- The thing that struck me most about China was the amount of greenery. All along highways and freeways there are hundreds of trees. There are often lanes of gardens in between traffic lanes. There are gardens everywhere - formal gardens set out in patterns, roses along the side of the road, hundreds of pot plants set together to make patterns. There are whole streets of trees (often see truckloads of them coming in) that have been trimmed severly and then transplanted. In the cities where it seems a new flyover is being built every day, they come with planter boxes brimming with greenery or bouganvillia for their whole length. Sometimes there is a tri-level flyover, which also has three levels of plants. They are way ahead of this in this aspect. I admit there would be some sorth of workplace health and safety involved in maintaining and watering a lot of them. We did see a tree that we classified as roadsidia plasticus but most were living, breathing plants. China is trying to clean up is air quality
- Chinese people are very welcoming and friendly. People are eager to talk to us and have their photos taken with us.
- There are some downsides, as there are everywhere. Some of the days on tour are quite long but we fit a lot in and occasionally toilet facilities leave a little to be desired.There is lots of walking. Most would say it was well worth it.
- The hotels we stayed in were amazing. It was pointed out to me on a number of occasions that the advertised tariff on the hotel flyers was more than 2500Yuan - $400 per night. Given this, together with two international flights and four internal flights, as well as all tipping, meals and the attractions we visited, made the trip excellent value for money.
- I would certainly go back to China any time.
Roadsidia plasticus on the right
Transplanted tree
