Well, it’s been five years since I was last in China. Formerly so frequent, but since the interruptions and ravages of COVID, travel has been challenging. Now at last, I am just a few weeks away from an exciting return and seeing my newer, enlarged family and precious Chinese friends once more, gained over the years of travelling there.
It will be fascinating to see what has changed, what has advanced, and the atmosphere. In my experience, progress in China is incredibly rapid, and changes are notable after gaps of a few months, let alone five years. Roads and airports are new. New bridges, even cities and towns, have been enlarged.
Infrastructure is usually one of the first things I notice. To the first-time visitor, it can be a shock just how advanced road, rail, and air links are. Outside of the main cities, like Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, roads can often be delightfully uncluttered. In addition, you will see a mix of very new international cars and unusual domestic vehicles, often one-seaters, that seem to have their own set of road rules accepted by other road users.
I am looking forward to very affordable hotels and good value restaurants, and car hire with prices long forgotten in the West. A special treat will be the street breakfasts. I really enjoy starting the day with hot food. The variety in China is amazing, varying not only by region, but by adjacent outlets. Hot Bao Buns, Zhou (rice porridge), hot soy milk, soup noodles, eggs done in various ways. It sounds familiar, but it’s anything but. Even in hotels, the breakfast buffets can be mind-boggling.
This trip starts with friends in Shanghai and then onto a familiar province, Hubei, but with new sights. Firstly, we will be going to the Avatar film location, famous for its rock stacks that seem to float in the clouds that swirl around them, and then to the remarkable Heaven’s Gate nearby.
We have also got time to spend with some of the fascinating minority nations in the area, still maintaining distinctive national dress in regular daily life. This is a lesser-known, but fascinating, part of travel in China. There are so many people groups that make up the nation of China. We will certainly spend some time in the Miao nation area, part of the Hmong peoples, actually made up of four people groups that stretch across southern China and historically migrated to set up populations in Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and Myanmar. At festival times, the national dress is beautiful, and the women’s headdresses are especially crafted and remarkably ornate. Silver is highly prized and worked by Miao silversmiths to make decorative jewellery. At festival times, the Miao women can look so beautiful in their ornate silver headdress that they might be referred to as ‘fairies’ due to their stunning otherworldly beauty.
Next will be another visit to Hunan province and the vast Dongting Lake. Amongst my goals will be to look for the finless porpoise—so rare and missed by me on each of the previous attempts.
It’s springtime when we arrive in China, and the air will be full of birdsong. The trees and bushes will be full of newly arrived, colourful migrant birds, distracting me with eye-catching plumage and often unfamiliar songs.
Food always features heavily in each day’s itinerary, and we are certain of some wonderful dishes cooked fresh to order on the spot. I’ll be sure to share culinary highlights in a later blog post after the trip.
Finally, it’s back to two of my favourite cities: Hangzhou for a few days with family and friends, and eventually back to Shanghai for the long flight home.