Squat toilets in the most populous country
Jinghong,
China
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Rising early for the 8am bus to China I was rather disappointed with the 30 minute wait for the late bus. The border crossing was surprisingly easy. I had heard stories of Chinese officials searching people's bags and confiscating the Lonely Planet China guidebook (apparently the Chinese government is rather upset that Taiwan has its own guide and is not included in the book on China). But they didn't ask to look in any of my bags and definitely weren't confiscating anything from anyone. After a change of buses in a small town an hour or so north of the border, I eventually arrived in Jinghong around 6:30pm.
Jinghong wasn't particularly exciting and the best/cheapest place I could find to stay only had squat toilets. Fun. It was a bigger city than I expected but there wasn't much to see there. Supposedly there is good trekking nearby but since I had just trekked in Laos I wasn't looking for another trek right away. Instead after less than 24 hours in Jinghong I boarded a night bus around 4pm to head to Dali, my next destination.
Right away China felt very different than either Laos or Thailand. There was much more of a feel of hustle and bustle instead of the laid-back relaxed feel of Laos. I was also surprised that the Chinese people were much taller than the Thai or Laos people. I expected them to continue to be short and slight, but many of the men were taller than me and quite a few women came close to my height.
