Well, after two and a half days back home, I feel a lot better, although I'm still ill-which is why I had to come back from China early. Ten days early.
I nearly gave my boyfriend a heart attack when I called, i think.

so. China. Not my cup of tea.
Thing is, the trip might just have been spoiled by the fact that nothing could be done without Shuang's mother, except when in Guangzhou-which is probably why Guangzhou was the bit I liked best.
It was unbearable.
My normal friend morphed into a little girl who couldn't-and practically wasn't allowed to-do anything without her mother. It drove me very insane.
And oh, being treated as an alien, all the time, is horrible. I'd never imagined it would be this bad.
I felt like a monster from some freak show.
Also discovered my chinese was even worse than I thought, so felt quite isolated.

It was a fascinating trip,but a sobering one.