Send me somewhere east of Suez.

[Seagull]

Well folks, its been quite an education, following the forums.

Like I said at the very outset, it seems strange for me, to have this need for the woods; by osmosis, I have learned a whole lot more than I could have imagined.

I,m off to China, tomorrow.
Hopefully, I will get a spell of leave, around Xmas.

Looking forward , already, to being back on this site, around then.

Regards to all.

Seagull

 

[Kim]

Well, China Eh,

Why don't you start off with some good old Green tea and then you can work your way onto nettle!!!

Have a fantastic time, we'll still be here when you log back on!

 

[Paganwolf]

Stay safe Seagull, have a good flight hope your arms dont get to tired, take care matie

 

[TheViking]

Remember that 'No' is the most rude word you can say down there.

 

[Adi007]

Have a good time Seagull and see you around soon!

 

[JakeR]

Good luck!

 

[philaw]

Seagull, are you still in China? I'm going there in a month, and want to learn bushcraft skills whilst I'm there. Finding somebody that has done this, and can give some advice would be very useful.

 

[Ed]

I've just had a quick scout about on the internet and it seems that the chineese PSB doesn't like individuals setting up a campsites and there are no official campsites :-(

A few tour companies (specializing in foreign tourists) do have permission to run camping expiditions though these are likely to be expensive.

Let us know how you get on

Ed

 

[Seagull]

Wotcher Philaw, No I aint in China just now, I made it back home about 9 days before Xmas.

Mmmm, personally ,I would be very very canny with thought of Bushcrafting, or even camping out there, unless I was with a large organised group of likeminders and , preferably, a guide, or at least someone who was fluent in one of the dialects in the area you are thinking about.
Thing is, you get away from the large cities and you would be surprised how few folk speak the Pinyin.

The tourist bods, in where I was working, just do not encourage you to go wandering about.

I put something similar, to a few of the ex-pats and they all said, dont even think about it.

PM by all means, but, truly, t,aint something I would consider doing, not for all the tea in China, nettle, green or other.

Apart from anything else, I,m convinced that all pedestrians are considered fair game and crossing any roadway, is liable to take years off your appointed term.

Honest mate, take a doddly drive through Dalby!

regards
Seagull

 

[philaw]

Thanks for the advice, Seagull. I spent nine months in China learning chinese, and may have my wife with me [who is chinese], so I'd be confident about surviving. I've seen enough of the country to know that the police in China, when they come across westerners, don't really know what to do and are wary of being embarassed. I have a great picture of me making friends with a 30 year old army officer on a train, who wouldn't shut up. A police officer on the same train asked me how much police got paid in Britain, then told me to go and watch my stuff, because the train would stop soon.

The main thing is going to be finding the right place for it. I might have to get way out into the wilderness, where the authorities would never want to tread, but that's part of the idea anyway. I'd then only have to worry about the natives, and the fact that the further you get from the authorities, the greater the likelihood that you'll be in an ethnic minority area where people don't speak mandarin. But isn't that half the fun, after all?!

Whatever happens I should be sure to have some good experiences worth posting on here, and it seems like the whole of China is an untapped potential bushcrafting goldmine. People forget that it's massive population is crammed into the east, and that the other two thirds of the country is desert, mountains and largely rural, where you can be the first westerner to visit places unspoilt by tourism, meeting hospitable people, being immersed in a very different culture, and have access to real wilderness.

How could a trip that starts with going to sichuan's bamboo forests and hiring a horse for three weeks not be amazing? I'm so excited!

 

[philaw]

Ed, I know the chinese police don't like people camping, but if you go to isolated areas the question becomes one of whether the people there object, because the police won't spend any more time in small villages than they have to. With a small gift, a few smiles, and a few £, it ought not to be a problem. Explaining away an axe, a saw, and a machete might be a different matter, though! I'll have to plan it well. I'll let you all know what I find out.

