We've begun the next exciting leg of our journey: China! As the last days passed by in New Zealand, we started getting anxious about what might lay ahead for us in Asia. Needless to say, the language barrier felt pretty daunting. However, I'm happy to report that so far it hasn't been so bad! In fact, for the most part, we're loving China! Here's a little run down on the good, the bad, and the tasty.

The Good

• Navigating the airports in Guangzhou and Beijing was almost easier than some airports back home. Not only were the signs in English, there were attendants everywhere that instructed passengers where to go before you even had a chance to wonder.
• Most of the people we've met have been very friendly and many speak a bit of English (better than we speak Mandarin, that's for sure!). Even the people who don't speak English do their best to communicate with us and never seem frustrated or annoyed. My favorite person is the man down the street from our hostel who stands in front of his shop all day and well into the night clapping and selling his delicious honey cake (that's me enjoying it in the picture).
• We've already done a bit of shopping and are starting to get the hang of haggling. Who needs English when all the vendors have handy dandy calculators!
• Our hostel is located in one of the many hutongs of Beijing. Hutongs are basically old neighborhoods of narrow twisting alleyways; the sort of place you would want to avoid in the states. But walking around here feels very safe as you pass by little old ladies, men in business suits, and children eating sweets on their rollerblades!

The Bad

• Patient is not a word I would use to describe the Chinese people. As our flight prepared for landing and the seatbelt sign had been turned on, all the Chinese started to get up and pull luggage out of the overhead compartments! The flight attendants yelled at them over and over, but that didn't seem to bother them, haha. There's also no such thing as a line in China and traffic laws can essentially be ignored by whoever is biggest!
• The smog here is so thick that buildings 500m away are hard to see and you can often look directly at the sun! Even grosser, little black particles collect around your nostrils…ewww.
• Menus with pictures are generally our friend, but on one occasion our eyes deceived us. We ordered what looked like a yummy meat and veggie soup. Instead, we found intestines and various other unidentified organs swimming in broth. The initial flavor wasn't so bad, but eventually our minds got the best of us and we gave up on lunch.

The Tasty

• With the exception of the intestine soup, most of the food we've eaten has been great. Breakfast has usually been comprised of meat dumplings, a banana, and bread with some sort of gooey sweet center. The flavors are delicious and the prices even better (less than $3 for all that!) However, possibly the best thing we've eaten in China (or even since we left on this trip) has been Peking duck. The skin is crispy, the meat is tender, and the sauce is simply to die for. I really hope to be able to find something like it back home.

Overall, while China may not be for everyone, it certainly holds many treasures for those who look for them.