We have crossed the gate of China with a slight thrill. Previous hitch hiking, hospitality and other rules may no longer be valid. With only ‘ni how’ (‘Chinese) and ‘she she’ (‘thanks’ in Chinese) in our language stores, we had no idea of upcoming events. Back in Lithuania some people were rather had no positive forecast for hitch-hiking in China. This surely sounded like a good challenge for us.

Kinija kontrastingiausia mūsų regėta šalis. | China - the most diverse country we have ever seen.

Journey through this land was a long meditation throughout nature diversity and city madness. Both newly built houses and shabby homes on poles were with elegantly raised roof endings, which is an ultimate Chinese signature. Cities and towns welcomed with either old fashioned blue-redish gates, or modern designed toll gates.

In the north west China is very similar to Kyrgyzstan. Later we fried in Gobi desert. In the mid of China we got surprised how inventive people were to use uncomfortable mountain spaces, turning them into fertile terraces. All of them were bright coloured and looked outstanding. Perhaps this land is the most beautiful in spring with cherry and apple trees in bloom. In south east we enjoyed karsted mountain in Guangxi region.
Finally when we thought to have said the final bye to the Asian hospitality back in Kazakhstan, in fact China again surprised us a whole lot.

In 3 weeks we have made 6.5 thousands of kilometres, though the journey did not seem to be long. Desert tornadoes and sand storms were replaced by fertile mountains and watery rice fields. When you get used to the jungle madness, the land suddenly turns into terra cota with tall and thin trees. Just after having crossed the border, we slept near the frozen lake with winter jackets, and in south east we struggled with humid heat and drank water like crazy.

Ryžių laukuos. | Rice fields.

China happens to be one the most progressive countries in the world. Having the biggest army, the second best economy, being the biggest exporter and none the less importer. Infrastructure grows here sharply, hence trucks form a non ending chain on the roads. The entire country like a big building site – just newly born skyscrapers and future roads and bridges. Wind mills, sun panels and dams producing electricity. Though the air is heavily polluted and majority of locals wear nose-mouth masks.

On the contrary, we have noticed plastic and quickly breaking trucks. Drivers were unhappy in struggling to change the gears or spending hours to fix vehicles on the road. And when you think, you came to a brand shop, it does not necessarily mean you will get quality goods. Familiar product names are changed very closely to those which we normally know. Crocs become croos, Rayban – Raybau, Monblanc – Montblonc, Adidas – Adibas, and Sony – Sonie. Does anyone really care about such minor errors?

People

Šventyklos prižiūrėtojas. | Temple guard.

When we say Chinese, we often think of Han ethnic group. But then we would need another 55 groups across China. In the west we still met uigurs – the Turkic group presenters. In the mid China, Linxia or otherwise called Chinese Mecca there are hundreds of mosques, which belong to Chinese Muslim Hui group.
In southern parts some women wore extremely colourful clothing and socks. Though differently from previous countries you can often see women in shorts or tiny skirts.

Giggling, polite and smiling, and always rushing to help you. Some time ago in Beijing I had a very unpleasant tea-scam experience, and took this pesky luggage with me. All this soon evaporated when we finally experienced tourist free, curious and friendly China.

Rarely our met Chinese knew English, but often they had some friends with some knowledge who helped us to explain where are we going. We had very positive acquaintances with policemen too. Some wanted to take pictures with us, hitching a bus for us, helping us with our luggage or supplying water for our journey.

Šventyklos žmonės | Temple people.

Hospitality was very honest and not requiring any emotional reward. They did all from their hearts. Drivers always used to buy us water, ice tea, and often host us with dinner. One humble manager brought us home to have dinner. Soon he offered a hotel for us, which was a huge contrast with a previous night, where we slept in some neglected house with spiderweb curtains.

As we travel to off beaten tracks, people happen to be curious and turn back often to look at those strange travellers. Some came very close to observe how we fold our tent or boil water with hand made stove.

At first, you can think that Chinese are meek and self controlled. However, many of them were cheerful. Indeed, their body language is scarce, which was a big challenge for our communication. But at times they were even romantic or nostalgic. One truck driver for the fourth time was listening to beloved song and then singing loudly along. Then he called his partner to sing it over the phone.

Though spiting in public places something unique and universal. The government or business owners are ashamed of their citizens ill habits, hence you can see ‘don’t spit here’ signs or posters near schools teaching kids not to do it.

Mus priglaudusi šeima | Our hosts.

Once we have been hosted by a family too. When hopping up the terraced hills we tried to find a place to pitch a tent, we noticed some blooming cherry and apple trees up on the top. The scent of it lured us into wanting to sleep over there. But then some women worked in the garden. Even though neither we spoke Chinese nor them English, we managed to communicate a little bit, and soon those cheerful ladies invited us to stay with them. They surrounded us with care. Soon the neighbours came to look at new arrivals, and the father opened up a 14 year old bottle to host the guests. They gave their own bed to sleep, whilst the entire family slept in one bed.

In the morning we had a great temples on the hill tour. Those who look after the temples presented us with fruits from the altar. We said goodbye to the family as old good friends. Back on our road we were thinking that if we did not climb up curiously up the hill, we certainly did not have such a lovely local people experience.

