Parents

After last week’s frustration this time a much happier post about a nice small holiday with my parents. Off course it was really good to see them again and besides that we had a very special holiday.
My mom was happily surprised by China, I guess that after a lot of critical stories from me and my dad, her expectations might have been a bit low. But she found most Chinese people very friendly, despite having very different attitudes towards social customs, like spitting on the ground, not saying hello in the supermarket to the shop assistant and so on. They also enjoyed the Chinese food more than they expected. But for my dad this, might also because he was in much better company than he usually is in China.

I showed my parents around the city of Wuhu which took some more time than expected, cause for them there were still a lot of interesting things to see. Maybe that’s not really because of Wuhu, but will be the same with every smaller Chinese city, when you come from such a different country like Holland. My mom really loved the old traditional street markets, and both my parents were amazed by how fast the Chinese destroy old buildings and build some new ones. I remember that in my first weeks in Wuhu, this was also one of the things which made the most impression on me. For example the hotel they stayed in wasn’t even a year old, and the number of buildings being destroyed on the way from the bus station to the hotel were too many to count on one hand, or two. Maybe with the three of us we could manage. But simply said, in these smaller Chinese cities it just feels like there demolishing and building everywhere. It’s also because the way they destroy a building is very different than in Europe. In Holland they usually try to repair old buildings, but here they just destroy it and build a new one. It’s probably because it makes room for more jobs, and limits unemployment a bit. In Holland building like this would be impossible cause it would be way too expensive and there would not be enough people as well.



For the trip to Huang Shan, the Yellow mountain, I really need to figure out how to upload pictures on my blog. Cause this was definitely the most beautiful nature I’ve seen in China so far. Although I have to say that it was also the first time I’ve seen nature in China. However there are a lot of Chinese who believe this is the most beautiful mountain in China. We went two days to this mountain and we were extremely lucky with the beautiful weather those days. The weather was very clear and sunny which made up for a really pleasant trip to Huang Shan. The first day we were there was on Thursday, and it was not that busy (not for China that is), but the next day on Friday it was really busy and walking around was a lot less relaxed with all those big groups of Chinese tourist walking in front and behind us. So for anyone thinking of going to this mountain, I advise you to go between Monday and Friday.

Apart from the beautiful mountains we climbed, we were amazed by how the Chinese made this national park. They build stairs all the way up to the mountain, which might sound easy, but these mountains are very steep, and it should have been impossible to make those stairs using machinery, without destroying the original landscape. So that means it’s all handmade. How many Chinese people have worked building this park? The result is very impressive, it’s possible for the oldest Chinese people to climb this mountain, thanks to those stairs and cable cars.

All in all a really nice holiday, and now my last days as a teacher, before my big holiday. I’ll put the photo’s up as soon as I found a solution. Or as soon as, China lets me access this site in the normal way. I hope that will be after the 4th of June, although the first of October might be a bit sensitive as well, cause at that day the Communist party will celebrate its 60th anniversary.