People in China rude?! I thought Chinese were so hospitable, it was quite amazing.

For us, as I said, we had a unique experience as we were told just to buy a ticket to China and we'd worry about the rest when we got there. We reserved hotels in country which meant paying $10/night for hotels although we did 'kindly' get kicked out of one hotel. They told us that we could stay the night but basically when they found out we were Americans asked us to find a different hotel but it was in a polite way. People were very friendly overall though.

Sanitary wise... umm... I'll say our motto was that if we could do a Chinese bathroom, we could do anything :) There were some very clean ones but remember we were in some very non-touristy areas. Also squat toilets took a little getting used to but hotels generally had regular toilets.

I think that if you only deal with the people trying to sell you things you could quickly come away with a rude impression. It's actually sometimes quite overwhelming!

But the minute you step away from all the tourism, I found Chinese people to be VERY hospitable.

Yeah I remember climbing to the top of the Great Wall and being inundated by forceful merchants. It is just basically the idea that Americans are rich (compared to Chinese - we are) and that we throw money around (which again compared to Chinese - we do).

Other non-touristy areas, we were told many times we were 'honored guests'. The hospitality was quite overwhelming.

DH lived in a non-touristy part of China (Nantong? I think) for 6 months 12 years ago. I visited him for 2 weeks in July - we'd been married almost 3 years. My trip was pretty surreal. Since DH lived there, we weren't part of a tour group and he didn't speak Mandarin, so we traveled through China often having no idea what anyone was saying. In Beijing the father of a girl who worked for my dad in the U.S. arranged for us to use his driver. He also took us to dinner where we learned that in China, hospitality is such that they will overfeed you like you would not believe. He spoke no English and we spoke no Chinese and I've never gorged on such delicious food in my life, but we had no idea how to say "No thank you" without offending him. That being said, all the food was authentic, delicious, and very healthy, but by the time we got him to stop ordering food, I was almost sick. :o

Since DH was part of a group of engineers, so he knew some of the local restaurants, but as soon as we would get out of the touristy areas, we would have taxis following us with the drivers yelling out the windows that we were lost - we weren't, but couldn't tell them that. Also since he worked there, the Chinese company who hired them believed that they "owned" them and would try to force him to do things such as posing for brochures for a hotel with Russian prostitutes. Like I said, surreal!

Oh, and the driver in Beijing was actually a policeman (military maybe?) because the man who arranged for us to use his driver had been "re-educated" and was considered a threat. And he littered like you would not believe - a policeman! And babies there don't wear diapers; their clothes have a slit in the back and they do "it" on the sidewalk - don't know if that's still true, but it was then.

I loved the Great Wall - partly because we asked a person at the front desk of the hotel where we were staying if he could get us a taxi to take us to the Great Wall. Of course we had no idea what he said to the taxi driver, and we drove forever, and had started to wonder if he was going to kill us somewhere in the remote countryside. It ended up that he wasn't taking us to the Great Wall at Badaling (sp? again) where DH had been, but to a different part which was much less heavily visited and we were literally the only people there. It was very misty and mysterious feeling - just beautiful. There is also a temple in Beijing surrounded by a gorgeous park - not many Westerners were there and there was a wonderful walk around a lake. I have no idea where it was because our driver spoke no English.

The local people are wonderful and used to follow us around in Nantong in their cars to yell hello at us out the windows :) I am in numerous photos with complete strangers in China because they all wanted their picture taken with me. For all I know they're all captioned "the ugly American lady", but they were really nice people as far as I knew.

I visited Beijing, Shanghai, and Nantong (really not a tourist town!) and really loved the trip. I wish I could go back, if only to figure out what I saw!

Oh - and what everyone else said, carry your own toilet paper with you, the Western style restaurants are the only place you can find a decent restroom, and don't drink their tap water - you'll be able to find bottled water for sale pretty much anywhere, and if you order a drink, learn how to say "cold" because they may serve it warm. Oh, and the people there spit - a lot - on the floor in the airport, on the sidewalks, inside buildings and they like to eat chicken feet. These are things that shocked a stupid naive girl from Kansas. And as far as the vendors trying to sell you things, in Shanghai there is a gold market near Yu Yuan (sp yet again) gardens with beautiful 18k gold jewelry - the vendors there understand the English word "cheaper" and will haggle with you. Again, it was 12 years ago - it may not be there anymore.

Okay, I've rambled enough and probably haven't helped you at all. You'll have a great time though - have fun!

