Lessons Learned from Wondering Around China

Posted onAuthorjo

At the beginning of the China travelogue I mentioned 4 reasons for us staying in country for the summer holiday. So you might be wondering if those reasons held up. At least, I sure was wondering. So, in retrospect:

Traveling domestically is cheaper

I was mostly wrong here - mostly because I failed to specify "cheaper than...what?" Cheaper than Japan or Germany? Sure. Cheaper than SE Asia, upon which my budget was based? Nope. In the end, what we actually spent was 25% more than my prediction which was mostly based off of travel in Southeast Asia and food prices in our home city. Had I compared it to traveling in a more expensive region I probably would have been less wrong. Most of the discrepancy came from food, hostels, taxis, buses, and entrance fees...K, [cough] so everything. Except for the plane tickets; we did save some yuan by not flying over boarders. Take away: be more pessimistic while budgeting. **Word to present day travelers - China is getting more expensive by the day.

FOMO! This will probably be our only chance to travel in China

This reason holds up fine. It'd have been a shame to return to the US and not have seen anything outside the concrete buildings of Jilin.

We should travel in China in order to get a broader and more accurate idea of what China is actually like

After all, staying in a single city, surrounded primarily by one demographic (college students), and one boring landscape doesn’t give a fair picture. Despite how excited and grateful I was to be in our fair city – to be honest - our fair city reminded me of an abandoned theme park. I was sure this couldn't be it. After just a few days, this reason began to hold up too. I do think that seeing other provinces and people groups gave us a slightly broader picture of China – at least a more keen awareness of there being a bigger picture. Yunnan especially had refreshing landscapes and different groups of people living different lifestyles, though, having poor Mandarin, we weren't able to have long conversations. That is a regret.

Domestic travel would force us into using the 15.5 words of Chinese that we knew

Absolutely true. I used every scrap of Mandarin I knew and got rather practiced at asking for directions, if people spoke English, and admitting the obvious - that my Chinese stunk - which folks seemed to enjoy hearing. No matter the person's answer, a belabored conversation heavily supplemented by hand gestures and sprinkled with nervous chuckles (on my part) was sure to follow.

About the language: my goal wasn’t exactly to learn more words – though a few new ones are now indelibly etched into my mind. Desperation and stress are great memory devices that way. 
 
My goal was to gain a feeling of normalcy and confidence in speaking Chinese. I wanted to break the wall which is something like getting comfortable in the new language environment by getting a feel for the sentence rhythms and sounds even if you don’t know what they mean yet.
 
I needed my brain to connect the bits I’d already learned into patterns and I needed hooks on which to hang vocabulary. And after a while, I found myself making sentences that I’d never seen in Chinese. Just silly simple sentences – something like, “My friends are coming” but still, better than before. Yep, we were that bad. 
 
Before leaving for our two week adventure, a few of my students pulled me aside to ask with some concern how I could possibly travel in China without speaking Chinese very well. Wasn’t it dangerous or, they seemed very earnest, impossible? I lifted an eyebrow at the irony. “Probably the same way I live in a Chinese city without knowing the language.” They considered this for a while but didn’t look less worried. 
 
SIDE NOTE:
At the time of this trip, we had lived in China for about 11 months (2 of which were spent in SE Asia) and been full time English teachers for 99.9% of it. We were paid to speak English all day so we couldn’t exactly Benny Lewis it in full immersion and be fluent in 3 months. We didn’t even have tutors. Mostly we were scrambling to just learn the ropes of our new jobs. Instead, we had picked up “survival Chinese” – the basics needed to buy food and get places. 
 
I have some friends who lived in China for less time than we did (we lived there 2 years in the end) and who speak way better Chinese than we do. But they were also full time students of Mandarin. So while they sound all cool with their fancy (correct) grammar, we stumble along in a rough mix of bad grammar and street slang smothered in a heavy North Eastern accent. 
Anyway, not actually learning to speak decently is one of my bigger regrets for that time. Word to the wise. 

Besides the above, James and I picked up a few lessons from the usual teacher, Experience.

1. China isn’t only massive cities and smog. The east coast is massive cities and smog. Step westward and you’ll encounter plenty of country folk who still live quiet, more traditional lives in the peace and simplicity of a beautiful landscape – and there are some absolutely stunning landscapes.

2. Unfortunately, the stereotypes about Chinese tourists were not dismissed as “merely stereotypes.” Most of the other tourists we encountered were loud & pushy. As in, literally pushing me. I can’t tell you how many times someone walked right into me or whacked my camera without seeming to notice I was there – which is odd since Americans are usually labeled as being the loud ones.

At every scenic area we went to it seemed like we were trying to escape the noise that the other tourists were making which was probably due to their traveling in large packs while we two were seeking solitude. They obviously just had a different idea about what a good time was. Occasionally, we’d pass by another Westerner (usually European) and see the same harried look reflected on his or her face before exchanging a sympathetic glance. 

 

3. Traveling with locals doesn’t necessarily make things easier, though I’m certain that the specific individual makes a big difference – no matter where they’re from. 

4. On the practical, one should always have the address of his destination in both English and Chinese *note* in a format that can be copy/pasted into google maps on his phone.

5. Schedule in some cushion time just in case someone gets sick or there’s a need to change the schedule – probably because someone got sick. 

Seriously, eat some raw garlic with that dish, take probiotics, and you’ll be fine. Just don’t bite into raw garlic alone because it’ll burn your face off and face is very important in China.

6. Don’t get upset about having to change the itinerary…because you didn’t eat raw garlic and got sick, for example, or because you were too slow to catch the bus. Just find a way to enjoy the place where you’re stuck.

7. Even if you have a travel buddy, it’s ok and probably more healthy to wander in different directions now and again even if it’s only for an afternoon. 

8. Try to avoid going to any tourist destination during a national holiday – including the entire summer holiday. Being teachers, we couldn’t really avoid this. But it is good advice for other people. For example, there are apparently far fewer people at Zhongjiajie in the winter though there might be more fog/smog.
 
9. Finally, the question you were really wondering about: how’d having only 1 pair of pants work out? (well, one of everything – we’re not crazy, seriously). Just fine actually – at least for 2 weeks. The only items we brought but didn’t use were the snacks and the camelbak, which brings on another point…

10. Do not bring snacks! A few emergency rations are acceptable but seriously: eat the local food! It’s delicious, you’ll love it and if you don’t, don’t worry, It just means there’s something wrong with you. 

11. But was it dangerous? No, not really. We never felt creeped out or in danger, though we also don’t go looking for trouble. I saw more sketchy things while living normal life in Jilin than while traveling. So go ahead, “have a try” at travel, as my students say.