Just to give my two cents: I know a lot of you seem to hate the whole "you are the nth team to arrive/check in" because it isn't how it's done in the American version, but that's just the point. This isn't the American version, maybe it's just me but I think it's good that we set ourselves apart a bit even if we just do it in the hosting style.
As for the whole China repeat thing, they were in Hong Kong first season and Beijing this season. Maybe I'm undereducated but they're vastly different, in brief, the race could have done worse. It actually kind of annoyed me how after season 1 they claimed they had been to China (i.e. coloured it in on their countries visited map) when they had only been to HK. Cities like Beijing and Guilin also provide the language barrier and culture shock necessary to keep the race exciting in the last few legs, in these respects Canada was a lot similar to Australia and to have Canada as the last country (i.e. skip China), in my opinion, would have weakened the latter half of the race, given it a weaker ending.
But I will agree with you all on too many edited out, omitted tasks ><