It is just in the middle of March but I look already forward to our next trip to China in the end of August. 2013 was the last time we were in China and we also celebrated our Chinese wedding in a small circle of relatives and friends (watch out, sarcasm). Last year we could not travel to visit my in-laws as we had too much on our hands with little Nathan and moving to Germany.
So why I am looking forward to travel to China or to be more specific to Xi’an? Most people would not really look forward to meet their in-laws again after having their mother-in-law at their place for three months but right now this is just a small minus point in my opinion. In Xi’an alone are so many places I want to revisit, take more video material and pictures. Furthermore I was promised (as so many times before though) to visit the relatives in the country side in Shaanxi. We are also planning a trip to Jeju Island and I really hope all those travel plans will actually work out as none had in the previous years!
But what am I really looking forward to? First of all Xi’an is a great city in my opinion. There are just so many interesting historical buildings within the city center where my in-laws are living which give great opportunities for taking pictures and perhaps also few time lapse shots with my new Flow-Mow. Then there is the food, just thinking about it makes me drool! There are so many restaurants I want to go to such as my favorite BBQ restaurant few minutes walking distance away. Besides when being too lazy to walk few minutes to the next restaurant there are still dozens of street kitchens just downstairs. As you can see, there will be never a problem to get any good food unlike here where we have barely any restaurants around.
But then again there are few things which really do stop my enthusiasm about those weeks in China. First of all is the pollution with all the smog in the city and surrounding area. Back in 2013 we had zero days in nearly three weeks of our stay with blue sky or sunshine. Everyday it was just smog and some more smog. Then there is the general attitude of not using trash bins. Everywhere people just throw their trash on the ground and even litter animals enclosures in zoo’s or nature reserves. What else is getting sometimes on my nerves is the complete lack of manners of some people. I think I do not need to go too deep into details as the this behaviour has been described more than enough already in other blogs. I know that you will find rude people all over the world but especially in China I have sometimes the feeling that there is an exceptional amount of people with an attitude like “First me and then the rest of you low cretins”.
But all in all I am still looking forward to this trip even though there is still nearly half-year waiting time ahead. For now I will have to make due with the videos and pictures I have from the previous years. Also all those blogs about their travel adventures keep my mind away from the daily boredom at work and the current cold weather. Perhaps also the fact that I just got once again a year older makes me want to escape the routine which we have in everyday life and get out to relax for a few weeks.
Are you also looking forward to your next holiday abroad? Do you also think about the negative points during your holidays?
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Crazy Chinese Family 
Would love to visit China but there’s always some other places that gets into my attention..but I do understand about the Chinese manners…it’s cropping up quite frequently now in our news actually, Chinese tourists now even have a certain reputation in this part of asia which is kinda sad to think of because it makes us think that everyone in China behaves the same…2015 happens to be the year with the most long weekends here due to public holidays, definitely always thinking of the next trip…
Alas, I would love to have a few long weekends for myself…next long weekend will be Easter Holidays and then in middle of May I have nine days in a row holidays…and then finaly end of August till middle of September three weeks in China 🙂
Haha, yes, we live for long weekends…time will fly past and soon you will get your trip to China…:)
Oh yes, the little street restaurants…. the food, the food, the food! Hm, for the pollution and manners, I think Taiwan is slightly different. I once met a German student, she spent one year in Shanghai and came to Taipei to study, and the first thing, she noticed was: “Wow! The people are so polite here! I even saw young people stand up in the bus to offer their seat to a senior person. I NEVER saw something like this in Shanghai.” And for the pollution, well, 10 years ago, the air in downtown Taipei was also extremely ditty, the emissions of the millions of motorcycles basically made the air “black”. But then they started to extend the underground system, introduced recycling and paid garbage bags (if you want your money to be accepted to be taken by the garbage cars, you need to purchase labeled garbage bags from 7-11.) And yes, Germany was an important influence by those inventions, and yes, since then the air has improved tremendously.
For now I don’t see much hope in China until the industry is changing. When driving from Xi’an airport to the city you see several industries emitting totally black smoke and then of course those cars everywhere. In xi’an they have an underground system now as well but I doubt it is used too much yet
It will take time, for Taiwan, it took 10 years, still way to improve. So let’s hope for the best for China!
Ah typo: “(if you want your garbage to be accepted to be taken by….”
