Final Thoughts on Traveling in China

As my time in China has come to an end I have mixed feeling about leaving China. I am excited about moving on to a new country but I have really enjoyed my time in China and hope to return someday. Even though I have seen a lot of China I know there is still a lot I have not seen and I also would love to visit the wall again.

Before coming to China I had read a lot about the smoking and spitting annoying other travelers but neither of these have bugged me at all in China. I did find it funny when I would hear someone hacking like they where getting ready to spit out a lung or something and then turn around to see this noise coming from a lovely young girl. I think they have banned smoking on busses and trains so that has not been a problem even though the ban is not always followed. I have not been anywhere in China where the smoke is as bad as a Brown Café in Amsterdam.

There are some things that did bug me in China and they all seem to involve noise. I hate the smacking noises that so many of the Chinese make while eating. I don’t think the Chinese have the rule of chewing with their mouth closed. I also don’t like all the phone ring tones and MP3 players with no headphones. Also the Chinese seem to shout into their mobile phones so that everyone within a 100 meters can hear everything that is being said but the worst thing of all was the bus horns. All the busses and trucks seem to have these overpowering horns and since they use them about every 5 seconds I’m surprised anyone in China can hear at all. Maybe that is the reason for the shouting on the phone.

China is the first place I have ever traveled where the people seemed really happy to see someone from somewhere else and it made me feel special. I was thrilled to have pretty women coming up to me asking to have a picture taken with me. I talked to one person living in China about this and I think he summed it up best by saying that it is somewhat like being a rock star. I sort of also understand how the celebrities feel now. On a good day all this attention is really flattering and great but when you have a bad day you wish everyone would stare at someone else.

After all that all I can say is LOOK OUT Vietnam here I come.