I Hate Crowds: Travelling in China During National Holidays
I really do hate crowds. Crowds make me want to hit people or queue jump just to escape from the queue (because in China, some queues are so vast and switchbacky that to get out you have to go forward). I don’t like noise. I really like quiet, empty places. People en masse exhaust me.
Case in point, one of my favourite places in the world is the Wahiba Sands in Oman. I went camping there about four years ago during Ramadan, back in the days when I commuted between Dubai and Istanbul (as one does), sleeping on a raised metal platform under the stars, high enough so the scorpions couldn’t bite, with a bare mattress slammed down on the slats. There were shooting stars all night. I was giddy with nearly perfect happiness and oh, let me tell you, I am not someone who is ever giddy and I can rarely be described as perfectly happy. I hover on the edge between frantic and spaced out and veer heavily towards the melancholy. I have a definite cut-off point for social interaction, and until I started learning the finer points of social graces it used to manifest itself as me freaking out mid-dollhouse-role-play, adamantly insisting that my fellow 5 year old friend(s) must get out of here now. I’m better now. Social graces and all.
But I still like my quiet, empty places.
And yet. And yet since 1994, I’ve spent 3 years living in London (in a shared house yet! in a shared room! shared with drunken, shagging, e-tripping Antipodeans without a 6am work wakeup call), 6 years in Istanbul, and now nearly two years in Shanghai. Three of the hugest, most crowded cities in the whole world. I’ve learned to deflect the accumulated energies that emanate from the hordes and I’ve learned how to create private spaces out of nothing. I’ve learned how to travel in China during Golden Week holidays without banging my head against sharply angled concrete surfaces. It’s been quite a while since I’ve kicked a taxi. When we went to the Shanghai Expo, I only smacked one queue jumper with a rolled up magazine. Just one.
But I still don’t like crowds.
And yet, we still went to Chengdu for the National Holiday at the beginning of October, along with approximately 1.6 billion other people. Other Chinese Holiday Excursions have included Hangzhou and Beijing. They were so overpacked that I actually put together thematic photo albums of Other People’s Holiday pictures (see here and here). I simply couldn’t take a picture without another person in the frame.
The first morning in Chengdu, we ventured forth to find the giant statue of Chairman Mao and to maybe find a non-awful coffee somewhere (not a problem, it seems, as even western China now has a bazillion Starbucks everywhere, including right next to the Tibetan Quarter and the Monk Robe Supply Street).
This is the view from the upstairs seating area in one of the city centre Starbucks.
And this was in the pretty neighbourhood where we stayed.
And this was the queue to see the Really Giant Buddha at Leshan, a few hours by over crowded bus from Chengdu (we gave up after about 90 minutes after rounding a bend and realizing that what we thought was going to be the end point was really just a pause before the next part of the queue, and then another, and then another. I don’t think it even had a final destination)
You get the picture.
This is why I have been known to come home on a friday evening and not actually emerge from the flat until monday morning. Maybe next time we should just pack our bags and head to Kashgar.
Some friends from the States coerced me into spending New Year’s with them in Tokyo last year. All I remember from the entire time we spent there were the lines of people… lines of people waiting to enter the temple on New Year’s Eve, lines of people to enter the temple on New Year’s Day, lines of people to see the Emperor speak on the day after New Year’s day. I put a photo album on Facebook entitled “Photos of People’s Heads” because that’s pretty much all I could take pictures of. Of course, this being Japan, everything was very orderly (no smacking newspapers at each other and such), but it was still pretty much my nightmare.
I tried New Year’s out in Istanbul a few times, coerced by friends who thought the nearly immobilized hordes swarming through Taksim were a good thing. They were wrong. It was not a good thing. I was generally home by ten. I celebrated the new year on the sofa, a happier place. I also tried New Year’s in London a few times. Again, no. Nightmarish.
I think we should have a photo blog made up entirely of beautifully shot Photos of People’s Heads and Other People’s Holiday Pics.
