Shanghai; China

I’m writing this post from Shanghai departure lounge, waiting for my flight to Tokyo. This morning I got a bullet train from Suzhou to Shanghai, and then went to Disneyland. I’ve never been to a Disney park before, and it’s never really appealed, but I have to say it was brilliant. The attention to detail is amazing and even I, a fairly cynical adult, felt a little bit of the famous magic. Before leaving the hotel I noticed local prostitutes had put their business cards under our door, and you could really see what you’d be getting from them.

Visiting Disneyland definitely took the edge off leaving China, or more accurately some people I’ve met here. I’m (briefly) going to Japan and South Korea but most people I’ve met are staying in China for longer. I’ve never met a group of people who clicked so well and so quickly, and I struggle to believe we’d only known each other for a week, even when the traveller’s ‘accelerated friendship’ is factored in. Part of me worries that I’m going to make this trip the standard which all future trips must compare to, inevitably be disappointed, and forever ruin my favourite hobby - but a larger part of me thinks “how brilliant that I’m able to meet strangers in a foreign country and feel like they’re old friends after a week; let’s see what other great people are out there”, and I’ll definitely be keeping in touch with these guys. Still, I felt gutted this morning so thank you Walt Disney for cheering me up!

Before taking this trip, I’d had it in mind that this would be my last ‘big’ adventure and then I’d settle down/save for a house/try out some adult-ing, but now I know I need to keep on doing it. It’s the best feeling in the world: throwing yourself into a totally alien environment, making yourself vulnerable, and putting your trust in complete strangers; knowing if it’s not fine then at least you’ll have good stories - although hopefully you’ll get both. But after it’s over it’s quite hard to return to ‘real life’ with people who knew you before, and who won’t notice how those experiences have subtly changed you. I find it harder to come home after each trip away and I don’t yet know what the solution to that is. 

China has surprised me. There are nods to communism all over the place, but the country has the feel of a capitalist one. If I didn’t already know about the restricted access to sites like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp then I don’t think I would have noticed any censorship at all - and WeChat is so widely used in China that most people don’t even know there are Western alternatives that they’re prevented from accessing. Of those that do, it’s laughably easy to get round the restrictions with a VPN, which I even managed to install on my new phone from within the country. On my experience of the country itself, I could be fooled into thinking China is a capitalist democracy like many others in the West - which I guess raises some more questions about propaganda and censorship. 

Time to try and get an hour or two of sleep now, because I’m bloody knackered,

Love Emily x