My last few weeks in China have been a myriad of exciting experiences, laughs and at many points squeals. Whilst in China Jess, Fran, Jazza and I took part in the National Day celebrations as well as traveling during October Week holiday. We decided to be brave and book a flight to Chongqing where we hoped to catch a 4 day cruise of the Yangtze River. A trip which- for one hundred pounds- promised a once in a lifetime view of the wondrous Three Gorges, three nights accommodation on a "cruise ship", entrance to EVERY attraction, on-ship catering and sundeck area. A fun filled trip for all!
No.
The LOWDOWN: What happened to us on the Yangtze River Cruise:
1)We shared our minuscule cabin with a rat. He/she squeaked all night- Jess and I were on bottom bunk.
2)Our "sundeck" was roughly the size of my kitchen and packed in 300 Chinese people. They always hogged the seats.
3)Our en-suite toilet [aka squat] shared a communal trough/drain with every other toilet on ship, the smell was excruciating and this fact was made worse by the unbearable humidity and the fact that our air-con gave up.
4)The staff kept shouting at us when we wanted to eat. For ages we just could not work out why.
5)There was only one life-jacket in our room which had a bloodstain on it.
6)Our wake-up call was 5am every day. We were all grumpy gits in comparison to our overly chirpy Chinese tour guide, Ting Ting. She would barge into our room in the middle of the night (5am) shouting "up, up!" I won't tell you what we shouted back..
7)Instead of looking at the ancient temples and mountains most Chinese families took pictures of us. It was almost like being famous- except after a week we had to really fight the urge not to tell people to bugger off.
However, it most defiantly was not a trip of doom and gloom. We kept our spirits high with the aid of Jazza's ukulele, and the tambourine which I purchased! I am really pretty crap at playing tambourine in all honesty, but we sang the nights away as we cruised along the Yangtze.
The Three Gorges was every bit as magnificent as promised. I found myself humming the Jurassic Park theme tune more than once because it really was that wild and mystical- especially at 6am when there was the veil of mist swirling around the water.
Our October Week agenda was pretty hectic as not only did we cruise the Yangtze, but also we visited Chongqing, and spent two days in Wuhan. Typically, on day one of our trip we nearly missed our flight to Chongqing. After arriving at Nanjing airport, we calmly waited for our flight at the correct departure gate without many worries at all. As me and Jazza were debating the pros and cons of the National Day celebrations we heard over the loudspeaker that our flight was boarding. We all looked around, no one moved. Our gate number was 7, we were all sitting at gate 7 but our gate was empty of any queues...so we ignored it. In fact, we ignored the loudspeaker call three times.... At the sound of the last call we asked the attendant, just to be safe, "Why are they saying our flight is boarding?" He replied in a lazy voice- "Oh, your flight is boarding at a different gate...it changed..." WHAT????!!
Yet again- we were running though an airport. Yet again we were the last to board our flight. Deja vu??
After arriving in Chongqing two hours later, we explored what is actually a lovely city and ate a fantastic hotpot! We then went to the travel agent to meet our tour guide Ting Ting (this name still imbues a sense of fear inside us). After she lead us to our boat, I think Jazza and Jess may have lost the will to live. While me and Fran were prepared for the worst...our boat was by far the dirtiest and shittest boat in the harbour, and took us all a little by suprise- but hey, it was an adventure!!
The second day started dark and bleak at 5am. We visited the Ghost City. It was not the best attraction to start with as it was by far the biggest sell out to capitalism I have seen in China so far. I was expecting ancient buildings and temples however, we were greeted with fairy lights, mock up brightly coloured temples which were built in the 1990's and also a Ghost Train. A horribly made, tacky Ghost Train. I shit you not. There were so many people ready to rip off tourists with extra fares and costs, it was shocking.
Despite that, the views were spectacular, the heat was intense and we did have a lot of fun together. On the evening of the Second Day we had a night tour of a temple which was pretty wonderful. In the dark the temple looked beautiful [despite the glow in the dark characters] and a few Chinese families took a liking to me and Jess quite a bit. The pointing and staring was pretty intense, so we had a laugh with it and there are several photo's of me with families looking rather insane.
