Our last day in China was spent on buses: the 7:30 am one to Mengla had a crazy driver and little by little everybody got off sick. We too stopped halfway, got some breakfast and caught the next bus. Had lunch in Mengla and switched into a minivan that drove us further south to the tiny border town of Mohan, where we checked into a nice little hotel, right opposite the immigration office. There was a lot of construction going on there - soon to be one of the gateways into China - as there are plans to create a super highway all the way to Thailand. We had a last nostalgic dinner that night at one of the tiny restaurants before going to bed. No more greasy food or "Nee how's", no more spitting everywhere or people playing mahjong, no more cold weather either and no more staring at me (I hope). The next day we would cross the border into Laos as soon as it opened at 8:30 am.
As I tend to do at the end of visiting a country, here follows a list of peculiar things I noticed about China that I haven't had a chance to mention before:
- Probably because it is winter now, but everywhere I saw women busy knitting, no matter what they were doing...
- The Chinese sure love to play games, as you see them play mahjong, cards, Chinese checkers, etc. in shops, restaurants, houses, on sidewalks, in tea houses, at all times of the day?
- Often I saw especially older people dancing or practicing Tai-Chi on sidewalks and in squares, either early in the morning or at night: they sure try to stay fit (no obese people in China!)...
- Chinese cities are surprisingly clean these days: the streets are often cleaned with large water trucks, people sweep the sidewalks and public buildings at night, ladies pick up trash here and there. The villages though, are like everywhere else in the world...
- But most Chinese ? men and women - still love to spit, not only in the street, but in busses, restaurants, hotel rooms, trains, internet cafes...
- It must have been low tourist season, because Papa was able to get some really good discounts in most hotels, and for souvenirs he would target 20-30% of the asking price?
- Practically all our hotel rooms had TV, but only with Chinese channels: (boring) news, talk shows, cultural shows, some dubbed foreign movies, so not much to watch for me?
- China is still run by a communist regime, but everybody has embraced capitalism with a big C. It seems that everybody has his or her own little business, shop, restaurant or fruit stall. You still have those communist department stores where bored attendants sell everything from behind long counters, but people don't go there anymore, they go to places that look like the Bay or Eaton?
- I heard that China's private economy (the state still owns quite a bit) grows 20% per year! My parents were really amazed how the cities had changed in 15 and even 10 years. Kunming, Chengdu, Guangzhou, etc. are just as modern as any city in the West and the people appear to be having a similar standard of living.
- Many, many people have cell phones and they are used extensively (like bus drivers...). And you should see some streets in minor towns that are lined with only cell phone shops!
- Needless to say that many people can now afford a car, sometimes even a luxury car. But you still see bicycles everywhere (not as many as before, though), and especially in Jinghong, electric ones and tiny electric scooters are the rage...
- One problem that still exists though: pedestrians have no right of way, even on zebra crossings!
- I saw (and ate) a lot of fruit. You can buy it virtually everywhere, not just markets, but on sidewalks. Mostly tangerines, apples and pears, but also pomelos, bananas, melon, strawberries, etc. and in the south I kind of liked chewing on sugarcane.
- I saw a lot of pet dogs, but only tiny puppies, hardly any older ones. The Chinese men like to have birds in cages and goldfish are considered lucky. Otherwise I witnessed very little of the animal cruelty that China is known for (I don't know though, why my parents kept steering me away from the live animal sections in local markets...).
- As most Chinese do not speak English, we often hear them yelling "Hello" ? the only word they do know in English - at us when we walked in the street. And especially in villages we had to get used to being stared at a lot?
- I actually didn't like at all the attention that I personally got from young and old (mostly ladies). They always had to smile at me, say things like "Shiao meme" (little girl) or "Shiao laowai" (little foreigner), make signs that I was "piaoliang" (pretty) and give me stuff to eat or drink. Sometimes I really wished I could wear a mask!
- But for the most part we found the Chinese people to be 100% friendly, helpful, hospitable and smiling. No more "Mey yo" (no have) or rudeness towards us foreigners, but only extremely courteous and pleasant people.