Canadian Gardening: China coming uphas anyone been?, 1 by Chilko

Chilko wrote:
Yes, I'm back! What an incredible trip. China wasn't at all the suppressed, militaristic society we had expected. Polluted--yes, big time. Ugh. Instant allergies. And it was a very brown time of year, so combined with the smog, not many bright days and not much green. Your cousin will be hitting spring.

The people are absolutely wonderful. Very few spoke any English at all, and there are so many dialects that the few phrases we learned weren't easily transferable from, say, Shanghai to Beijing! Our skill at charades is now excellent. Ah, but the people--cheerful, friendly, helpful. Clean (no matter how poor) and with a sense of pride no matter how lowly (in our mind) their job--whether sweeping (literally, with straw brooms) the streets, sorting through rubbish (terrific recycling),or driving taxi. Lotsa taxis. Lots and lots. Cheap, too! And in Shanghai especially, very clean. In fact, Shanghai's clean streets would put even Vancouver to shame.

I was a bit disappointed after seeing the Terra Cotta Warriors--that I couldn't ever again have the awesome experience of seeing them for the first time! It's difficult to convey the impact that they had, and also the mind-blowing impact of the Great Wall. Pictures do NOT do it justice...but I'll attach a couple here. It really does run up the spine of mountains and in the zoomed (digital as well as optical, so it's a bit blurry) one try to imagine the poor devils who had to man that watch tower on the top peak, in -30 weather in a blizzard.