Banned in China > by Larry Beethoven, edited and compiled by the Pink Wizard

Like forks and spoons, blogspot is banned in China.

So Larry has sent me what he has to say, and I am to post it for him. Here it is:

Initial Impressions of China> Travels

Most of you reading this have been to a Chinatown in a Western city,whether it be in NYC, San Francisco, Toronto or London. An island of something different in a sea of white people. Well what I have seen so far looks a lot like those few blocks of Chinese writing and Chinese food. It's just a lot grubbier and chaotic and those blocks stretch into cities with many millions of people. Chinese people. Chinacities in a Chinacountry. Did you know there are more Chinese people in China than anywhere else in the world? It's a fact. I looked it up and I have anecdotal evidence to back that up. So my initial impressions, disregarding getting my wallet stolen:-People here are pretty nice. If they do speak English they will go out of their way to talk to you and help you when you need it. That said, it can be very difficult at times to find an English speaker. Strangely, several people have offered to help in an unusual dialect of Welsh.
When I walk down the street people all look at me and often smile and say hello. It's always a strange feeling to be an item of interest, as I often am in places that don't see to many foreigners.

-It is a stereotype in the US that Chinese Americans drive poorly.Well Chinese Chinese people are frighteningly appalling drivers, or to put it kindly, daring. My taxi driver usually passed slower moving cars by crossing into oncoming traffic. On a six lane highway. Yup. He also would beep his horn constantly.

-Getting from city to city is very difficult. Ticket sellers for buses and trains never seem to speak English and even if you get someone to translate for you, seats always seem to be sold out or a route non-existent. For instance, I am stuck in Qufo for an extra day because there are no sleeper train tickets available tonight. It took me me several hours to find this out.

-They like to spit. I think Mao gave them spit amnesty during the cultural revolution.

-Things here are cheap and there is always room to bargain. I boughta "I climbed Tai Shan" T-shirt for $1.50 and my hotel room costs $8.Bargained down from 10 dollars and $30 respectively. Dinner lastnight cost $1.

-Chinese people know who Andre Agassi is and think I look like him.

-The sites here are really really old. I just went to a huge forest that is exclusively a graveyard for Confucius and his descendants.All 100,000 of them. That's 2,500 years of one family being buried inone place. It's quite amazing and unique. The Mountain that i climbed yesterday was also climbed by Confucius 2,500 years ago.

-All developing nations have wild street dogs. Luckily the ones in China seem to all be very small and puntable.

-I have been asked about 10 times so far to pose in pictures withother people. Maybe they think i am actually Andre Agassi? If that'sthe case I am going say, "You've got to be kidding me!" and tell them I am in fact Vin Diesel.