Everything seemed to be a challenge from the fairly simple task of getting money out of a cash machine to ordering food, everything seemed to be that much harder. It is the first time on my trip where the general population hasn't had even the briefest grasp of English, which is fine because they have a very complex language of their own to master, but the thing that annoyed me was the rudeness and general disdain thrown in my direction for even considering to speak in English. More often than not they would yell a reply in Chinese before walking off leaving me completely none the wiser about what I needed to do. If this had been the worst experience I think I would have coped OK but this was just the start.
Spitting is not something that usually bothers me, I'm not a fan of it when somebody does it in public but it doesn't disgust me. At least that's what I thought but apparently when everybody around you is doing it; in the street, in a restaurant, on the bus; you develop, I certainly did, a general hatred for the action.
As well as the spitting I got the feeling that I wasn't welcome in the country. My first experience of this came when trying to hail a taxi down. One of the people in the group flagged one down, it started to pull over before driving off without stopping. When the first one did this I thought it was odd, after about the tenth taxi did this I got the feeling my group and I were not getting a taxi back! Luckily one of the guys with us could read Chinese and we managed to jump on a bus that took us close enough to the hostel to be able to walk back. Next situation happened whilst walking around the West Lake in Hangzhou, a fantastic place in case you're looking for somewhere to go. Anyway, walking around the lake and I decide to sit on the edge of the lake and just let the world go by. I choose a spot in amongst all of the locals doing exactly the same thing and no sooner had I sat down, that I was being motioned to move by the park security. I tried to ask why but the question was ignored and I had to walk past all of the other people sat on the edge of the lake trying to work out why I was told to move and they weren't.
Next up and I was once again not understanding the concept of something but this, I think, is a cultural difference. I was in another park, this time in Yangshuo and I was trying to find a nice quiet spot to sit and do some writing. This is apparently easier said than done when at various points in the park, microphones and amps have been set up. For some reason and I'm not sure why but the popular thing to do with this equipment was for groups of 4-5 women to crowd around the microphone and literally screech into it. They all had a book open in front of them with, I'm guessing, lyrics for songs written on but all I could hear was fairly out of tune and out of time screeching. I think that is the only word that will do the noise any justice, at times it sounded similar to fingers nails being dragged down a chalk board.
Despite the noise I managed to find somewhere to sit down and I started to write in my journal. It wasn't long before his activity was drawing attention of its own. A young lad was walking past and when he saw me said 'hello', I replied by saying 'hi' and then he walked over to investigate what I was doing. Now this sort of situation is the other half of my experience in China. When I wasn't being made to feel like scum of the earth I had almost celebrity status as people wanted to talk to me or take my picture. On one occasion a mother even asked if she could take a picture of me with her 8 year old daughter! Anyway back to the park where the young Chinese guy is making his way over to me. He seemed intrigued by the fact that I was writing in English and asked to read some of it. I accepted because I know my handwriting is that bad that even completely fluent speakers and readers struggle to read it. He tried to read a bit of it before giving up and proceeding to ask me 20 questions to learn more about me and my life. By the end of the conversation he said he wanted to keep in contact but his main concern was that if he sends me an email I won't know it is from him. I try to explain that I don't get many, if any, emails from Chinese people so I'm fairly sure I'll know it's him. He still wasn't convinced and after thinking for a couple of seconds he yelled out the word 'PETER'. I looked at him in shock and he asked if I have any contacts named Peter? I said I didn't think so, so he explained that when he emails me he will write within the email it is 'Peter' and then I will know it is him. I accepted this and sure enough I have received a message to that effect. It made me chuckle at his reasoning that I would know more Chinese people than people called Peter but he was a nice enough guy and one of the better locals I met during my time there.
I think that pretty much wraps up the main experiences I had in China, well apart from the interesting airport shuttle service I received. I landed in Guilin airport quite late one night and the hostel I was going to had organised a shuttle service to pick me up and ferry me to them. This seemed perfect to me, all I had to do was find the guy with my name on his sign. I did that with and got into the backseat of the car and relaxed thinking I had nothing to worry about. I didn't have anything to worry about until I noticed the car kept randomly slowing down and drifting between the lanes. I think, this is a bit odd, it's almost as if the taxi driver has fallen asleep. To my slight horror, this assumption is correct, I look over at the driver, his eyes are shut and we're slowly drifting into another lane. He wakes himself up after a couple of seconds and continues on his way. The longest he was asleep was when we almost came to a complete stop on the highway and then he tried and somehow succeeded to start the car in fourth gear. I wasn't sure of what to do, I knew he didn't speak much English and I thought if I tried to engage him in conversation in a language he doesn't understand it would make the situation worse. Instead I just made sure my seat belt was as tight as it could go and was thankful it was quiet on the roads and he liked the middle lane so we had room to drift. Somehow we got to my hostel safely and I was very relieved to have been able to walk away from the car unscathed!
So as I said at the start, China and I didn't exactly see eye to eye but my week and a half in the country has definitely left a solid impression on me. I can say it was an experience I will remember for a while, one that I probably won't be looking to repeat for a very long time.
