China Chronicles: Closing Statements

My best attempt at offering a picture that alludes contemplation of China while in China.

     Alas, in an attempt to make the blog current, I will make an even more feeble attempt to close the books on China by offering some closing thoughts.  Throughout this post I may or may not clutter and disrupt fluid reading with random pictures of China to keep/gain the interest of the reader(s).

      In order to justify some of my/our (Kelly's) opinions of China, I must first admit assumptions of China prior to our visit.  China is one of the bigger countries in this world and therefore holds a lot of mystery and beauty (i.e., rich history, beautiful landscape and interesting people).  China is like America in the sense that the country is so big and there are vastly differing landscapes and scenery which directly affect those who live in those areas.  People who live in the woods of the Pacific Northwest are different than those of the swamps of Georgia.  The same goes with China. Those who live in the Himalayas (i.e., Tibet) are different than those of the Southeast (i.e., Hong Kong).  In China, however, these differences are considered more extreme.  For example, the booming cities of Bejing, Shanghai and Hong Kong might make the ignorant traveller believe that China is a booming economy that can't be stopped.  However, 200-500 miles inland, China is considered a third world country comparable to Nigeria or Ethiopia where 500 million Chinese do not have access to clean drinking water.

     I/we have also always been raised on fear and/or resentment towards China.  We as Americans are aware of the fact that most of the things we possess are "Made in China" and we have built up resentment for that.  China, to the average American, is considered cheap.  

     The scare of communism has also been beaten into the lives of every American, especially the Christian American.  Not only is Communism, from America's standpoint, the worst form of government everywhere, it also outlawed religions.  When Mao was in power he outlawed all religion and inacted a state religion.  Religions such as Christianity were outlawed and things got nasty over there (note: this is not current China).

     So, with all of these things considered, the scare of Communism (our first experience in a Communist nation) and the violent history of China, our defenses were naturally up.  We have been to a few different Asian countries this past year, Korea the obvious, and we noticed some big differences between Korean and Chinese cultures.  

     Another factor, and this was a large factor, the Chinese language was uncomfortable.  The writing and characters are beautiful but the spoken language is ugly.  Not to say that Korean is much prettier, but when the Chinese speak, it is a much more violent, erradic, staccato and to the foreigner or tourist, comes across as angry.  Plus, the Chinese are more prone to wear their emotions on their sleeves and speak louder, getting into more confrontations (we've been in enough subways to make this generalization with relative accuracy.).   

     We also could not trust the Chinese as much.  For the select few who have been able to stay in Korea and experience the true culture, you know that it is a very trusting culture.  In China, however, people CONSTANTLY try to rip you off.  It was a place where you had to be on guard.  We didn't like that feeling of mistrust all the time (note that we realize there are nice Chinamen out there, and we certainly met some, but for the average stranger trying to push some product on us or give us a "deal", we had our guard up).

With that being said, we loved being in China.  China possesses beautiful landscape...

Beijing

Hong Kong

Fascinating old history....

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Great Wall, Beijing

Temple of Heaven, Beijing

Forbidden City, Beijing

And amazing cities....

Shanghai

Shanghai

Hong Kong

Hong Kong

While there is always more to see in China, we are glad to have seen what we have seen and can, with confidence, close the books on China.  If  we get the opportunity to go someday, we will gladly go. But we have now officially marked China and many of its wonders off of our bucket list.  We now have other destinations to fulfill...TIL THEN!