I better blog about my trip to China in September before I forget too much 
.
I went to China for 3 weeks with GAP Adventures, a travel company that I highly recommend, esp if you're single 
. If you travel alone, they will pair you up with another single traveller to share a room in the hotel, unlike most other travel companies I found that force single travellers to pay more to stay in a single room. This company's got trips to everywhere, even space! The particular one I went on is called "China Experience". Here's the people I travel with:
The places we covered include (in the order visited): Shanghai, Wuzhen, Hangzhou, Yangshou, Kunming, Chengdu, Lhasa, Xian and Beijing. It was a lot of ground, and we not only experienced China as a tourist, but also as people livingthere, e.g., riding on the train in the same crowded section asordinary Chinese, visiting the country-side as well as the urban areas,etc. It was more physically engaging than just walking around (biked alot). You can check out my photos with comments on Facebook; my fellow traveller Lars also took some pretty artistic pictures of the trip.
My favorite city out of the whole trip is Kunming in Southwestern China. It's not a top tier city like Beijing or Shanghai, but the weather is a lot nicer, and it also seems less polluted. It's in fact much like San Diego: dry and not humid, unlike most other Chinese cities. Tibet also is also an interesting experience, simply because it's so different from the rest of China. My overall impression is that some places of China are naturally gorgeous, some monuments are quite grand (see Leshan Buddha and the Great Wall in the pictures), some places are quite modern, but some places are also quite rural. It's really a place of contrasts.
There are also cultural differences that took some getting used, even for me who came from Taiwan. People spitting is common. Everything is negotiable like the price of the stuff that stores/vendors sell. At first I was quite embarassed to bargain when I buy stuff, but later I was told by a local that I should start bargaining at 30% of the initial price, and pay no more than 50%, otherwise I overpay. It's really a good experience to bargain, since you'll need to learn to negotiate with people in life sooner or later, might as well start with the small stuff.
It was funny that in Tiananmen Square I was approached by a lady that tried to sell me a hat for 15 yuan. I said I'd only pay 5 yuan for it. She said it cost her 8 yuan, and walked away pretty offended. A while later I was about to leave, she came back herself, and sold it to me for 5 yuan, but still seemed pretty offended and kept saying I got a steal.
Also people there can be quite pushy sometimes. I was annoyed by a masseuse that kept trying to upsell me services, and a KTV bar that was pretty unscrupulous on their billing. You just have to be very careful.
One thing I can get used to is that tipping is not customary at most places . I like the idea that good customer service is just a natural expectation of a business, rather than something you pay for; in most countries in Asia tipping is not customary. I was also impressed by how they in general really work it to earn their money, e.g., store clerks doing their best to sell you stuff vs in the US those clerks just stand there.
China seems very dynamic with people hustling and bustling all the time to better their lives. I think Jim Rogers is right when he said that "If you were smart in 1807 you moved to London, if you were smart in1907 you moved to New York City, and if you are smart in 2007 you moveto Asia."
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