My First Trip To China
jimkahl
July 31, 2008, 04:57 PM posted in General DiscussionI just got back from my first trip to China and decided to share my experiences with everyone at CPod. This will be kind of long so bear with me.
I spent 5 days in Shanghai, but most of it was spent working and did not have time to visit the CPod office. I made it a point to tell my boss that next time I am there I get at least one day vacation to do just that. I did have time to visit Nanjing Road and the Bund in the evening and must admit that it was very impressive to see everything lit up, and I got some really good pictures.
I spent 3 and a half weeks in Wuxi. The area that I was in was more of a residential/commercial area. Even though I was staying in an "International" hotel, the locals were not used to having many tourists walking the streets, through the local park, and into their shops and restaurants. The most common word I heard was "Hello". The next two most common words, more or less behind my back were laowai and waiguoren. One kind of funny experience I had was when I was walking through the nearby park on a Saturday morning. I saw two young boys roller blading in the park. One of them saw me and started shouting "waiguoren". They skated up to me and handed me a breath freshener sample. One of the boys said "Hello" in almost perfect English, I couldn't resist and replied "xiaopengyou, nihao". As soon as I said that they both started skating towards their mothers and one of them shouted "waiguoren shuo zhongwen, waiguoren shuo zhongwen". Anyway I thought it was cute.
I must have had at least a couple dozen people come up to me to ask me where I was from, some in English and some in Chinese, but I always responded in Chinese.
One night I was sitting outside the hotel and had a lovely young lady introduce herself to me. She said she wanted to practice her English and she was kind enough to correct some of my Chinglish mistakes. The next night while I was waiting for her, a young man introduced himself to me. He was kind enough to offer to take us both to dinner the following night and then invited me to his home for dinner a couple of nights. His mother and inlaws were very nice and were very curious about life in America. I tried to be as respectful as possible and at the end of the evening I told his mother that the meal was delicious and that I was very full. She told me that my Chinese was very good. Whether she was being honest or just being polite I don't know, but it was an experience that I will remember always.
I did get a chance to visit Tai Hu for a few hours and got some really good pictures on the Fairy Islands.
All in all, the people of Wuxi were very courteous and made me feel very welcome. I felt safe walking the streets at night by myself in a town of over 3 million. I certainly would not say that about most other towns in the world of the same size. I can't wait for my next trip, which should be sometime in the next couple months.
jimkahl
August 06, 2008, 10:13 PMI have some of the pictures posted at the link above and am slowly adding captions to some of them. So please feel free to comment on them or ask me about any of them
jimkahl
August 04, 2008, 10:54 PMI will try to get them up soon
xiaohu
August 05, 2008, 04:00 AMJimkahl,
I find that Chinesepeople are the most real in the world. Now I know that goes against what some believe, but in my experience the great majority of Chinese people are very 实实在在 (Shi Shi Zai Zai).
Chinese People are also some of the most hospitable, they absolutely go out of their way to make you feel welcome in their home.
Did you find this to be true when you were there?
jimkahl
August 05, 2008, 04:27 AMxiaohu, yes, actually I not only felt that way, but I also saw it firsthand. When I was invited to the gentleman's home for dinner, I walked in the front door, greeted his mother and In-laws as respectfully as possibly and began removing my shoes. Immediately, I was met with hails of 不用 (bu yong) The man and his mother both insisted that it was unnecessary for me to take my shoes off in their home. I can only assume that they had heard somewhere that Americans don't take their shoes off when they enter someone's home and were trying to make me feel as welcome as possible in theirs.
His mother cooked a rather fine meal, with more than enough to go around. What I did find rather odd initially was that he and I sat at the table alone and ate by ourselves. I asked him in English if his family was going to join us. At first he just said no. Later I asked him about it and he said that I was the first 老外 (laowai) to ever enter their home and his family considered it an honor that I accepted their invitation and that they wanted to make sure that I got enough to eat. It really was an experience of a life time and I will always remember how friendly and hospitable his family was. If I were in any other country in the world, I doubt that I would have accepted the invitation, but I am so thankful that I did. He and I became fast friends and we email each other on a regular basis.
I also ran into many people on the streets and in the local parks that came up to me to talk, some would simply ask where I was from (some in English, some in Chinese) while I sat and talked to others for an hour or more. One night I sat and talked to three young boys (age somewhere between 18-24) and between the three of them they kept offering me Nanjing cigarettes, while I do not normally smoke, I was more than happy to accept them and had a rather nice evening talking to these young men about life in America and they did teach me a little about some of the customs in China that may normally go untouched by many books and even web sites such as CPod.
It was a great experience and I can not wait to go back.
jimkahl
August 02, 2008, 03:57 AMurbandweller, I will try to get some of the pictures posted to a website soon and will post a link to them... Yes it was a GREAT first experience and I can hardly wait until my next visit... I can actually see myself living there in the not to distant future.
John
August 05, 2008, 06:26 AMJim,
Thanks for sharing. A trip to China should be on every CPod user's to-do list, and I think it becomes a milestone in one's journey to master the language.
Please do let us know in advance when you'll be visiting next time. We'll try to make sure that the right people are here in the office to say hello.
I'd also be interested in hearing what topics the young men talked about that we never touch. Were these topics... risqué? :)
xiaohu
August 05, 2008, 06:39 AMjimkahl,
I'm at a decently advanced level, or at least Upper Intermediate, and so if you ever need any help or have questions, you can always e-mail me.
Don't forget to post up pictures of your trip!
Xiao Hu
jimkahl
August 05, 2008, 11:03 PMHere is a link to some of the pictures that I took while I was visited the different locations
jimkahl
August 05, 2008, 11:25 PMJohn, thanks for the information and I will be sure to let you know before I come. And surprisingly enough, there was only one conversation that I had that would be considered close to risque. Some of the younger men suggested that I was overweight (I am) and also suggested a way to lose that weight, but that was as far as that went.
xiaohu, thanks I really appreciate the offer. This is precisely why I love CPod, it is people like yourself reaching out to help the less knowledgeable (that would be me) that makes CPod an even greater tool and community. If I have the need I will definitely contact you.
light487
August 05, 2008, 06:05 AMSee.. in Australia if someone were to strike up a conversation in the middle of the street and invite me back for dinnger, I'd immediately be suspicious and wary, and I would most likely decline the offer.
I don't know how I am going to react when I eventually travel to China and get these types of offerings.. I only hope that I can humble myself and be trusting of people without leaving myself open to the scams that I have also heard about in the bigger cities.
urbandweller
July 31, 2008, 07:16 PMHey Jimkahl
sounds like a great first experience...can you share some of your pics with us??