I love waking up. For a few minutes (or however long I spend in my room / house really) I can be not in China. I can use the internet and be someplace else. I can read a book in English. I can think in English or French or just not Chinese for a bit, before I have to go out and face the world.
Well I would be able to if it wasn't for that bleeding idiot on his damn horn again. Seriously, unless you are dead and slumped over the horn, get out of the damn car already.
Days until I am back on British soil: 144 and counting.
Saturday 28 February 2009
Thursday 26 February 2009
My Holiday Part Four - Shanghai Again
While the weather continued its assault against China we took a 5 hour bus back to the big smoke, Shanghai, where we'd decided our last night in China together was going to be spent somewhere really nice.
* To look at from the outside, the Shanghai Hilton really isn't that elegant. Fortunately, appearances are deceptive and one should never judge a book by its cover.
* When you are a numpty and book a room for the wrong bloody night, it helps to be apologetic and offer to pay any changing fee they may have, but it also helps to have booked the Executive Room and thus appear somewhat above your actual status ;)
* To anyone wondering, yes it was a little expensive. No, it was nowhere near as expensive as you'd pay to stay in the New York, London, Paris or any-other-Western Hilton. Score.
* I don't really know what to say about this bit of the holiday - it was an indulgence in luxury for us both. Staying in the Hilton with a good view of the city, working A/C, windows that opened, 33 floors up, eating out first at Jin Mao tower (the world's highest bar is still Cloud 9 on the 87th floor, a dizzying height which that night put us ABOVE the clouds that hovered low over Shanghai), and then again in Windows Too (a much more down-to-earth establishment both physically and where price is concerned) before coming back to the hotel and crashing out on the bed that (and I quote, almost verbatim I am sure), "can sleep 3 adults" with its multiple pillows and thick soft mattress before having to get up early and make the most of the Executive Lounge breakfast (om nom nom, this was a most satisfying venture).
* Our last day together was just yesterday, but it feels like months ago already. I won't go into grand detail but there were tears and despite the fact we're over halfway through this academic year, my year abroad, the next four and a half months still stretches on into forever. I'm back in Urumqi now and really I'm wishing I wasn't. But I am, and that's how it has to be for the next 140ish days, so I had better crack on with some work and in the words of Lucy, "Learn the Chinese. Learn it good."
* To look at from the outside, the Shanghai Hilton really isn't that elegant. Fortunately, appearances are deceptive and one should never judge a book by its cover.
* When you are a numpty and book a room for the wrong bloody night, it helps to be apologetic and offer to pay any changing fee they may have, but it also helps to have booked the Executive Room and thus appear somewhat above your actual status ;)
* To anyone wondering, yes it was a little expensive. No, it was nowhere near as expensive as you'd pay to stay in the New York, London, Paris or any-other-Western Hilton. Score.
* I don't really know what to say about this bit of the holiday - it was an indulgence in luxury for us both. Staying in the Hilton with a good view of the city, working A/C, windows that opened, 33 floors up, eating out first at Jin Mao tower (the world's highest bar is still Cloud 9 on the 87th floor, a dizzying height which that night put us ABOVE the clouds that hovered low over Shanghai), and then again in Windows Too (a much more down-to-earth establishment both physically and where price is concerned) before coming back to the hotel and crashing out on the bed that (and I quote, almost verbatim I am sure), "can sleep 3 adults" with its multiple pillows and thick soft mattress before having to get up early and make the most of the Executive Lounge breakfast (om nom nom, this was a most satisfying venture).
* Our last day together was just yesterday, but it feels like months ago already. I won't go into grand detail but there were tears and despite the fact we're over halfway through this academic year, my year abroad, the next four and a half months still stretches on into forever. I'm back in Urumqi now and really I'm wishing I wasn't. But I am, and that's how it has to be for the next 140ish days, so I had better crack on with some work and in the words of Lucy, "Learn the Chinese. Learn it good."
My Holiday Part Three - Anhui [Tunxi, Huangshan]
The weather forecast did not look good - rain, rain, a bit of thunder perhaps, and then more goddamn rain. But we had a hostel booked, and Huangshan is supposed to be one of the most beautiful sights in China, so I was determined Lucy and I should at least TRY to see it.
