In Which I Share Some Thoughts (About China!)

So, I did promise a post where I would tell you what I thought of China. Here's my overall thought: I liked it. I was actually surprised to realize that. China has a terrible reputation (and don't get me wrong, some of it is definitely earned) but it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Most people were pretty welcoming and nice and did their best to help us out. I don't think they were as friendly as people in Korea, but not bad. The way I usually do this is in list format, and I think I'll do it the same way here. Off we go!

1. You know, I expected to feel the crushing power of communism or something. Maybe that's dumb. I really didn't. In fact, the only thing that may have indicated an increased level of government control was the security checks you had to go through to get into the subway. I don't really know if that's an indicator of government control, though, or just a desire for security. I don't even know if that's very abnormal. I've only been on the subway in three cities.

2. Scamming was actually more prevalent there than pretty much anywhere else I've ever been. However, I found that it was not as bad as our guidebook and the Internet made it sound. Sure, we ran into plenty of shady people, but they were much easier to avoid than I thought they would be, and I'm pretty sure we only got scammed like three times, and it wasn't that big of a deal.

3. They talk about the heart and soul of Beijing being its Hutong alleys. I wasn't impressed. They're alleys. Seriously. They're dark, narrow alleys and that generally have cars driving down them trying to kill you. I wasn't impressed.

4. Food is CHEAP! Seriously. I was way surprised by that. I'm not sure what I expected, but we could go out and drop well under a dollar and get a pretty good meal. At least in Xi'an. It was harder to get away with that in Beijing, but the food was still cheap there. We probably only threw down about 20 dollars for our really fancy meal there, and we had like three courses and got the duck. I mean, how much are you going to pay for duck in the US? I pretty much guarantee it will be more than 20 dollars.

5. I've noticed this in other places, but good public transportation is the shizzle. I would never buy a car if I lived in Beijing (not that I want to live there). Traffic is utterly ridiculous and people are crazy drivers. Turns out that the stereotype about Asians being bad drivers is, in fact, based in fact. It think it's more that they just drive differently here and when they go to the US where there are things like, you know, rules, they have trouble. Anyway, the subway in Beijing costs about 30 cents! So cheap! I would never use any other mode of transportation in the city.

6. The Great Wall: it really is as great as they make it out to be. I was really impressed by it. What I'm saying is, if you have a bucket list (I don't) and if the Great Wall is on your bucket list, it's a good thing to have on it, because it's seriously awesome.

7. Authentic Chinese food: Was it as good as Panda Express? Yes. Some of it was better. Some of it wasn't as good. Is Panda Express authentic? You know, I didn't try enough different kinds of food to really know for sure. At least they didn't have the annoying habit that the Japanese have of putting under cooked or uncooked eggs on or by things (once again, not cool, The Japanese). I wasn't disappointed with any of the food we had there, and the dumplings were AWESOME. I want more. I wish they made dumplings like that (and that cheap) in Korea.

I think that's all my thoughts for the moment. Really, it's hard to get an idea of what China as a whole is like, because it's almost as big as the US. It would be like visiting LA or New York and saying you know what the United States was like. Overall it was a great experience, though, and I recommend it.

 This is Captain Danger out.