China

China, what can I say. We arrived in the middle of the night. Were yelled at by a customs official at the airport for not filling out a form that he didn't even look at when we gave it to him. Spent an hour in an unairconditioned taxi breathing in fairly offensive smells. The amount of traffic at 2am in the morning was amazing. There was 2 lines of trucks waiting to cross the borders that was hundreds of trucks long, all blasting their horns. Taxi driver then added an extra 50 Yuan to the price he had quoted us. No one in the hotel spoke english and we couldn't get our room. Found a lady outside who took us to 3 other hotels before we found one that could take us and it only had 3 beds.
Went to a shopping centre on Saturday it was not an enjoyable shopping experience. Every shop worker hassles you to buy from their store and others follow you around wanting you to go to their store. They are all very insistent. There are no prices on anything and you have to bargain with them. So it makes it very difficult to look and compare as once you ask the price they expect you to buy it. Came away very exhausted.
Went to a different shopping centre on Sunday and it was much better. You still bargain but you aren't hassled and their are prices on a lot of things.
It rained and the offensive smells were not improved.
All meals are ordered in restaurants by pointing to pictures. Most have one copy of the menu with english.
The chinese are very rude and arrogant and not a very nice race of people.
Shenzhen was a fishing village 20 years ago and now is a large city. Most of the population are under 30 and come from other areas. It is supposed to be a bit of tourist area but leaves a lot to be desired.
Went throught the border into Hong Kong (lots of paperwork and checking)and caught a train. Pretty good system. Hoping to go on Chinese junk ride and to the Peak Lookout on Thursday. Everything going well can't say anything else. More detailed update when we get to Bangkok.