We saw the above caption on posters quite a number of times on our tour to the Great Wall. We are not quite sure what they are comparing their life to, but we couldn't help making the comparison to Australian life.
In case you are wondering, no we were not in the country when we took these photo's they were taken right in Central Beijing.
Maybe, it's that you won't get the RSPCA coming around and hassling you for selling live Scorpians that are skewered and ready to eat. Yes they were still alive and kicking but obviously not the sea horses. You can click on the photo to see it in detail.
Or the health department telling you you can't cook on the sidewalk, amongst the car fumes.
Maybe it's that the crush of people and the volume of smog was overwhelming at times.
Unlike when we had to convert to Pounds and Euro's our Aussie dollar went a long way in China so we got to stay in a nice hotel.
But we still couldn't drink the water.
And who needs a car when a bike will do.
You are really only limited by your imagination as to what you can transport around. We took this picture because the guy in the white shirt on the right side of the photo was talking on his mobile / cell phone only moments before, in stark modern contrast to the old bicyle he is riding. You can just see him putting the phone back into his pocket if you click on the picture.
And China's 'One Child Policy' was really instigated because you couldn't fit any more kids on the scooter. (this was a very common site)
We now leave urban China and move to rural China and you are left in no doubt to their culture, the Chinese have it in spades!
To walk on the Great Wall of China was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.
The Chinese are an amazingly industrous people. When the Wall was built there were only 5 million people in China and 1 million were working on the wall. As you can see from this photo the wall was high and steep in place, an amazing feat!
We went to the Summer Palace which covered an enormous area, and in case you think that this is a 'dull picture' we have to blame it on the smog again, it was prevalent even in the country!
We visited Temples, Ming Tombs and Palaces and the paintings on all the structures were wonderful.
And to top it all off we went to the Chinese Acrobats on our last night and we were amazed. to say the least.
Again we were not supposed to take photo's but we couldn't help ourselves, but we did buy a DVD of the performance at half time. :-)
An amazing show.
So hopefully you now know why we say that China was amazing and overwhelming, but we wouldn't have missed it for the world. But it did make us appreciate that Australia is the most wonderful country in the World, so we have returned to paradise. :-)
