After being wined and dined at high-end restaurants by my friends in Taiwan for a week, it was especially difficult for me to bear the plain, dirty looking food in china.
The first few days at my host family was ok taste wise and hygiene-wise, although they did not look appetizing. What really unbearable was the food supplied during the tours in Yunnan, china. They look pretty gorse even for local people. I could hardly ate it.
The first hotel during chinese tours was shocking. The shower was lukewarm, the toilet smelled awful, the room was cold and noise, and I really wanted to escape back to the US.
I decided to take local tours instead of DIY, considering the cost and the amount of preparation of DIY. However, the tours were cheaper because the participants were dragged to souvenirs and gift shops 2 hrs or more a day to shop. The pressure to buy is no where near time share sales pitch, but the touching speeches delivered by the tour guides were very persuasive.
One day we were told by the travel agency owner and he shared his personal story. China has 57 tribes including the biggest han tribe like my family. 53 tribes are in yunnan. Therefore the biggest attraction here is to experience the different cultures and customs of the tribes.
The owner, mr. Duane, came from the white tribe which prefer everything in color white. Mr. Duane made his first bucket of "gold nuggets" from trafficking jade from Berna into china for 8 yrs. he ran away from home at age 14 and was jailed in water prisons for trafficking.
Mr. Duan told us the piece of jade given by his father whom he did not contact for years until the last day of his father's life. The jade was a symbol of his farher's love as well as his regret for not being able to serve his father when he was alive. His lesson was cherish your elders while you can and jade is a great gift passing over generations and depreciates over time. He also taught us some tips for selecting jade and silver and admitted that our purchases will give him a small kickback to cover gasoline cost.
In yunnan, people think dark skin and big body are beautiful because of the tough surviving environment. But i think the invasion of external culture gradually change such belief.
People in china are guarded all the time and assuming you are going to cheat them until you prove otherwise. This is especially true in the travel industry. Most of the promises given by my travel agent turned out to be half true. All I can fall back on was the contract of the itenery. I have not yet met one stranger so far that was friendly, welcoming, and trying to help me simply because that I am a human being. They talked to me only if they can make money out of me, and turned cold as soon as they realize they cannot make $. This is totally opposite to my experience in south America.
China is rich financially but not spiritually. People center their life at material pursue and wealth accumulation. They lack genuine appreciation and respect for life and simplify. Their emotion of fear and worry overpower peace and joy if they ever have spare time to feel them at all. I cannot wait to warp up my trip in china and move on to Vietnam.
Another issue I encountered was 2nd hand smoke. There are so many smokers here and they are too lazy to smoke at the smoking areas. Some of them even smoked at an enclosed train and cursed by a conductor but resuming right after the conductor left. I showed up in front them to dissuade them from smoking by telling them that I am sensitive to smoke. However, my efforts worked on some of the smokers, but one still smoked in the train. I just could not believed how some people can be so selfish to ignore others and the law. I felt like a smoked fish after traveling among them for 6 days.
The travel industry in yumnan is rotten. They lie as much as they can to sign travelers up with bottom low price then drag them to shopping to get 2 rmb per head per shop and 10% kickback of their purchase. Therefore, even some selfish fellow passengers ignore gathering time to buy stuffs, the tour guides tolerate the delay at the cost of other passengers.
The scenery in yunnan was over-rated. Not only me but also people traveled from other parts if china were disappointed by how commercialized this place becomes. I will not come back. Once is more than enough.
To end my travel at a good node, I made good friends with the ladies I shared rooms with and the three guys I signed up the tours with.
This waterfall attraction is operated by a private company which smartly sets up billboards of gorgeous photos around Nanning, on newspapers and magazines. Although it is alleged to be the world second largest cross border waterfall, it is probably 5% size of iguazu falls. 
I thought the fall is on the way to Hanoi, but it is quite far away from the popular border crossing point to Hanoi. I had to transfer two local buses and one train to get back to the main route. I attempted to take the last leg via bus by begging the bus driver to allow me to stand. 
The cities, or I should say towns, I passed by were poor yet clean and layback. I took 9 hrs of bus and 2 hrs of train today. I arrived at the border city Pingxing most 10:30 pm and quickly checked in a hotel. It was a long and hot day. 