* We moved out to Anhui Province, to a town called Tunxi about 100km from Huangshan (Yellow Mountain), which is what we wanted to see. The bus to Tunxi was about 3 hours, during which time we took in the changing views, as more mountains appeared, and the changing weather, clouds greying up the skyline until we were among them and the beginnings of rain. Architecture changed as well, bringing with it some of the local Hui style buildings, tall and white with black edging and flat roofing which made me comment that you can tell what the climate is like in most places by observing buildings - sloping roofs often mean rainfall, flat roofs often mean drier climes. How wrong was I.
* Arriving in Tunxi we made the discovery that the taxi drivers immediately within the bus station were a) stupid and b) thieving bastards. Having been informed by the hostel that the ride should be no more than 7 rmb, these guys were determined not to use their meters and instead wanted 35 rmb. We haggled for a while, me telling them they had meters and if they were taking us they would damn well use them, them saying it was up to us to haggle. Enough. "Jog on", said we, and followed their directions to the entrance of the complex where taxi drivers were taking people using the meter. The first bloke we met took us and it cost just 5 rmb. Shame he plonked us down at the wrong end of the street, and we had a nice little 10 minute walk with all our luggage along cobbles (the aptly named "Old Street") before reaching our hostel for the next three days.
* The first thing to mention about this hostel - it was FREEZING. They couldnt give us the room I'd booked either, a double-bedded-thing, so instead we had two twin beds in this gigantic room with an A/C unit that failed miserably to raise the temperature even a little. I am by nature quite warm-blooded, and even I found this chilly. Lucy is a cold little creature, if the temperature dips below 10C she gets goosebumps (or so it seems to me) and the room must have been getting close to zero. Brr! But the bed was quite comfortable, the shower worked nicely, the toilet was western and it was clean enough. They had a bar (a little expensive but hey) and some wonderful swallow-you-whole sofas; you could drown in them they were that comfortable.
* Local cuisine was, simply put, oily. We found just one dish that wasn't too thick with oil, and that was because it was a hotpot of soup - better than most I might add. Still, c'est la vie. We made bookings for the next day to go to Huangshan despite the threat of crap weather, and then shivered ourselves into bed. At some point (I forget exactly when) I put a wash on, and then had to deal with the ultimately crap A/C unit that didn't heat nor dry my clothes, and the lack of a tumble drier. By our third day in this hostel, just before leaving, some of my clothes were dry enough to be packed and possibly worn.
* Our trip to Huangshan was a washout. Literally. The skies opened and torrents of rain poured down upon us. The bus ride to Huangshan was about 1 hour, and having bought some provisions (thinking we'd be there a few hours in some reasonable weather) we took a minicab to a destination that was not Huangshan itself but some scenic rivery type place. Ah well, they said we'd not see anything in Huangshan that day anyway what with all the rain and mist. We lasted an hour. After this time we were soaking wet and wanted little else than to be back in the hostel despite the rubbish air temperature back there, and so we just took another bus back and holed up for the rest of the day while I waited for my shoes to dry out and Lucy napped. To anyone who is unaware - Lucy is an awesome napper.
Aside: waiting for the bus back, a bloke pulls up in his car and asks, in Chinese, "to where?" ... I tell him Tunxi and he says, "OK, 150, get in" ... I counter, "Yeah the bus is 15 each, we'll wait" ... "85", he says, "There are no buses now" ... "Oh yeah? Well they [I gesture to the Chinese behind me] say there are, and I know there are, and we'll wait thanks" ... At that moment a bus shows itself and indeed the going rate is just 15. In one way I can't blame them for trying, but I wish to hell they'd just piss off and leave me alone, simply because I have white skin I really don't need their hawking like I'm just some other foreigner who wandered into China without Chinese or local knowledge.
On the plus side we DID get to see part of where Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was filmed, something that definitely got Lucy's interest, so I suppose it was a win!
* We moved out to Anhui Province, to a town called Tunxi about 100km from Huangshan (Yellow Mountain), which is what we wanted to see. The bus to Tunxi was about 3 hours, during which time we took in the changing views, as more mountains appeared, and the changing weather, clouds greying up the skyline until we were among them and the beginnings of rain. Architecture changed as well, bringing with it some of the local Hui style buildings, tall and white with black edging and flat roofing which made me comment that you can tell what the climate is like in most places by observing buildings - sloping roofs often mean rainfall, flat roofs often mean drier climes. How wrong was I.