The third and fourth day were tiring yet the best by far. We travelled by dragon boat down the Yangtze where we had our own paddles. We were all positioned in two's inside a small narrow boat with brightly coloured dragons painted on it. At the front there was a navigator who beat a drum, which we were "supposed" to paddle in rhythm to. The Chinese girl behind me soaked me with her paddle. DRENCHED. [Not good at 5am. I was rather pissed off, sitting there in a dragon boat with a soaked bum with a girl laughing at me in a "oops a wet the foreigner" type of way.] On a positive note, we saw wild monkeys climbing the Gorges and we even had a bit of a climb ourselves- up some very rusty staircases fixed to the cliff wall...[Terrifing!] On the fourth day, [after the night spent with the rat] we visited the Three Gorges Dam. I am glad I saw it as it is the biggest Hydro-electric Dam in the world, however it was all a bit too technical and machinery related for me- and I was more concerned by the wasps which were EVERYWHERE.
Culturally, what I noticed most about the trip cruising the Yangtze is the Chinese obsession with taking photos of themselves. It is rather interesting, and I honestly did not expect them to be as fascinated with Westerners as they appeared to be- we were more or less stalked for a week. Chinese people have also developed a madness when queuing. In my twenty years I have never seen anything more ridiculous in my life. Picture this:
You have just spent your day climbing hundreds of temple steps. You are rather tired and are waiting or the buses to come to take you back to the cruise ship. Everyone seems to be sizing each other up. There is a definite tension in the air...When a bus appears SUDDENLY HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE ARE PUSHING, SHOVING, ELBOWING TO GET ON THE BUS FIRST!!!
It was like that every time we queued, whether it be a bus or for an ice-cream. It got so bad that Jazza actually moved the queuing partition and stepped in at the front. A few people actually clapped... I think they found it funny that the foreigners were being completely idiotic also.
Embarrassingly, Chinese people also love to spit on the floor. Men, women, children...everyone spits. I presume it is common all over China, certainly in my experience so far. So- being that I wanted to embrace this unusual cultural anomaly- I tried it. Squatting is one thing, spitting is another. There is no way I can become a spitter. NOPE.
Since returning to the blessed comfort of my student life in Nanjing it has made me become even more aware of just how happy and comfortable I am here. We all sighed a breath of exhausted relief when we returned "home" to our rooms at Nanjing Uni. Our last two nights in Wuhan were much more relaxed in comparison to the physically and mentally exhausting trip on the Yangtze, as we visited an art gallery and rode the public bus- but, speaking Chinese when you are tired and hungry is just not easy at all!
This marks the end of my latest blog. Being that China National Week incurred a massive crackdown on illegal sites, it took me this long to update my adventures onto this website. I have lots more to talk about, so I shall be updating again soon with more of my University goings-on!
Hope all is well in England everyone,
Bex xxxx
Tuesday 13 October 2009
Sunday 20 September 2009
So.There are snakes here apparently...
Yesterday, I went with a group of friends to the 'Xiaoling Tomb of the Ming Dynasty' for a swim in the lake and a 'bit of a hike'. As I was dragging myself up about a million steps, [sweating and complaining] my friend Chris stood on a snake. He was wearing flip-flops and luckily the long thin hissing thing didn't bite him. I don't know who was more relieved, him- or the poor girl who would have had to stick his foot in her mouth and suck out the venom (me.) Thankfully I didn't have to resort to that. After having a small screaming fit we managed to control ourselves long enough to run back down the steps and broadcast our "near death experience" to our friends at the lake.
It has been a long time since my last post...(apologies.) It seems that the appropriately named "Great Fire Wall" is pretty impenetrable. I am using a rather sneaky bit of technology to write my blog, so hopefully I can access it in the future.
SO, how do I condense my adventures from the last 2 weeks into an appropriate memoir? I guess with great difficulty... But, I shall begin from where I left off.
Firstly, my rucksack was returned to me! My nightmarish underwear scenario was not as horrible as I first thought as the local shop sold some 'nice' vomit coloured ones with pictures of half-naked ladies on them. My first port of call in Nanjing; buying pants. After 5 days of waiting I was re-united with my hats and essentials. After getting the call from the airport to say they had found my rucksack, I was told to wait by the Jingli Hotel for 20 mintues. An hour later, while I was angrily waiting for the lad to arrive I got shouted at by an angry Chinese policeman... It seems an innocent looking white woman, wearing a white dress and knee-high socks, listening to an ipod and drinking sprite is greatly troublesome. It didn't help that I was casually leaning on a government building.
