"The World is a book and those who do not travel only read one page." St. Augustine
Travel in Asia is definitely a challenge. However, without a doubt, Asia holds a special charm that makes it a backpackers dream. Whether you are traveling to China for a week or for a year, you will experience a culture full of mystery, food and beauty. Having lived in China for about four months, I have put together a list of things I felt made my experience my own. If you have the chance to experience China, take a look at some of these! Maybe you can find some that will help you experience the smells, tastes, views and ideas that helped make China a trip of a lifetime.
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| One of my favorite pictures. Shanghai, China |
1. Feeling shear panic after buckling your seat belt on a Boeing 747 headed for Shanghai; 17 hours feels so daunting! And even if that doesn't scare you; you're going to China. China!
2. Staring at your first-ever China issued passport stamp for five minutes after you get through customs.
3. Waking up and jumping to your window for the first week to make sure China wasn't a dream.
4. Getting stoked at the opportunity of using chopsticks for the first time in the student cafeteria and looking around and making sure all the Asian students could see that an American could eat with two sticks.
5. Experiencing a true power blackout in a city of 9 million people.
6. Taking walks, both during the day and night, experiencing the things you would normally not see when traveling with a group or on the bus.
7. Renting a bike, taking it across the city and exploring around alley's and back streets where the locals are.
8. Knowing someone is taking a picture of you and awkwardly posing and smiling for the camera.
9. Eating and trying all food that is in front of you. Whether its tofu, duck tongue, chicken feet or cow intestines - you'll remember the things you don't like and have a story to tell when it's done.
10. Trying Stinky Tofu in each city you travel to and hoping it would be better as you went along.
11. Playing Bus Hop! Rules: Go to the bus station, take the first bus that comes to the station and ride it for a specific number of stops. Then, get off and explore the area and get back on the bus to another destination. You'll find places you never thought existed and learn more about what your city holds.
12. Along with this bus game, playing "bus surfing" on an empty bus - the bus driver might yell at you but you can't understand him anyway.
13. Exploring sky scrapers and malls - just walk in and ride the escalators. Many stores and people will surprise you.
14. Take the high speed train to a major city. It's the smoothest thing you'll ever encounter.
15. Siting in the front seat of a taxi and using hand gestures and what-sounds-like-Chinese sounds to get back to your campus. Playing charades with a taxi driver is way more fun than you think!
16. Speaking of charades, playing this game all throughout China is quite entertaining. You'll come up with very interesting ways to get where you need to go and what you need.
17. Try the street food! Yes, of course be careful with what and where you buy it from, but most of it is the best food you will ever eat in your life.
18. See the iconic Bund in Shanghai both in the day and night. The city is amazing and is one of my favorites that I visited while abroad.
19. Walk through as many fish, meat, vegetable, fruit, clothing, night, day and retail markets as possible. I learned and witnessed real Chinese culture by taking the time to watch the people, what they buy and what foreigners do while in such situations.
20. Experience the northern parts of China and visit Tiananmen Square, Art District 789, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden City and of course, the Great Wall, all located in Beijing.
2. Staring at your first-ever China issued passport stamp for five minutes after you get through customs.
3. Waking up and jumping to your window for the first week to make sure China wasn't a dream.
4. Getting stoked at the opportunity of using chopsticks for the first time in the student cafeteria and looking around and making sure all the Asian students could see that an American could eat with two sticks.
5. Experiencing a true power blackout in a city of 9 million people.
6. Taking walks, both during the day and night, experiencing the things you would normally not see when traveling with a group or on the bus.
7. Renting a bike, taking it across the city and exploring around alley's and back streets where the locals are.
8. Knowing someone is taking a picture of you and awkwardly posing and smiling for the camera.
9. Eating and trying all food that is in front of you. Whether its tofu, duck tongue, chicken feet or cow intestines - you'll remember the things you don't like and have a story to tell when it's done.
