Oy, China

Up to this point I thought I was doing relatively well with the traveling thing, not making too many mistakes and enjoying myself all the while... Then came China. I was expecting life to be more difficult here but I guess expectations and actually living it are two different things.

We left Seoul by boat and spent 24 hours on the high seas. Most of my time on the boat was spent in bed because a couple of hours before leaving Seoul I managed to throw my back out. Was I mountain climbing? Bungee jumping? Breakdancing? Nope, just sneezing with my bag on, if you can believe that! Anyway, I spent 24 hours on my back trying to recover so poor Amy wouldn't have to carry my bag. All the way to Beijing she was still carrying my bag AND hers. Without help I would have been up a certain dirty creek without a paddle. Good news is that today I'm feeling much better and by the time we leave Beijing I should be ready to lug my 17kg all by myself.

Arriving in China was an experience in itself. It took a VERY long time to unload passengers from the boat. In the end we realized the delay was because of the use of one shuttle bus to unload about a thousand passengers. Adding insult to injury, this one magical bus ended up driving us about 200m down the dock to the immigration place. All in all it took longer to load and unload the bus than it would have to make us walk.

Once through immigration we were spit out of into a parking lot full of people, baggage and taxis but no telephones or English signs. As soon as we left the building taxi drivers started harassing us and yelling questions. I know this is going to be commonplace from now on and I'm getting used to the constant attention.

The rest of the trip from the the port to the city was terrifying, hilarious and shocking all in one. We got taken for a ride by a crazy taxi driver, Amy got into a big argument with him as he tried to increase the price mid-trip. We arrived at the train station to find no trains or buses going to Tianjin... Or at least that's what we could gather from the constant barks of "NO!" that came from the station staff and various other people. By this point my impression of China was not so rosy. We finally made it to our hotel but only after a perilous taxi journey that lasted 1.5 hours. Never was I so thankful to see a university guest house! The rest of our stay in Tianjin was uneventful. The city is the most polluted place I've ever visited, everything in the city is viewed through a thick yellow fog. No wonder everyone has to spit all over the place, gotta rid the lungs of soot.

Now we are in Beijing. Despite it's reputation as a severely polluted city I think it is far less polluted than Tianjin, although the smells of raw sewage still creep up from the drains. The plan is to spend 8 nights in the capital, see some sights, rest, recuperate and plan the next leg of the trip. It'll take the next few days to get used to the dirt, smells and food of China.