There are no Foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.

– Robert Louis Stevenson

I don’t think I have ever felt more foreign as I did when I spent a night in Guangzhou.  I have lived in nearly half a dozen countries and traveled to more than a dozen more, but somehow those experiences seemed to count for next to nothing when I landed in China.

I was returning to the UK from New Zealand and welcomed the opportunity for a brief layover in Guangzhou. I was granted a 72 hour visa on arrival and was put up in a Hotel by China Southern Airlines.

Communication was one of the most difficult aspects of this trip. Airline, airport and hotel staff helpfully wore name badges with stars that represented their level of English. However, I still found myself in a difficult situation when it came to finding an evening meal.

A receptionist at the hotel kindly gave instructions for a nearby Restaurant. I couldn’t really understand her but felt that I had a general idea of where she was directing me. To make it easier she scrawled some Chinese characters on a business card.

Surprisingly I did find the restaurant in the end by painstakingly trying to match the characters on the card with those on shop fronts. This was a lot harder than I had anticipated and the restaurant did not have many telltale signs that I would have expected restaurants to have.

Ordering food was slightly easier as there were pictures on the menu. There were also prices in English. When I went to pay I calculated what I thought the meal should cost and handed the waiter a large bill. I then stood back and waited for my change…until it started to become awkward. I tried to explain, and mime, that I was expecting change. The waiter eventually nodded, wrote a note on another business card and motioned in the direction of a group of waitresses who were standing near the door.

I walked over to them and showed them the note. They all burst out laughing. I still have no idea why or what the note said. And I never got my change. But by this point I was too tired and confused to try to figure it out.

Back at the hotel I slept less than confidently with this “Fire Escape Hood” staring back at me. I’m not sure if I would have known how to use it.

I was relieved to arrive back in England. There was a time when it had felt very foreign; now it felt very much like home. All in all this trip was a good reminder. No matter how much of the world you think you have seen, there is probably still somewhere where you will feel very much like a foreigner.