Traveling in China - Day 12 and 13 - Going Home

Picture from the train ride home

By this point we were all pretty anxious to go home and do laundry. The trip was fun but there is something nice to being in a familiar bed (and being somewhere with a space heater).


We were ready to embark on another 26 hour journey back home to Zhengzhou. Not too much was different from the train ride down to Nanning.

This time me and Jerry had the bottom bunks, so we were able to sit whenever we wanted. This also meant that people would sit on me (literally; and not just once) when I was sleeping. The bathrooms were not quite as nice on the way back. The working squatter (a hole to the outside world) was usually occupied, because the other squatter was full of... uh... squattage. We didn't have a snoring man keeping us up at night this time fortunately. Unfortunately, the snoring man was replaced with a crying baby. The baby kept me and Jerry up most of the night. There was one point where the baby walked right into our compartment and just looked at us and cried. Every once in a while the baby would cough, then stop crying. Once he realized he stopped crying though he would start up again. No parents to be found. Sometimes not all Asian babies are cute.

To pass the time, we played games. We started with Scrabble. We got to a point where Jerry only had consonants and I only had vowels. After Loida got her second 7-letter word with a heapload of points we decided there was no way we could quadruple our scores to catch up with her. So we switched to Boggle where the playing ground was more fair. We all one an equal number of games. Equal the first few games that is. After that, Loida won about 20 games in a row. We played till it was late at night and my phone battery died. In the morning, I put in my backup battery and we played the rest of the trip until we got to Zhengzhou. Loida continued to dominate. Jerry won once. I pretended to win once.

Eventually we got back to Zhengzhou. Home sweet home. Zhengzhou looked very pale and grey after having come from southern China. Kind of sad to see, but happy to be back home.

If you are thinking about going on a trip to China...


So I realize that people who are reading this are either my family, or people who might actually be interested in going to China. For those of you who are thinking of going, let me give you a few thoughts:

Locations and weather
There are many different and beautiful places in China. I have seen very few. It should be noted though that most places you go to in China are going to have a lot of pollution. The pollution sometimes is not as thick which is why you will often see very beautiful pictures of China. I would have to say that in my experience, you will see more pollution days than not. Anywhere you go in China you should not set your expectations high for being free from pollution.

Southern China was very beautiful. We went in the middle of the winter and even though we were very far south, it was still quite cold. I wore two jackets every day. I didn't get warm until I was in the train coming back and they cranked up the heat.

Dealing with the Chinese Language
Me and Jerry both speak enough Chinese to get by and for half our trip, we were with a Chinese person to help us. Even then, a lot of things were difficult to figure out. It is not so much that our Chinese was so bad but more due to the fact that things in China tend to be very unorganized and crazy due to the heavy population. If you don't speak any Chinese, you will probably have a very difficult time. You should plan on traveling with someone who does. People in China do not speak English. Those who do generally do not speak it incredibly well either. Traveling in China will be nothing like your backpacking trip in Europe. Modern technology such as smart phones helps. I often show people the Chinese characters if they cannot understand what I am saying. If you do plan on coming to China to travel, I suggest you learn basic pronunciation and also learn numbers. Going in an organized travel group is a great idea to reduce stress on yourself. This is almost definitely the way to go if your Chinese is not very good.

Traveling
Traveling is very cheap. You won't have to worry about public transportation in China. Traveling is also very crowded. If you take a bus in the city, you can expect to stand. If you take a train, you can expect to get pushed around as you are trying to board. If you are waiting in line for anything, then you are not in China. China does not have lines. It has masses of people pushing to get inside a single door. If you don't follow the masses, you will not get in, or you will be the last one in.

Lodging
We only stayed in the cheap hotels. This is fine for us because we like cheap things and didn't require anything nice. If you want a hotel that has walls that are not stained in dirt, or want a toilet you can sit down on, you probably should not stay in a hotel like we did. We were never in a hotel that cost more than ¥100 ($16) so I can't really tell you more than that.

Food
I was really excited for the food on this trip. I have been told that the food in southern China is fantastic. I was disappointed. I can't speak for the rest of China, but I can say that Guangxi had a lot of seafood (that I don't like) and rice noodles (which I also didn't care for). Again; I only go for the cheap and I am sure if you spend some money and time you will find something amazing. One thing I can say for sure though is that food in China is cheap.

Money
OK. Here it is. I have been curious to know how much a trip like this really cost. I added all my expenses in a spreadsheet and here are the results for a 10-12 day trip in China:

Travel - ¥896 ($143) - This includes all train, bus, taxi and tricycle rides.
Hotels - ¥258 ($41) - This number is much lower than I would have expected. When I was going to college, it cost me usually more than $300/month. Cheap hotels in China would cost about $175 for a month. That is incredibly cheap. Keep in mind though this number is dependent on the size of your traveling group and if you are willing to stay in the cheapest hotels or not.
Tourist Spots - ¥90 ($15) - We only went to two. If you do a normal China tour you can probably expect to pay more for places you visit. As it was for us, we payed mostly for train and bus tickets.
Food - ¥480 ($77) - This almost certainly is an overestimation. I did not keep a record of all the food I ate, but I just multiplied ¥40 by 12 days. Most days I spent ¥20 or less on food.

12 day Total - ¥1724 ($274)

Most people planning on going to China would have to throw in a plane ticket price to that though (but perhaps less on the train ticket price). $274 is not too bad. Just a bit more than the bike I bought here. All in all, I found my traveling experience here in China to be very fun. If you can handle unique food, pollution, crowds and the Chinese language, chances are you would also enjoy a trip in China.