10/14/2005

trip

I'm going to China in less than a month.

I am finally allowing myself to get excited about this.

And I'm also finally realizing that this means squat toilets, strange Asian meaty meals, odd smells, no common language [and I thought that buying ice cream cones in Paris was frustrating. And I speak French!], no blog for 10 days (ouch!), etc.

But hey, I'm not complaining. 'Cuz I'm going to China.

Woohoo!
:)
P.S. Dora's getting ready, too.
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Where in China are you going? Having lived there (though admittedly a long time ago), I would love to hear details about your trip.

10:03 AM
jana said...

I'm primarily going to Beijing and Shanghai (with a few side trips outside of these cities).

I'll be touring with a group of religious leaders from Orange County--part of the trip's focus will be to visit some Chinese religious sites and leaders. But there will also be sightseeing opportunities.

I need advice if you have any--this'll be my first trip to Asia and I'm sort of nervous and sort of clueless.

12:18 PM
Anonymous said...

It's been 14 years since I was in Shanghai and 19 years since I was in Taiwan, so I imagine things have changed a lot. Plus I lived there, rather than touring, which meant I had to deal with harassment and bureaucracy at the street level (which is one reason I left Shanghai six months before my teaching contract expired). Mostly, I'd say BE PREPARED FOR POLLUTION--Beijing is one of the most polluted cities on earth, and it gets worse in the winter. In other words, don't take ANYTHING white with you, and bring lots of kleenex--you'll need to blow your nose a lot. (I'm posting some stuff today on my blog about China's environmental problems.)

Hopefully this is better by now, but being in China used to involve interminable waiting. So be prepared to stand in very long lines and do nothing for good chunks of time--make sure you have lightweight reading material. Take old magazines you haven't had time to read, and if you find someone who has good English, give that person a magazine--it will make him/her grateful.

Be sure to have a gamma gobulin shot so you can eat at hole-in-the-wall restaurants, and be sure not to pass any opportunity to eat dumplings or noodles. And in Shanghai, eat seafood, because that's the basis of its cuisine.

And if you're trying to learn a few phrases, go with a cd or something instead of a book because tones are so important in actually managing to communicate in China--if the tones are wrong, you're just talking nonsense.

Have a great time! I can't wait to hear about it when you get back.

6:09 AM

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