If you’ve been to China as a tourist, you’ve probably had a fairly straightforward travel experience. Travellers to China tend to visit set areas such as Shanghai and Beijing. If they do go out of these cities, it’s usually to see the Great Wall or the Terracotta Warriors. These cities and attractions are amazing, and you definitely should see them. But they are vastly different to living in a small city in China like Fuzhou.

Fuzhou is the capital of the Fujian Province, in the southeast of China. It is a short hour and a half flight from Hong Kong (you can book cheap flights at Globehunters.com), and about four hours on the fast train from Shanghai. About 7.2 million people live in this relatively small city, and only about a thousand of them are westerners. Fuzhou doesn’t get tourists, it’s a normal, working city where people go about their normal lives. This means that many locals have never seen a westerner outside of television shows.

The city has a tangled history. During the Second World War, it was occupied by Japan, which has left behind some hard feelings on both sides. It was also on the front line of the conflict with Taiwan in the 1950s. During the Cultural Revolution, a ten year period of unrest and bloodshed from 1966-1976, Fuzhou had fights on the streets.

Since those times, Fuzhou has grown rapidly. It’s a port city, so it’s fairly prosperous and built up. Living and teaching there, I was a constant source of shock and amazement. Not only am I very pale skinned, I’m also six foot tall and female, so I really stood out. Walking along the street once, a man on a motorbike ran into a post because he couldn’t stop staring at me. Another time, I rounded a corner and came face to face with a local, who screamed at the sight of me. Besides these rarer events, I also had people staring at me constantly, taking pictures or filming me on their phones. It also wasn’t uncommon for random people to walk up to me, shout hello, laugh and run away.

In western culture, we’re taught not to stare at people who look different in any way. In fact, I can remember my mother scolding me about it, saying how rude it was to stare. But Chinese culture is different. To people from China, staring is perfectly acceptable, even expected when you see strange sights. And it was probably one of the biggest cultural differences I had to adjust to while living in Fuzhou.

You are reminded that Mandarin is the most common language in the world and you are the one out of place. It’s an interesting role reversal, a valuable shift in perspective when you’ve come from an English speaking country.

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Food in the Fujian Province is more sweet or savoury than spicy. One of my favourite lunchtime foods was dumplings at a hole in the wall shop that one of the Chinese staff at my work showed me. I paid five kwai for six dumplings, dipping them in this sweet red sauce that I’ve never been able to find anywhere else. Whenever I walked in there at lunchtime, the packed rows of benches went silent as everyone stared. The customers, ranging from business men in suits to teenagers in uniforms, watched as I walked to the counter and ordered. The woman behind the counter got very used to my broken Chinese and waving arms. She also learned to illustrate what she meant by pointing at other people’s plates.

I was living in Fuzhou as an English teacher at a small private school that was run by other ESL teachers. It was well run, the teachers got a lot of teaching and personal support, and the hours were great. We worked four hours in the afternoon Wednesday and Thursday, six on Friday, and from nine to five on Saturday and Sunday. This left a lot of time for resting, travelling, and getting to know the city we were living in.

Fuzhou – San Fang

The most famous area in Fuzhou is called Three Lanes and Seven Alleys or SanFang QiXiang. This historic centre is home to everything from small shops that sell octopi on sticks to silk scarves and beautiful jewellery made from shined and carved stone. Walking along the Alleys, you can see and visit the restored and preserved homes of great Chinese scholars and public officials. Many of the buildings are protected historical sites dating back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1368-1911). The streets themselves date back to the Tang and Song Dynasties, which are even older (618-1279). Walking through this area, with its crowds of teenagers on the latest iPhones, is like seeing the past and the future colliding.

And when I walked through these alleys entire groups stopped to stare and giggle. If I sat down to eat ice cream, teenagers came up to try out their halting English and laugh at me. No one was rude, and they were all friendly, but it was a strange experience. There’s a stereotype about westerners travelling and getting angry that the people in other countries don’t speak English. In China, you lose this expectation very quickly. You are reminded that Mandarin is the most common language in the world and you are the one out of place. It’s an interesting role reversal, a valuable shift in perspective when you’ve come from an English speaking country. You are in the minority, and you are the one who should adapt to speak the natural language of the country.

Fuzhou – San Fang

It isn’t often that a westerner is in that situation.

And on top of the perspective shift, living in Fuzhou had other benefits. One of the greatest things about living there was the proximity to other Asian countries. As an Australian, I’m used to being close to Asia, but it was great to be able to get on a plane for two hours and be almost anywhere I wanted to see. My trip to Japan, during my two week holiday, was one of the best trips of my life. Tokyo should be on the top of everyone’s travel list.

And if you want to stay in China, but would like to be anonymous for a while, you can catch a train to Shanghai. The fast train is clean, modern, departs regularly and takes only four hours to get to Shanghai. It’s also easy to book, using an English language version of a China travel app, called C-trip. Shanghai is a big, busy, international city, and a great place to visit when you have a boring weekend in front of you and nothing else to do. Nobody will stare at you in Shanghai.

Fuzhou

Living in Fuzhou was full of challenges. The last thing you want, on days when you’re feeling sick and duck down to the local café for a hot tea and some peace and quiet, is to be stared at by everyone you pass. On those days you stare back, conveniently forgetting that it’s not rude in Chinese culture to stare, so you’re not actually punishing them. And you eventually learn to ignore the stares and go about your business.