* Arriving in Tunxi we made the discovery that the taxi drivers immediately within the bus station were a) stupid and b) thieving bastards. Having been informed by the hostel that the ride should be no more than 7 rmb, these guys were determined not to use their meters and instead wanted 35 rmb. We haggled for a while, me telling them they had meters and if they were taking us they would damn well use them, them saying it was up to us to haggle. Enough. "Jog on", said we, and followed their directions to the entrance of the complex where taxi drivers were taking people using the meter. The first bloke we met took us and it cost just 5 rmb. Shame he plonked us down at the wrong end of the street, and we had a nice little 10 minute walk with all our luggage along cobbles (the aptly named "Old Street") before reaching our hostel for the next three days.
* The first thing to mention about this hostel - it was FREEZING. They couldnt give us the room I'd booked either, a double-bedded-thing, so instead we had two twin beds in this gigantic room with an A/C unit that failed miserably to raise the temperature even a little. I am by nature quite warm-blooded, and even I found this chilly. Lucy is a cold little creature, if the temperature dips below 10C she gets goosebumps (or so it seems to me) and the room must have been getting close to zero. Brr! But the bed was quite comfortable, the shower worked nicely, the toilet was western and it was clean enough. They had a bar (a little expensive but hey) and some wonderful swallow-you-whole sofas; you could drown in them they were that comfortable.
* Local cuisine was, simply put, oily. We found just one dish that wasn't too thick with oil, and that was because it was a hotpot of soup - better than most I might add. Still, c'est la vie. We made bookings for the next day to go to Huangshan despite the threat of crap weather, and then shivered ourselves into bed. At some point (I forget exactly when) I put a wash on, and then had to deal with the ultimately crap A/C unit that didn't heat nor dry my clothes, and the lack of a tumble drier. By our third day in this hostel, just before leaving, some of my clothes were dry enough to be packed and possibly worn.
* Our trip to Huangshan was a washout. Literally. The skies opened and torrents of rain poured down upon us. The bus ride to Huangshan was about 1 hour, and having bought some provisions (thinking we'd be there a few hours in some reasonable weather) we took a minicab to a destination that was not Huangshan itself but some scenic rivery type place. Ah well, they said we'd not see anything in Huangshan that day anyway what with all the rain and mist. We lasted an hour. After this time we were soaking wet and wanted little else than to be back in the hostel despite the rubbish air temperature back there, and so we just took another bus back and holed up for the rest of the day while I waited for my shoes to dry out and Lucy napped. To anyone who is unaware - Lucy is an awesome napper.
Aside: waiting for the bus back, a bloke pulls up in his car and asks, in Chinese, "to where?" ... I tell him Tunxi and he says, "OK, 150, get in" ... I counter, "Yeah the bus is 15 each, we'll wait" ... "85", he says, "There are no buses now" ... "Oh yeah? Well they [I gesture to the Chinese behind me] say there are, and I know there are, and we'll wait thanks" ... At that moment a bus shows itself and indeed the going rate is just 15. In one way I can't blame them for trying, but I wish to hell they'd just piss off and leave me alone, simply because I have white skin I really don't need their hawking like I'm just some other foreigner who wandered into China without Chinese or local knowledge.
On the plus side we DID get to see part of where Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon was filmed, something that definitely got Lucy's interest, so I suppose it was a win!
My Holiday Part Two - Zhejiang [Hangzhou]
Following on from Lucy's arrival and our first night in Shanghai, here is a brief summary of what happened when we went to Hangzhou (in neighbouring Zhejiang Province).
* Day two was spent getting to Hangzhou. Maybe we should have gone to Shanghai South Railway station (I thought there were more trains from Shanghai Railway station though) or got the bus, who knows, we ended up at Shanghai railway with 4 hours before the next train to Hangzhou (this around 1130 as well!) and all our bags so half our afternoon was spent in the waiting lounge just chatting, fidgeting, reading, taking photos and playing games ... great, come to China, sit in a waiting room. But she didn't seem to mind :) Arriving in Hangzhou we finally found the taxi queue and it was long. Not as long as it took to get to our hostel though - the driver missed the destination and we found ourselves walking up a road with no real idea where the place was; luckily we were only a few minutes off target.
