...missives from China.

Hello Friends and Family,

I am copying and pasting an email I received from the fair Auria. She is currently travelling with my little brother, Darren, in China for 6 months. She wanted to write her own travel blog about their adventures but she is having trouble accessing it - those darn chinese censors!

Anyways, until she figures out another solution, I am going to re-post her emails on my blog so everyone can keep up with their travels.

Read on!


In Hangzhou‏
From:
Auria Wickham (auriawickham@msn.com)
Sent:
May 4, 2010 11:17:57 AM


So, looks like those updates I promised might be harder to manage than I thought. Not sure if it's the Chinese filter or just a connection problem, but I can't seem to log onto Blogger or onto Facebook... but I can e-mail so this may have to suffice. Also, please forward this to any family I missed (Ting and Ayla).

So we made it to Hangzhou safe and sound, for the most part. Darren and I were glad to leave Hong Kong. While it's an amazing city, it's also very busy, and I think we were both seeking a little bit of quiet. What I did love about Hong Kong and what I'm beginning to appreciate more every moment, is how easy it was to be independant in that city. I told Darren that I was happy we started in HK because the remnants of British colonialism really made that place a hybrid of Western and Chinese culture... I was so wrong. It wasn't so much a hybrid as just Western. In HK, everything is in English, and at least one person at most larger businesses spoke English. At the smaller venders, they at least knew enough to make a sale. Signs are in English, directions are in English... it wasn't so much China as it really was/is Western. Needless to say, Darren and I now feel like we really are in another country.

My first point of mention is how loud people are in Mainland China. As soon as we got on the plane we noticed it. Not just talking loud, which they do, but yawning loud, grunting loud, hawking up flem loudly, and chewing loudly! Oh the chewing! It is going to be a true test of my patience to sit in a Chinese restaurant I think. There is no sound in the world that annoys me more!

The second thing we noticed were the "hawkers". My guidebook mentioned that people would come up to us in the airport and offer taxi rides. According to my guidebook, these are "black cabs" (essentially black market taxis) and should not be solicited. Well... there were so many of these people running around the airport, at least one for every one or two travellers.

The next thing we noticed was the lack of English on signs. The airport had a few, but as we ventured further to the exits, the English translations began to deplete. We were looking for the airport shuttle, which we found a sign for, but the ticket counter was certainly absent of English. The lady selling the tickets didn't seem to speak any English either. We basically attempted to tell her what we wanted, and bought two tickets, to where, we weren't really sure. Then we proceeded to get onto a bus, which we weren't even sure was the right bus. We tried to ask the lady taking the tickets but she just spoke Mandarin and then giggled at the inability of anyone to understand eachother. We then got off the bus, not knowing for sure if it was the right stop, and had to ask a hotel concierge to help us find our Hostel/Hotel. She had to find someone else to help write the address in characters for a cab driver, who knew which street to drive to, but not where the Hotel/Hostel was. Once we did find our hotel, our reservation was no where to be found.

People here however, are kind and helpful. Not only did the hotel concierge help us find our hotel (which obviously wasn't her's), but one of the guests at our hotel saw our Canadian badges as we were talking to the front desk, and offered to act as a translator and help us sort out our missing reservation. Needless to say, Mainland China certainly feels very foreign. Communication is going to be a huge issue, but we are prepared to stare, and be stared at, mindlessly.

So, possibly for the next month or so, this will have to do for "blogging". Tanya or Ting, maybe we can work something out so one of you can copy and paste posts for me? We'll see if I can eventually access the Blogger website.

For now, Vinni, please let mom know I made it to Hangzhou and that Darren and I are fine. I will try to call you guys in a few days possibly. Everyone else, hope you're well and I'll try, one way or another, to keep you guys up to date!

Love Darren and Auria

"LIFE HAPPENS"