I especially was eager to leave the city and settle into sightseeing within the quaint historical villages of China. I was envisioning something similar to our experiences in other countries (like Nepal or places in Mizoram, India) where the way of life was preserved by a lack of wealth to advance or by being cut off from easy access to resources. Now this probably has occurred in some places within China – but as previously mentioned I was going off the guidebook’s recommendation and this region was chosen from a list of the top 13 highlights in China. This was described as “village hopping in the unblemished Jiangxi countryside” – doesn’t’ this sound ideal? We were about to be enlightened.

Planning to village hop we spent the first night in the city of Qinghua famed for it’s 800-year-old Bridge, a relic from the Southern Song dynasty and the historical street of Qinghua Laojie, which we ended up staying on. Although the bridge was scenic it was costly for being a 10-minute stop. And the street we stayed on was authentic in it being lined with historical architecture of stone and wood houses with the elderly sitting in the doorways peeling bamboo, but the rest of the city around this short street was modern and boxy.

Here is where we also experienced first hand the annoyances, for us, of the Chinese’s idea of tourism – package tour groups. This means groups of people of all ages, with no group less than 20, following leaders aimlessly as directions and information are yelled into bullhorns. The mention of groups!!! of tourists would indicate that the city was inundated with no less than 100s, if not 1000s, of Chinese tourists within a single day and all visiting the same small area – the historic bridge. Remember that China has the WORLD’s LARGEST population so this is no exaggerated tale.

Trying to escape the chaos, I ever the optimist convinced Mike that another village mentioned in the guidebook would appeal to our quest to find a traditional, undeveloped, functional Chinese community. So via public transport we hop on 2 separate buses to travel the ~15 miles to the next village described as follows in our China Lonely Planet guidebook, “A delightfully picturesque village, Likeng (admission equal to ~5 dollars) enjoys a stupendous riverside setting, hung with lanterns, threaded by tight alleys and tightly bound together by quaint bridges. Come night-time, Likeng is ever more serene, its riverside lanes glowing softly under red lanterns and old-fashioned style street lamps, while locals navigate darker quarter by torchlight.”

You know that sinking feeling that happens when you are dead wrong about something – well it started as we walked along the road towards the admission gate to this village. (Yes it is actually like an attraction in the States, i.e. Disneyland, where you have to pass through a gate house before entering As we lumbered down the country lane with our overloaded backpacks towards the village, we were passed by numerous LARGE air-conditioned tourist buses PACKED with Chinese tourists for which we became another spectacle on their day long tour. Needless to say the buses we saw leaving were only a fraction of what still remained. In the end we decided to stay overnight at a villager’s house attempting to out endure the day tourists. However, the hundreds of tourists with their trusty bullhorn-bellowing guides did not cease to crowd out the village lanes until much later that evening. So what really would have been quite an idyllic village setting became another mix up with the mayhem of the masses.

Being a slow learner I decided to ditch out on anymore “village” hopping and decided to appease my husband by setting out for some peace and quite within nature. Mike was becoming completely disenchanted with the sheer volume of people and had started to push for holing up in a hotel as a solution. Looking to the guidebook I again choose another stop along the top 13 things to see & do in China – visit Huang Shan or Yellow Mountain. However this endeavor had come recommended by numerous other tourists, so we were looking forward to getting back into the mountains with memories of Nepal still fresh in our minds. I will not go into the long details but here are just a few descriptive phrases that characterize our experience– human toting porters (Chinese tourists on wooden chairs being carried by 2 men), penny loafer clad feet (not ideal for hiking 6-7 miles up/down a mountain), pavement paths (no nature trails here), humanity creating traffic jam conditions (for most of the day), no less than 4 hotels at the mountains summit, and the ever present bullhorn bellowing guides.

We now accepted what the main tourist attractions in China are like. Here is one American equivalent that I can equate it to; it is like being at a large city’s firework display for the Forth of July during the all consuming rush for departure as the last light of the firework finale fades. But during the high tourist season this crush of humanity occurs at top tourist attractions any day of the week, all day long. So giving up on specific tourist attractions, which are usually in cities with little else to do, we decided to head towards Shanghai detouring just long enough for a multi-day stop at the garden city of Suzhou.

April 17th - May 5th
China

April 17th - 21st
Being Coddled in Beijing

April 22ng - 30th
Tourism in China : Disneyfied & Pricy

April 30th – May 5th
Smiling In Shanghai