* The hostel in Hangzhou was lovely - we had a great room with a four-poster-bed, a showerhead which looked like the sun was raining on us, and A/C that really worked! Cheaper, and better than the hotel. What more could we want? The hostel had a deal with a local restaurant and we got 10% off our meal, so of course we went there the next night as well (though for some reason on that occasion one of the staff felt the need to come over to our table and attempt to talk with us. Actually not with us. Just with Lucy, his first words in English being, "Are you very beautiful?") ... one thing that surprised me was all the restaurants shut at about 2200, which was a bit awkward if you wanted a late meal ... and there were no local shops either. Hmm.
* Our second day in Hangzhou took us to West Lake where we dallied for a long while on the causeway, stopping frequently to admire the views and just hang out together on benches. With your back turned few people notice you are foreign, and so we enjoyed some quiet time. Lunch was reasonable, and then we took a walk to Long Yin Temple (I think that's the name anyway) - should really have taken a taxi but I thought it was closer than it was. Ah well we got exercise at least! And the day was beautiful for walking. We had just enough time for a quick (45 minute) look around one section of the complex, a place I'd been to in 2006, and then they were closing the gates. A young couple gave us a lift back to the hostel for free (they said they were going to Shanghai anyway and the man's logic was that if he was in England I would do the same for him, which is true), which saved all that stupid haggling with rip-you-off-given-half-a-chance "taxi" drivers.
With bad weather approaching, we set out the next day for Anhui Province.
* Day two was spent getting to Hangzhou. Maybe we should have gone to Shanghai South Railway station (I thought there were more trains from Shanghai Railway station though) or got the bus, who knows, we ended up at Shanghai railway with 4 hours before the next train to Hangzhou (this around 1130 as well!) and all our bags so half our afternoon was spent in the waiting lounge just chatting, fidgeting, reading, taking photos and playing games ... great, come to China, sit in a waiting room. But she didn't seem to mind :) Arriving in Hangzhou we finally found the taxi queue and it was long. Not as long as it took to get to our hostel though - the driver missed the destination and we found ourselves walking up a road with no real idea where the place was; luckily we were only a few minutes off target.
* The hostel in Hangzhou was lovely - we had a great room with a four-poster-bed, a showerhead which looked like the sun was raining on us, and A/C that really worked! Cheaper, and better than the hotel. What more could we want? The hostel had a deal with a local restaurant and we got 10% off our meal, so of course we went there the next night as well (though for some reason on that occasion one of the staff felt the need to come over to our table and attempt to talk with us. Actually not with us. Just with Lucy, his first words in English being, "Are you very beautiful?") ... one thing that surprised me was all the restaurants shut at about 2200, which was a bit awkward if you wanted a late meal ... and there were no local shops either. Hmm.
* Our second day in Hangzhou took us to West Lake where we dallied for a long while on the causeway, stopping frequently to admire the views and just hang out together on benches. With your back turned few people notice you are foreign, and so we enjoyed some quiet time. Lunch was reasonable, and then we took a walk to Long Yin Temple (I think that's the name anyway) - should really have taken a taxi but I thought it was closer than it was. Ah well we got exercise at least! And the day was beautiful for walking. We had just enough time for a quick (45 minute) look around one section of the complex, a place I'd been to in 2006, and then they were closing the gates. A young couple gave us a lift back to the hostel for free (they said they were going to Shanghai anyway and the man's logic was that if he was in England I would do the same for him, which is true), which saved all that stupid haggling with rip-you-off-given-half-a-chance "taxi" drivers.
With bad weather approaching, we set out the next day for Anhui Province.
My Holiday Part One - Jiangsu, Shanghai, and Lucy's Arrival
I've been off for a couple of weeks - trying to get some relaxation away from Urumqi (to be honest, once you've been here 6 months, anywhere feels more relaxing / just plain better) ... My first week away wasn't the MOST enjoyable - I think I stayed a couple of days too long at an old friend's place and ended up feeling quite bad about it - not because he wasn't hospitable but because our views on some things differed greatly and after a couple of arguments there really wasn't much else to say. I should just have left. Well I suppose you live and learn.
