Meeting real Chinese people and making friends

[Guittar]

大家好

After I had booked my trip to Hong Kong and China, I had an accident, where I had broken my leg. I went to China anyway with a cast from my foot to above my knee. I used crutches to move.

It was a very hot July day. Our American tourist bus was headed to Sun Yat Sens birthplace-childhood home. (Maybe) The bus arrived in the early afternoon. We pulled up to a small building on the dusty road. One of the young female tour guides explained that it was only a short walk up the hill to the house and we must stay together as a group. I looked up the hill and said “I am not going up that hill”.

A frenzied flurry of Chinese between the two tour guides and the tour (?) manager, came to the conclusion that since I could not go anywhere, they would let me stay alone on the bench. One of the young women told me in perfect English that it would be VERY helpful if I just stayed right in my seat and I readily agreed. They gathered up the rest of the tour and headed up the hill. It was very hot.

To get out of the sun, I went into the small tourist shop. They sold tourist junk, but when I tried on a large straw hat, (probably made to work in the field) both of the sales girls started giggling. I ended up buying two silly hats just to “talk” to them. After I paid, I wandered through a door to the right on my crutches.

I came into a room with about 20-25 Chinese men, some kind of bar. All conversation stopped! Suddenly one of the men seated at a table of four jumped up and came over to me, motioning me to sit at his table. As soon as I sat he poured a small amount of beer into his cup, swirled it around and dumped it on the dirt floor. He then filled it up and handed it to me. Without hesitation, I drank it.

An hour later, when the tour returned, I was at the table with about 10 people and we were having a great time. They wanted to hear me talk even though I do not think they spoke any English. My cast got a very close examination by several of them. They would not let me pay anything, but I left a tip of all the American change I had, about 65 cents. I wished my new Chinese friends goodbye and went back to the bus.

The tour (?) manager was angry with me, but his English was not very good. I think he yelled at the tour guides, but my Chinese is very bad. Some of the other tourists wished they had stayed with me when I told them about the beer!

[jbiesnecker]

I've honestly found that more often than not that's the way things go. For every horror story about rudeness toward and cheating of tourists in China (which, without question, occurs), there are tons of stories like this. I think a lot of it comes down to the foreigner's initial attitude -- if you treat people like they're going to swindle you, you're not going to enter into any meaningful or even enjoyable relationships.

Having been in tour groups up various mountains in China, I totally agree, you got the better end of the bargain