Our Big Explore: China conclusion

Conclusion after our first month (in the land of the small yellow people):

We packed to much stuff.
We didn’t forget anything.
We have been lucky with the weather (sunny between 25-30 degrees almost every day, around 3 hours of rain in total).
We’re under our budget, used aprox. 11500 kr. (monthly budget is 14000 kr.), and this is even the most expensive country in Asia, that we’re gonna visit.

About China and our discoverys so far:

You have to apply to get a licence plate for your car, this happens through a random lottery that they do once every month. If you’re lucky you get it within a few days, if you’re unlucky you can wait for several months, before you can get your car on the road.

In 2008, when Beijing held the Olympic games, the goverment wanted to teach, chinese people the keep-in-line culture, because it dosen’t excist here. So they made the 11^th every month, a keep-in-line day. We haven’t discovered that it works, and really don’t believe, that one day in a month is enough to teach chinese people this.

Chinese people have really low hygiene, close to none.

The way they handle food, would never happen in Denmark (people would be put in jail, if they treaded food like that).

Only very few wash their hands after toilet visits.

They cough without, holding a hand in front of their mouth.

Many men, have longer finger nails than women, and some have only one, VERY long finger nail, the reason for these long nails (told to us by two different chinese people), is so that they can get their noses and ears picked easily… And they do this everywhere.

In 5 weeks, we have seen less than 10 chinese people brush their teeth (in trains & several hostels) no wonder half of them are missing 80 % of their teeth…

Ambulances dosen’t usually have the sirene turned on, only the blue/red lights. Cars, motorbikes, trucks etc. isn’t gonna pull over “just” because somebody needs to go to the hospital, they don’t care, they have their own lifes to worry about. So maybe you can imagine, how they treat animals!?

Chinese people eat noodles constantly, it dosen’t matter if it’s breakfast, lunch or dinner.

They eat noisily, and with their mouths open all the time – which is driving me (E) totally insane!

Chinese kids are adorable.

Kids from the lover and middle class familys, dosen’t wear diapers, they just wear pants with holes in the back, so that they can pee/shit everywhere.

The chinese people speak, approximately 5 times higher than european people, and this is also a part of their culture, so they aren’t aware of it themselves – even 11 pm (on the phone), in the train, when everybody is gone to bed, and the light has been switched off for more than an hour ago…

The chinese people are the worst at english, below you can see some of the signs, that we came across...

It’s okay :

to drive a scooter or motorbike with 5 people on it, without helmets
if you bring your kid(s), also without helmet(s)
to drive on the sidewalk
to spit everywhere, even inside restaurants, trains etc.
to drive/walk into a traffic light even though it’s red
to throw your trash on the street
to cut your nails everywhere, trains, supermarkets, restaurants etc.

It’s NOT okay:

to go outside your home in Shanghai wearing pyjamas
to put your chop sticks into the rice, and leave them there

What we miss the most:

1. Cold danish cow milk

2. Dark bread with liverpate, and redbeds (rugbrød med stryhns og rødbeder.

3. Family and friends – remember even though YOU think, nothing new is happing around you, we still would like to hear, some life signs from you - it could be just a quick message on our blog, or maybe a skype call.

The chinese money: