Touring China

This page is a collection of cities that I've been to and my impression of each city. Unfortunately, I haven't actually visited very many cities in China, so the list is short, but hopefully it will grow before I return home.

Alphabetically, I have been to:

Beijing - I spent about 11 days here over two different trips. It's the most polluted city I've been to. (I mean, "weird colors when you're blowing your nose" polluted!) The Great Wall was interesting to see. The Forbidden City was a complete waste of time. Tiananmen Square is very big and very empty. The Summer Palace is beautiful, huge, and definitely worth a full day of exploration. The Temple of Heaven is nice to see but generally boring. The most fun I had in Beijing was eating Peking Duck (it really is THAT good), shopping around the Qianmen bus stations, and getting cheap, delicious breakfasts from my hostel. Most people feel like a trip to China is incomplete unless you see Beijing. I would argue that China has a lot to offer. If you need a picture of you on the Wall, then by all means visit Beijing; but if you're in China touring for a short amount of time, the time could be better spent in other areas of China.

Huai'an - I lived in a dingy hotel room in Huai'an for 3 weeks while I taught at a middle school's summer English program. The city has, from what I saw, zero foreign residents. People were absolutely thrilled to see me. They stared really hard. They stalked me around the grocery store to see what I was buying. They touched my hairy arms and my hair because they couldn't believe the color was real. They took photos of me with their phones, they videotaped me using laptops, and they just in-general made a huge deal about a foreigner being in their city. I even taught students who had never seen a foreigner before in their LIFE. That experience is still common in China. (And I was afraid I got here too late - I figured all Chinese people had a few foreign friends. That's not the case.)

Nanjing - Oh, my favorite city in China. I love Nanjing. It's cleaner than most cities. It's a very major, modern city but it feels kind of "small". It has around 6-7 million people, but it's still convenient to get around the city on the metro or the bus. The climate is nice, the pollution is lower, Zhongshan Park is gorgeous - there's not a lot to say about Nanjing that's not good. I love this place.

Shanghai - It's the New York City of China. Or the Paris, London, Rome, etc. etc. etc. All major global cities are pretty similar. Shanghai has branches of major international stores. You can even buy Papa John's pizza there! Shanghai has 14 Papa John's restaurants. What more can I say about it? When I feel homesick for Western culture, I visit Shanghai. I go to bars full of expats, I look at gorgeous blonde girls, I eat pizza, and I buy imported products like mac and cheese. A year in China would be a lot harder without cities like Shanghai to remind me what Western civilization is like. I miss it sometimes.

Suzhou - The gardens of Suzhou look like the gardens in every other Chinese city that I've been to. That being said, Suzhou is really nothing special except that the gardens exist in greater numbers. It's not like you're going to pay to see all 95 gardens anyway, so if you stop in Suzhou to see "beautiful gardens," then first you should know that they're identical to gardens in every city in China. They're just more abundant and more expensive. It doesn't make the whole city beautiful. In fact, I think Suzhou was one of the uglier cities I've visited. The canals running around the city sound romantic - but the water is a disgusting green color, they smell like raw sewage, and I scoff everytime someone says "Suzhou is the Venice of China."

Zhenjiang - Ah, home sweet home. I really like this place. It's close to Nanjing and pretty close to Shanghai, so when I need some big city atmosphere, I can get it easily. It's on a train line and has more foreigners than Huai'an, so Chinese people are less annoying here with the staring at, yelling at, and touching me. The city has a few beautiful parks, a good bus system, a few big grocery stores that sell imported products, and I live about 100 yards from the bank of the Yangtze River. I don't know - it's a cool place to be. I like it even if I do complain about how small it is sometimes. I chose it because I wanted to live in a "small" Chinese city. Well, I found one, and here I am.