China 8: Leaving China

Looking back at these last three months a lot has changed with respect to my view towards China and her people. China is a massive country rich in diversity so this writing is of course based on generalizations that I made during my time there. The first month was definitely difficult and I felt that the people were not at all friendly, or even quite rude. I have since learned that this was not the case and, though I still have a very limited understanding of the vast spectrum of people in China, I have learned a lot about their general state of mind. Compared to every other country I've been to so far, the Chinese seem to be much less 'self concious' in that they simply don't care how they are perceived by those around them. This shamelessness is a quality I eventually came to admire in the people and one I hope to have acquired, at least a little bit. My main tool for which to base my thoughts about the people of any given country is their reaction to me (or lack there of). Often, as in countries like America and Australia, the reaction would be a friendly curiosity. In Indonesia and parts of Malaysia it was shock and awe followed by extreme hospitality and kindness. In Korea people look at me and when I look back their instinct reaction is to quickly look away, as if embarrassed. However, in China the reaction was more or less consistent for the entire 3 months, which was to simply stop and stare at me with expressionless faces for as long as I was in their range of vision. This can be off-putting at first, especially because my natural reaction to people staring at me is to smile and say hello and the Chinese seemed to never return this gesture, just continue to stare. It was about a month before I realized that this was not meant in a rude way and that they simply don't consider (or seem to care) how they appear to me. Once I began to understand this it stopped bothering me completely and I even felt foolish for expecting the Chinese to respond to me in a certain way. I even came to appreciate the beauty of this cultural trait and used it frequently to just sit and watch people without being perceived as rude. In this way, over time, I became very comfortable traveling in China. There were even a couple instances in which I would be squatting on the side of the road attending to the 2nd call of nature and people would walk by and see me and I felt no shame whatsoever, where as if I were in another country I surely would have. Once I broke the 'comfort barrier' I had a great time crossing one of the most beautiful countries in the world. This combined with amazing food, the large amount of marijuana I found and dozens of great books made China a very pleasurable experience indeed.

Route across China

 I left China on a 24 hour boat ride across the Yellow Sea to Korea from the port city of Qin Huang Dao. There are several islands in the region that are currently the object of political dispute between the two countries and, as I passed several islands on the boat, I wondered if they were some of the disputed ones.