I traveled through China’s Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, where minority peoples live in the countryside, on a 17-day trip, Oct. 9-29, 2011. These sections are interesting because some of the people still adhere to the older customs and style of dress.
My international and domestic air transportation plus all hotels and itinerary were arranged before I left home. However, two-thirds of the way through my trip, the tour company canceled the remaining portion and I was forced to travel alone for six very difficult days. Regarding the areas I visited, and based on my experiences while either guided or on my own, I have tips and observations to share.
Travelers to China who do the usual route of Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai are visiting very large cities where people are more used to tourists. Any difficulties I describe may also be true in those cities but to a lesser extent.
Most important — don’t even consider visiting China without a guide or someone who is fluent in the language, unless you’re really willing to rough it, you’ve done a lot of research and you have time and a lot of patience.
I suggest that you stay in 4- or 5-star hotels (and even these may have only one or two people who speak English).
Do not try to go anywhere without a card from your hotel with its name, address and phone number written in Chinese. The destination addresses, such as “flower market,” should also be written in Chinese. This is mandatory. I used the cards more than once.
In the two provinces I visited, other than for ‘Hello’ and ‘Good-bye,’ very few people understood English even though they said they did. Fewer spoke it.
Without knowing the language, ordering food is a real problem, especially if you have dietary concerns, such as I do with spicy food, or particular preferences. Menus are not usually translated into English.
In Yunnan and Guizhou, most of the food had chili added. I lost a few pounds because it was difficult for me to get food I liked and could eat. A typical Chinese breakfast usually included salads (when I travel, I do not eat raw vegetables that can’t be peeled) and cold noodles, among other odd foods. I ate a lot of stir-fry vegetables. A good guide can help with ordering food; many places will cook to your request.
At meals, the paper napkins, if provided at all, were small. Rather than expect to receive napkins free, as we do in the States, you may have to purchase them or bring your own.
Outside of your hotel, it is best to keep your own supply of paper products handy. Toilet paper was rare in rural areas.
Toilets ranged from two short boards over a hole in the ground to a porcelain urinal buried in the floor with sides on which you placed your feet. The worst had a bad odor (I tried to bypass those). The fees for using these varied from 4¢ to 7¢. Sometimes fresh running water was available to rinse your hands. I recommend following the old travel adage of not passing up a good toilet.
A lot of hotels do not have heat, but, if you ask, they may be able to provide small space heaters and extra blankets.
The weather in October was cooler in some places. In all of the places I visited it was very overcast. I’m not sure if it’s always like that; there was a lot of dust from construction plus smoke from cooking and the burning of garbage and crop refuse plus mist and fog, all adding up to smog.
Everywhere, people were spitting. This is something I am not used to and I found it disturbing. I do have to qualify this, since the longer I stayed, the more of a mucous problem I developed, but I had a good supply of Kleenex.
Most older and middle-aged people smoked cigarettes or a special kind of pipe, even in elevators where it was prohibited.
Taxis were inexpensive. A typical ride within a city cost $1.50-$3.50. Round up to the nearest yuan or a little more for a tip. A guide negotiated a 2-hour taxi trip for me to a village outside of Kaili for $20. I added $3 for a tip because I stayed a little longer than planned.
Trains and buses are available to connect small and large cities at nominal costs. However, it is difficult for a visitor to use them, since all the signs at the stations are in Chinese except for times and the numbers of gates.
I took a train and a bus once and had someone from the hotel go with me to the station to help. He bought the ticket and took me to the gate from which the bus was leaving and then even put me in a seat to be sure I was okay. At the train station, I, luckily, found someone who was going on my train to help me even though she could not speak English.
Most people were kind and tried to help, but I found it difficult to convey the concept of what I wanted, even though, after many years of travel, I am proficient in hand signs and pidgin English.
The people liked it when I said “Thank You” in Chinese, so I advise learning that phrase.
Many Chinese people love to tour their own country, particularly national parks and places like silver-crafts villages. In some places on my itinerary there were as many as 20 to 50 buses carrying up to 50 passengers each visiting along with me. When it was so crowded with people, it could be very disheartening; however, these parks are usually large enough that they can absorb large numbers of people. Parks are less crowded early in the morning.
Worth visiting, the national parks and countryside are beautiful, filled with gorges, rivers, waterfalls and farming terraces. The difficulty I had was finding a place along the road where the driver could stop the van so I could take pictures.
Do extensive research before selecting a travel agent. Find one who has recently been to the places you want to go and who specializes in that area.
If you share my interests, don’t pick an agent who caters to locals; you don’t want to end up at a place swamped with tour buses. Make sure the agent understands that you want to go to places off the beaten track, where people still live and work the same way they did many years ago. Say that you want “authentic” villages.
In the minority areas, it’s desirable to go when there are festivals taking place. In Lusheng, while I was attending the Sisters’ Rice Festival, my presence as a foreigner was so unusual, the Chinese were taking pictures of me rather than the other way around.
In Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, some of the people still wear traditional costume and continue in the old ways of farming and making batik fabrics. But there are lots of highways, massive bridges and high-rise buildings under construction in China. The rate of change is brisk, so if you want to see some of the older ways, go soon!
JOYCE BRUCK
Ocean Ridge, FL