Interestingly, one of the things I have found out about China is that they "frown upon" people sitting on the floor. A few days ago, Jess, Fran and I were eating some veggie pancakes and as I sat down on the curbside a Chinese man shook his head and tutted at me. Being tutted at isn't nice when your tired, hungry and sweating. All the people in China squat...they DO NOT SIT. Me and Jess are still trying to master the art of squatting. It is harder than you might think to balance on your hunkers and eat at the same time...By the time I return to England I'm sure I will be excellent at it and more than willing to demonstrate how to do it.
In other news, I am now living in the student halls accommodation. Flat hunting proved far too strenuous for us and the convenience of actually living in the building where we study is Uh-May-Zing. The building itself is called "Zeng Xian Zi" and its a bit modern with marble effect floors and lots of glass windows...No more picturesque side-street Hostel for us.
I am located on floor 10 of the building, and my lessons are on floor 3. As class starts at 8am, dragging myself out of bed to enter the lift and appearing in class 10 seconds later is a doddle. The 4 hours of intense studying afterward is the tricky part.
My classes here in China are rather different to in England. Here, all classes are taught in Chinese and English is not used at all. Being completely honest...it's HARD WORK. Me, Jess and Fran are all in Band B and after trying a few other classes this seemed best. Our classes are Monday to Friday, 8-12. This may not seems like a lot, however the workload is intense. I can feel myself improving everyday and I love that. I also love that I am starting to learn so much more colloquial conversation words. In the first week here, I struggled with simple things like, asking for the bill or telling the taxi driver not to rip us off (it happens a lot.) Im still building up my confidence and when a taxi driver asked me in Chinese "so, how much do you weigh?".... I was pretty shocked. Me nervously laughing in response seemed to amuse him. Apparently questions about age, weight, height, and god knows what else...are pretty common. In Chinese culture the older you are the better.
I think I am starting to adjust to living in China, little by little. The food is gorgeous...but doesn't really agree with our digestive systems too much. It might be another couple months untill we are all used to it. The lack of Western toilets here was another shocker. 90% of toilets are holes which you squat over. No toilet paper either. Yet another reason why the art of squatting must be perfected...my friend had an incident with too many cocktails and a squat toilet. hmm....NICE.
Apart from Me, Jess, Fran and Jazza, there are 22 other English people from Sheffield University, along with all my other course mates who are from other corners of the world. I absolutely love the diversity of this whole experience. You never know who you could start talking to. I also love the fact that apart from the blatant staring and open curiosity, Chinese people like to talk to us Westerners and want to help. It is kind of refreshing.
At this moment I am still an "Illegal Alien" here in China, as I don't have my extended residence permit yet. It seems some things in China do not run smoothly at all...Queuing for hours upon hours and getting nowhere is a common finale to most of my days here. The approach of: "Its not ready yet come back tomorrow" is starting to piss me off quite a lot, but as of yet I don't know the Chinese for "you bloody moron".
I have so much more that I want to talk about, but its getting late here and I have class in the morning. I hope this Blog reassures you all that I am happy, well and I'm having many fun times here in Nanjing. I will write again soon (promise!) Love to you all in England!
Bex xxx
We are now officially heroes.
It has been a long time since my last post...(apologies.) It seems that the appropriately named "Great Fire Wall" is pretty impenetrable. I am using a rather sneaky bit of technology to write my blog, so hopefully I can access it in the future.
SO, how do I condense my adventures from the last 2 weeks into an appropriate memoir? I guess with great difficulty... But, I shall begin from where I left off.
Firstly, my rucksack was returned to me! My nightmarish underwear scenario was not as horrible as I first thought as the local shop sold some 'nice' vomit coloured ones with pictures of half-naked ladies on them. My first port of call in Nanjing; buying pants. After 5 days of waiting I was re-united with my hats and essentials. After getting the call from the airport to say they had found my rucksack, I was told to wait by the Jingli Hotel for 20 mintues. An hour later, while I was angrily waiting for the lad to arrive I got shouted at by an angry Chinese policeman... It seems an innocent looking white woman, wearing a white dress and knee-high socks, listening to an ipod and drinking sprite is greatly troublesome. It didn't help that I was casually leaning on a government building.
