Observations on Traveling in China

Now that I have left China, I thought I would give you some of my observations on traveling here. These are really just random thoughts that popped into my head at random times. They are both good and bad, but not specific praise or condemnation of China or anything Chinese.

• Ride the train from Lanzhou to Xian during the day if possible. The views of the river and canyon can be amazing at times.
• Men in China need to learn to aim better. Close enough isn't good enough whether it's a urinal or a squat. Flushing would be a good thing to teach the general populace too.
• China has some tall women. I am not sure it the average height for women in China is more than Korea, but the plethora of tall ones sure do stand out.
• Drinking soda at a higher altitude seems to make you (me anyway) belch more quickly than usual.
• China has some real serious problems with its environment
• I don't know if I will ever be able to think that another city has clean air, after being in Tibet.
• Chinese are loud talkers, even louder than other countries I have been too.
• Cup ramen (ramyun) comes with a fork in China rather than chopsticks.
• One of the best sounds in the world is wind blowing through pine needles, but if you haven't got pine, casurina works well too.
• The stars in Tibet, outside the cities, are amazing, just like in Africa.
• How come on my long train journeys (8 hours or more), I always seem to get stuck next to some disgusting people- the spitters, the smokers, the trash droppers, the smelly ... I am sure there must be some "regular" people riding the hard seats. Why can't I sit next to them? Or at least one good looking woman?
• China has both coin and paper "cents". Some cities will more often give paper, others coins, as change. In some cities people don't want to accept the coins and in other cities they don't want the paper.
• Why are train personnel hawking products like socks, flashlights, and other cheap crap on the train? It is bad enough I am captive in the hard seat section. Must I be forced to listen to their sales spiels too?
• Time on the train seemed to go faster when i had something to write about. Unfortunately that wasn't often enough. I guess I could have written about other things that popped into my brain, but it was probably too personal to put it into my blog, so why bother.
• Singing "99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall" in your head doesn't help much on long train rides. The song is over too soon.
• It is interesting how the chant of the touts in Shanghai changes from day to night. Day- "Bags, DVDs, Shoes?" Night- "Bags, DVDs, Shoes, Massage, Girl, Hashish?"

I am sure there were many more random thoughts that ran through my brain, but these are all the ones I happened to write down. They will give you a fair accounting of how my brain works at times.