China

[Bod]

I love to travel and often go it alone, but a friend of mine said she would like to accompany me so we got together and eventually decided on China. Neither of us have been anywhere even close and got Intrepid Travel who do very lucrative tours.

My friend has a partner that she lives with but he will not fly and has no desire to leave the UK. She's gone abroad without him a few times and it's never been a problem.

So I was quite shocked last night when he tore strips off me for deciding to go to China. He says he can't understand why I would go to a place with the worst human rights in the world, where they skin dogs alive etc etc. That my visiting is putting money into an economy that supports executions for minor crimes. He got so angry that he was shouting, standing up and waving his arms about, he was that mad about it. He was that vile and threatening I was stunned.

I certainly don't deny that bad things happen there, but is this a reason not to visit a country? I want to see it for myself, get to know random general members of the public, feel the cities and visit the old stuff. I'm curious to see far away places and China has always intrigued me, but now Im wondering, is this guy right? Or is he jealous? Im just not sure.