Traveling to China with my brother Tony earlier this summer was great. And I had fun writing about what we did during our 12 days. However, there were lots of tidbits I didn’t include because they weren’t part of the day-to-day itinerary of the new and interesting sights and sounds. They were more a part of the daily experience – what was present perhaps at any time. Some of these little observations became so interesting that about four or five days into the trip I started typing up some “notes” in the “notepad” application on my iPhone. I honestly wish I had done this earlier because I would probably have more to add. Anyone considering traveling to China might find some of this information useful:
1. Almost no taxi drivers speak English. We resorted to having someone (usually at a hotel we were staying at) writing down directions in Chinese to wherever it was we were going. And we planned ahead and had them write the directions back to the hotel. This worked perfectly. When we were staying with our friend Gianni in Shanghai, he would usually already have left for work before we could have him do this for us, but on many occasions, we pointed to Chinese writing in our guide book which had both the English and Chinese writing for the landmark we wished to see. This also worked almost all of the time.
2. Most restaurants make you pay ahead of time. Right after you order, before they bring your food, they bring your bill. You pay it ahead of time. I’m not sure if it is because we were foreign, perhaps, but we saw them do this to lots of people. Also, we were with our friend Sam when he signed a one-year lease for an apartment in Beijing and they made him pay for it all ahead of time too. I guess they don’t like putting things on credit here. Who knows, maybe that’s a good thing to pay before you get to have something.
3. There’s no tipping in China! There really isn’t, however, on a few occasions, we did leave tips – mostly at the more “Americanized” hotels we stayed at. But we almost never tipped at a restaurant or for a cab (other than if there was very small change).
5. The number “4” is bad luck. (See what I did there?) There was one instance we were on an elevator and noticed there was no number “4” – a woman who was with us told us the number 4 is bad luck in China. A few moments later, she pointed out – there’s also no floor 14 – because it has a 4 in it. So, this is kind of what some people do here with the number 13. Superstitions…
6. Most public toilets don’t have seats…and many don’t have toilet paper! This was disturbing. We actually didn’t discover this phenomenon until about half way through our trip, as we often didn’t have to take a dump in a public bathroom during those first days and when we did there were regular toilets. But as the trip went on, especially when you’re out at tourist sites or using a bathroom at a fast food restaurant, the stalls to take a “#2” were just holes in the ground that require you to squat. And if you want toilet paper, you need to bring your own. After one frantic day of trying to find a place to unload, we started bringing toilet paper in a backpack. Thankfully I don’t think we ever had to use it. But there were some close calls especially as my stomach started adjusting to the local food. Finding a “seat” became a running joke. Crazy enough, we found some stalls at the Beijing airport that had pictures of a seat and a hole — as if people are going to choose the hole?
7. People cut you in line and shove to get on subways. There were a number of times we would be waiting in a ticket line at a tourist site. Often the lines were not even that long, but some Chinese people would just go around us and cut. I was confused the first few times this happened. I wondered if we were doing something wrong? I mean they all seemed so nice, they surely wouldn’t be rude like that. But no, they absolutely were. We then cut them back. On subways, we also noticed a lot of cutting and shoving to get by when there didn’t even seem any reason to. This was a bit disturbing, but after a few days, we started to assimilate.
8. Spitting is out of control. Everywhere we were in China, there was lots of spitting. Not at us, just random spitting. We would be walking down the street and you would just hear someone (very loudly) hock a loogie. Again, after a few days of observation, we started flinching when we heard the sound, knowing some nasty spit was going to be coming out of someone’s mouth and we wanted to make sure we weren’t in the way.
9. The worst driving ever. We took taxis quite a bit to get around SHanghai and Beijing and we did private car services from Yangshuo to Guilin as well as from Beijing to the Great Wall and back. FOr the most part, our drivers would good (but aggressive). On one night in Shanghai, one particular taxi we were in shook me a bit. He was just running red lights like they weren’t even there. Sure, it was late at night, but there was no reason for that. And it’s not like you can tell them to slow down. I asked my friend Gianni to tell the guy in Chinese that we were not in a hurry. On many other occasions when we were just walking around, we would notice some crazy drivers. Pedestrians clearly do not have the right of way. Or if they do, no one cares. I thought that for a place with such an authoritarian government, it’s amazing that no one seems to care about the laws of the road. I grew up in South Florida and know there are crazy drivers. A few years back I went to Puerto Rico and I thought they made South Florida drivers look good. Now the drivers in China take the cake for worst driving ever.
10. Foreign businesses need a Chinese partner. As we looked all around Beijing and Shanghai and many areas of China we were in, you see so many foreign (read: American and other Western) businesses. We expected McDonalds and Starbucks. I had heard there were a lot of KFC’s (a ton!) but we didn’t expect to see so many Dairy Queens! And I even saw a few Cold Stones! Go to the malls and you will see everything from Apple to all sorts of clothing brands. It would be like walking into any American mall – except the prices for those Western brands are really expensive in China. Our friend Sam is working for Jack Nicklaus (the golfer). When we inquired how that kind of business works, we were told that every foreign business needs a Chinese partner. So, they had to set up a “Jack Nicklaus China” – a separate company owned by Chinese people who share in the profits. These Chinese: they are smart.
I could probably go on here, but I’ll stop. 10 tidbits is enough. And don’t say anything about that number I skipped!