I seem to be getting worse, not better, as I get older. From gleefully flinging myself into sweaty mosh pits as a teenager I now find myself standing nervously on the edge of the crowd, flinching a little whenever somebody else’s long sweaty rockboy hair gets flicked into my face.
Ew.
Aye, same. I’m amazed by what I put up with/accepted as perfectly normal only a decade ago. Seriously, I did spent 3 years sharing rooms in London with a revolving door collection of half dozen techno-happy, VB-chugging partiers (whilst I lay on my bottom bunk and read my novel quietly…). How? How?
Learning how to “not want to kill someone” when you live in Asia is an art form. I’ve had to learn to control myself over the years (or I figured I might end up in jail!) Expo was a test. Except for the woman who tramped on the back of my heel twice, I pretty much kept it together and had a good time. I relate to your post 🙂
One of the things that nearly drove me over the edge in summertime was dodging carelessly wielded parasols. Chinese women are generally shorter than me and on a crowded sidewalk the spiky ends of the parasols ALWAYS jabbed me in the cheek/eye/head. No one seemed to notice or care that they were goring me, and when I pre-emptively swatted the parasol away from my face, they always looked totally surprised.
What a great post.
It brought back so many horrible crowd memories. Summertime fireworks in Zurich ring a bell. As does a train to Chiang Mai on some Thai public-holiday weekend. It was so sweaty and packed and horrible. I remember being wedged in the corner next to some meatball vendor, who kept dropping meatballs on the filthy floor but selling them anyway.
In despair, my husband and I finally jumped off in Nakhon Sawan, where we spent bizarre two days recovering and trying to catch another train out. But that’s a whole other tale…
Cheers,
Renee
Oh, I hear you on the recovery days… Back in Myanmar, we stopped for a few days in Mandalay, doing nothing much more than reading/drinking coffee/swimming in the pool at the hotel down the street (they were sympathetic to our needs) because we just couldn’t take any more people. And Myanmar isn’t half (or even a smaller fraction) as crowded as China on an average day.
I really do have to remind myself that I don’t actually enjoy these excursions and that if we do go (as we will, because our school holidays mesh with national holidays) then I’ll just have to gird my loins, suck it up and deal with it. A cozy quiet hotel room helps. Very glad I can afford to not have to stay in dorms anymore. Dorms + crowds + burnout from teaching = Gaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!
I don’t blame you. I’m okay with the idea of crowds but I hate how people act in them.
There’s a certain spatial carelessness to crowd mentality that I find hard to deal with.
i LOVE this. i am laughing. i thought it was only me who wanted to avoid crowds! but my gosh – you LIVE in them. amazing. when we travel, i try to pick smaller towns, out of the way, where a local market might actually be traversable. at the end of it. in the off season. LOL. great, great article!
Thank you 🙂 I must say, a small town with traversable local markets (hell, a walkable city center would do) sounds lovely to me these days… That was one huge upside to several places w went in Myanmar this summer– small, quiet, very uncrowded. I could have stayed in Moulmein for weeks….
Now that the Chinese are starting to travel…. wow, the crowds are amazing. I still can remember a day last year at the Summer Palace. I think 23% of China was there.
Indeed, at the Leshan Buddha, I’d say 37.82% of China was in that queue.
Oh boy, I totally hear you.
In fact, I just spent the entire weekend in full hibernation mode. No fellow humans allowed. It was long overdue and completely fantastic.
We were in a similar mode, though we did trudge all the way up to Nanjing Xi Lu to get a pint of Guinness at Malone’s yesterday. Other than that, it was very hermitty. Even our mere 2.5 hour excursion (which included a brief foray into grocery shopping for dinner necessities) was mentally exhausting.
I really like a decent story, I do
I hate crowds, too! When I traveled I tried at all costs to avoid them. I even waited until after tourist season to hit most of the beaches. Sometimes, sanity trumps all else. Keep enjoying your travels!
I wish I could avoid the crowds by strategically planning my trips but my holiday calendar (which is generous, as a university lecturer) is built around all the major Chinese holiday periods. Sanity can’t always prevail. I’ll keep trying. Alas!