Ooh – authentic Chinese food. Yum! Definitely a reason to look forward to holidaying there. And yes, the smog is pretty shocking …. But when we travel, we don’t look to the negatives because we often travel to places we have never been before so we don’t know what to look out and also because our heads are in the clouds that it is HOLIDAYS!! 🙂
Count down is officially on for you…. Less than half a year to go 😉
Before I usually always checked about the places I wanted to visit by mainly checking the negative review…well, you should never do that :p
These days I let myself get surprised or if u check a review it is always from somewhere of the middle region so I do not get on high hopes but do not go with negativity in my mind there as well
We were going to go to Japan at the end of this year again. Which I had been looking forward too (especially the food) but then the prospect of traveling that far with a little baby started worrying me. And then the tiny hotel rooms with bed elevators are fine when you’re just a couple, but we’re going to need more space with a baby and there’s no way I’m staying over at the inlaws… Long story short we’ve decided to cancel this year’s trip. We were just in Japan last year and for now the inconveniences outweigh the excitement.
Bed elevators? I can’t imagine anything right now under that 😮
We went to Greece for a week last summer with our son who was four months old back then. It went pretty smooth but there is so much more to consider when traveling with a baby than before 🙂
The hotel room is so small that the bed takes up the whole room. So when you need space to sit at the desk or simply walk around you flip a switch and the bed is elevated. It moves up toward the ceiling. So you can move around under it. Giving you some space. I did make a movie of this and I really should get around to blogging this soon. It’s been 10 months now and it is quite interesting. And surprising when you don’t know what’s happening at first ;).
On few ferry I know something similar. The bed is flipped over and becomes a sofa…but going to the ceiling that is certainly something new for me 🙂
Yeah those things you mentioned really put me off China. I’m tired of pollution, sick and tired of it. There are a million other places to see without putting your lungs through such an ordeal. So I’m dropping my China dreams for other pursuits…
I think this is also why I would never want to move to China. Few weeks or little over a month is fine for me as after that I can go home and my body feels fine again after a couple of days. But living there ? No thanks…usually I am not that sensitive but the pollution is just too much for me to stand for a long time
Yes, I think the big is always the food, especially when it is good!! I have my favorite places in Taiwan as well and they are not as expensive at all. However, the smog and pollution does put a damper on things.
I am sure my MIL is very anxious to have you all visit as well. I am sure she will be showing off her grandson to everyone!
We bought already a leash for our son…so he won’t be running off/ won’t get into the wrong hands 🙂
First of all we will have MIL with us soon. Just a month left till she arrives!
In Taiwan, some young kids wear shoes that squeak with each step [annoying as hell for the people around]. However, my friend said they are the best inventions ever. They can locate their kid and they start to worry when the squeaking stops.
Oh, but her friends are not in Germany. I am sure little Nathan will be introduced to all of MIL’s friends!!
Oh MIL’s friends are the ones who worry me the most! Will need to take lots of hand sanitizer with me 🙂
The pollution from China is really becoming a global issue. The air over Seoul is relatively clean, but every spring we have to worry about Yellow Dust coming over from China. The wind picks up sand in the Gobi Desert, picks up all the pollution from China and ends up on top of us. 😦 Korea has done so much over the last 20 years to clean it’s air – electric buses, taxis and buses that run on clean fuel etc…etc… but unless China starts to improve things also, we still suffer…
But you are planning a visit to Jeju also? Lol… that’s one place that I still haven’t made it to myself!!! 🙂
My mother-in-law invited us for a trip to Jeju as she has been there herself last year and enjoyed it 🙂
Very nice that you have your China holiday to look forward to, Crazy. Sounds like you’ve got it all planned out…though I think visiting the in-laws will be a bit unpredictable like the last time 😉 You will have no problem eating all the food you want – surely your Chinese relatives will drag you to the food places there and order more you can eat. And I’m assuming Nathan is coming along, so that will be all the more fun in China, and would love to know what he thinks of it.
I don’t have holidays abroad or anyway planned. Working on contracts means more money but no holidays or guarantee the next job. So I content myself with home time each night and listening to my favourite music and writing.
Oink working on contracts also enables you to do more spontaneous trips for a few days abroad. Now with my fixed contract I am bound to certain schedules which do not allow anything spontaneous at all:(
True, (short) contracts does mean more spontaneous trips but coming home you’ll be faced with the doom and gloom of finding a job 😦 Make sure you bring home souveniers to remind you of the trip along with lots of video!
I’m always thinking about my next trip! Hehe. Right now on my list are Beijing (to attend my friend’s birthday), a village close to Hangzhou (to see the tea harvest) and then I don’t have anything else planned until I go to Spain at the end of September.
