My Holiday in China
Tags : property, business, travel, technology, nightlife, events, food, food
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jdey
Newbie
Joined: July 12, 2005
Posts: 2
Status: Offline
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 Posted:
Sep 14, 2005 - 06:49 PM |
 
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| Post subject: My Holiday in China |
Background
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I'm a 36 year old Briton with a Chinese wife
Where did I go
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Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Dalian, Jilin, Changbai mountains
Good things about China
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Price and quality of services and certain goods e.g. clothes, spectacles, dentists, hairdressers (includes massage!), medicines
You get treated like a lord there
Taxi drivers are honest
Easy to see a doctor
Good food (some of very exotic nature) and huge quantities of it.
Big Mac meal cheapest in the world
The Cake shop by People's Square, Shanghai
The Fitness centre in the Grand Hyatt
Hospitable people
Shanghai museum
KTV bars - hotel-like rooms where groups of friends sing karaoke and order drinks via "room service". Very different from how karaoke is done in England.
Hangzhou Tea museum
Polar aquarium at Dalian
Dalian Coastline
Humble Administrator's Garden in Suzhou
Overnight sleeper train from Dalian to Jilin was comfortable
Town Centre in Suzhou
Changbai mountains - Fabulous Volcano with lake in it, impressive waterfall and lovely surrounding forests. Definitely a highlight of China.
Range of shops in Shanghai
Rice Wine
Disappointing things about China
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Shanghai - Especially avoid the Food Street which is full of beggars
Hangzhou. The West Lake was pretty much obscured by mist/smog when I visited. Overhyped.
Lack of cultural things to see. 5000 years of history is sadly well hidden.
State of the toilets is generally bad. Squatting down over a hole type of toilets
Range of restaurants is pretty much limited to Chinese, Korean, Japanese, KFC, McDonalds, Pizza Hut.
Hospitals make me glad about the NHS!
Beggars in Shanghai
Filth, untidyness, spitting, pollution
Rice Porridge
Lotus roots
Milk - UHT type with a sickly sweet taste.
Overcrowding, noise, can't escape people.
Cars having priority over pedestrians (even at pedestrian crossings)
Dodgy driving
Red wine - Californian, Chilean, French, Australian, South African aren't normally served. The Chinese Red Wine is to be avoided.
Poor hygiene. I had 2 doses of "Chairman Mao's revenge" and my wife one during our fortnight trip.
Things to know
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You'll need to speak Mandarin to get around China easily and cost-effectively. English is limited, surprisingly even amongst the young, educated Chinese.
Conclusion
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Despite the hype, China has a long way to go to reach Western living standards, but there are plenty of highlights to enable one to have a good holiday. |
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selahbr8.com
Barker
Joined: Sep 03, 2005
Posts: 171
Location: LuJaiZui, Pudong Shanghai
Status: Offline
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Sep 14, 2005 - 07:59 PM |
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Thought there are some great points here.
Having come from Australia, with a young family (2 boys 1 x 4 yrs & 1 x2yrs) the whole taxi driving is still a concern at times,
The pedestrian crossings are something that still needs to be educated on.
The beggars I beleive are no where near as bad as say even a couple of years ago.
I think any country that is developing faster than anything else on this planet, there has to be comprimises.
The hype is a great aspect, it is the hype that is making the country improve in so many areas. The more hype, the more areas that the Shanghai government has to get things addressed. Anybody will say that come 2008, shanghai will no doubt have a lot of these issue resolved..... superficially anyway.  |
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