Meanwhile in China....

If you are somewhat in the loop with my travels you know that I have been out of Cambodia for over a month. To those skimming through the blog or have stumbled upon it somehow (shout out to the 2 people in Russia, I see you!) it might seem that the post are happening in real time.

nope this is not 24

People have asked me "how is China?" China is a somewhat mysterious place to most of the world. China is so massive that I think my experience in China is not really indicative to what China is like. So, what do we know about China? China is massive for sure, that's a given. China has a lot of history, about 5,000 years of culture and history making for a unique experience which is really dependent on where you are at. When people think of China they think of the major cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, etc. As for me I am in the Northern China, the city of Yinchuan to be exact

Where in the world is Alex? Northern China that's where.

Yinchuan is small by China standards coming in somewhere around a million people. Of that million people there are about a dozen foreigners. This is a very Chinese place. There are a couple KFCs and Pizza Huts but other than that Western Influence is minimal at best. The first thing that struck me when I arrived here was the cold. Living in California cold is not really that bad of a thing. Not to mention that I was just in Cambodia which is pretty much the complete opposite, weather wise. This kind of cold is comparable to when I use to work at Target and eat ice cream in the walk in freezers (Sup Target people). But with that I could just walk out of the freezer, Yinchuan is a perpetual freezer at the moment. During the day the temperature heats up to a toasty 30 degrees but the mornings routinely lie in the single digits Fahrenheit.

Thanks for the heads up Governator! 

Figuring out what China is like will take some time I think. I am still sort of in my foreigner bubble almost 2 months here. Nobody speaks English here other than people I work with. With each passing day I am doing more "normal" things (got a haircut the other day) and immersing myself into the culture. I am learning the way of people, some of the language, and so far China is quite nice. I feel like this blog post could go on forever about the differences between China and America thus far but I am in no rush. I have 8 months to figure out the answer to the question "What's China like?" 

So far I have: Chinese people like to spit, pick their noses, and drink hot water. I've got a long way to go.

I present to you.....Yinchuan