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China

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Let's face it this discussion is a paper' exercise and in reality every reader has the opportunity to go to both China and Japan. What we are looking at here is priority. Since each reader has their own set of preferences on a multitude of factors, there can be no one right answer. We are only discussing this for fun.

Of course, to be able to advise others, it is an advantage to have visited both contenders. I have lived in China for more than five years now but have only had the one short trip to Japan. I may be biased towards the former but at least I'm willing to declare that at this stage.

Taking size into consideration, China wins hands down. It will win in just about every category area, population, UNESCO sites. You name it, China has more or bigger. That said, not everyone is a fan of big', and the statement above may simply be enough to put these travelers off. After all, if time is limited, many would prefer to see more of a smaller country than merely the big cities of another.

Perhaps a more compelling argument lies not in the quantity of culture but its origins. So much of Japanese culture (and Korean for that) derives from the Chinese mainland; tea drinking and Zen Buddhism to name just two. For anyone deeply devoted to The Orient' it makes more sense to go the source first, and then to follow any specifics interests discovered along the way.

For me, food has been a major attraction to China. Now, I'm not going to try and follow from the above and claim that Sushi originated in China (I haven't done research here. It may have or it may not have, that's not important), I want only to use this topic, dear to my belly, to illustrate some differences as I see them.

A list of typical Japanese dishes is a short one compared to that of most restaurants in China even small local ones. I believe the reason for this is largely that the Japanese are, by and large, a homogeneous group. Isolated for much of their history, these islanders are much more prone to agree on what is best, and to take that to extremes. Isn't that largely what culture' is?

Whereas Japanese food tends to be dainty (even the rice is washed more times before cooking), Chinese food cannot be classified so simply. Even breaking it down into regional variations fails to recognize the variety of textures and tastes that are not only available but actually essential to a good Chinese meal.

Both countries can lay claim to the concept of balance during a meal. In

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