Farewell China. We’ll miss your, umm…uhh…Peking duck?

China is the perfect place to end this incredible trip around the world. China makes you homesick. Ok…. Actually, China just makes us want to be anywhere but China. We even miss North Korea when we’re in China.

You can’t love every place you visit. Who would want to? Maybe sometimes the culture shock is more shocking (or gross) than you can get over. Looking back on this trip, we want to visit most of the places again, or at least see other cities in those countries. We want to see St. Petersburg in Russia, Mumbai & Goa & Kolkata in India, Hanoi in Vietnam. We want to see everything in Cambodia. As for China, well…. Shanghai and Hong Kong are convenient airport hubs…. maybe even a brief stop there one day.

So, with that, Ill try to make an objective list for why China is still a good vacation destination: 1: Beautiful scenic spots, 2: Ancient architectural marvels, and 3: The food is rich and varies significantly from your local takee-outee

And in the interest of fairness, here’s a list of why we didn’t quite enjoy it as much: 1: Unruly and unhygienic crowd behavior (and there are tons of crowds here), 2: Everything has been overly commercialized and “refurbished” (read: reconstructed) and the souvenirs are cheesy and chintzy, and 3: The food is rich and varies significantly from your local takee-outee (sometimes, your stomach just can’t take it anymore!).

For now though, this trip has come to an end. We had an incredible time, and all of it will be unforgettable, the good and the bad. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading so far. We’ll post the DPRK trip report as soon as we get home. The post is written and pictures are organized, but there is still some video and text to edit and proof. We might just throw in a pre and post-trip highschool-style “superlatives” list as well.

Until next time…. As Mike says, here’s to seeking out danger that’s not too dangerous.

Complete China gallery below: