China Honeymoon Overview

China is this beautiful country. It was so much more beautiful than I imagined. Some things surprised me in a good way and some things I was taken back by. First off the people of China are nice and try very hard to communicate with you the best they know how. However Chinese standards and manors and American standards and manors are the EXACT opposite. Chinese tourists are very frustrating people to deal with. (I am not alone in this theory…Expedia.com did a survey. Chinese tourists were found to be the worst tourists. Just behind them were Indian tourists and French tourists. Japanese tourists were found to be the best, and I absolutely agree with that. American’s was in the middle.) There is so much poverty in the country; I feel that makes their standards lower than our standards. Like the cleanliness of the hotel rooms, indoor plumbing, smells that you can’t get away from. A 2 star hotel looks like a palace compared to what they live in. So many of them have no running water in their homes. They have to use a community toilet that the neighborhood shares and a local watering station to get water. It was very difficult to see. So you remember your mom saying to you…”You have to eat all your food, there is starving children in China” or something like that. I finally got what the moms were saying. The people there are very desperate to sell you ANYTHING! They will pull out all the stops to have you buy what they are selling. They are pretty persuasive as well. The country is DESPARATE to have a better life. Their government controls/suppresses so much of their lives…they tell you how many children you can have and what job you are going to do. Made me feel for them.

Their manors are just non existent compared to ours. They hack up luggies and spit them EVERYWHERE! All day long…all you can hear is them snorting up and spiting them out. Even inside of buildings. They also do snot rockets. It is so disgusting on so many levels. They also have no concept of what “lines” do. They crowed entrances and cash registers. We will be in a single file line to buy tickets or get food and they cut right in front of you. At first, I thought they were doing it to “us”, but then realized that they do it to everyone. It is so chaotic and unorganized. Ryan and I were so sick of people early on. MILLIONS of people everywhere. We were going to a “small” city and I asked our tour guide how many people? And he said, “7 million.” WOW, holy people. Another thing that disgusted me on every level was that I seen several toddlers and infants with no pants on. They let them wonder around, pooping and peeing on everything. Inside of busses, on the streets, subways. Just horrific. I know you can’t afford diapers, but come on! Cloth diapers are WAY better than nothing. It was so gross and very disturbing.

They are so much advanced in their recycle programs though. This surprised me. I thought I would see trash everywhere, but I didn’t. And if there was trash, it would be picked up in the night by a cleaning crew. Another thing that surprised me was they had automatic sinks everywhere. Even at gross truck stops.

Overall, Ryan and I had a once and a lifetime experience and adventure. We did so many things and learned so much. It gave us a better understanding of people and we appreciate the people in our lives and all the material things we are blessed with. Especially with indoor, working plumbing!