Backpacking through China

Tijd voor een nieuwe bril?
Originally uploaded by Petra Bos.

Backpacking in Australia… no worries, mate! Backpacking in China… a little bit more difficult. But also more adventurous!

The first hazard is the language problem. Most Chinese people speak no more English then ‘Hello’. But communicating with hand signs is also a good and funny experience!

Buying a train ticket is an adventure in its own. If you find somebody who speaks English and explain where you want to go, they almost always say: ‘That’s not possible. You’re too late, you’re too early, trains don’t run, tickets are sold out… it’s not possible.’ At that time you decide to go to train station and find out for yourself. And there you are… in this giant ticket hall. You can barely hear yourself talking because of the noise the Chinese make. The only thing you see are Chinese characters on the signs and long lines in front of every desk. When you’re standing there, clearly lost, all of a sudden an old man comes up to you and asks in English whether he can help you. You tell him where you want to go and he says… ‘it’s not possible, you’re to late’…
In the mean time a crowd has gathered around you and everybody is staring at you. You feel like you’re a monkey in the zoo. Poor monkey! You feel even more lost and you give the old man a said look. He asks a second opinion from a security guard. He gives you the same answer. But you won’t give up that easy. You pressure the old man a little bit more and he decides to go to one of the ticket desks with you. Maybe they make exceptions for foreigners…
You are at the desk and let the old man do the talking for you. Two minutes later you have the tickets you wanted… no problem! You thank the old man and walk out of the train station feeling like you’re at the top of the world. But then you have to explain the taxi driver where you want to go next….

Money is a second hazard. This is the land of cash money! No ATM’s, no bankcards, no cheques or credit cards… credit cards, what’s that?
We’re in a 3 million citizen city. We’re going to the airport. The airport is an hour drive out of the city. We pay the taxi-driver, cash of course, and walk into this hypermodern new airport. We want to buy a ticket out of here. We’re not picky, it doesn’t really matter to what destination, we have a couple of options. It’s still early and we’ve got the entire day. This should be easy. Inside the departure terminal we see a big booking office. We walk up there and ask for a ticket to one of our destinations. The lady behind the desk doesn’t speak English. We ask her for an English speaking colleague. It turns out that none of the booking office staff speaks English. An English speaking passenger decides to help us. He asks for our tickets. A ticket for today is not possible. The passenger suggest we ask for a second opinion. So this is what we do. At another booking office, again nobody speaks English, and again, a passenger helps us. A ticket for tonight is no problem. But you have to pay cash, no credit card, no bankcard (not even my dad’s Chinese bankcard) and no foreign currencies. We don’t have enough cash to pay for the ticket, so we ask for an ATM. No cash machine at this airport. Around the airport? Maybe near the hotels? No ATM’s. So, where is the closest one? In the villages or suburbs around the airport? No, the nearest one is in the city centre. We ask again for a second opinion and we get the same answer. The only option we have now is to go back into a taxi for one hour and get money from an ATM in the city centre. It’s a scenic road back to town, but we had not planned to see it twice.

But backpacking through China is not only trouble. People are friendly. And when you look lost, somebody always comes up to you and tries to help you. It may take some time, but indeed, someone will try to help. Even cars may stop to help you.
It’s all part of the adventure! And I didn’t even tell you about ordering your food in a restaurant….