Final thoughts about China

I hope I will not offend but here is where I will be quite blunt. Before you read this, you may want to go and read the other China blog/posts first :0)

We truly loved our trip to China. The things that we saw and the experience that it gave to ourselves and our children is second to none. We enjoyed our tour guide, had good food, and were able to experience another culture. I am grateful and feel blessed to have the opportunity to travel as much as we have been able to while on this assignment.

That being said, many have asked, would I go back? It would be a tough decision :). Overall, things went great and we had a great time....here are a few of my dislikes, though.

China is very different from Japan. I didn't realize how much until we went there. Like in Japan we often get looks but we felt scrutinized by every pair of eyes. Also, people were more forward and aggressive as in the sales lady example. They were pushy in lines and when walking through tourist attractions,...even when I had Tanner in my arms. We learned to quickly deal with it but it was certainly different. But, Bryce deals more with packed trains and crowded stations than I do in Japan.

The pollution is much worse than we thought. I have never experienced anything like it. Both Tanner and Brynn started with runny noses and coughs when we got there and it cleared up as soon as we got to Japan. I had a hard time breathing deeply, as well.

The traffic is busy day and night. Any time we went anywhere, we were always told it was the "busy time". It could have been 8am, 11am, 3:30pm or 9:30pm...it didn't matter and it was always crazy.

Chinese are a vocal people. This is not necessarily their fault. With that many people in a small area, you have to speak loud. For me, I felt that the Chinese language is not one that flows easily which I think contributes to the decibal level.

Public bathrooms are disgusting in China. Brynn had to go once and walked into the stall and turned right back around gagged and said she would hold it. Most did not have toilet paper. I learned to carry it around in our bag and pockets. If it had toilet paper, it was almost guaranteed to not have soap or paper towels. We chose our potty breaks carefully and always hoped for the best.

Foreigners are not treated the same as Chinese in the airports. Now granted, I realize that I was a visitor and I don't expect privileges but it would be nice to be treated civilly. But, they made us go into a separate gate from the Chinese passengers. It was also the first time I have ever had the metal detector go off in my entire life. Supposedly it was because of my bra clasp but both Bryce and I ended up getting patted down. Then, we waited with the rest of the foreigners separated from the rest of the airport....translation--no food. It was 6:30 in the morning when we had to get to the airport so we didn't get breakfast. We assumed we could get it in the airport but no such luck because there was a big glass wall separating us from the rest of the food court. I felt like a lion in a zoo that is placed next to the zebra exhibit...cruel:0) Not only that but when it came time to board the plane, they had us go out a gate and load onto a bus. The bus then drove us to the other side of the airport. Next, we got out of the bus and walked on to the plane. When we got on the plane, we found that the Chinese passengers had already been loaded onto the plane at a different gate.

Something that I learned from this experience is that Japan is OK in my book :0) I don't know that I have ever left the US or any of our other travels and looked forward to going back to Japan. I did this time. I have come to appreciate Japan and the Japanese people more and find myself thinking good things more often. The Japanese people will go out of their way to help you even when truthfully, it should be me making the greater effort to speak their language (when in Rome, you know). In China, it was not that way. If they didn't understand you or if you didn't understand them, they would just repeat the same thing, louder.

While China was beautiful, the beauty in Japan year round is unbelievable. We came home to fall colors and clear skies. We are enjoying it here and feel blessed, that is for sure!