So with a heavy heart and fond farewell, we bid goodbye to the People's Republic of China, flying out of Hong Kong on the 10th November. Or maybe we left 4 days earlier on the 7th of November, depending on how you view Hong Kong's level of independence from the PRC.
We almost didn't make it out at all, having had another dodgy moment at the check in counter where our booking did not show up. This time the mistake was ours, somehow we'd managed to get our dates mixed and should have flown the day before...doh!!! Fortunately Quantas were able to fix this for a painful-but-could-have-been-much-much-worse charge.
We both agreed that China's been an amazing experience, a dizzying kaleidescope of people, food & flavours and jaw dropping scenery. One of the biggest reveleations was the realisation that China is just not one nation of Han chinese, but a mix of many sub-cultures and ethnic groups, Xi'an had its Muslim Chinese and there was a strong Tibetan influence in parts of Sichuan and Yunnan. The diversity was certainly in evidence as I struggled to understand various local accents and dialects as we moved from province to province.
China remains one of the great untapped destinations for western travellers...it has so much going for it, delicious and varied cuisine, thousands of years of culture and history and some of the most unique and epic scenery imaginable. Best of all, even with China's growing economy, its still ridiculously affordable to live and travel out there. If it were not for one significant catch, I'd be urging everyone I know to get out there right now and experience China's wonders.
The catch is, of course, the language barrier. There are very few English speakers in China and unlike SE Asia, the tourism industry in China does not depend on foreign visitors as the chinese middle classes largely holiday within their own country. I grew up in a mandarin speaking household, which was about as usful as a chocolate teapot in the UK, where the BBC's are all cantonese speakers, it was therefore an extremely gratifying experience to have finally been able to make use of the language to unlock the treasure box that is China.
Things may change in the future, as the younger generation of classroom-educated Chinese take over maybe the proportion of English speakers shall increase, but so will the prices. So if you already know or have half a mind to learn mandarin, I'd urge you to get over there and experience China while its still relatively cheap and unvisited.
No comments:
Post a Comment