Here’s Some Insight Into A Typical Chinese Town

We took these back in Guazhou and I’ve been meaning to post them for ages.

In Guazhou there were lots of colourful stalls. It was quite a cool town actually, just a place on route, not particularly well known and we definitely didn’t see any tourists. We stayed a couple of nights.

Watch the video with sound. I stood still and took a 360 recording. What do you think of the noise?

Chinese towns are generally, incredibly noisy! Stalls and shops use megaphones to (I assume) promote their offering and cars & scooters are constantly beeping.

I find it quite stressful because it’s all just noise to me, and I can’t understand any of it. Sometimes along one street everyone is blaring noise, which pretty much renders the megaphone pointless. When I took this video Stew had to get out of the noise, hand over ears and carried on walking. For our English ears it’s too much and we can only assume Chinese people are able to shut it out – I don’t think you’d cope otherwise, it’s impossible to think straight.

The scooter pictured is so typical – lots of people ride scooters and the roads are very well made with them in mind, meaning cycling is very safe! They nearly all hang this blanket over the handlebars and at the front of the scooter to block the wind. We tried to put some handlebar covers on our bikes but the drop bars won’t allow it.

If you’re sensitive about meat/butchery avoid the last 2 images – it’s what I can only describe as a “Chinese street butcher”. I found this quite eye-opening, a butcher in the street with a FULL cow. I’d never seen anything like it. The Chinese approach to meat is a whole post in itself! I’ll have to write it soon.