By: Mela
“Once you’ve seen one pagoda, you’ve seen them all,” said one Polish backpacker I met outside the walls of the Forbidden City in Beijing.
A sweeping generalization, but one I had to agree with.
I thought of the family of four a friend and I were touring China with. They were the type of tourists who, upon having their picture taken with whatever landmark was at hand as the background, would insist that the tour guide immediately take them back to the bus so they could go to the next pearl factory post haste and buy 3 dozen boxes of pearl powder whitening cream. They were the type of tourists who demand to be taken to the nearest McDonalds or KFC for dinner. The type who stayed in their hotel during “free days” because they didn’t know what else there was to see in Shanghai.
They boasted of having been to Europe, South Korea and the US. Mama Monster, as we dubbed the queen of the brood on day 2 of our 8-day trip, related: “I found out how to order ice in French in Switzerland…”
How is that impressive when the only place you’ll ever deign to ask for ice is from McDonalds?
These people go to other countries for the bragging rights: “I’ve been to Paris, to London, to Boston, etc. etc.” But so what? What did you do there? Buy more whitening creams? They pretended not to hear when we told them that the same brand was being sold for less than half the price in Manila’s Chinatown district.
Once you’ve seen one pagoda, you’ve seen them all. That’s why it’s important to pay attention to the little things the tour guides don’t point out. And go to places not on the itinerary.
My friend and I had a long list of places we wanted to check out on our free days and we updated and revised this list before turning in for the night. We spent our mornings exploring the neighborhood we were in, trying out the street food and observing people’s activities in the park. We got on the wrong bus in Shenzhen, went on a quest for a post office in Shanghai, and befriended a funky dog while walking in Beijing. I even lost my wallet for 2 agonizing minutes to a pickpocket while boarding a bus bound for Tiananmen Square before my friend snatched it back for me.
As much as possible, we tried to eat in small neighborhood restaurants. We created chaos wherever we ate because the menus didn’t have pictures, the waiters didn’t speak English, and the limited Mandarin we picked up was unintelligible to the locals. A young waitress in Shenzhen befriended us and asked us to teach her the pronunciation of some of the English words in their menu. Of the menu’s five pages, two had English translations and one of those was the beverage list.
There’s more to traveling than just hopping from one tourist spot to another. There’s a difference between hearing the history of a place from a tour guide before having a photo op, and enriching and deepening your understanding by actually being in the place where the events took place and observing its surroundings.
If people don’t care about the culture they can get from the streets, the little neighborhoods, the markets, then they should stay at home and wait for a travel program on TV. Or instead, head out to The Window to the World in Shenzhen, where they could have their picture taken beside a miniature of the landmark of their choice.
Without any sort of cultural context, it’s all the same. After all, if you’ve seen one pagoda, you’ve seen them all. 
Mela is a Halfway Staff Writer
May 20th, 2005 at 2:56 pm
That reminds me of the time that I was traveling in Japan. I had this thing where I wanted to go see temples and shrines. After two weeks walking in and out of shrines and temples, they all seemed to blur in my mind… But at each temple and at each shrine, the locals found some special meaning for their sacred place, and it gave a different experience at each… I was lucky to have documented them in a journal, so it’s not too blurry.
August 1st, 2005 at 3:24 pm
Even in America, there are secret treasure to be found. I have had the pleasure of travelling all across the country, visiting small towns and cities and I enjoy those small towns more than the big cities because you get to really experience life there as opposed to getting caught in a tourist trap like New York City.
February 2nd, 2007 at 1:55 pm
I am glad to read this article. Currently, I live in South Korea and I am trying to take in as much as I can by traveling to different temple in different city. Meanwhile, my friends were out drinking at the local foreigner bars. They said to me one night when I had turn down their plan so I can wake up early in the morning to see another temple, “Once you’ve seen one temple, you’ve seen them all.”
The next morning, I woke up in time to catch the train to Yonggungsa, a temple in the city of Busan. Its view and presence was breath-taking. I thought about the comment my friends had made and thought how wrong they were and how much they’re missing from Korea. After living in Korea for one year, they did not bother to see the sights or absorb the culture through the ancient monuments. But I am learning from their mistake now.