Observations and Insights

As I sorted through our photos, I found a few favourites that didn't make it into my previous blog posts. I thought I would share those photos here, along with a few observations and insights that surprised me during our two weeks in China. Photos and text will not be related.

Detailed carving in a window frame, Beijing.

My first surprise was the copious amount of fruit in China. This probably shouldn't have been a surprise. There are 1.34 billion people in China-- clearly they have a supply of fruit. But when I think of China, the only fruit that comes to mind are mandarin oranges and lychee. What I didn't realize is that watermelon, persimmon, pomegranate, strawberries and passionfruit are grown in abundance. I love watermelon, and I ate it every day we were there.

Brightly painted buildings in the Summer Palace, Beijing.

Mandarin is a different language to speak. The tones and sounds are significantly different than English, and we really only learned, "Hello," "Thank you," and "No," while we were there. The tour guides always gave us Westernized names to call them by (Rebecca, Chris, Cassidy and Erik), but Tom and I always asked what their Chinese names were. We were never able to pronounce them or remember them after we asked!

A guardhouse on the Great Wall of China.

The Chinese love KFC. And when I say love, I mean, LOVE. Kentucky Fried Chicken was EVERYWHERE in China, and the restaurant fronts were huge! Unexpectedly, Pizza Hut was another Western restaurant that was very popular. Tom and I never did try a McDonald's, although we heard they have a delicious spicy chicken sandwich.

A camel hanging out by the Great Wall.

Intricate paintings on a rooftop.

Many of our guides were surprised when we were able to use chopsticks. It seemed like it was difficult for them to understand that Canada is multi-cultural, and we'd already had quite a bit of exposure to Chinese cuisine at home.

Elaborate carvings on a rooftop.

A bucket of crabs.

Most of the hotels we stayed at had small or medium sized gyms in them. If there was a gym, you could almost guarantee that there would be a ping pong table. And if there was a ping pong table, there was someone playing a game on it.

Deep fried seafood at a street cart.

We noticed that the hotels we stayed in lacked a fourth and fourteenth floor. Later in our trip we remembered to ask one of the tour guides about this, and he said that "four" and "death" are pronounced the same way in Mandarin. This lead Tom and I to wonder why thirteen is consider an unlucky number in our culture. We could not think of a reasonable explanation, so I turned to Wikipedia. There are several theories as to where the superstition originated from, but none seem particularly convincing.

A dragonfly on the Li River.

Chinese men do a lot of spitting and horking. I've heard it's a cultural thing, but I have no idea why. It's a little disconcerting to hear someone walking behind you, horking up a wad of saliva in your direction.

Mosaic tiles in the Yuyuan Gardens. Shanghai.

In Canada, if you are waiting in a line, there is a sense of order. It is rude if you cut someone off or budge in front of them. In China, it is everyone for themselves. There were many times when people pushed in front of us or forced us out of the way at tourist attractions and on the metro. Tom and I were aware of it, but never really got used to it. 

Lanterns in the Yuyuan Gardens, Shanghai.

Would I go back to China again? Yes, definitely. China is a huge country, and we barely scratched the surface. I think if we were to go again, we'd be prepared enough to do it without a guide, and explore completely on our own.

I'm a bit disappointed that this is the last post on my China experiences. But hopefully there will be more adventures to report in the future.

Xièxiè (thank you) for following, everyone!

谢谢