Zaijian, Zhongguo! (Goodbye, China!)

Well, this was my second trip to China, and I can definitively say that I appreciated it much more at the ripe old age of 25 than at 19.

It is hard to compare my two trips here, as I visited different places each time. Indeed, it would be like comparing apples and oranges (pardon the cliché!). One thing that is very noticeable is that China is no longer as cheap as it was when I last traveled here. Sure, accomodation and food are still very cheap, but I was shocked to see that train and bus ticket prices had literally doubled (even tripled) in price since 2000. This is due not only to the increased number of foreign tourists visiting China these days, but also to the growing middle-class in China that can afford to travel now. In fact, I was surprised to learn that most of the Chinese tourists I bumped into actually flew from city to city, something that was quite uncommon when I was last in China (airfare is twice as expensive as traveling by train, and in 2000, the only people I knew who could afford to travel via airplane were foreign tourists). The Chinese tourists, meanwhile, thought I was superweird for taking the train.

On a sour note, I also realized just how much the Chinese will try to rip off foreigners - vendors, taxi drivers, etc. Yes, if you are "white", the ripping off is sometimes just obscene and much more apparent. For example, I was bargaining with a vendor for a hat, and he claimed that he was giving it to me for a good price at 15 RMB. I asked what he would charge if I was white. "Nothing less than 40 RMB," he responded. Even at that point, I still knew I was being ripped off. You see, one is not exempt from the gouging simply because his/her skin is yellow, or even if one speaks fluent Chinese. There are so many regional dialects and accents in China that simply opening your mouth will give away whether you're a waidiren (outsider). Still, I can understand why they do it to a point. Obviously, the west is much more affluent, and the need to make a living is obviously important. Plus, there are very honest people out there (I was helped by many of them), so for them I am grateful. I just wish that the price gouging was a little more...civil?

By the way, I did buy the hat for 15 RMB. :)

As an older, more reflective (I hope?) traveler this time around, I also took more care to observe more around me. Nothing specific, perse, just what I've been doing throughout my travels, I suppose. And, given the loooonnnnng distances I've had to travel during this trip, I had a lot of time to reflect upon the things I've learned.

(1) We westerners are likely to be enraged by what we perceive as China's disrepect towards environment and history, what with their flooding villages to build huge hydroelectric dams and ripping down centuries-old buildings to make way for skyscrapers. However, the average Chinese is rather nonplussed by such occurrences. The typical train of thought is "Well, if it's newer, then it's better. And that's progress." Maybe it's that a people with 5,000 years of history can deal with loss/progress a little better than Americans with a history of just 230 years. Or...maybe it's something else? I'm not quite sure.

(2) Similar nonchalant Chinese attitudes apply to Tibet. When I asked Mr. Yang, the Tibetan who drove me to Yak Meadow, what he thought about the Tibet situation, he simply replied, "Well, Tibet is part of China. I mean, they conquered Tibet hundreds of years of ago, so all's fair, right? Isn't that what happened in the rest of the world?" He said that many/most Tibetans inside China (the ones from his community, anyway) probably feel the same, and noted that they do distinguish themselves from the "Free Tibet" Tibetans who live outside the country. Maybe we could argue brainwashing, but Mr. Yang answered so simply and sincerely that I would find it hard to disrespect his views.

(3) China's big cities are incredible - truly. It would be hard to find cleaner/wider streets, more orderly public transport, more impressive urban planning in any of the biggest cities in the world. However, I do see how it is window dressing for many of the problems in the country. You can very easily duck behind the side streets of the big cities to see how they are so not clean, and the disparity between life in the city and the country are heart-rendingly sad. In Yangshuo, I chatted with a lady from the countryside, Mrs. Zhang, who climbed all the way up Moon Hill (big tourist spot) with me just to be able to sell me a drink or some postcards. She seemed pleasant enough (plus, call me super Chinese, I can't stand to be rude to older people), so we chatted during the climb up. She said that she came to Moon Hill everyday just so that she could maybe sell something to a tourist. She didn't sell something everyday. I eventually bought some postcards from her for 10 RMB (US$1.25), the least I could do for her interesting insight and company.

(4) In two weeks, I have probably seen more of China - and the world - than the average Chinese will ever see. In Tengchong, I bought yogurt (aloe flavor! How you like them apples?!?) from a small dairy store near my hotel. Naturally, given the lactose intolerance suffered by most Chinese, the store was always empty, and so the cute little shopgirl, maybe 16 or so, and I got to chatting. During my second visit there, she asked if I was from Kunming, seeming really impressed that I was from the "big city" (by the way, she probably thought I was from Kunming because I didn't speak with the local accent, which was completely incomprehensible to me. Therefore, anyone who speaks with a somewhat "standard" accent must be from the big city!). When I said I was actually from America, her eyes got superwide. "You're really from America?" she said, "Wow!" She had never even been to Kunming before (12 hours away), so I could only imagine what she actually thought of meeting something from outside the country when she came from a place where seemingly no one visited. There are just moments when you feel very lucky for and humbled by your place in the world, and this was one of them.

(5) Although my Chinese is crap, I have had lots of fun chatting with local people. It is terribly fun, especially when they ask where I am from and I ask them to guess ("Korea?" "No? Not Korea? Are you sure you're not Korean?"). One of my favorite conversations was with one Mrs. Pei, a really sweet 40-ish lady from Sichuan, who will always remain near and dear to my heart because she thought I was 18! :) Anyhoo, her husband and she were on vacation in Lijiang, staying at the same hotel where I stayed. I had just arrived, while they were preparing to leave. I asked them for recommendations on what was fun to do in Lijiang. Her husband started raving on and on about some Xianggelila, the Chinese transliteration for "Shangri-La" (it took me a while to figure this out!), which most people believe is in Yunnan Province (Zhongdian, actually). I must have looked confused on why he was going on and on about Shangri-La, until Mrs. Pei interrupted.

Mrs. Pei: He's just kidding...he's just saying that everywhere around here is pretty nice, so you can probably see whatever you like. You know Shangri-La is just an imaginary place? It doesn't really exist. It's just that perfect someplace that is in your heart.

Me: So if it's that perfect someplace in your heart, then Shangri-La could be anywhere then? Every country and every place could have it's own Shangri-La?

Mrs. Pei: Well, yes! That's exactly right!

That said, I'm hoping that my travels to Myanmar (which I expect to last about 3 weeks) will bring some Shangri-La moments, too! The trip will also bring a temporary hiatus to blogging activity, given that most of the country is not online and, where it is online, the connections are slow and censored. Boo. I'll miss you, dear readers, but hope to come back with many tales and pictures of my Burmese days!