CHINA 2016: Chinese Food and Concluding Thoughts

By Cathy H - 9:36 PM

For the remaining of my stay, it went something like this: wake up at a decent hour, go shopping or some other mundane activity, go to my Grandpa's house & do work/get frustrated at the internet, try to find quality restaurant in rural conditions in the midst of Chinese New Years celebration where everything was closed, eat dinner, drive home and watch T.V./talk to relatives until 9pm and sleep. Even though it was mundane, I was grateful to be experiencing it because well..China is my motherland after all. However, the last few days were an ABSOLUTE nightmare. I started getting extremely sick with breathing/coughing, probably due to pollution on top of having people smoke in front of me for the past 10 years and being around sick relatives. Sigh....I couldn't even fall asleep without taking 2 sleeping pills on the last night because I literally could not breathe, and my throat felt like daggers everytime I swallowed.

I don't even think it was the level of pain I was in, but it was an accumulation of everything that was building up since February 1st when I arrived here. On top of that, probably exhaustion from boarding my 7th plane in the short span of 2 weeks. That's not the worst. The WORST was when me and dad arrived in Beijing station to try and make it to the airport on time. He insisted on taking the subway but I refused because I knew there was going to be a large amount of people lining up. And like I predicted, the line was insane and my dad was literally panicking. I was kind of standing there, watching all 4 of our heavy luggages in -20 degree weather, unable to breathe, and just wanting to die right than and there. My throat at this point was a 9/10 on pain level, and I could not even talk. The Siberian weather on top of having to find plan B in riding a limousine shuttle to the airport almost killed me. I know I always exaggerate about "omg I'm going to die" but this was literally one of those moments when I just wanted to give up and lie down on the streets. Finally, but some miracle we reached the airport in under an hour and had plenty of time for airport procedures. The whole flight was a big nightmare because somehow my dad placed me in the MIDDLE seat. The worst one possible when I asked for an aisle. It was a struggle between excusing the guy beside me 10 times to get out and use the bathroom and trying to conserve my water my taking small sips so not feel like I was going to have a asthma attack. My throat was still killing me & I had to ask for water and tea all the time. Finally, we arrive home and just after a day ALL my illness symptoms go away.

I don't want to be negative but China left a pretty bad taste in my mouth this time. Honestly, I did not see it coming. It always made me feel grateful that I did not live there long term, and for the fresh air here. Though it was a relatively good experience, there were so many inconveniences that shouldn't be necessary for a country like China. It was evident that the government doesn't care about the citizens and they were pretty much kept in the blind about a lot of events around the world. It was pretty eye opening quite honestly. Also, at least I had some pretty decent food.