In the summer pollution is waaay better, in the winter you would kill yourself haha, This is China!
BTW if you happen to pass by Shanghai or Suzhou let me know! I am a great tour guide 😀
Lets see when I get around Shanghai or Suzhou. I think we will mainly concentrate on Xi’an and surrounding area plus the big hope of Jeju!
Tea harvest? Only saw it in few documentaries, wonder how it smells 🙂
I haven’t been in China since 2013 and I would be really curious to go back and see how it changed in the meantime. Unfortunately, I have no chance to go back visit China anytime soon 😦
On a brighter note, I am planning a trip to Bali with my bf in a couple months. Yay! Can’t wait.
Wish to travel to Bali someday, also one of the many to dos on our list
I was reading all your posts under that ABOUT tab, especially those related to the crazy MIL, and then I saw this “Why I Love To Travel to China”, and the first thing that came to my mind was: “Is this guy crazy or what?? He misses his crazy MIL antics??” 😀
On a serious note, you should know that up to about 100 years ago, the Chinese people really think of themselves as the center of the world, nay, even the universe! There is a reason why they call every foreigners as outside barbarians. In fact I don’t think that mentality has changed much even today. It is not that surprising that most of them are self-absorbed and arrogant.
I really do believe that I am some kind of crazy already that I actually look forward to go to China despite mother in law and the people there in general :p
Well, I think I as an outside barbarian cope so far fairly well in China but indeed many people should rethink their behavior and attitude there!
That kind of attitude extends even to overseas Chinese nowadays, which they call 华侨, people like me, who are Chinese but my family moved to Malaysia three generations ago.
My dad told me that about 20 to 30 years ago, the distant relatives in China would constantly get in touch with us, asking us when we are going to visit our ancestral hometown (a small town in Guangdong) and kept reminding us that we must not forget our roots, bla bla bla. When he did make that trip once, he was treated like royalty, there would be a whole bunch of people welcoming him at the airport, every family wanted to host him, he gets treated with lavish dinners every night. Of course, the downside to it was, we were expected to make generous donations to various community projects in the town. He said the trip itself was probably $1000, but he ended up donating more than $10000 to the temples and schools and whatnot. We’re not even rich, so I wonder how much the rich really spends when they go back.
And then a few years ago, my dad wanted to make the trip back again as he wanted to bring my grandmother to visit “home”. So he tried to contact all those distant relatives again, the very same people who treated him like a king, but nobody answered his calls this time. Then it so happened that one of them came to Malaysia for a vacation and my dad somehow got in touch with him. He told my dad: “Why do you want to go back? There’s nothing there for you now. I think you should just stay here. You can visit Guangzhou or Hong Kong for vacation, maybe some of us will meet you there for hi-tea if we’re not busy”
Needless to say, my dad was disappointed. And then my grandma got ill and passed away, and we never made that trip. I don’t think we ever will now. We came to a conclusion that maybe in the old time, people in our “hometown” were poor, so they expect people like us, people who left China and prospered, to go back and contribute to them selflessly. Now that they are getting richer, we are just like outside barbarians. If we want to go back, it must be because we want something from them in return and they will discourage us at all cost.
Something similar I know from a friend in Finland. She moved to that country some seven years ago to study and work. There she met her husband to be and now also have a little daughter together. Well well, every time they go back to her village near hubei people expect her to give presents in form of money and also give me family some money. Through that they spent also roughly every “holiday” some ten thousand euros extra and that is pretty much their savings for a year…once she gave less and was punished with no friendly behavior by the family so she went back to her old self to give more. I know that some people would really do need that kind of money but so far her mother got several plastic surgeries with that money, they bought an apartment in Shanghai for her little brother so he could then have a huge wedding, all payed with her money once again…
When I first went to China I was surprised to see how rude and obnoxious some people could be. It was very different from the other Asian countries I’ve visited, and I found it a bit hard to adapt to:) Just curious: What’s the BBQ in China like? Is it Asian style with small pieces of meat and vegetables? Or is it American style with half a cow on the grill?
It is only small pieces but tons of it mixed with other normal Chinese cuisine which can be also used for BBQ 🙂
Yes, historic China and its food would be worthwhile. Glad you have some specific things you want to do and see.
I can’t even think about travelling outside of Canada this year –I just have to get back to normal life first after my concussion earlier this year.
Concussions can be really bad. I had three of them thus far through all kinds of accidents and it takes a while sometimes to get back on track. Hope you are doing well