It is not far. It is not spicy. It is not so hot.
The meaning of these statements probably got lost in translation from Chinese to English. If a Chinese person says something like this, for sure he doesn't think of the same thing as you (in case you are from Europe).
(1) It is not so far.
When my Chinese friends say that it is not far, they are very likely referring to the place, to which you can get by bus in one hour. The only problem usually is, that we are planning to go somewhere on foot. But hey, China is so big, everything seems so close...
(2) It is not so hot.
It is hot. It is 40 degrees Celsius. It is really hot, just trust me.
(3) It is not spicy.
Well, this sentence must be said at least once while eating with a foreigner. A foreigner (a.k.a. me) is sweating like a pig and her face got ultrared and he is crying like a baby, because all that spice in the food. But no, it is not spicy.
And now when I am in Chongqing, they are even proud of it. (And I am quite desperate, because I have tried to say "not spicy" in Chinese, but it seems to me, that they use some other dialect of Chinese in here. Or I should probably just admit, that I suck in speaking Chinese, although I am trying hard to get the right tones.)
But at least I am here. Not everyone is so lucky to get the train tickets during the summer. They are usually being sold 10 days in advance (please notice the word "usually"). When me and my friend Aga tried to get the tickets for our travels around China, we were not so lucky. Day after day, every morning we went to the train station with my Chinese friend (who has done all the talking, thank god) to ask if they already sell the tickets to the cities we planned to visit. The answer was always the same: "No, please come later." And suddenly, boom, one morning - all the tickets were already sold! (I still have no idea, how that happened, but we just accepted it and chose another route.)
Welcome to China!
But I love it here. I love chasing after non-spicy food, I love that it is never cold and I love how big China is, because you can travel here forever and it never gets old.
The meaning of these statements probably got lost in translation from Chinese to English. If a Chinese person says something like this, for sure he doesn't think of the same thing as you (in case you are from Europe).
(1) It is not so far.
When my Chinese friends say that it is not far, they are very likely referring to the place, to which you can get by bus in one hour. The only problem usually is, that we are planning to go somewhere on foot. But hey, China is so big, everything seems so close...
(2) It is not so hot.
It is hot. It is 40 degrees Celsius. It is really hot, just trust me.
(3) It is not spicy.
Well, this sentence must be said at least once while eating with a foreigner. A foreigner (a.k.a. me) is sweating like a pig and her face got ultrared and he is crying like a baby, because all that spice in the food. But no, it is not spicy.
And now when I am in Chongqing, they are even proud of it. (And I am quite desperate, because I have tried to say "not spicy" in Chinese, but it seems to me, that they use some other dialect of Chinese in here. Or I should probably just admit, that I suck in speaking Chinese, although I am trying hard to get the right tones.)
But at least I am here. Not everyone is so lucky to get the train tickets during the summer. They are usually being sold 10 days in advance (please notice the word "usually"). When me and my friend Aga tried to get the tickets for our travels around China, we were not so lucky. Day after day, every morning we went to the train station with my Chinese friend (who has done all the talking, thank god) to ask if they already sell the tickets to the cities we planned to visit. The answer was always the same: "No, please come later." And suddenly, boom, one morning - all the tickets were already sold! (I still have no idea, how that happened, but we just accepted it and chose another route.)
Welcome to China!
But I love it here. I love chasing after non-spicy food, I love that it is never cold and I love how big China is, because you can travel here forever and it never gets old.
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| Modern Chongqing. |
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| Old Chongqing. |
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| Sleeping in the train... 55 people in one big room. |
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