Observations Post

1 -Everything in China is HUGE!! Literally everything...I dont really know if they know how to construct small here. Also, Chinese people are mostly very nice and they enjoy it when we try to speak with them in Chinese...my only problem is that they answer back too fast and I have to keep asking them to repeat themselves until I actually get it, otherwise our favorite saying at the moment is "wo bu dong" (I dont understand) or "bu yao, xiexie" (no, thank you!) - we have been using those a lot. Back home we're used to the "chinese shops" where you can buy everything, well you can think of China as a big Chinese shop because there is nothing here you cant buy!

2 - I was in China the first time in 1999 and let me tell you that when we came there werent that many tourists and most importantly, you could still see the sky of most cities. Today the mass of tourists are actually Chinese - with the economic boom they can now afford to travel everywhere and en mass! And for the sky, the amount of pollution also caused by the economic boom has not done much for the skyline of the cities.

3 - In the cities there is not much difference from our own western cities - the big brands are here and just about everywhere ex. when we arrived at station in Beijing on friday we decided to buy a map of the city as the lonely planet one never has all the streets and the one being given as the official tourist guide has all the McDonalds of the city along with all the shopping streets!

4 - Chinese people are really amused with us. They love to take pictures with us and of us and talking to us, especially when we answer back in Mandarin :)

5 - After almost 2 weeks in China we have seen A LOT of children, however I have yet to see a pregnant woman (Jo spotted one on the train but that is it)!!!! Also, most parents still stick to the one child policy even though it is no longer law. And most of these single children seem to be pretty spoiled! :)