Impressions of China from a first time visitor

[NewJeffCT]

I've yet to get too off the beaten path yet, having yesterday finished a whirlwind tour of Beijing, Suzhou, Hangzhou & Shanghai. I'm now in Nanjing visiting in-laws.

But, a lot is just the opposite of the US - the wealthy areas are the sparkling inner cities with new skyscrapers galore. Outside the city, you often get run-down tenement style buildings that look like they should be abandoned & razed... but, they have people living there. Greath wealth surrounded by abject poverty.

Restaurants are often HUGE places with easily 100+ large sized tables, sometimes over several floors. We ate tonight at a place that was at least 5 stories tall and was lined with hallways filled with small private dining areas that could accommodate 10-12 people. I'm guessing it was an old hotel that was converted and now all the old guest rooms are these private dining areas.

In the major cities, the street signs are in English & Chinese. Most common "American" things I've seen have been KFC, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Haagan Dazs & Starbucks. I've even seen Subway. All the English/Chinese signs describing points of interest in the Forbidden City are brought to you by American Express.

Driving or cycling can be a harrowing experience... several times, I could swear our bus was just about to run down bicyclists, but it did not. People seem to weave in & out of lanes whenever they need to without regards to pedestrians or cyclists.

The people seem friendly & helpful, if a bit quiet. I get quite a few stares being a "lao wai" (foreigner) with a Chinese wife. I didn't notice it at first until my wife pointed it out. I've dated a lot of non-white women previously (not just Asian) and have noticed people looking, but it's defintely more pronounced here. No comments or anything yet, just looks.

Definitely not very diverse here - I see very few people of color. I'm guessing 4 or 5 total. White people are not rare, but also not common.

And, China is not friendly to the handicapped - I had to have two airport security guys help me carry our luggage cart with baby down a flight of stairs when the one elevator in that area of the terminal was out of order (my wife was reporting our then missing gate checked stroller). A lot of the great sites in the country are similar - I'm fairly healthy and was nervous climbing the Great Wall, and my wife looked at the tram they had pretty dubiously. I can't imagine what somebody in a wheelchair would do. There are a few other places that you can only access by climbing stairs.

If you're a fanatic about being sanitary and plan to stay at less than 5 star hotels, I'd recommend purchasing some bleach to disinfect the floors of your shower stalls.

But, it's been a very positive experience overall - I've seen a lot of history and gotten a feel for another culture and a country on the rise. Reading about the Great Wall or the Forbidden City is one thing, but seeing the amount of work that went into both is just amazing. Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to make it to Xi'an or to Shaolin Si, or to Hong Kong... but, I'll be back.

[drumwolf]

1. How Westernized are the cities?

Do they pretty much look like America except with an entirely Asian population (like Tokyo, and so I hear, Seoul)? Or were there still plenty of signs that you're not in a Western country?

And did you get any sense of a thriving youth culture and music scene there? For example, I actually hear that techno/electronica is popular among a number of Chinese.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. Uh, I'm in Tokyo right now, and most of it does NOT look like America

unless your part of America is a maze of tiny narrow streets with shops on the first floor and ferroconcrete apartments with balconies and roof gardens, and detached houses behind concrete walls, and neighborhoods criss-crossed with commuter trains and subway lines and bicycles parked everywhere, with temples and shrines thrown in for good measure.

If your whole notion of Tokyo is based on the Ginza and Roppongi, then you might be forgiven for thinking that it's "just like America," but there's a vast metropolitan area as large as or larger than metropolitan Los Angeles that looks like nothing you'd see in America.

I wish I had a digital camera with me so that I could show you the view from my 11th floor hotel room, which is in Otsuka, one of the non-touristy (and therefore inexpensive) parts of town.

Tokyo is definitely MODERN, but that's NOT the same as "American."

[NewJeffCT]

3. shanghai is a lot different than Beijing

Except for the omni-present bicycles, downtown Shanghai is fairly similar to Manhattan. However, Beijing has a lot more of those pagoda style buildings with the sweeping roofs.

Both Nanjing & Shanghai have a lot of night clubs, but I have not have had a chance to get out to any yet - the tour was very hectic and I was meeting some of my in-laws for the first time last night. My sister-in-law is going to take me to a club where they play 'foreign' music some time.

[L.A.dweller]

4. I don't know if you speak Chinese or not

but I want to know if it is easy to get around with out knowing the language.

Do the people speak English there?

[NewJeffCT]

5. I don't, but my wife was born here

My wife was born here and I've been with her for 98% of my time here... I speak a little Chinese, but not much. But, I don't think it's that hard to get around in the major cities, though I've been told to avoid cabs if I'm alone, as I'd likely get the roundabout 15 minute route instead of the straight 5 minute route if I got into a cab alone. Most of the major hotels have staff that speak at least some English, and you can get buses just about anywhere in the cities, though some don't have A/C. Just be prepared for stares at the Lao Wai (foreigner) if you get off the beaten path.

If I was off the beaten path, I'd imagine it could be hard if I was by myself