has brought white wedding dresses to China as well, so in a lot of cases, brides will choose both.

5. Tourists are REALLY funny.

Bringing joy to their hearts.

Our first night in Beijing we went to dinner at what was probably too authentic of a Chinese restaurant. Chicken feet notwithstanding, the food was great but the best part was when my dad went to pay. He opened up his wallet, and upon catching sight of his funny American money, the waitress burst into giggles and ran away.

We all had no idea what was going on, but quickly figured it out when she brought the other waitresses to our table, all to literally point and laugh at his money. Trying to be a good sport, my Dad fished out a US dollar bill and handed it to them for comic relief. I still don't quite get what was so funny about our currency, but we did seem to do a lot of things that made people in China happy. And for that, I'm glad.