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I’m back to the world of social media!! For the last 3 months I have been Working and Travelling in China. No one has heard from me since my last post in Bangkok because even though China now has good internet and access to Facebook and stuff, I just didn’t have time while working. And you can only access Facebook using a VPN which is pretty slow! That’s why not many people in China use Facebook, and it is fair enough; they have “Wechat” which is now my FAVORITE social app. Facebook has so much to learn from its Chinese competition. But then, the whole world has a lot to learn from China!
Overlooking the town of Yangshuo. For China, this is a small tourist town; however for me, it was more like a small city. The mountains around Yangshuo are some of the most beautiful I have ever seen. The limestone makes it a very popular rock climbing destination.
At the end of my season I had time to do some amazing biking around these mountains with friends, Yunyun from China and Noel from Malaysia.
Bamboo rafts on the river near Yangshuo
The other day, I was on a high speed train, doing 307 km/h between Guangzhou and Shenzhen. A few days after that, I was on the 118th floor of the world’s second tallest building. The engineering in China is incredible; unlike anywhere else in the world except maybe Dubai. What used to take 12 hours by slow train between Guangzhou and Yangshuo now takes 2.5 hours and costs about 15USD.
I have been working as an outdoor instructor/program coordinator for “Dragonfly” , a company based in Hong Kong. My job was to oversee programs, taking groups of international school kids on outdoor and cultural experiences. This was the perfect job for me as I got to work in four different locations in China – unlike English teaching, where you will be stuck in the same place the whole time. I got to work in Yangshuo, Zhaoqing, Yunnan and Hong Kong.
Some of the team I worked with. It was about half western and half Chinese, a great mix
One of the activities with the kids is tea picking. Here with Yunyun at staff training at the start of the year
Staff party, KTV Karaoke
We took our students to do community service at some of the local primary schools and kindergartens. This little kid was 3 in a small kindergarten in Shaxi village, Yunnan.
Looking over Shaxi village, Yunnan, very near the edge of Tibet.
While working, everything was very easy. I always worked alongside Chinese logistic staff who were amazing. Everything that was in Chinese was sorted by them. On my weekends though, I would go off by myself to try to get away from work, and it was a completely different world. As a non-Chinese speaker, it is very difficult to travel there. You don’t know the language, either spoken or written. It is very hard to order food unless there are pictures and taking a bus is almost impossible! It’s also unlikely that you will find anyone who speaks English well enough to help. However, the train system and the city underground systems are in English. Once you leave that it’s tough!!
For me, this was great! After travelling for 5 years, everything has become kind of the same and quite easy, even if the language is a bit different. China is definitely the hardest country I have travelled in and it was a great Challenge! There’s nothing quite like the feeling of being completely lost and not having a clue how to find yourself!
After a few months, I picked up enough of the language and could recognise a few characters, so that I could make my way around easily enough!
Looking down on Shanghai from the 118th floor of the Shanghai Tower, the world’s second tallest building.
The crazy West Street, main street of Yangshuo town.
The inside of a limestone cave in Seven Star Park in Zhaoqing.
Rice terraces ready for harvest in Shaxi village, Yunnan
My friend, Anya and the Canton Tower on the Pearl River, Guangzhou.
Chinese people are some of the nicest I’ve ever met. At first they can feel a bit “cold” but once you get to know them they are amazing! Most people know some English but not many are confident enough to speak to you. The funniest thing was when a group of girls would say “Hello” to me and then run away in fits of giggles! As a tall white person, I was pretty popular. You get very used to being asked to take selfies with people. The funniest one was when I had a guy ask if I would take a photo with his wife. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t ask my wife to take a picture with a strange guy!
I had dinner with the family of a friend-of-a-friend and her father had never had a white person in his house before. A lot of people have never seen a white person before, so you get a lot of attention! I love taking photos with people and after 9 months in Asia am very used to the attention.
My work mates, Shelly and Karen from China, and Hugo from Canada.
Anya again at Korean BBQ in Guangzhou
Yunyun in the Seven Star Park in Zhaoqing
Yunyun at Moon Hill, Yangshuo
Eating small lobsters with Anya in Guangzhou
An interesting spread of delicious Chinese food in Guangzhou. Included is sheep stomach and silk worms. Both taste very good!