Health

Begalo aštrūs pietūs, kuriais mus pavaišino. | VERY spicy dinner we had.

Eastern medicine gets his fame in the western world too as an alternative way of healing or prophylaxis. They look after their health intensively. One morning in Urumqi we went to have a stroll in People’s Park. The sun was rising, and no matter how old people were exercising in one or the other eastern way. No matter how strange they performed, nobody really cared of each other. We were the only spectators of the show.
Later the park got filled with dancing in eastern or western way personas despite the fact it was a working day.
All of them drink green tea or hot water. There are tons of health products stores and even hospitals. In one of them we bought our maliaria tablets, or better to say some bags with powder. Apparently they are natural products, so we were lucky enough to get something natural instead of damaging our organisms with chemicals. But then we experienced something a bit unpleasant and a bit uncomfortable, and that is – side effect. Once you eat one type of powder, that day you will want to go to toilet annoyinlgy often. And no waiting time is allowed. If you are by any chance in the car, you cannot wait to reach the destination. You really need to stop right here and right now. The positive thing is that usually you feel ok and you can eat everything as usual.

Kibiras sriubos vos 4lt. | A bucket of soup only £1.

In the shops you can see all sorts of flip flops with some bumps to press the right foot place so you would become healthy. Once we met a manager of a furniture factory. He showed us around his very tidy plant, and explaining about the products he was so proud of a raw material that they were using to produce the items. ‘It’s a camphar tree’ he have us to scent it. The wood smelled pleasantly, but what was more important for the manager that this wood was healthy.

The food was mostly healthy too. Lots of veggies (so our organisms got back to their normal status after the meat slavery in Kyrgyzstan). We have tried some balsamic pear (bitter, but again – super healthy) or meri fruits. The truck drivers beside their usual sunflower seeds bite betel nut. At first it gives you a pleasant chill in your mouth. Then it forms some strange lump deep in your mouth.

Hitch hiking

Tranzavimas nelengvas - nuolat bekintanti kelių raizgalynė. | The hitchhiking was not easy - ever changing road jungles.

To stop the cars in China is very easy. Maybe truck drivers were reluctant to stop however they always curiously observed nearly dropping out of the vehicles. Though the hardest job followed after the car stopped. We only knew few mere phrases, and their gestures are no way even close to those of Iran or Turkey. Hence there was one big challenge to explain where we are going. Sometimes they try to explain it twice – in other maybe easier Chinese words. But that did not help us at all.

China has 1.4 billion inhabitants. The desert and mountains are uninhabited, leaving some parts of China hugely populated. Even ‘small’ city could easily race with some countries capitals. So walking through some of thouse cities is a painful experience.

It is one of the most progressive countries, whose infrastructure grows rapidly. Hence if you think you have 2008 map and it will be ok to use it, forget it. Even 2010 cannot reflect all of the highway systems. This country is a true beast.

Nature

Traveling from one region to the other it seemed like going from one country to the other. Tian Shan in the very west part, then the heat of the Gobi desert. Sometimes the mountains appeared from nowehere with their snowy caps. In some places sand whirpooled into small tornados. Then we met sand storm which covered cars in a thick layer.

Team LT.

Sometimes getting lost may bring some use. One our driver was extremelly unfocused – on the way he even managed to hit the motorcycle driver. Luckily, the victim got up, hence the car owner got out of situation just paying him some money. He was obviously in hurry, so hastily was running up and down the hills roads. The views were magnficent – terraced mountains in the background of the lake. However, the road was wrong so the guy needed to reverse. Another road ended up with a ferry over the lake. We were happy – free ride from one Liuijiaxia reservoir side to the other.

Non – highway roads were the best to feel connected with the nature. Hundrends of kilometres we lived the river life. We woke up and went to sleep near it. The mountains and valleys were breath taking, some of them even taking us back to the Scotland memories. Some drivers had a great music taste, so our journey was accompanied by soft and melodic chinese tunes.

We also visited tourist beloved Guangxi region with karsted mountains and jungles. Fortunately managing to find picturesque places with no people around was the best experience. Otherwise we feel that such places are not for us anymore. We need people without masks, and even simple beauty has its own pearls.

Sleep

Mūsų nakvynė per audrą: tiltelis-šventyklėlė. | Our night shelter over the storm: temple-bridge.

Couchsurfing (www.couchsurfing.com) is not popular at all, so the next three weeks were mainly slept in the nature. Sometimes we found quite interesting places to rest like bridge-temple, or temples somewhere in the mountains, in the corn fields or neglected houses, near the rivers or in the building sites.

On the way to Laos

We thought to reach Laos that morning, but when we brushed our teeth in our sleeping place near the jungle, some young people drove past and stopped to have some rest. After hearing our story, they took us to give a lift and on the way invited us to an elephant reservoir. We haven’t seen elephants that day, but from the cabins above the jungle we meditated the beauty of the leafy forests. After having had a delicious dinner with our new friends, we reflected if we could have afforded such detour ourselves, whether we would have appreciated the experience that much.

We left China with hundreds of great memories and positive feelings. On the way to Laos.