Final thoughts

I’ve never consistently read anyone’s blog (let alone write one) so not sure what the customary ending to one should be.  However, I’m a sucker for conclusions, morals and Hollywood feel good endings so here is my attempt at reflecting on this trip and what it meant to me personally.

I’ve been going through the entries and adding additional comments and pictures, not really changing the content but making it more readable and of course removing all the embarrassing spelling mistakes.  So if you are extra extra bored you can revisit the blog   Speaking of which, I was presently surprised to see how many visitors we had over the course of this trip.  The below snapshot shows the number of views per day (total trip =  1917).  Thank you everyone visiting, hopefully if you’ve not been to China before we’ve sparked your interest and imagination to visit.  As I’ll extrapolate below it was an absolutely amazing experience. 

visitors per day

Of course another heart warm shout out to my sister Dominika who had to upload pictures one by one!  And since she was so gracious in sharing that wonderful picture of me, I thought I return the favor and show you what she looks like in real life and not her heavily photoshoped face book pics…

real Dom, love u sis!

Which brings me to Mr. Konstantin. Way back in one of the first blogs when I introduced him I mentioned he is crazier then me, well its true! However, I could not ask for a better friend to travel with. He was up for every adventure and made more than his share of them! From running up the wall of China in 40 degree whether and high altitude to charming Chinese beauties in a conga line, there was no saying no! I’m glad that way back in the planning stages, where things were not looking “crystal clear” he just told me to plan it out, give him a total and he’d be in. Kos, glad u came and looking forward to Europe and South Africa! Oh and special thanks for the “hotel lobby incident,” I totally own you for that one.

Konstantin

So what happened there at the end of the trip and the lack of blogging? Most of it was due to exhaustion; in Hong Kong I’d wake up at 8am do the blogging, be out the door at 10am, do a bunch of sight seeing, back home at 8pm, go out until 5am, and loop the next day. By the time we got to Shanghi we’d wake up at noon, do few hours of sight seeing then go party till morning hours. Priorities changed as our bodies started shutting down. The intensity of what we were doing for 2 weeks on top of the sickness that bothered us (unsuccessfully!) through out, started settling in. That’s not to say that the last leg was not fun, in fact thanks to some amazing people we’ve met (hi Joyce!) we had a blast. The last day in China we both got about 2 hours of sleep, on the plane ride I slept for about 4 hours then Sunday because of the jet lag about 4 more. On Monday I was at work at 8am, by 4 the sickness that I thought was gone came back with a vengeance. However, there was no rest for me… The only reason I hesitated going on this trip was my Hockey teams playoffs were running at the same time and I was going to miss it. It’s the first season with these guys/gals and I just had a ton of fun, most of any sports I’ve played. Long story short they pushed through to the final championship game without me and this Monday, day after I came back the final game was on! So after throwing up twice before the game I was in there at 10:20pm… and we WON!

Division 8 Champions

Unfortunately, playing the game and going to work was probably not the smartest decision to make in regards to my health but the spirit of the trip did not leave me yet. I missed the following day at work and had 2 half days to follow it up. Only today do I feel close to 100% back.

Hence, I had time to reflect on this whole experience and write this final blog entry.

How do I feel about this trip?

The best way I’d describe it is that it set my soul on fire! Going into this trip I fully expected a mixed experience and wanted to set my mind into a state of acceptance, to concentrate on the pleasant not the unpleasant. Maybe I succeeded too well, or the Chinese re-education camp did its job (the real reason we stopped blogging at the end . Either way my preconceptions were totally blown away. Having lived around Asian people through out my life in North America really means nothing in comparison to going into a city of 14.5 million Chinese where you are a guest and an outsider. Similar to Peru trip, the switch of perspectives is very refreshing and educational. No longer do you feel as part of the society with a defined role in it, but now you are the outsider observing and interacting with no restrictions and in fact being encouraged to do so. Having been educated in Poland and Canada, my knowledge of Chinese culture and history is ridiculously thin. Marco Polo’s travels and the colonization of China (that was a tricky topic too) were as much as my history books reveled (oh and the fact that Chinese invented fireworks). Therefore being able to read about the history and then visit the sites next day was a very rewarding experience.

Beyond the historical parts of China, it’s main cities were also a twist on my expectations. I, like a lot of people, had the view that the Chinese people are a bit rude due to their close proximity to each other. How many of you have the perception of a busy street in Hong Kong where everyone is pushing through in rush hour? I expected to be constantly fighting Now, I do know that there was a massive re-education effort in China (especially Beijing) to eliminate some behaviors that westerners would consider rude, but we’ve ran into them all anyways. We were on totally pack subways in Hong Kong where people acted no different then people in Toronto Canada. We pushed through crowds in Xi’an getting back from the Big Goose Pagoda water show with no incident or anger. There was no rudeness, it’s the accepted patter of traffic for people and vehicles. One of the most amazing things (similar to Peru) is how traffic operates. Everyone is cutting everyone else off constantly but not in a dangerous way and NO ONE gets mad, ever! The traffic is more like flowing water where everyone accepts that the rules are loose. Organized chaos. In North America we get mad if someone changes lanes a car length in front of us without signaling. You don’t respect me and my vehicle, putting me in dangerous situation. Not so in China. It’s a shift of perception for sure, but one we got into in minutes and were having fun with (ie. trying to cross the street).

