9 Flights, about 2000km by road and boat, and a few more by walk. I have to admit that this trip in China was wonderful:

1. 05/22 Beijing
2. 05/24 Da Tong
3. 05/24 Taiyuan
4. 05/25 Xi’an
5. 05/26 Chengdu
6. 05/27 Jiuzhaigou
7. 05/28 Kunming
8. 05/30 Yangshou
9. 05/31 Guilin

I will do my best to detail every destinations in future posts. But before going forward, few things to know before visiting China:

• Toilets are just awful.

• In most of the places, hygiene does not exist.

• Most of people there don’t have the manners we are understanding. Don’t be shocked if someone blurbs, farts, throat scratches, pushes you, skip the line (walkers and drivers), is peeing outside, is showing his big-pregnant belly (for guys of course) or shouts loud.

• You have to bargain everything as you are foreigner, from the souvenirs to the taxi, tours and hotels. Usually not the buses and the food. The taxi drivers may give you a price to go in town from the airport. This figure can be interesting (as the money will fall directly in his pocket, then lower fare than with the meter). Better is to ask the airport staff for the average price and then compare.

• If you look Asian, it means you are Chinese. So don’t pretend you’re not fluent Cantonese/Mandarin, you can’t cheat them! even if you are Japanese :/

• If you are foreigner, you still should know how to speak Chinese. Nobody speak/read neither English, German, French, Korean nor Japanese. So don’t forget to print every names/addresses in Chinese characters.

• Service does exist (hotel, airport, restaurant) only if you pay a lot. Backpackers will enjoy there trip. And as the lack of service, you will be often ignored or in between a Chinese conversation. The only solution is to stop them, look upset, and let them know that you don’t have time to waste.
• Flights are most of the time delayed (regulation, weather, etc… nobody really knows). Always count +30min to 1h delay.

• Oil used for cooking is not new. That’s where this taste comes from

• Don’t drink local bottle of water. Prefer buying the 20yuan small French Evian (!) or the 3yuan coca cola can.

• Entrance fees are not cheap at all, because tourist = money. For most of the spots we went, we paid 120RMB per person. Beijing was the cheapest place with 20 to 60RMB ticket.

I’m still a bit surprised that a so called great and powerful country could be at that level of civilization. Especially with its history and treasures. Just facts.

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