China, 2009.

7 Things I like about my holiday in China?

07. Inner Mongolia
We spent three days travelling in Inner Mongolia, and my eyes were opened to a truly different way of life to the one I live. The people of Mongolia operate with the basic of technology, choosing to do most things by hand: hunt for their food, prepare their food, entertainment (singing and instruments seemed to be their main source of fun), and their light was provided by fires. I couldn't get used to most of the taste of their food - the lamb was really chewy and made me wanna chunder, but I really did admire the effort they made for their visitors. My brother and I hung about in the farm place for a day with the lambs and baby cows and they were so precious that we wanted to take one back to England with us!

06. Some of the food
Very precarious this one, as I don't like a lot of meat, and perversely, what little meat I do consume is always the most crudely cooked Macdonald's meal. 'Twas the same in China - the cheapest, crappest, most rudimentary meals tasted like heaven to me (sweet and sour chicken owns my life, k), whereas the big plates that the restaurants were famed for often left me wanting. Thankfully, everyone else was so busy devouring the poncy food that I didn't have to. The highlight of the various ailments I consumed over the 22 days in China? Why, that would be the cake platters of this buffet that me and the brother went to twice. Absolutely bungtastic. Needless to say, we stuffed our greedy faces.

05. Sightseeing
Despite my wariness at going to China, I do love to travel and see historical monuments, and China certainly has no shortage of those. When we stayed in Beijing we went to the Great Wall of China, and though I was a feeble git and collapsed of exhaustion after a
few flights of stairs, the views from the Wall were stunning, as was the Wall itself. We also visited a bunch of Chinese temples, and they were call, as well as the whole load of scenery we saw driving through Inner Mongolia.

04. Shopping
As a general rule, the things that I tend to find overpriced in England (everyday clothing, shoes, restaurant meals, pretty hair bobbles, earrings, haircuts, sparkly stuff) were dirty cheap in China. At least, they were after my mother had finished haggling with the shopowners, like. However, things like designer clothes and technology tended to cost even more in China than they would back home. This did not stop me from buying an adidas top, nike 3/4 lengths and adidas trainers in China, and in doing so, spending most of my holiday money.

03. Slowing down
On my third day of the holiday, I realized, being the genius that I am, that I'd left my iPod charger back at home. Shops didn't sell iPod chargers, which basically meant that all the many albums and episodes of Sex and the City and House that I'd spent so long downloading and uploading to the iPod had been for nothing. I was beyond pissed off initially, especially as in terms of books - my only other source of entertainment - I'd bought a grand total of three with me: Lolita, Girl with a Pearl Earring and The Go-Between three tried-and-tested favourites). However, it turned out not to be too bad; what with all the travelling, museums and art galleries we went to, meals and meeting of people that we did, I barely had a second free anyway. If you'd told me at the start of the holiday that I was to go three weeks without British telly, the internet and my iPod, I would have screamed, but I managed it, and in doing so, I had time to stop, pause and take in my surroundings, something I haven't done in a long, long time.

02. Being with the family
I stayed with my grandparents in Yang Ling for about a week. I love them a lot. I also saw my baby cousin Mo Do, who was too precious or words, as well as my only female cousin, Rei Rei, who pretty much took to copying my every move, much to the amusement of my brother. At my grandparents' house there wasn't enough room for all of us so I had to share a bed with Rei Rei at night, which obviously was far from ideal, especially as I'm big on personal space, but it wasn't too bad in the end. Everyone has to make allowances, I guess. I have a grand total of six cousins from my mum's side (two kids from each one of my mum's three siblings), and I love them all v. much.

01. Learning to appreciate what I've got
When all is said and done, this will be what I remember most about China, '09. I've always thought myself pretty thrift and try not to waste what I've got, but China, and the standard of living there reminded me of this further. people have the grimmiest, shittiest jobs there just to make ends mee. Unlike in Britain, there's no unemployment benefits and the way their corrupt government see it, if you're jobless, tough, sort it out yourself. So the streets of China are full of people sitting in the sweltering heat, offering their various services, often fruitlessly. It made me realise how utterly grateful I am to my mum and dad for uprooting me at the age of three and although I had a tough beginning in England, growing up on a council estate in a deprived area in London, the alternative would have been far far worse. Next year at University I am so gonna work my butt off, just thinking about my grass roots means it would dodge if I didn't.

And 3 Things I didn't...

03. The Roads
Every bunging time we got into a taxi I felt I should say my prayers. The roads in China are fast and furious and resolutely stop for nothing. People change lanes without indicating, change the direction they're driving in the middle of the road, adjust their sunglasses with both hands whilst driving and talk on the phone freely. I was utterly terrified every time I was in a car there, and if anything, I've been further put off learning to drive. To survive on the roads in China you need eyes on the back of your head, and most people weren't even using the eyes on the front.

02. Environment
I really, really, for all my efforts, could not adapt to this. Firstly, mosquitos developed a fierce thirst for my blood, and no matter how much repellant I bunged on or how tightly we closed the windows, every night, the determined buggers would find their way to my legs and bite. I accumulated a good 100 or so mosquito bites over my 22 days in China and would often wake up in the middle of the night, unable to go back to sleep due to their itchiness. It was hell. Another thing I hated was the sweltering heat. Bah. And lastly, the pollution. Much has been said of the gigantic carbon emissions China racks up anually, and their after-effects were really not good. In the most polluted parts, I could barely see where I walking. Sort it out, China.

01. Guileful peeps
On the whole, about 90% of the people I came across in China were Machiavellian, arsekissing little schemerrs. I know that sounds harsh and to be fair, with the government as corrupt as they are in China, one has no choice but to become a little sly for the sake of survival. This sad truth, however, shocked me. In my first week in China, I got conned god knows how many times because I was dumb enough to speak English in the presence of shopclerks, which triggers something in them to mark up the price of their items by 200% (in China, things don't have price labels so you can basically charge whatever for 'em), knowing I'm enough of a chump to pay that. There were a lot of people fawning of me and my family, behaving as if nothing was too much trouble for them, but rarely was it done out of the kindness of their heart. God, no. If they helped us out, they definitely expected something back, whether that be a place to stay in England, a good work, or most infuriatingly, for me to write their kids' personal statements come Uni application time. The amount of social climbing and flat-out fakeness pissed me off so much, especially as I've always been someone who likes to call a spade a spade and doesn't suffer fools gladly. Had I remarked about the sorry state of things in China, though, I would have been eaten alive. Thus, I had to sit in miserable silence as false compliments were being thrown all about the place. Bung had the last larf though - on our last dinner with a bunch of highflying accquaintances, I played the role of the docile, sweet-tongued Chinese girl with pious sincerity; only my bro detected the sarcastic relish running underneath.

The level of fakeness troubled me immensely but I suppose I do see why people felt they had to act. After all, a population of 1.3 billion and the worse government evar renders China a dog-eat-dog country. I suppose acting becomes second nature after a while. It didn't make what I saw pleasant, but I am somewhere towards understanding it.

All in all, an OK holiday. A feckload better than China 2006, but I think that's largely due to me; I was on my best behaviour this year. As you can tell, there's a lot that ticks me off about my home country and frankly, living there for the long term is out of the question. But I'm not disappointed I went, I definitely got a lot from it and some of the things I saw (ppl begging on the street with deformed children 'cos China doesn't have an NHS, blind people being kicked about) will definitely set me in good stead for any hardships I'm to endure in later life. But dear me, how good I feel to be back home, in England! ♥