Hello everyone! If you haven’t figured out from the title what the next destination I will be covering is, then let me spell it out: We’re going to finally explore mainland China! This past week I was in Beijing and Luoyang, two cities which each share significance as capitals of China at some point during its history. Many people know about Beijing as well as some of its famous sites (Forbidden City, Great Wall, etc.), but very few of us in the Western world could even begin talking about Luoyang. This is something I want to rectify for everyone in my audience, as this ancient capital is widely considered one of the cradles of Chinese civilization.
Now, before I begin to take a deeper dive into these places over the next few weeks, I want to start by sharing some pictures from these two fabulous cities. It was hard to curate this collection down to just 18 photographs, so if you want to see more please make sure you are subscribed to receive all future posts, including more stunning images from Beijing and Luoyang! Plus, afterward, I want to share with you all about my experience with culture shock and the discomfort that came as a result of mainland China being such a radically different place in terms of culture and society.
As you hopefully saw above, mainland China is a vibrant and beautiful place! I was truly shocked, especially with some of the language that comes out about Chinese society today from Western sources. Most folks I encountered appeared happy, joyfully going about their life taking pictures of the Spring blooms (seriously, the timing of my trip was so lucky), or chasing their children in parks. Even so, I’ll still admit that it was the biggest culture shock I have ever encountered, as my access to Western media, websites, and apps was very restricted, with ID checks also common throughout the country. However, as a tourist, I believe that I was best served by simply observing the society I found myself in, one that is very different from my own background and did, truly, leave me uncomfortable at times. But in that way, I truly felt like a traveler. I can summarize by saying this: mainland China is a place that caters to the Chinese people, but if you can visit with an open mind and are willing to explore the discomfort that comes with a radically different culture and way of structuring society, then you can have just as wonderful (maybe even more) of an experience as you would anywhere else.
Before I conclude, I just want to say that eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed that I have struggled to maintain my posting schedule. This is mostly because almost all my work for the week is front-loaded from Monday to Wednesday. From now on I will be sending my weekly posts on Thursday, something which will hopefully allow me to keep to the schedule more often!
As always, thank you so much for reading, I’m absolutely thrilled to lift the veil on mainland China just a little bit for you all! Also, please don’t forget to leave your comments as I love engaging with my readers! I hope everyone has a great weekend and I’ll see you next week for a little exposé on Taiwan’s tea culture.
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