As an aside, one of the most rude experiences was displayed not by the Chinese but by the Slovakian Olympic team. While waiting in an hour long line at the great wall to toboggan down, a group of 5 Slovakian athletes stood in front of us. At one point a local man was cut off inadvertently by the group from his wife and child, naturally tried to get reunited. After doing so, the Slovakians in their language started blasting him and the Chinese on how rude they are and recanted their past experiences of being shoved and bumped, in a very crude language. Well not 10 minutes after that they started inviting and pushing through members of their team from the back of the line, with no regard to the people behind. Now what’s worse, a men trying to reach his family but unable to communicate it to foreigners or someone who on one hand insults a person behind their back for rudeness then turns around and like a hypocrite is even ruder to others? Perception and stereotyping can be tricky things, that’s why experiencing China in person is so special. At no point that I remember did Kosio or I get angry at anyone (other then street vendors) because of being pushed or cut off.

Before I get to the people of China, I wanted to mention that yes our experience was a bit filtered traveling through big cities and especially Beijing (0.5 million poor people moved out of the city, traffic on roads cut in half, behavior clean up). Probably the closest we’ve gotten to an authentic city was Xi’an, but that was actually the city we felt had the happiest people. Everyone had a smile and the traveler population was very very small. Especially fun was the Big Goose Pagoda water show where at 9pm kids and adults gathered in the hundreds around water fountains, splashing and having fun (daily event). Next time we visit, a more rural experience would be in order. I’ve heard other travelers talk about how rundown and poor the rural China is and although I didn’t get the other sides perspective, I can compare it with Peru and its drastic juxtaposition of wealth. I’ve read criticism since coming back about how China spends 7billion on health care and 16billion on education per year yet the Olympics cost them 40billion, put money where it belongs. Or how we should free Tibet. I’m in no way an expert on the political or economic topics of China, but I am weary of hippie activists looking for a cause. How much did the US spend on the Iraq war? Did you know that the Tibetans, not long ago, were a society where only the top cast of priests was considered human? Quite different then the image presented by the Dolly Lama when he photo opted with bishop Desmond Tutu in Seattle Did you know that the Tiananmen square protests were allowed for so long because there was an internal struggle in the government between moderates and extremists as to how to handle it and only after the extremists consolidated power did the massacre occur? I’m not going to defend the Chinese government, I actually think they are holding back their people and belong more in a Gorge Orwell 1984 setting, but I really despise blind activism and the shallow conversations in American media. Devil is in the details and solutions are not black and white.

So what about the people of China? Well each city gave us different impressions.
Hong Kong, busy and engaged in themselves. Hey it’s the most western city right!
Xi’an, the most engaging and happy of all our stops.
Beijing, really hard to tell because EVERYONE was into the Olympic spirit. The best I can summarize is that they were really proud of their accomplishment, talking about the athlete’s performances, the way the city changed to host the event, etc.
Shanghi, sad to say during the day people seemed a bit wretched, but the night life is where they came to life and were having fun.

However the details are where the richness lies. From conversations we had about Christianity in China to role of Olympics, these were the most reveling moments. Consider this conversation I had with a young woman at a club that approached me after first failed attempt at communication. At one point she explained to me why in Chinese culture, people will agree with you even though they don’t understand you. It’s because they have a strong concept of “face” and not understanding makes them look ignorant and loose “face.” A bit later she told me about how traditionally women are supposed to be shy and proper. To which I tried to answer that her approaching me shows the opposite, crass bravery. To which she replied, “No, I approached you because I have no face to loose.” This in turn lead to an amazingly reveling conversation about what women deal with in China, like being unwanted in a family that is allowed only one child and it’s hoping for a boy. Details…

One also has to mention the ton of tourists that we’ve met along the way. From all over the world these people all had a sense of adventure about them, from people traveling and teaching English, to couples taking a year off for world travel, single adventurers who spent last 2 weeks in Mongolia not exchanging a full sentence with anyone, groups of friends and lost souls. Conversations that are hard to find in our daily lives were unavoidable on this trip.

So why is my soul on fire? Maybe it’s the level of activity we sustained, maybe it’s the amazing places and people we encountered, maybe it’s the fresh unique experiences that knocked me out of my comfort zone. I really thought after a week I’d be able to reflect and answer that question, but to no avail. The blog brings you closer to the experiences I had and that’s the best I can do. We went in as tourist in charge of what we want to do and visit, but at the end of the trip China was dictating the terms and we were following in step listening to the rhythm and having fun. As Kosio put it, it’s a trip of a life time…

Zaijian, and hope you come out on the next adventure…

signing off! Filip.

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~ by filkill on August 24, 2008.