Before leaving Canada for an interesting life in China I knew virtually nothing about the geography or the culture of that country. Having enjoyed the privilege of years of foreign travel where ‘virtually nothing’ seemed quite normal but, anyway, never caused any disasters, it is very important that you be aware that visiting China requires a little preparation ... to say the least.
There are a vast number of books describing the geography, culture, and history, not to mention the obvious travel books. Therefore, I should point out that this ambiguous title is not an introduction for you, but a short description of my introduction to China.
Travel around Europe or North America can be very undemanding, even when you are not multi-lingual. Thus, I was in for a rude awakening, because I was not prepared for my hurried visit to the Middle Kingdom. I had heard of Sichuan, my first destination (Spicy food) but not of Yunnan, my final destination. I had learnt to say; Nín hăo (Hello), Zàijàn (Goodbye), and Xièxiè (Thank you), but when I discovered that I could say “How are you” in English which would be met with the immediate response, “I’m fine, and you”, little did I know that they were unlikely to be able to communicate further due to their rote system of learning. Their convulsive giggles hidden by a hand as a sign of embarrassment, is one of my most endearing memories of these people.
Therefore, if your aim is to be a diligent tourist and not a follower of the shepherd waving a brightly covered umbrella, an iPod with integral GPS and translation applications is quite worthwhile.
An alternative, is to stand on a street corner continually looking at a guidebook and wait a few seconds for some young students to politely ask if they could be your guide and interpreter for the day. Never be afraid of this approach as language students are very eager to perfect their English, resulting from the extreme difficulty in succeeding at university entrance exams. If you invite them to spend the day with you they will think that they have died and gone to heaven ... you may even become the subject of their next dissertation.
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| Kunming, Yunnan Province |
Should you not be a 5-star tourist, but intend to remain for months (If not years) then, you will need to find an apartment. For this, you should definitely seek the assistance of a good honest interpreter, who would be able to negotiate on your behalf before the landlord is aware that you are a very wealthy foreigner (Aren’t we all).
Once settled into your apartment, do not be surprised if you find cockroaches in the kitchen and, if it is an old part of town ... rats. This is quite normal ... and they are fairly tame.
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| Lijiang, Yunnan Province |
After a while, you will want to wean yourself away from KFC and become more ethnic by visiting the steaming restaurants that seem to fill the bustling side streets. Do not worry about eating dog meat because everything tastes the same anyway, Nevertheless, I must warn you to be careful where you walk due to the incessant habit of everyone to spit on the floor. All Chinese food in small local restaurants contains bones and, as it is considered rude to touch your mouth with the fingers, one naturally makes use of the floor.
When walking home, you may observe the green light on a pedestrian crossing. You must regard this with great caution because it goes unseen by motorists ... they are listening for the police officer’s whistle. But it is not quite that simple because the police officer may be blowing his whistle to a tune on an iPod ... which, nevertheless, appears to be equally effective.
That is a very brief, if not facetious, introduction to my years in China. Any comments?
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