China: a land of stunning contrasts

From breathtaking landscapes, rich history, incredible food, and rapid modernization alongside intense crowds, a significant language barrier, and bustling, sometimes chaotic traffic, with impressions ranging from awe at the Great Wall and the funny pandas to surprise at the efficiency of apps like WeChat/Alipay and the kindness of locals. 

Key takeaways include vibrant culture, delicious food (street food safe in many areas), efficient tech, overwhelming scale, challenging communication, and very different costs (often cheaper than expected for some things, pricey for others).  

During our second trip we noticed again that China felt like an incredibly modern country, one that is rapidly accelerating into the future (seemingly far faster than Europe is), and it was eye-opening to experience it, and we can definitely recommend a visit for slightly-more-adventurous-than-normal travelers, those on a budget (everything is crazy inexpensive), and those who like to eat... 

During our third trip, we went to parts of China, we would really like to see, those were not in our previous tours. And it was again an eye-opening to experience it...

"China is a sleeping giant, when she wakes she will shake the world", or "China is a sleeping dragon" or "China is a sleeping lion", is a phrase widely attributed.

It's fascinated to see how Chinese people manage to sleep everywhere possible and in the strangest positions and situations. Some even snore in deep slumb...