At least I got to see ONE of my former Chinese students, and maybe I'll see more in July before I come home; and as you've maybe read, I had a drab day in Suzhou, culminating with a couple of hours in a smoky internet cafe half-heartedly updating this blog among other things, before I spent an inordinate amount of cash on some alright coffee and read a book for a bit.
The night before Lucy arrived I really couldn't sleep. It didn't even matter that I'd been out with some friends for a meal and then to a bar, where we'd stayed until I was nicely tipsy. My sleep was fitful and inadequate; sure I got my head down but when I woke up it still wasn't enough. Oh well no time to complain - Lucy's coming to China! :) I forgot the location of our hotel for the first night and spent a frantic half hour working out where we were supposed to be - fortunately I got the information just in time to leave for the airport, taking the bus because it was cheapest and to save the thrill of the Maglev for when I was actually with Lucy (the thrill mainly being hers - I've ridden it at least 4 times before). I think from here in I'll keep things short else you'll be here forever:
* She arrived. Sounds obvious doesnt it? But it's true and it made us both very happy. Within minutes we were bantering like we'd been apart 6 minutes not 6 months. Also my handdrawn "Welcome to China" sign with her name (in English and Chinese) went down well :) Maybe I will post a photo of it later.
* The hotel was adequate. I hadn't gone overboard for the first night, and if the thermostat had worked better we would probably have given the entire place 9 / 10 (clean the carpet and I'd give it a 10) but with the stuffy air inside the room and no way to fix it, my rating sinks to about 5 / 10. I don't know what Lucy thinks, but I'm guessing she mostly agrees. We spent the first day slumming in the hotel room, strolling around the Bund (the Pudong Development Bank interior is still wonderful), sampling some "normal" (ie: cheap, standard-for-Chinese-people) food and then flopping out because the A/C was still crap and the windows didn't open.
Well you win some you lose some, right? And hey, we still had each other :)
At least I got to see ONE of my former Chinese students, and maybe I'll see more in July before I come home; and as you've maybe read, I had a drab day in Suzhou, culminating with a couple of hours in a smoky internet cafe half-heartedly updating this blog among other things, before I spent an inordinate amount of cash on some alright coffee and read a book for a bit.
The night before Lucy arrived I really couldn't sleep. It didn't even matter that I'd been out with some friends for a meal and then to a bar, where we'd stayed until I was nicely tipsy. My sleep was fitful and inadequate; sure I got my head down but when I woke up it still wasn't enough. Oh well no time to complain - Lucy's coming to China! :) I forgot the location of our hotel for the first night and spent a frantic half hour working out where we were supposed to be - fortunately I got the information just in time to leave for the airport, taking the bus because it was cheapest and to save the thrill of the Maglev for when I was actually with Lucy (the thrill mainly being hers - I've ridden it at least 4 times before). I think from here in I'll keep things short else you'll be here forever:
* She arrived. Sounds obvious doesnt it? But it's true and it made us both very happy. Within minutes we were bantering like we'd been apart 6 minutes not 6 months. Also my handdrawn "Welcome to China" sign with her name (in English and Chinese) went down well :) Maybe I will post a photo of it later.
* The hotel was adequate. I hadn't gone overboard for the first night, and if the thermostat had worked better we would probably have given the entire place 9 / 10 (clean the carpet and I'd give it a 10) but with the stuffy air inside the room and no way to fix it, my rating sinks to about 5 / 10. I don't know what Lucy thinks, but I'm guessing she mostly agrees. We spent the first day slumming in the hotel room, strolling around the Bund (the Pudong Development Bank interior is still wonderful), sampling some "normal" (ie: cheap, standard-for-Chinese-people) food and then flopping out because the A/C was still crap and the windows didn't open.
Well you win some you lose some, right? And hey, we still had each other :)
Monday 16 February 2009
I Cannot Wait ...
