As I've mentioned on a number of occasions, this trip to China was the first in more than seven years. A lot has changed. For the better, you might ask?

Well, here are my thoughts on this from a touristic point of view (based, I admit, on what is a very limited experience in a very limited geographical area).

The TL;DR version is that I'm already thinking of future itineraries...

So, what's the attraction?

1.

Walkability. I talked about this here, with reference to Kunming. Even Dali, which was ram-jam full of tourists, scored pretty highly on this metric (you just have to walk early and walk often).


2.

Those apps... Yes, Alipay and WeChat are a bit of a pain to download. But boy, are they useful once you get hold of them... The CNY 200 in cash that we brought us are still with us, because everywhere payment is electronic (we used Alipay, but there are other options).

This efficiency does have one drawback. It was in 2018, during our longest stay in China, that I reached peak Chinese. Don't be impressed. I just mean that back then, I had 100 or so words instead of my current 20 odd... (I once scored us free noodles in Xining, because the vendor said I "spoke such good Chinese", but trust me, that gesture had way more to do with her generosity than with my ability.) What I remember, though, is that when we stayed in Haikou for a few weeks, there were lots of little exchanges with shopkeepers. (Along the lines of: "That'll be 78 yuan." "There you are. I'm sorry I don't have small money." "Not a problem. Is it OK if I give you the change in chocolate?" [Truly, this happened more than once...] "That's OK. We like chocolate.") Well, with electronic payment, all that has gone. The vendor might tell you how much you owe, but after that, it's all pointing and showing. Apart from "thank you", the most you'll probably say would be, "Is that OK?" when you want to be sure the payment has gone through. So, it's easier, I guess. But much more impersonal.

The same goes for translation apps. Chinese people use them a lot, mostly the variety where you speak Chinese into the app, and it renders it into something resembling English text (which is generally more or less understandable, although there are sometimes problematic ambiguities). Again, such apps take some of the humanity out of things. Many will turn to an app first, rather than attempting to understand your mangled Chinese. Which is fair enough, but still...

The app we use to decode Chinese text is the camera function on Google Translate. I call it a translaterator because describing what it does as "translation" is sometimes a little too generous. It is undeniably useful (as we also found in Japan). If you want to know roughly what's in that mysterious package in the supermarket, or what exactly that sign is telling you not to do, then these things work pretty well. Again, though, that stops you trying to ask...


Some people, though, use apps in a really delightful way. Like the young woman in the convenience store, towards the end of our time in Kunming. I was scrabbling to pack everything into my handy Daiso bag, and she said to me, "Man zou..." Now, I should have understood that. It is a phrase I once knew. But I'd forgotten. So I said, in my best Chinese, "I'm sorry. I don't understand." She turned to her app. The first phone she picked up didn't work for whatever reason. So she went to look for another one. We waited. Eventually, she came back, and showed me the translation: "Take your time..." We all laughed. It was one of those nice little moments...

Apps or no, having even a few words of Chinese is useful, and I am inspired to make more of an effort before we go next time. In the second hotel in Kunming, for example, we took the lift to the 11th floor, where there was rumoured to be a laundry. We arrived, but the guy in charge on that floor was convinced we must be in the wrong place, and started to usher us back into the lift. "Xi yifu," I said, trotting out a phrase from our time in Haikou (that was when we'd accidentally booked ourselves into an old people's facility, and had to ask for the key to the laundry every time we wanted to do our washing). This time round, knowing the words for "fast" and "dry quickly" also made sure helpful hands didn't divert us from our chosen washing programme.


3.

What the apps do quite brilliantly is facilitate the use of public transport. You tell Alipay you're in Kunming, and it offers you options for buses, metro, and ride-hailing. You point your device at the little screen, and you're off... Then, when you move to Dali, you give the app your new location, and you're good to go there too. We've used public transport in many different places, and this has to be the simplest and best organized system we've come across. To add to the charm, public transport is really good value...

4.

In fact, generally, this is a very affordable destination. You might pay a little more for your fancy coffee than we do in Kuching, but food and accommodation definitely don't have to cost you a fortune. Six nights in the utterly fabulous Babymoon, for example, weigh in at less than the one night at Birmingham airport that's coming up next week...

5.

One of the most frustrating things about this trip is that we've been on quite a restricted diet. This is a great shame, as Chinese food is totally awesome, and part of the fun of travel is trying out different kinds of food and drink. Totally memorable, however, is the fantastic fruit we've had here. So tasty, so cheap... Nuts have been slightly harder to track down, but when you find them, the quality is excellent.


6.

I increasingly find that I'm more interested in typical everyday life than in touristic big-ticket items. And even though we live in a place that has lots of Chinese influence, the everyday of "big China" offers vast amounts of interesting mileage.

***

All up, I'm enthusiastic about going again. With better Chinese, and with more of a free hand on the food front. May it be...