I remember being very impressed with how comphrensive and well-equipped the fourth tier city I was staying in first was. I was expecting it to be quite backward and dirty (which it was in parts) though was surprised at the amount of services, bars, ktvs etc. 

I arrived in China in the middle of winter. My first impression was of the pollution. I remember being driven from the airport to my apartment, looking out of the window and waiting for individual buildings to appear out of the haze. It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. The second thing that I noticed was how a fairly thick layer of brown dust covered almost everything, from the glass on the windows, to the payment. 

 I read that China has a smell. Thailand smells like some spice and I don't know what. When I first got off the plane in Beijing, it smelled like garbage was being deep fried.

 After my long flight I tried using the bathroom and found squat toilets, no way I'll wait until I get to Guilin. I didn't know to check all the stalls for a western toilet. WTF would they even install squat toilets if they had a choice?

 Arrived in Guilin a few hours later and after using the toilet and having a shower, I walked out on to the street. I loved the place. I walked the block to Jiefang Road and then it hit me,everybody was Chinese. I know, what did I expect, but it's different to see everybody being Chinese and so many of them. The people looked like rivers flowing. The next thing I noticed was all the women is mini-skirts. I had a hard time walking after that for days.

Nothing wrong with making love...but my first impressions were a little similar. When I came the first thing that caught my sight was the bad weather. Well this was the drive from the Airport to the place where I would be staying. I was rather skeptical of coming at first because you know Communist this and that and plus they are so close with the N.Koreans which I was also a little nervous about. I didn't really know how people here would act or react if I had done something I was not supposed to do. I didn't really know a lot of customs or laws that China had either. Most of the times I would just stay inside and go out really really late in the afternoons. 

While I stayed I've found positive and negative sides of living here. Negative would be Guys my age fighting older men/women that are about 70 or older. Positives would be cheap dvds, books and a variety of restaurants to choose from. 

No they were not like yours.

  My first impressions were mixed, from landing in the Bladerunner movie set that is Hong Kong, to getting food poisoning two days later in Guilin, what hit me most was how many kids seemed to be walking around with mobile phones and how few bicycles there were. I was also confused as I needed a haircut, and all the hairdressers looked like knocking shops.

First impressions after arriving to Shanghai Pudong airport were "this is a f**k-load of people!!" and "what's that smell?".

It is strange that so many people related to smells. I don't remember any smells i Nanning. It was just so different to California. Things were much more advanced than I expected. My son sent me an email asking if the roads were paved? The answer was:-  a central fence dividing three lanes each way for cars, paved. Then a divider with palms and bushes then a two lane, paved on each side for motor scooters and bicycles. Then a ten foot sidewalk paved with ceramic tiles, which has now been changed to cut and polished marble. There was very little car traffic, not like now. I was very impressed. Then came the mosquitoes and rats running around in super markets. Had to have a mosquitoe-net for sleeping on beds as hard as rocks. It took a bit of getting used to. Franck3