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| Kristin and I at a restaurant with our main course of,..well,.. |
11. Playing Bus Hop! Rules: Go to the bus station, take the first bus that comes to the station and ride it for a specific number of stops. Then, get off and explore the area and get back on the bus to another destination. You'll find places you never thought existed and learn more about what your city holds.
12. Along with this bus game, playing "bus surfing" on an empty bus - the bus driver might yell at you but you can't understand him anyway.
13. Exploring sky scrapers and malls - just walk in and ride the escalators. Many stores and people will surprise you.
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| Hangzhou Tower, Hangzhou, China |
15. Siting in the front seat of a taxi and using hand gestures and what-sounds-like-Chinese sounds to get back to your campus. Playing charades with a taxi driver is way more fun than you think!
16. Speaking of charades, playing this game all throughout China is quite entertaining. You'll come up with very interesting ways to get where you need to go and what you need.
17. Try the street food! Yes, of course be careful with what and where you buy it from, but most of it is the best food you will ever eat in your life.
18. See the iconic Bund in Shanghai both in the day and night. The city is amazing and is one of my favorites that I visited while abroad.
19. Walk through as many fish, meat, vegetable, fruit, clothing, night, day and retail markets as possible. I learned and witnessed real Chinese culture by taking the time to watch the people, what they buy and what foreigners do while in such situations.
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| Market in Xi'an. |
21. Take a sleeper train to a far off destination! Over 15 hours is best because you actually get to sleep on the train.
22. Hearing a Chinese man talk in his sleep while on one of those iconic sleeper trains.
23. Meeting and staying in contact with Chinese friends you meet while in a hostel.
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| Probably one of my favorite nights of my trip. American's together with Chinese, British and French friends |
25. Having to experience printing your own plane tickets at an automatic ticket dispenser in Xi'an and only to have one of your friends' ticket not register. Not only do you have to wait in line to talk to a teller, but you have to once again play charades. English isn't too prevalent in the far Western parts of China...
26. Being the only American on a bus, shuttle or train car that is full of Mandarin speaking Asians. Sometimes you get stared at long enough you feel as if you belong in a zoo.
27. Whatever religion you believe in, find as many places of interest as possible. You might be away from home but for me, I was always home at Mass...and it meant a lot to me.
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| Catholic Church in Beijing. |
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| My church in Hangzhou |
29. It's amazing how much you can see God while in an atheist country.
30. Traveling to the South of China and visiting the rice fields and terraces of Guilin. Not to mention the karsts are amazing. (Geology and Agriculture,..where could you go wrong?!)
31. Living in a traditional Mountain village while learning about rice and how it is produced. A perk is getting to eat the rice they produce - the best in the world!
32. Having to shut your eyes as your shuttle driver goes 45 mph around a cliff curve with a 100 foot drop on one side. It's all in the name of adventure, right?
33. Spending a night going to markets and night clubs in Yangshuo. ..yah.
34. Seeing this:
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| Li River in Tangshuo - best river boat ride ever |
36. Experiencing the nightlife of China. It's more crazy than one would think.
37. Loving China so much that you get upset about leaving even before you pack your suitcase. They say culture shock is the worst, well, I have come to a realization that re-entry shock is the worst.
38. Traveling China independently with some of your best friends.
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| Kristin, Ryan and me riding bikes on the Xi'an Ancient City Wall |
39. Spending a semester with strangers that became your family.
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| My classmates and our advisor, George |
40. Knowing that in order to truly appreciate what you experienced, you have to leave the places you love.
These are just some of the things that I experienced while in China. Now that I have been home for about a month, I have realized how lucky I was to have had this opportunity. The people I met, the scenes I saw and the culture I experienced helped me discover myself as an individual. I am forever in debt and I can't wait to return to China. ..My China.
"Travel has a way of stretching the mind. The stretch comes not from travel's immediate rewards, the inevitable myriad new sights, smells and sounds, but with experiencing firsthand how others do differently what we believed to be the right and only way." - Ralph Crawsaw
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