My written impressions. I told you that I will try to keep it as short as I can to not bore you. I hope this is ok:
Climate/ Pollution
- the temperature were 30-40 C
- the humidity is high
- in some periods it rained a lot
- even if there is a sunny day you will not be able to see the blue sky. I think because of the polution. The combination between polution and humidity made me cough after the
second week there and it got worst and worst. It past only after comming back to Romania
The people:
- I love them! They are nice and sociable.
- The first thing that I noticed was the way they were just staring at us. Like you could not see them. It was funny. After a while I started to salute the persons that did that
and they laughed embarrassed.
- they asked us for a lot of pictures, especially in Beijing and at the Great Wall. I think that for many of them it was the first time they saw caucasians
- they are very friendly, but you can also see some lack of manners. I think that the balkanik mentality was made in China even if many of them don`t accept tips
- for them the driving rules are just suggestions. The pedestrians have no rights. They like to horn for no reason
- watch out from thieves and scammers, even if the crime rate is low in Shanghai, foreigners are more exposed
- the boys are a little feminine and the girls a little childish
- the people 50 years + have a communist air that I recognize from my country, but I can`t explain it
- people spit on the streets. I saw women doing that. For them it is a normal thing.
- there are not to many english speakers.
- they don`t like to tan. they think that tanning is for people that work outside, some kind of peasants thing.
-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poOZKQwgs0g
- they have a different logic:
Once we were at a restaurant and my girlfriend ordered a menu. I ordered the same menu but I choosed a different drink. They brought all the things
in the menu for my girlfriend and only the drink to me. After a while I called the waitress and ask her where is my food pointing all the things on my girlfriend side. She
smiled like she understood and went away...she came back with empty plates.
Another time , at a hotel in Beijing we had a misunderstanding about my girlfriend visa because on it was written "Permitted to stay for this time
until 31 jul 2014 and for the next entries 30 days each time." That entry was used on 17 jul 2014 and somehow the staff understood that if she reentered in China before 31 jul
that visa expired on 31 and if she used that entry on the 1st of August or later, she could stay 30days more. They called the police and blocked our room and we had to go at the Romanian embassy and call her University to call the Entry and Exit office in Shanghai that issued the visa to call the Hotel to clarify the situation.
... a lot of others smaller things made me believe that they have another way of reasoning
- They like to do Tai Chi or simply to dance. Where you can hear some music (malls, parks, squares,etc) there are some people dancing. In Shanghai in a parking near Zhongshan Park there were hundreds of people dancing in the weekend.
The Communism
- apart from the Big Firewall of China I didn`t have any other contact w/ it
Shanghai... other things I didn't mention in my first post
- THE NIGHTLIFE IN SHANGHAI IS UNBELIEVABLE!!! I wanted to do a review myself but there is a lot to write and I can`t do a complete image of it as I went mostly in
"must go" places. Searching for a good review I found this:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g3...Nightlife.html .
- The City of Shopping: you can find everything in Shanghai from bazaars and malls to Luxury brands and...
- FAKE MARKETS (the place where everybody speaks good english): They are like bazaars where you can find copies of brands like diesel or nike but for expats there are secret doors that opens to rooms full of fake Prada, Louis Vuitton, Rolex, Mont Blanc, etc..Where we went there was a secret room behind anther secret room.There are nice things that are made from the same material respecting the original design. For belts, bags, wallets, shoes and other stuff like this you can`t say the difference but for electronics and watches it`s another story. We were discrete in buying stuff from there to avoid "the wannabe effect".Just small things like a pair of shoes and a belt from Diesel and wallets from Mont Blanc and Prada. We also bought a Damier Canvas Neverfull GM Louis Vuitton ( sounds like a car... but it`s just a bag) for someone. I will talk about prices in...
- BARGANING- I love it!
) ...and chinese people love it too. You can do this everywhere in markets and bazaars and it is imperative (and a pleasure) in fake markets. You can
push down the prices very low comparing to the starting price. For example for the LV bag the girl asked for 1850 RMB as a starting price ( she said that this is a good price
because we are her friends
) and by bargaining we got it for only 500 RMB. That's something like 80$ and an original one is around 1k$ I think. Watch this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBSsbWVZzto
- they have check-points at the Metro and train station for the luggage like in the airport
- all over the town there were some bugs in the trees that made a lot of noise
Currency
- it was easy to convert the prices as 2 RMB= 1 Romanian Leu (~0.30$), so I divided the prices to 2 and I knew exactly how much they meant
Food
- man that was tough. I went there weighting 81 kg and I come back with 6kg less. I`m 1,88m tall and at 75 kg I look like a somalian.I just hate a type of soy sauce that they
use often.And then are some stuff that have a taste which make no sense.I must admit that it is my fault that I didn't put too much effort to adapt.
- In the markets I couldn't find half of things that my diet is based on like fresh food that you can cook rapidly, frozen vegetables or cheese. There are some expats markets
but again you can`t find a big deal o things there.
- At the mid-range restaurants that serve western food everything tastes a little chinese. Even the pizza.
- At the local fast-foods you can eat very cheap but I didn't know to order other things then dumplings (which are great). Sometimes I looked at the pictures and I ordered stuffs based on the colors but that colors tastes different in China and I had some surprises.
- I must say that I love stuff like Kung Pao chicken, Taiwan Noodles or my favorite Beijing Duck.There are other plates but I can't remember their name.If you have the occasion you must taste at least the ones that I mentioned
Beijing
- we went w/ the Chinese TGV. It was all great but I couldn't find any plug (!??)
- I didn't see any poverty sings along the road to Beijing. The train stopped only in Nanjing were we saw a lot of construction sites. In all the cities there were a lot of new apart blocks in rising.
- Beijing is more crowded than Shanghai
- they have the same check-pointsas in Shanghai
- the first time we went out of the Metro station I thought we were in Bucharest 10 years ago. Apart for the specific monuments which are great even if they are repetitive.
- we made A CHINESE FRIEND that guided us everywhere. He is a smart guy and a very good person. He told us the monuments history, legends and presented us better the chinese cuisine knowing what us, as europeans, would like to eat. At the hotel they asked 300 rmb/ person for a trip at the Great Wall but w/ our friend we paid only 40 rmb each going on our own.
- I will post some photos from Beijing. Especially from the Forbiden City, Temple of Heaven and The Great Wall