For the last month, I’ve been in China, visiting the various different monuments and regions in an effort to know this country a little better. Due to the lack of a reliable internet connection, I have not been able to keep up with posting about my adventures here. However, in an effort to make up for lost time, I thought I would contribute two entries on my month in China.
For ease and balance, I have decided to split these two posts into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ aspects of my travels in China. In truth, I have found this month a very challenging and difficult period of travel (for reasons I shall cover in the next entry), though for now I would like to comment on all the positive aspects of my time in the Middle Kingdom.
[The usual caveats apply: this is a personal list, not an exhaustive one. It is not meant to cause offence. If ever I refer to ‘the Chinese’ I simply mean to generalise for ease and legibility; I do not mean to lump all Chinese people together. If you disagree with me and my experience, well, good for you.]
⁃ Food: in keeping with something a theme of this trip, I thought I would start with the food! Chinese food, like all the food so far in Asia, is very cheap! Meals (aside from occasional western indulgences) rarely cost more than 50 yuan (about £6) and there is a great variety available. A lot of it is delicious, though a gripe of mine would be that it seems to be almost invariably fried or else very oily.
⁃ Travel: getting around the country, and within cities, is cheap and efficient. I think I haven’t paid more than 5 yuan (around 60p) for a metro trip, which lasted a grand total of around an hour. Bullet trains linking the cities are punctual, efficient and comfortable, allowing me to travel the 1000km from Beijing to Shanghai in a little over 5 hours!
⁃ Shopping: I can’t say that one of the main reasons I came to China is the shopping, though for anyone so inclined, China is a form of paradise! Huge, towering malls occupy almost every corner and avenue, filled with a variety of shops and outlets. Of particular note are the ‘genuine fake’ shops, which sell versions of famous products at a fraction of their actual price. For instance, I managed to pick up a pair of converse that are identical to the real things for a paltry £12.
⁃ Tourism: China contains many different cultures and an expanse of history and tradition that is perhaps unrivalled anywhere else in the world. In this one country, I have seen the Great Wall, the Forbidden City (and the many other trappings of an imperial past), the Terracotta Army, the towering skyscrapers of Shanghai, temples, monuments, lakes, mountains and ancient villages. There is a huge array of restaurants, bars and clubs and no shortage of new places to visit, things to do or regional delicacies to try.
⁃ Variety: being so huge, China is home to a vast array of different landscapes, cultures and climates. Although I have just mentioned the enormous extent of the tourism possibilities in China, I though I would comment specifically on the variety of climates. In this short month I have experienced the suffocating smog of Beijing and Shanghai, the rolling plains around Nanjing, the deafening roar of the mighty Yangtze River around Chongqing, the misty hills of Sichuan and the arid climes of Xi’an, built on the edge of a desert. And this is only to start; deserts, mountain ranges, beaches, jungles and tundra are each available in this vast and varied country.
⁃ Amusing translations: sometimes referred to (disparagingly) as ‘Chinglish’, sometimes I can’t help but laugh at a bad translation. For the Chinese, using English seems a very cool thing to do (typing this, I recall having curtains that featured Chinese characters in my youth, despite having no clue what they meant) and so it features everywhere. Sometimes the language is utter nonsense, sometimes it is almost spot-on and sometimes produces amusing hybrids. Menus, I have found, provide the greatest source of amusement, owing to the technical difficulties involved with translating cuisines, especially dish names.
⁃ Tech integration: more than anywhere else I have ever been, technology is integrated into the daily life of the Chinese. The cynic in me would say that this is so the government can more effectively keep stock of its populace, but it remains a marvel nonetheless. Wechat, China’s answer to WhatsApp/facebook/instagram/twitter, provides a platform where Chinese people can communicate, research, advertise, play games, pay for food, tickets and travel and provide certain kinds of verification. Coming from the north-west of the U.K., where it is a recent novelty to be able to pay with a contactless bank card on a bus, this is really quite the novelty.
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However, travel in China is not all gumdrops and rainbows; but I’ll cover he negatives next time.
Where in the World is Mr Morris? 
Great post 😁
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Great read
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