My Trip to China

I have recently got back from my trip to China and I am still trying to come to terms with all of it. It was/is such a culture shock, and it was totally amazing to say the very least. I am so thankful that I did the trip as it truly was an experience of a lifetime.

The contrasts of their life now and how it used to be, the big city, modern large very efficient airport dealing with hundreds of people all arriving at the same time. Brand new trains/old trains and the Beijing Railway Station is almost an airport in itself. Big city life and agriculture out in the country as if the wheel had only just been invented. Fields of corn right up to the roads, fields and fields of vegetables, some of which I did not even know. Corn being dried on the roadside and even on the roads, and which cars took care to avoid driving over. People going about their business in small markets. How there are so many people up and about so early in the mornings. (My regret is that I was not able to join in with the T'ai Chi as I was viewing from a train).

The number of cars, now in millions and hardly an old banger to be seen, on wonderful motorway roads. Hundreds and hundreds of people on bicycles, which all seemed to be on their last legs, and which were carefully padlocked when left. There would be people sitting at the rear, or a child held in front of them as they rode on the small roads. There were people walking everywhere, and the driving, well that can be a post in itself.

How so clean almost everything is. How big everything seems to be. How colourful everything is. It was very noticeable how very few small children were around, and of those I did see, they were very confident. It seemed very strange that there were hardly any dogs or cats to be seen. I was told that people were only recently allowed to walk their dogs, and only small dogs. On visiting families, where there are 4 houses in a walled enclosure, I was interested to see that they had very colourful and talking birds in cages, and small dogs playing around.