A Little Look Back

So, as I have been unable to update you since Shanghai, I've decided to do a little recap on that start of my travels by myself. After Peter and I climbed Yellow Mountain (sooo beautiful), I started my travels through the countryside beginning in Tunxi. I went to the villages of Honcun and Xidi and since getting there was going to be super confusing (cause I would have had to flag down a bus with the right characters and known when to get off) I ended up going in a Chinese tour group.
Every place that is beautiful and worth visiting in China will be inevitably bogged down with Chinese tour groups. Almost no one in China travels by themselves and I'm not sure why. So first off, I woke up sick from the food I ate the day before but had already paid for the tour so I took some meds and was on a bus at 8am heading to the villages. Fortunately for myself, since I don't understand mandarin, I was allowed to wander the towns and just meet up with the group for the bus rides and lunch.
Although almost no one in my group spoke English, we were able to exchange a few words and some of the guys in my group saved me a seat at lunch where I got to try some new food (like chicken's feet) even though I was still feeling pretty queasy. So after the second village, we all pile on the bus for what I believed to be the return journey back to my hostel. Oh was I ever wrong.
First off, and I have noticed this about many Chinese tour guides, that it is also their dream to be just general entertainers. So on our bus ride back we were seranaded in Chinese opera by our guide. So, the bus rolls up to this building and stops and I know we are not back in Tunxi. We get off and I realize we are at a tea factory for a tea tasting and a drawn out attempt to get us to buy tea. After this, I believed we were finally going back to the hostel (cause I was still pretty sick) but no, wrong again. We pull up to a silk factory where we get a whirlwind tour on the making of silk followed by a long presentation in their show room of their products, including a personal (and super awkward) silk fashion show. And of course, you could only exit the factory through their enormous store.
I seriously don't understand how the Chinese put up with this when they travel but it's what they all choose to do. My guess is that many families are just being able to afford to travel and don't really know how to so it's easiest to be in a group and have it all mapped out for them. It takes a lot more effort to do these things by yourself. As I have explained to my friends here, there is a certain level of confusion involved in all aspects of traveling and seeing China, and the amount of confusion is directly correlated to the amount of money you are willing to spend. So if you want to save money and take multiple country busses and figure out how to buy tickets somewhere random for some other place entirely, then you have to deal with large amounts of confusion which is what I usually do. However, the Chinese people are so friendly and will help you in whatever ways they can so I've found that these ventures usually (not always) end in success.
Also, Chinese travelers have what I would consider to be a traveling check list. They are told that there are certain things they must do and see and they do not veer from that itenerary. Like, it is recommended that you see the sunrise on yellow mountain and I am not kidding, every chinese person on that mountain was up at 4:30am for the sunrise even though it was a really cloudy day. They also could not imagine that Peter and I might not want to see the sunrise, so we were woken up for it rather we wanted to be or not. But they do not take the time to linger somewhere or have a nice cup of tea and look out at the scenary. It's a very different idea of travel.
The next several country villages were equally as confusing and I am not kidding when I say I was the ONLY foreigner in these places and there was zero english. Which resulted in me having to spend a little more money. I hired a Chinese motorbike driver to take me around to all of the villages and scenic spots, had to negotiate hotel arrangements in mandarin and have had busses drop me off literally in the middle of nowhere more times than I can count. I've had to flag down busses, ask where they are going, backtrack and try again. It's really confusing because I thought I was going to fairly well touristed places but apparently not, because all of these places were far removed from the bus stops and took much searching and embarrassment to find. It was pretty fun and challenging and I felt very satisfied when I managed to do these things by myself.
It's been great though because with each very frustrating situation I have met at least one very nice and helpful person so it was quite rewarding. So that's it for now. I'm off to Lantou Island in Hong Kong to see the largest outdoor bronze seated Buddha (because there are a lot of biggest Buddhas depending on the circumstance) and will meet up with my Aussie friends tonight for some dim sum. The good life. I'll try to update again soon!

KO