I am holed up in a smokey Suzhou net cafe as I type this, the weather being abysmal (overcast, rainy, a bit windy) and my friends (who were going to meet me in this city) busy with their first day back at uni ... bah, I will have to see them in July before I come home. Suzhou is supposed to be beautiful; I imagine some days it is, just not today. I've seen only Western-style places and I'm really somewhat bored. I can't even go back to my host's house (in a town 30 minutes away) for another couple of hours because he and his wife are at work. Ah well. In better news, I have ordered an air ticket back to Urumqi for the 25th, and will collect it (and pay for it!) tomorrow, before doing not-very-much for the rest of the day and then going out with my French friend Pascal in the evening ... before Wednesday morning which will undoubtedly be the highlight of the last six months :) I'm a mix of impatient and nervous and until Wednesday I have a feeling that time is going to slow down for me and everything is going to feel like it takes forever ...
Hours until Lucy arrives: approximately 44
Which is 44 too many.
For now I'm off to a coffee bar to sketch some stuff and maybe write a brief letter before heading back to Wujiang and supper and another night with freezing hands because it's not cold enough down here for the local govt to put heating of any sort on so I've got used to a 20C house in middle-of-winter Urumqi and I'm having a hard time getting used to the iceblocks on the ends of my arms now. Vive Wednesday!
Hours until Lucy arrives: approximately 44
Which is 44 too many.
For now I'm off to a coffee bar to sketch some stuff and maybe write a brief letter before heading back to Wujiang and supper and another night with freezing hands because it's not cold enough down here for the local govt to put heating of any sort on so I've got used to a 20C house in middle-of-winter Urumqi and I'm having a hard time getting used to the iceblocks on the ends of my arms now. Vive Wednesday!
Saturday 7 February 2009
Make Your Mind Up
Apologies if I've said this before (I've not checked) but here's something that really irks me, and it's on my mind because someone in class raised it today. People here often blame something I think of as "useless" or "backwards" on China being a "developing country". Well here's the problem: YOU HOSTED THE OLYMPIC GAMES. You might not have done a very good job of it (urgh, don't get me started on Chinese mentality, one example springs to mind of a stadium that was less than packed despite propaganda saying all tickets were sold out; someone complained and the organisers' response was, "Okay tomorrow there will be people, we will find as many uni students as possible, they will be there, and they will be chanting GO GO BEIJING, GO OLYMPICS GO!" When countered with the obvious, "But that's not very spontaneous or exciting" they nonplussed reply went something like, "There will be people there, they will be chanting, they will be excited, what's the problem?"), but you hosted them nonetheless.
China defines itself as a developing country. It leans on this crutch wherever possible. Its schoolchildren are raised to counter queries about the retarded aspects of life here with that as a standard response. I call bullshit. That or China needs to stop lying and accept that it cannot be a developing country if it has hosted the Olympic Games (on this note please do not get me started on why the UK has it for 2012 - yes we are technically "developed" but I think this is a false appearance and that a country really ought to be able to look after its own before taking the masses of others for a sporting event; granted we're not as bad as China though!)
Well it's that or someone in the IOC needs to admit they made one hell of a mistake giving China the games!
China defines itself as a developing country. It leans on this crutch wherever possible. Its schoolchildren are raised to counter queries about the retarded aspects of life here with that as a standard response. I call bullshit. That or China needs to stop lying and accept that it cannot be a developing country if it has hosted the Olympic Games (on this note please do not get me started on why the UK has it for 2012 - yes we are technically "developed" but I think this is a false appearance and that a country really ought to be able to look after its own before taking the masses of others for a sporting event; granted we're not as bad as China though!)
Well it's that or someone in the IOC needs to admit they made one hell of a mistake giving China the games!
Monday 2 February 2009
Normal Service ...
... will resume whenever my computer gets a new charger, at the earliest tomorrow, at the latest on Feb 18 (though Lucy will probably not look too kindly on my jumping on the Mac immediately after she arrives in China, so let's be realistic and say Feb 19 while she sleeps off the jetlag ;) ha ha)
I have written to Apple informing them of my disappointment with some of their products (as well as asking a lot of questions), and I am waiting for the eBay seller whose goods (a 3rd party Apple-compatible charger) were supposed to arrive days ago and who is still evading my question "to which address did you send it?" ... I am NOT a happy bunny.
I have written to Apple informing them of my disappointment with some of their products (as well as asking a lot of questions), and I am waiting for the eBay seller whose goods (a 3rd party Apple-compatible charger) were supposed to arrive days ago and who is still evading my question "to which address did you send it?" ... I am NOT a happy bunny.
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