Eastern China Tour

While travelling in China, internet is available most of the time to my mom and sister, Emily. However, they cannot access some of the websites, such as blogspot.com. My mom cannot view the blogs but can now post new notes with Emily's help.

Grandma, Mom and Emily arrived Guangzhou (廣卅) on May 12. They joined a 6-day tour (May 17 - 22) to Eastern China (華東) to visit Nanjing (南京), Wuxi (無錫), Suzhou (蘇卅), Shanghai (上海), and Hangzhou (杭卅).

It was chaotic when they boarded the plane, as passengers did not take their assigned seats. My mom and Emily got bumped and they sat by the emergency exit with one other passenger. They were told to read the instructions, which stated that passengers who cannot understand the written instructions and passengers who cannot understand verbal instructions of the crew should not take the seats by the emergency exit. My mom and Emily can read the instructions but cannot understand Mandarin. The other passenger can understand Mandarin, but he indicated that he is not literate. None of them should have taken those seats!

After being pushed and shoved constantly by crowds, my grandma, my mom and Emily got a little smarter on their return flight to Guangzhou (廣卅). They kind of stayed back to be the last ones to board the shuttle bus to the plane. They became the first ones to get off the bus. Since Emily is more agile and swift, she got the job of boarding the plane as fast as she could to grab their assigned seats on row 7. My mom stayed behind to escort Grandma. When it was time to get off the plane, they remained in their seats. The 100+ passengers who passed by them stared at them wondering what was wrong with them. They eyed them as if they were insane. What was the point of rushing anyway. They all had to wait for their luggages to come out before they could leave the airport.

The weather was reasonably well. It rained one day and the other days were sunny. It was nice and cool in the early mornings. The temperature started to climb after 9 am. My mom's biggest challenge was the heat. The tour bus air conditioning was either off or on a low setting. My mom was uncomfortably hot most of the time. Emily's biggest challenge was the toilets - the strong smell and the squatting. She tried her best to avoid the need to use them. She had a tummy ache while in Shanghai (上海). Fortunately, her diarrhea stopped after running to the toilets twice.

It was interesting to hear the tour guide's explanation of the history and culture of the various locations. Due to my mom's limited command of Mandarin, she could not understand all of the narrations. She interpreted as much as she could for Emily. If Emily ever returns to China for a visit, she should join an English speaking tour.

There were lots of tourists everywhere. Sometimes there could be 3 to 4 tour guides around us speaking at the same time. There were constant shouting, arguing and loud conversations. What was sad to witness was that many tourists showed no respect for public property: spitting, throwing garbage/cigarette butts on the ground, climbing over barriers to take pictures, touching artifacts, banging displays, etc. It was the shoving and pushing that got to Emily. Even when the people in front were not moving, the people behind kept pushing.