First Impressions of China

I've been in China for just over 24 hours and I wanted to jot down my thoughts so far.


I had a loooong journey from the US. I was in transit for over 24 hours and I only slept two or three hours over the course of those hours. While I was en route, I decided to film the journey and put it together in a little video. I quite like how it turned out!

Other than not being able to sleep, I had a pretty good trip. No real trouble until I got to Hangzhou.

I landed at about 9pm local time, and it was about 10 or 10:30 by the time I got in a taxi. It was about 11 when got to the hotel I had made a reservation at. Only then did I realize I was going to have some trouble. The hotel didn't have any lights on, there were gates up so we couldn't pull into the parking lot. And there were a few security guards out front.

It turns out, because of G20, the hotel "couldn't honor my reservation." The hotel had given my room to ambassadors or other officials and had neglected to tell me I wouldn't have a room. My taxi driver called the police to help me figure out what to do. We went to a different hotel to see if there was room (there wasn't). My taxi driver called another hotel to see if they had room (they did, but foreigners can't stay there). Eventually I got in touch with my friend who was already here. She asked the staff if there was room and there was! So by midnight or 1am I got a room, which was such a relief!

The next morning Arianna and I got 包子 (baozi) for a late breakfast. After we ate, I realized I was really tired (because I only slept 5 hours the night before), so I went back and slept until mid-afternoon.

Then we set out on a mission to get a SIM card. It turns out Chinese SIM cards don't work with American phones. So I'm going to have to buy a Chinese phone and go back.

While we were walking around, a guy on a bike stopped us and started chatting to us while the light was red. We weren't really sure what his intentions were, since he kind of followed us on our bike for a little while. But we had a nice chat - half in English, half in Chinese.

Our next mission was to find our friend Eleanor. We didn't have any way to contact her other than the address of the hotel she was staying at. When we got there, the reception staff called her room and she came down! So easy! We chatted for a while in her room and then all went out (with two other Edinburgh students) to find some dinner. We all ended up getting 拉面, which turned out to be like Chinese ramen noodles.

Arianna and I then had a 45-minute walk back to our hotel in the rain. It was surprisingly hard to get a taxi. We failed miserably and just gave up in the end.

Then I only got 4 hours of sleep, because I woke up at 5am and couldn't go back to sleep. The jet lag is pretty bad. Hopefully it will be better in a few days.

Overall my first 24 hours in China have been really good. Everyone has been nice and relatively helpful, despite our rough Chinese. I like Hangzhou so far (but I would like it if the sun came out!). I hope to write another update soon when I'm a little more settled.