Yeah pushy peeps love tourists everywhere you go or so it seems, I guess they were offered to buy a watch like 100 times & they were persistent as **** about it & that was annoying. I told her next trip back, buy a fake rolex watch before you go & they will see you already have a watch! :). Ha ha.
Seriously BFD, I don't worry about those minor things like that...
So did you guys buy a watch? Ha ha ha



Ah ****, A trip is what you make it, things like that don't bother me too much, peeps making a living, sure beats dealing with telemarketers! ;)

kuchick,
They probably thought you were a celebrity! :). Hence all the pics.

Ewe spitting. :(

We tended to pick and choose where we bought things. I was more likely to buy from someone who wasn't pushy and try to buy something that was in some way authentic to China, like rosewood carved jewelry box from a local artist (DH got to tour his studio - the engineers in Nantong were toured around town a lot since they were the only Westerners in town, they toured a lot of schools too), or peasant painting directly from the artist. I would rather spend my money where it is more likely to help someone and not go directly to their government.

Something I found in China is that their government tries to put on a good facade for tourists. The tourist areas are clean and neat and well taken care of. If you get out of the tourist areas, there were piles of trash in the street and it was very obvious that the people there lived in poverty for the most part. Once you step out of the tourist areas, you get the feeling that you're not welcome there - not from the local people, but from the taxi that will follow you and try to get you to leave. The Chinese government tries put on a good front for tourists, but they still treat their own people horribly and human rights are mostly non-existent. The man who arranged our tour in Beijing sent both his daughters to the United States without telling them that their mother was dying, and didn't tell them she had died until she had been gone for more than a year because he was afraid they'd come back to China and not be allowed to leave again. He was "re-educated" for studying Western culture, and he was a very talented, educated man.

I hope the spitting is something they've stopped by now - think of the hygiene! I still have nightmares about the local flight from Beijing to Nantong - nobody spoke English, the plane had an engine malfunction, returning us to Beijing. We were stranded on the tarmac, the flight attendants were crying, there was a riot, and the military police took someone off the plane. When we finally got a new plane and started out again the guy sitting next to be took his socks off, put his feet on my seat, and started sucking on a chicken foot!

Oh, also, the people in China do not form lines. Whoever is pushiest goes first - probably comes from being such a crowded country.

Not only do they not form lines but if there are any street lines, those don't matter!! I couldn't imagine driving in China, it was insane. Not only that but if there are traffic circles, people in the circle yield to drivers coming in the circle. Basically people go full speed towards a traffic circle, no matter who is in it! And apparently they honk at people to let them know they are passing them.

Kinda creepy, but I googled the International Hotel in Nantong to see if there was a way to order the brochure, and I am in the background of the lobby picture on the website (it'a an American hotel booking site). It's a horrible picture and looks like it was scanned off a brochure, but I recognize the picture and can tell by what we're wearing that the couple at the lobby desk is me and DH. Thank goodness DH's supervisor got them to let us leave after that picture was taken or there'd still be pics of DH with prostitues floating around. I want to get a copy of the actual brochure though because DH's supervisor looked just like Bill Clinton, and he stayed for more brochure pics (I had figured out that the dancers were actually prostitutes, but the dense guys swore they weren't - they were propositioned later in the evening after we left) which means that there are pictures of a Bill Clinton look-alike with Russian prostitutes somewhere out there. ;)

Sorry to hijack the thread - I know it sounds like I had an awful time, but it was actually the wildest, crazy time I'd ever had, and I'd love to go back. Sort of a surreal feeling like Alice in Wonderland. I know you'll have a great time, and have a memorable trip.

And hoards of bicylists everywhere - the driving terrified me and I feared for the bicyclists, but we only saw one accident the whole time we were there!

kuchick -- How interesting you're on the brochure!!

I haven't been to China in 6 years; there was still a lot of spitting, but fewer bicycles. In Beijing there are so many cars on the road that the congestion is CRAZY. I think it might be quicker to bike!

no worries about hijacking I am lovin the interesting tid bits! :) Wow on a brochure, that is awesome! Celebrity status huh? Hmmm..... nasty on the taking off his socks on the plane, suppose it could have been worse him suckin on his own toes. :lol:
ha ha ha sorta like people eating pigs feet here???? :dizzy:

Note to self, do not drive or bicycle. Ok ladies, do I spit to the left or right or does it matter? :D And being my chest isn't that ample, I will have to break trail with my booty while waiting in line, got it girls! :lol:

Not so much celebrity status as being the only non-Asian people in a city with a hotel that calls itself "international". If you were non-Asian, then they wanted you. Only problem was that all the engineers were male, hence the dancing prostitutes.