Thanks for sharing! I know it’s been a few years since you posted this but do you still live in Shanghai?
I ask because I am going to China at the end of September/early October. I knew about the National Holiday week before I booked the trip, but unfortunately it was the only time that worked for my travel buddy and I. We will be spending 9/28 – 9/30 in Guilin and Yangshuo, and 10/1 – 10/3 in Shanghai. Any tips on how to bear with the insane amount of crowds that will likely swarm those areas? I too hate crowds…
Hi Lauren,
No, I’m not in Shanghai anymore- we left last summer but we’re masochistic enough to be moving back to Asia soon (to Vietnam this time).
Now, the October holiday week can be okay, depending on where you are. It’s transport that can be tricky. Make sure all your tickets are bought and reserved and whatnot well in advance if possible, especially at the beginning and end of the holiday.
Shanghai is probably okay, as a lot of people will be leaving Shanghai to go somewhere else for their holiday and it’s big enough to absorb a decent number of Tourists. Yangshuo, not so much, though if you stay outside of town it’s lovely and quiet. When I went, we stayed quite a bit out of town (30 min by bicycle) and just rented bicycles to get around the lovely countryside. The town itself was heaving. Nice to pass through but glad I wasn’t staying the night.
How to bear the crowds? Oh god, it can be tricky. If possible, avoid actual tourist attractions. Like, in Yangshuo, get a bike and cycle the lovely country roads but avoid that famous banyan tree or cave or places advertised on posters at the tourism offices. There will be a trillion tour buses at those places. And really, China is just interesting to wander around in anyway- you don’t need to go stand in line to see specific things. They’re often disappointing anyway.
Good luck!
Ohhhh my gosh. This is so great, and I seriously cried laughing reading the comments. Because, of course, I stumbled across this when Googling “where do expats go to get away from the crowds in China.”
I am heading to Lanzhou in a few days, where I will spend a month in an intensive Mandarin language program before embarking on a solo adventure across the country. I was so excited and had a huge list of “off the beaten path” places to visit. Then I read the reviews on Trip Advisor for each destination on my list. I wanted to cry.
I was warned about the squat loos and BYOBT (bring your own bathroom tissue). I was not, however, prepared to reconcile those conditions with unabashed commercial tourism. And since hoards of Chinese tourists are everywhere in my hometown in the US, I had no idea there were enough left in China to interfere with my perfectly peaceful private travel plans.
Sadly, I’ve decided to spare my sanity and avoid disappointment by forgoing my post-language program travel plans. I can’t even handle Costco; how could I possibly survive traveling across China? What was I thinking? My personal bubble is gonna require some recovery time before getting on a plane for the 12 hour flight home after spending a month in Lanzhou and Beijing.
I’m sorry: thanks for helping me laugh during this heartbreaking time. =)
Oh no, no- don’t cancel all your travel plans because of the (very real) possibility of crowds! The thing with China is that it’s totally possible to avoid them and to have a lovely time- especially if you speak some of the language (as you will after a month of study). The crowds are 1. mainly during national holidays, which you won’t be hitting if you’re planning for August travels, and 2. in really overtly touristy locales where tour buses can park. There are a lot of other places to visit! We went up to Harbin (gorgeous) and it was totally quiet, even during the QingMing festival. 30 minutes outside of manic Yangshuo was empty and beautiful for karst cycling. Pretty parks and temples and some old city backstreets in Chengdu were pretty calm, even during the generally bonkers National Holiday in October. You just need to go where the Chinese folk aren’t going in their huge tour buses. Or go later in the day, after their tours are finished. Or, for example, with the Great Wall, go to one of the more challenging chunks where effort is required and groups can’t fit (not Badaling or Mutianyu). You’ll be way out west in Lanzhou- maybe tour the sights out there. Go check out my friend Fiona’s blog, Life on Nanchang Lu- she has been pretty much everywhere in China and has written extensively on real, out of the way sights. Don’t skip the travels, just choose carefully! Seriously! I was writing about holiday time travels when everyone and his dog goes away. Summer isn’t like that. Go, go!