 

[philaw]

:super:

How about this for the last 24hrs: I quite the boring job I've been using to save up for a trip to china, thinking that I'd find an english teaching job there before my small savings ran out, and I should take a chance to get things moving. It's the next day and I've had a job offer that includes a decent salary, medical insurance and a free flat. My wife is already in the same city waiting for me to go over there, and instead of having to move to a different city and rent a flat whilst I search for a job, I've got one before I even set foot in the country, and don't need to drain my savings at all!

Better yet, I'll be in Guangzhou (Canton), and my wife and sister in law are talking about taking me on the short trip to the island of Hainan (on the same latitude as Hawaii) as soon as I arrive!!! It gets even better though, because Hainan has not only warm weather, plenty of beaches, palm trees, (and longer days than Britain right now), but the interior is populated by ethnic minorites living in small villages that will be perfect for bushcraft! It'll be paradise.

Watch this space!

 

[PurpleHeath]

man that is like once in a lifetime thing for the rest of us you are really luckly!! :super:

i have a chinese friend but she is from Hong Kong and does not think of herself as chinese at all. she is more interested in shopping.

Hey, if you take any pictures post them so we all can see just how luckly you are!! :biggthump

 

[philaw]

PurpleHeath, things like this don't normally happen to me! One of my closest friends, who's moving to Japan, landed in an even jammier situation THE SAME DAY. Her boyfriend is going, too, and a friend of her dad's that owes the family a favour runs an insurance multi-national division in Tokyo and has set his people to work finding him a job. He's just qualified as a business analyst and 18 months ago was doing data input (gas meter readings)!

But getting back to the point, I think that people's misconceptions about China and the cultural barriers have kept people from taking advantage of the massive resources for bushcraft and travel. Most of what people know about temples being destroyed and people getting beaten up by the police happened in the sixties, and it's really a different place now. I'll be pretty much begninning Bushcraft and begining a life there at the same time, but if I can help you or any of the others find places to visit then I'd be happy to. Let's hope I find some good places and can get some pictures to show you all!

 

[Ed]

And don't forget to set up a journal/blog to keep us updated of what you've been up to ;-)

Ed

 

[philaw]

Oh, don't worry, Ed, I will post a journal! I was thinking of titling it something along the lines of "Marco Polo 2: The West Strikes Back", but I should concentrate on getting some content first.

 

[Ed]

Well you could start your journal now and tell us all your travel 'plans'

Ed

 

[philaw]

It's done, Ed. I've started a journal, with a brief paragraph explaining that I'm moving to China, and that I hope to check out whether it's an untapped bushcraft resource, or if people have been clever to do it elsewhere.

 

[Ed]

Excellent :biggthump .....


Ed

 

[philaw]

Wow. I've got to share this with you guys.

I'm living in Guangzhou (formerly called Canton), in Guangdong, south china. The school I'm teaching english at is so far out of town that om one side of my building there's an endless expanse of buildings, but on the other side there's a load of trees and bamboo.

It's subtropical (flowers all year round), and beautiful in the unspoilt areas. I took at walk on saturday, and within a mile had reached the entrance to the forest. I didn't see anyone else there, and am thinking about camping out there for the night when I get myself a hammock and mosquito net. I saw a ginormous butterfly, a cricket, a little lizard, and some black and white mosquitos that were biting my shoulder.

Some of the trees had cute little leafy plants growing on them all the way up the trunk, and bamboo grows everywhere like grass (which it is!).

I went to a similar place a few miles away last week, and that area had a few more people living in it. The little farms there had fish ponds, vegetables and also ducks, geese, and chickens. Those people must have a crappy quality of life, but at least they're poor in a beautiful place!

It's so warm now that a hammock, a mosquito net, and very little else would be enough to camp out with. I made a walking stick from bamboo last time, but am not sure what would happen if I did anything more serious there. There's a very big 'no fires' sign.

Rock on!