Final Thoughts

The journey back on the plane seems like a good time reflect on what I have gained from the trip as a whole. I feel I have learnt a lot. Firstly I have learnt a great deal about China. I had already spent a reasonable amount of time in this baffling country, and was beginning to feel that I knew my way around and that I was getting close to understanding what it was that made the place what it was. However, I had, apart from a few notable exceptions, spent most of my time in the cities of China’s Han heartland. Spending time here does teach you a lot about China, but only seeing these areas is like listening to a song through only one headphone, you get a pretty good idea of what’s going on but you miss out on the full vibrancy and intricacy of the song.
It would be an utter lie to say that I now understand China, but I do feel that my understanding has at least been improved a little. I now understand, more than ever, what the statistics can only hint at about the diversity of China ethnically, religiously and economically. If one spends long enough in the large cities of Beijing and Shanghai, among others, one can come close to believing that China is approaching a level of development that one might find in the West. However, you do not have to stray far from the beaten track to realise that the vast majority of China’s population live in essentially third world conditions. Therefore, when China’s leaders say that China is still a developing nation, they are right, even though the fact that they have put an astronaught into space may make this statement hard to believe. The ethnic diversity of the place also beggars belief. Having lived in London all my life I am no stranger to diversity, however what surprised me about China is how little integration there is between ethnicities. One is either in a Han area, a Tibetan area or a Uigher area and there is very little cross over. Different ethnicities emerge like oases in the desert only to disappear as quickly as they arrived. I guess that this should come as no surprise, a combination of poverty and the hugely oppressive ‘Hukou’ household registration system means that geographical mobility within China is not as easy as it might be. This added to the fact that China is one of the biggest countries in the world, means that different regions of China often feel like different countries.
I also feel that my grasp of the Chinese language has improved. When I left Beijing my Chinese was not in any way bad, and it is not that I learnt much new vocabulary along the way, apart from perhaps the word for ‘engine oil’, it is more that I have become more accustomed to simply chatting with people in Chinese, and to the assumptions that they are likely to make behind any language that is actually spoken. I have also learnt to understand a number of, sometimes rather tricky, regional accents that make Beijing’s ‘er hua’ sound like standard Mandarin.
I have also made a fantastic and life-long friend in Pryd. Throughout the 22 days of riding we never had an argument and I feel we supported each other throughout the trip. Having contrasting but complimentary skill sets may have helped quite a bit, one thing that became abundantly clear early on in the trip was that neither of us could have done this alone and that we needed each other a great deal.
China, as everybody now knows, will be one of the defining forces of this century. Although this in itself is a reason to visit China, it is not the only one. It is a fantastically interesting place historically, politically, religiously and ethnically. However, I would make one suggestion for those travelling to China, one visit is certainly not enough to see it all, I’m not sure a lifetime of travel and study would be.