When English ran out in southwest China

In the southwest of China, I kept finding myself in everyday situations where English was not going to get us very far. What stayed with me was how readily people tried to help.

Adapted from my travel notes dated 4 September 2026.

When the conversation ran out

In other parts of Asia I had visited, I had usually found some way to get by in English. This felt different.

Then I discovered that my confused expression was apparently an international language.

People I met would step in and start helping: explaining, drawing things out, trying to get a bus ticket or a train ticket sorted.

Possibly a ticket to the Maldives next. Not on this occasion. Although, to be fair, I had not planned that trip the previous time either.

A lot of help, and a little confidence

I had even volunteered as a translator for a Russian-speaking traveller we had met. Volunteered is doing some heavy lifting here: my confidence was rather ahead of my qualifications.

We ended up agreeing that this amount of spontaneous assistance would have surprised us back home.

The people I encountered seemed to see a foreign visitor looking lost and simply decide to help. I was very grateful for it.

One part of a big country

When I wrote this, I had not yet reached Shanghai, Beijing or the other large cities on my list. These were my impressions of the southwest, on that part of the trip.

It would be silly to turn them into a rule for all of China. But as a memory of the journey, the patience of the people I met is one I would keep.

There are more small details from this trip in the things I would bring home from China.