Hong Kong – Home

Alas, all good things must come to an end, and so it is with the trip to China.  We left the hotel for the airport with mixed emotions – sad that our vacation was over, but excited to get back home to see everyone.  The flight back to San Francisco was quite pleasant, and with the help of a little melatonin I managed to sleep most of the way in hopes of shocking the system back to a local time zone.  From San Francisco, Angela and I parted ways, with her heading back to Redmond, and me on a flight to Chicago for a few more days away.

As vacations go, it would be very hard to complain with any occasion that provided for three weeks in Asia, so from that perspective it was fantastic.  How did China compare to past trips?  That one is a little harder to answer, since the game plan was so much different.  Unlike past travels, China involved moving around a lot and day trips to different sights (like the Great Wall). So in that regard, we saw a lot more that we will take away great memories from than may have been the case in Thailand or Malaysia.  The flip side is that we were a lot busier, spent more time in planes trains and automobiles, and were on beaches nowhere as nice.  I don’t think that makes any one trip better than the other, just different.  Our only regret of this trip is that with the demonstrations, we didn’t get to see Tibet.

So what did we learn?  Well, a few things that we’re happy to share.

1. Nothing can prepare you for seeing the Great Wall and the Terracotta Army. Make the effort, it is well worth it.
2. China ten years ago would have been much different than it is today. Ten years from now it will be different again.  See it soon before it is just a polluted, hectic, Westernized shell of its former self.
3. Count your change before you get out of the cab
4. Unless you are in a fixed-price place like a department store, prices will start 3 or 4 times higher if you look like a tourist (which you will). Bargain relentlessly to get a price that you will be happy with and ignore that a local still probably only paid half of what you did.
5. Hire English-speaking guides when you have the option, it makes the places you will see much more interesting and it doesn’t cost that much.
6. Go west. The further west you go, the more of old China you will see.
7. If you plan on spending time at the beach, skip China. There are far nicer beaches in Asia.
8. Be prepared to eat things even though you’re not sure what they are.  Unless you stick to tourist restaurants, you’ll end up ordering by pointing at pictures of things you think you might recognize but really will have no idea about.
9. You will get ripped off. A lot.  If you know that going in, it will bother you far less when it happens.
10. Take time to explore. You need to see the famous sights like the Forbidden City and Summer Palace, but don’t miss the "road-less-traveled" experiences like walking through the Hutongs in Beijing, or visiting the  countryside in Yangshuo.