China Is The Most Difficult Place I’ve Ever Been In My Entire Life

It’s impossible to get across how frustrating I’ve found some interactions in China. What I’d like to do is write the F word until the character limit fills up, but I’ll try explain…⁣

It’s frustrating when you can’t speak a language, but I was thinking WHY is it SO frustrating in China? We can’t speak Albanian, Bulgarian, Uzbek, Kazak, Georgian, Russian, Turkish, Azerbaijani – the list goes on, but we haven’t had an exchange even close to the frustrating exchanges we’ve had in China.⁣

The difference between China and the other countries we’ve cycled through in recent months are rules, regulations and the money to enforce them.⁣

Rules and regulations make hard work of things – all I wanted to do was wash some clothes…the hotel listed laundry as a service, but then wouldn’t do it. In Central Asia you can bet someone will get you a washing machine somehow! They’ll sort it and you’ll feel cared for in the process. ⁣

China, on the other hand seemed like the biggest uphill battle. After about 20 minutes of google translate conversation we were walked to the nearest laundrette who wanted £13! We did not take them up on the offer!⁣

Today we’ve spent over 4 hours in Chinese phone shops trying to get a SIM card and nothing has worked. The woman in China Telecom was such a patient, kind sweetheart and not even she could help us because computer said no. She even had her husband drive us to Unicom but as soon as the man there saw our passports he said he couldn’t do anything. Urgh.⁣

We’re not criticising China for its reliance on rules and regulations – it’s similar in England and I can’t tell you how much Stew and I have fondly discussed the rules back home, oh the speed cameras, the MOTs, the orderly queues and computer says no! It keeps things safe, and enables millions of people to work together efficiently and fairly. But sometimes – urgh!⁣

The difference between China and England is that in England we can ask why and we can understand the rule, albeit frustrating sometimes. In China we have absolutely no idea what the rationale is and that’s where the frustration lies.