Arrival in China!

We've been talking about it for so long, setting it as the goal of our wanderings in South-East Asia...

We've been slowly getting closer of the Big Dragon, smelling its breath upon the neighbouring countries, looking from a distance at this huge and somehow scary country.

On june 4th, we finally dared to cross the border and enter what will be our 'Empire of discoveries' for the next 8months.

How do we feel about the country?

Well, for the moment, all we can see is the huge differences bewteen the countries we've travelled before, especially Laos and Cambodia, and China...

A few example?

We are in Kunming, provincial capital...with 4millions inhabitants, this is more than Laos+Cambodia!

There is shopping centers with all sorts of fastfood everywhere...whereas there wasn't even a supermarket, much less a Mcdonald in Laos and Cambodia!

We can feel everywhere the demographic pressure and the consumerism of this 'ex communist' country...

In China, for a 3 courses delicious meal, you wait for 3mn maximum...in Laos, for a cheese sandwhich, it can take up to 1/2h!!

Yes! Chinese people are fast and efficient!

But for the moment, they have been quite nice to us too!

Obviously, this is not like in Indonesia, where people would shout Hello Mister every step of the way, or even like Laos when we were getting regular "hellos" in the street...here this is impossible to say hello to everybody in the street!!!

But we do feel that they are looking at us, in curiosity, of course, as there is not so many white faces around...But we can tell they also watch out for us...try to help us, illiterates, to find our way, use the computer or order on the menu!

We actually went one step further in the communication difficulties. In Thailand, Laos Cambodia, with their colonial past and touristic present, there is always "subtitles" to important stuffs...plus people DO realise that we don't speak their langage!

But here NO, everything a part from the names of some high end hotels and companies is in Chinese caracters...and the people are convinced that if you're in China, you are fluent in Mandarin (and in their local dialect as well) so they speak to you full speed...and when you ask for another go...they go louder but no slower....

You know what? Chinese behave just like american do for that matter!! What do you think John and Sue???

Anyway, we are really glad to have registered for a 6 months mandarin course, in Chengdu. This will help us so much to understand what China and Chinese are about...

We do feel a lot of willingness from the people to communicate with us, show us some styff, explain, etc...so we are convinced that when we can understand what they are saying, we will learn a lot!!!

In the mean time, our days fill with discoveries, wonders (in the sens of we wonder what the heck is this for?), learning (can you believe even their sign langage is different from ours...how is this for communication difficulties?)...

Newspaper is hung up on satnds in the street, so that people can read!

Free propaganda for all!

There is so much I would like to tell you about...but I have 9 months to do so...just a little patience!

All the best from the "city of the eternal spring"

tell me about propaganda; it's been raining like a month of november in London!!!

05:52 - 13/06/2007 - Ajouter un commentaire