Official figures show that China has a population of 1.3 billion people.
Travelling around the country, it was easy to see this enormous figure realized in the form of endless aparment complexes stacking next to each other – one after the other – like computer circuit boards stacked on top of each other. Even the small cities have populations of 8-10 million people.
Along with our mate, Kirsty, Michelle and I spent 14 days travelling with an Intrepid Tour Group from Shanghai to Beijing stopping off to see the Yangzi river and the three gorges dam and other cities.
The tour was called the “Best of China” tour but with such a small amount of time, the limited locations visited and the vast size of the country I like to think it should be called the “Taste of China” tour.
The tour group was small, 12 people of all ages and all aussie. Our leader, Owen, was a Chinese national from Xi’an.
We found travelling China interesting and fascinating but difficult at times and would not describe it as a relaxing holiday destination.
Our leader was entertaining at the best of times but stereotypically Chinese most of the time, throwing up a huge barrier of cultural conflict between him and the rest of the group and thus causing a lot of frustration that at times could not be relieved.
An example: Late in the tour, after a couple were the victims of counterfeit crime, Owen decided to inform us that it was possible that money withdrawn from a state owned bank could be counterfeit and thus rendered useless. This upset one couple who found that they couldn’t pay their hotel bill and had to give up their hard earned cash with no means for re-course.
We tried explaining to him that information like this and showing us how to detect counterfeit cash could be useful at the beginning of the tour but he didn’t understand. He just laughed and dismissed it as bad luck.
That said, the guy sure knew how to pick great food for us. Chinese is my least favourite asian cuisine and it took me a few days to focus my chi and accept that I’d be eating 3 meals a day for 2 weeks. However, Owen’s local knowledge of all the dishes saw us enjoying a great selection of delicacies almost every night. We washed down the MSG and oils with Bing Pe (sp?) – cold beer – that was always not cold.
Experiencing China has always been on my “must do” list and while it turned out to be nothing like I thought it would be, I’m glad I’ve done it. I hope to one day experience it again, but next time, I hope to be spending more time in the rural areas and countryside.