This was one of the best meals I have ever had anywhere in the world; Sichuan hotpot, with Anya and Queenie. I travelled with these two in Indonesia for 3 weeks in July. You can read my post: Picture Perfect Indonesia from that trip.
Yunnan Hot Pot in Lijiang
Food often comes very spicy in China. In the country side you often see bunches of chilies hanging up in courtyards of houses.
China is fast becoming the most powerful country in the world. In my opinion, they already are but some still argue that the USA and China are pretty even. Even though the USA has a much larger GDP, they owe trillions of dollars to China. China is a booming country, growing at 7 percent every year, and they own the money! And lend it to everyone else. If you lend others money you basically have control of them. If you own the money there’s much less that can go wrong. The Chinese are rapidly buying up and investing all around the world, especially in Africa.
There are a lot of similarities between the USA and China and some big differences, but I will talk more about that in a later post.
The skyline in Shanghai is one of the most impressive you will see anywhere in the world. The Shanghai tower is the second tallest building in the world.
From the ground looking up in the centre of Shanghai CBD. I took this picture 10 minutes after standing on the 118th floor of the Shanghai Tower.
Shanghai World Financial Centre, 492m tall and I’m looking down on it.
Guangzhou skyline. 5 years ago this city did not have a skyline at all and now they have multiple skyscrapers in the top 10 in the world.
Everywhere I went in China, I saw construction. Unlike in any of the other 50 countries I have travelled to. From apartment buildings and skyscrapers, to tunnels, bridges and highways. And no one builds things as fast and efficiently as China does.
Pollution is always a big talking point. Compared with places like Beijing, where I was in the south east the pollution isn’t usually too bad.
However, I did see some bad pollution. In Zhaoqing, near Guangzhou, the visibility was under 1km for a few days. The sky was blue but you could hardly see the sun. Most places you go there is always a constant haze and it is very rare to see clear blue sky and clear mountains in the distance.
I think it is very unfair that people in the western world give China a hard time for this. In my opinion, any person who buys cheap Chinese-made goods can’t point a finger, and that includes about 99 percent of people. The western world makes things in China because it’s cheap and there aren’t so many rules. If we paid more for the products, they could afford to follow more rules about pollution. The rules are in place but in many cases, small factories just can’t afford to follow them.
This is a pretty normal day in Guangzhou. There’s a bit of smog. I saw much much worse than this but just can’t find the pictures of it.
My time Working and Travelling in China was amazing. I recommend it to everyone and I think it’s something we should all experience. China is fast becoming the world leader and this country has so much to offer. From incredible nature, to food, technology and amazing people, it has it all. Outdoor instructing is a great way for people like me who are more adventurous and don’t really want to teach English in the same city for a year. China is slowly opening its borders and it is becoming much easier to work and travel there.
I can honestly say China is the first country I have been sad to leave and I will certainly be going back.
Hi I’m Chris,
I grew up super isolated 2 long days hike from the nearest road in the wilds of South Westland, New Zealand at a place called Gorge River. We live off the land and try to be as sustainable as possible in a really unique and wild part of the world.
After leaving home I have set out to explore the world. I have been on the road since 2011 and have worked and travelled in so many incredible places including working with husky dogs in Arctic Norway and teaching extreme survival skills at -40°C in Antarctica.
Along the way I make videos for my YouTube channel. This way you can join my adventures not just around the globe but also back at home at Gorge River.
Order your signed copy of my autobiography, The Boy From Gorge River direct from the author!
4 Comments
Hi can I have the contact number where you volunteer? Tea picking with yun yun. Thanks!
Hi I was working then. We would take kids to the tea farm for education. I don’t think they have volunteers sorry
Great to see some of China where our family was all those years ago, Eh Chris! Enjoying following your footsteps!
Yes it was very interesting being there with that background. A few people knew of HA Giles and his system, Wade-Giles System. Now they use Pinyin for the simple Chinese. I actually had a lot of Chinese people seriously ask if I am from China, but that was from the name Long. A common Chinese name. People loved it. it means dragon. My Chinese name is “Long Gau Fei”. High Flying Dragon!! Haha!