China. The good, the bad.

We spent a full week in China, with 1.4 billion other folks. China is a place with an amazing history - I'm not much of a history fan, but even I was fascinated by some of the things that have happened here. 

After a week, I'm hardly an expert. Not by a long shot. I do have some impressions though. This is a country with a lot of potential, but some huge problems. First, it has a shitty government. A bunch of paranoid military bastards that need to leave so that the people can determine their own fate. Their environment is just as shitty. Maybe shittier. It's horrible. The air and the water are so foul that you really could not pay me enough to live there. No amount of money.

All things Google, like this blog, are banned, but you can get them on your mobile device (they can't be that dumb, can they?). Facebook? Banned, but not on mobile device. Paranoid bastards. And the week I'm there the Chinese apparently hacked into Anthem's database back home and stole the privacy info for 70 million Americans, including me. No, I'm not a big fan of these folks.

There is a lot to like as well. The countryside is beautiful, some (not all) of the people are really nice, and the food is great. If someone paid my way I would go back in second if I didn't have to spend all my time in one of their overcrowded and foul cities.  If I had to spend my own money? Not a chance. The non-touristy parts of the Great Wall are really worth visiting, and many of our shipmates loved some of the other attractions and rural areas.

Hong Kong was beautiful at night.

Absolutely loved the food.

The Great Wall, especially the parts away from the tourist areas, were spectacular. We hiked 15 miles and saw no tourists. Easily the highlight of my visit.

Some of the people were so friendly. This was our guide, and one of my favorite parts of the trip was listening to her talk about growing up in China as a woman. The stories were terrible actually, but she was amazing. Growing up as a girl in China is a tough life, but used to be much, much worse.

One of the older parts of the wall, overgrown with vegetation. The sections we hiked were 1200 and 500 years old. There are parts near Beijing that are super crowded and that were redone in 2005 for the Olympics. Glad we missed that part.

The beer was surprisingly good.

Shanghai is a weird, dirty big city with aggressive mean people. But it has one of the most amazing skylines in the world, especially at night. Looks foggy but that's smog.

The Bad!

The air and water pollution are just horrible. Hard to even describe. The government will do anything to grow the economy, including let the country poison itself. The public bathrooms are the filthiest places I've seen anywhere on planet Earth. Everyone we talked to wants to see the environment improve even if it costs more, but the government is in bed with the rich who only care about development. Sounds a bit like what is going on back in the US actually. I think we should make every person who believes we should lower our US air and water quality standards live here for just a month or two, then report back...

Old Chinese men, in general, are a bunch of freaking pigs. They treat women terribly. Do not hold doors, make women walk behind them, take seats from them on the subway. Spit everywhere (it's supposed to be a sign of being healthy, but it's just plain disgusting. No wonder Singapore banned them from doing it). The young guys are much better though.

Many people are downright mean. We had several of our students poisoned at bars intentionally (happens every year, and we warn them, but they don't always listen), both guys and girls. I had a guy trying to use his kid to distract me so he could pull my wallet, but just stared him down so that he knew I was on to him. Piece of shit.

The smoking is horrendous. 70% of adult Chinese males smoke, and mostly US products. They smoke everywhere, and have few manners.

It's not a country made for anyone over 5'5". I hit my head on everything imaginable.

Their history is more horrid than most. The worst story we heard is about the poor concubines. In addition to the horrible physical pain most Chinese woman had to endure, the concubines who did not provide the emperor a child were tossed alive into his grave when he passed so that they could bear him a child in his afterlife. The families (men) of the concubines were given a higher status after however. Being a woman is really hard in some everywhere, but some places are much worse. This is one of the worse.

Bottom line - I'm glad to have had the opportunity to visit, but it's probably one and done for me. Go to Japan and Vietnam instead!

Tough place to be tall

Hard to see across the river in Shanghai, and this is an average air quality day.

The Forbidden City is cool to look at, but with such a weird and awful history it's hard to look at this and get a good feeling. The women were treated bad, and so were the men. Look up "Eunuchs" and see if you want to sign up for the job.