China
My 2012 stay in China is for professional reason in Beijing. Up to now I was traveling either alone or - in recent years - with my partner. I / we were thrown on ourself with anything what came along. Now however, I am frequently also provided by the warm support and hospitality of the people which are dealing with me.
China - an ancient culture, a huge mass of predominantly poor rural population, many of whom has stumbled onto the factory floors of the industry. Decades of upheaval and Reorganisation. A country that has catapulted itself into the modern world and developes from the low-cost producers for the rich nations right now precisely his own creativity and strength - and become the largest contributors to the world.
If the request to work here hadn´t come , China would probably not have been to fast on my travel list, and if, my interest would have been the spectacular and diverse landscape and not so much the people and their work. But as the task was here to understand the country and its people so far that I would be able to work here. I am blessed now with completely unexpected insights into a country, the nature and culture of his people who are so different from the picture that you could otherwise gain from the Western media.
The impressions are so diverse that a basic description of the regions must wait until later. This however, I can say up to now: that China's large cities are modern, clean and largely in terms of human life almost more atractive than Germany - and that's saying something.
Individual travel in China
1. Communication
Part of the time I traveled with my partner and part of it I was traveling alone. None of us speaks more Chinese than Ni hao (correctly emphasized it is the one word you should learn properly , it means " good day " or literally " you good?" ) which immediately breaks the ice : people notice that you are already for a while in the country and will give a curious look . So - we crawled around in the last corners of the country where we haven´t seen any other Westerners for nearly 2 weeks. An elemental thing for individual traveling is a guidebook like the Lonely Planet , which lists the most important words and names of places with Chinese characters: most Chinese can read and so can understand directly what you are searching for or where you want to go. Moreover, one should not shy away from talking with hands and feet . Anyone who has problems with these forms of communication , should choose another country to travel or should travel in organized tour groups.
Forget trying to speak Chinese yourself if you are not a musicians with strong language aptitude or if you didn´t have had lessons. The meaning of the word depends on the emphasis in Chinese - called intonation - and these to hear and to speak can only an initiate . So talking is all out. Chinese would otherwise probably be not that hard to learn .
2. Travel organisation
Anyone who is planning to travel a lot and want to avoid hours of searching and queuing, is recommended to do what is always required at the Chinese Embassy Visa Application by the traveler: Book hotels already on the Internet in advance. The prices are often cheaper than the discount prices you can negotiate on the spot if there are no holidays. Ticket purchases for trains is best left to the hotels if they offer the service: on the outskirts of the empire, it can also happen that without to much waiting and crowds one can achieve such a coveted piece: the tickets are usually sold out already days in advance so that requires a certain amount of logistics. Buses are more flexible and also tickets for long-distance buses are easy to get even on the day before departure. Otherwise, the acquisition may develop into a drama of one hours queuing in the thickest noise and crowds (Guiyang), fundamental rejection of the staff for not wanting to understand (Dunhuang) or a casserole of staff gathering together trying to solve the problem due to no more existing tickets (sold out, Bijie). Those who stand firm and can´t be get rid of , can hope to be helped by the Chinese who are also in the queue, as they also want to get served sometime sooner or later, and generally are very very friendly and helpful. So it can happen that in a sold-out train still standing or seating tickets are available or grab the staff understands what you want. In addition, it gives Chinese people the unique pleasure of watching a "long nose" in how she needs something , no one understands them and in the end everything works out fine: storytelling for some boring evenings!
3. Security and woman alone
A woman alone at night definitely excited more attention than a woman in the company of a man. It is not always clear whether this is the general curiosity about a foreigner, acts to worried helpfulness or the expected chance of a thief, a "long finger" : on an evening going home from Wangfuging in Beijing, where I had been robbed right away initial 2012, were already many strange creatures around me , mostly single men funny strolling with a shopping bag , but also couples who ran times before and behind me and tried to stay close to me. Together with my partner, there was no similar experiences.
Thieves, mostly professionals, are mainly in Beijing on their way, possibly even to the major tourist attractions in the cities ( particularly the scrum in metro and buses is tempting for them). Once you leave this attractions, you have no problem across the country - people are mostly honest and helpful. A taxi driver who had to wait on us, gave me my tedious auctioned Canon PowerShot back ( see blog entry for camera purchase ), which had remained in the car, where I had not suspected it.
"Normal" Chinese usually don´t start a talk by themself . This knowledge can help to avoid unpleasant and costly surprises. There are 3 exceptions that I know: 1. they see that you need help. 2. They hear a conversation in our foreign language , were themselves even times in Germany and then want to show their social environment that they can understand and speak German . The visitors can find many of this type at tourists places where these people are traveling with their families. 3. Scammers - mostly friendly young people - who have all variants of the teahouse tricks on it , whether it is now to go to the tea house, go to an art exhibition or elsewhere. Features: they speak passable English. They range from: " Could you make a picture from us?" (famous in Shanghai) to a seemingly ordinary chat on a sightseeing spot , which ends at the tea house , to the open approach and pickup line. Only foreigners are addressed systematically - to Chinese people, they do not even give a try, these mostly young people . Another characteristic : he who does not getting into the Shanghai shooting screen mesh gets even insulted - The small group then moves on, without their shot - for ordinary Chinese unthinkable!
4. Restrictions? Poverty?
China is suspected to hinder self-organized trips in the country , because it want not to be seen the poverty of the rural population . Personally, I think that's nonsense . The government buys (allegedly) from the farmers at a fixed price their products - so is it indeed expensive for consumers at the end, but farmers can live life halfway through it, even if they produce and operate their farming like hundreds of years ago (if you're not counting the use of fertilizers and pesticides disregards ) . The houses in the countryside look new and solid - just occasionally one finds very old residential areas. But hovels or slums as in India are all light years away. We have seen in Shanghai at the tourist points around the Peoples Square and shopping malls and others dozens of mostly well-fed and aggressive beggars. While throughout the rest of the country in 3 months we saw only 2 - and they were not in tourist areas , but in a remote provincial town . What should the government want to hide here? - That the beggars in Shanghai apparently can only in coordination ( or cooperation ) with the inspecting officer move and behave like this? That is anyway only understandable for one who knows the country. The things that can give a deeper look can however be observed in the tourist areas and are obviously - when you turn on your mind : in the mountain area of Huangshouan , one of the top natural wonders of China, there are cable cars carrying the crowds of tourists up the mountain. The journey takes 10 minutes , costs 80 RMB and we appreciate that more than 700-900 altitude meters are covered. On the parallel walking path are porters to carry things uphill , because the top has to bring in everything by porters - food, gas bottles , household utensils - as there is no car access. The prices of everything you consume above, are horrendous - and certainly not be attributed to the carrier salary. We asked ourselves some befuddled why they are not bringing up the stuff by cable spread the things on the mountain top with porters - for in the late afternoon no tourist travels up and in the morning no one goes down by cable car, so there would be capacity ? The answer is simple and Financial : carriers are cheaper. From this it can be concluded that the porter is paid for the day's march up and down by less than 50 RMB - and for that they carry 45-50 kg up the hill and walk back empty. Hot water for example, which is produced with the gas which the porter carried uphill, is sold by RMB 5-10 by cup! Who profits from it, is also clear - it´s not the porter. Such "money-printig-mashines" can be observed everywhere in China , where there is a need and competition can be turned off .
5. Taxis:
Driver of the official taxis sometimes take an additional turn, but also have a professional ethos: to bring a guest and tourists well to the goal - and we had no interludes, made no bad experience. Exceptions - we called them the Taximaffia - can be found at some of the top destinations such as the airport, the busy north entrance of the Forbidden City in Beijing , etc: Here they transport guests as little as possible or not at all with taxi meters , the price is mercilessly too hig. A few taxis stand there and wait - the others don´t stop, suggesting a well-known and organized organization. The locals do not even try to hail a cab there and walk a few hundred meters, take the express train to the city or shuttle buses. In some places, the official taxis are not enough, typical example is Hefei. There the market is blooming with black cabs, such as in the outside rural suburbs of Beijing (where the official taxis do not like to drive because they can not find any return). The prices are also greatly exaggerated - but not just for tourists, also for the locals , which in turn do not like to rely on the journeymen . But the can be named also many positive examples : who is arriving from the east in Shanghai by express train, finds a line of waiting passengers, but also an organized first class service.
7. Where to eat - and what?
China has set up a hygieneclassification-system for restaurants and food stalls with gives one an idea of hygiene in the kitchen: Large signs in A1 format show either a laughing green icon with the letter A resplendent, a smiling yellow B or a dubious red C. In general, in very good A- Locations we could eat everything, even things that were not freshly cooked as cold noodles and the like - without consequences. Also a number of simple restaurants - already more similar to food stalls - have the yellow B. Who is newly in the country, this is the place to eat. The entire MC- f.. chain in China reportedly has only B (we have spared us a visit there). You can also eat in the C- restaurants, what have we done regularly: but here the absolute rule is without exception: it must be freshly prepared directly. Meat noodle soups are not, because the soup may have had hours or days already in the kettle boils. Dumpling friends should not be based on the tourist Dumpling-restaurants that there sometimes , but look where the locals eat: a full restaurant is also usually a good one. However, many locals avoid to eat dumplings at all because it is widely known that the meat inside is never fresh. Well - we had no problem with it.
Conclusion:
All in all it was a pleasant and safe country for us , especially by the friendly people of China. The experience of Chinese tourist groups , the noise and jostling in queues - these is a different matter and made us the country sorrowly and fundamentally unpleasant at the same time.
Even if we do not like it by our western colonial pride: China is on the way to a world power of the future. The central government is thinking ahead for about a decade - compare this to the cabaret theater of elections and the connected promises for the public for example in Germany. Money is in abundance , so the infrastructure is modern and well-planned. If a problem is really recognized as such , it can be traded fundamentally. Currently underway , for example, campaigns against pollution , which also achieve impressive results. Anyone who wants to understand the self-perception and the business policy of the new wealthy class of this great country, should definitely consider a self-organized trip - because it offers other options for viewing, as the heavily service-oriented and therefore very exciting organized group travel.
More on my trip to China and work reports can be found here and on the travel blog, in which the surprise reflects a country that is in many ways so different than it convey our media here:
http://reisen.liebe-zur-erde.eu/ # Category5
And, for sure - not much here is done and finished: The weeks in China where so full of impressions that I could just make a start on the website with descriptions - everything else will come during the time...
The Great Wall of China at the time of flowering pear trees