Interestingly, one of the things I have found out about China is that they "frown upon" people sitting on the floor. A few days ago, Jess, Fran and I were eating some veggie pancakes and as I sat down on the curbside a Chinese man shook his head and tutted at me. Being tutted at isn't nice when your tired, hungry and sweating. All the people in China squat...they DO NOT SIT. Me and Jess are still trying to master the art of squatting. It is harder than you might think to balance on your hunkers and eat at the same time...By the time I return to England I'm sure I will be excellent at it and more than willing to demonstrate how to do it.
In other news, I am now living in the student halls accommodation. Flat hunting proved far too strenuous for us and the convenience of actually living in the building where we study is Uh-May-Zing. The building itself is called "Zeng Xian Zi" and its a bit modern with marble effect floors and lots of glass windows...No more picturesque side-street Hostel for us.
I am located on floor 10 of the building, and my lessons are on floor 3. As class starts at 8am, dragging myself out of bed to enter the lift and appearing in class 10 seconds later is a doddle. The 4 hours of intense studying afterward is the tricky part.
My classes here in China are rather different to in England. Here, all classes are taught in Chinese and English is not used at all. Being completely honest...it's HARD WORK. Me, Jess and Fran are all in Band B and after trying a few other classes this seemed best. Our classes are Monday to Friday, 8-12. This may not seems like a lot, however the workload is intense. I can feel myself improving everyday and I love that. I also love that I am starting to learn so much more colloquial conversation words. In the first week here, I struggled with simple things like, asking for the bill or telling the taxi driver not to rip us off (it happens a lot.) Im still building up my confidence and when a taxi driver asked me in Chinese "so, how much do you weigh?".... I was pretty shocked. Me nervously laughing in response seemed to amuse him. Apparently questions about age, weight, height, and god knows what else...are pretty common. In Chinese culture the older you are the better.
I think I am starting to adjust to living in China, little by little. The food is gorgeous...but doesn't really agree with our digestive systems too much. It might be another couple months untill we are all used to it. The lack of Western toilets here was another shocker. 90% of toilets are holes which you squat over. No toilet paper either. Yet another reason why the art of squatting must be perfected...my friend had an incident with too many cocktails and a squat toilet. hmm....NICE.
Apart from Me, Jess, Fran and Jazza, there are 22 other English people from Sheffield University, along with all my other course mates who are from other corners of the world. I absolutely love the diversity of this whole experience. You never know who you could start talking to. I also love the fact that apart from the blatant staring and open curiosity, Chinese people like to talk to us Westerners and want to help. It is kind of refreshing.
At this moment I am still an "Illegal Alien" here in China, as I don't have my extended residence permit yet. It seems some things in China do not run smoothly at all...Queuing for hours upon hours and getting nowhere is a common finale to most of my days here. The approach of: "Its not ready yet come back tomorrow" is starting to piss me off quite a lot, but as of yet I don't know the Chinese for "you bloody moron".
I have so much more that I want to talk about, but its getting late here and I have class in the morning. I hope this Blog reassures you all that I am happy, well and I'm having many fun times here in Nanjing. I will write again soon (promise!) Love to you all in England!
Bex xxx
Friday 4 September 2009
Planes, Trains and Automobiles! My First day in Nanjing!
Picture This:
Your plane is delayed at Heathrow...you have 6 minutes to catch your connection to Nanjing and you have a bag which "no word of a lie" weighs a ton. You are red faced, sweating and have two friends bellowing at you to RUN FASTER!!! This is how I started my journey to China....
Right now i'm sitting in a beautiful Youth Hostel named "Jasmine International" and its every bit as gorgeous as the name. Its quaint and picturesque and the Air Con is so cold, Jess thought she had caught the flu this morning. Bloody lovely in comparison to the heat outside!
Yesterday was so so stressful. So yes, there we were: Me, Jess and Jazza delayed in Heathrow hoping to God we would catch our connection in Frankfurt in time. We arrived with 14 minutes to spare before our flight left. Have you seen the scene in "Home Alone" where the family are running for their flight knocking small children out of the way and so on??...that was us! We shouted at a random woman at the lufthanza desk: "Has the nanjing flight left yet!!??" she replied in a rather angry German accent..."IT leaves in 6 minutes but you will have to hurry."
NO SHIT SHERLOCK.
The happy ending to this tale is that we made it on the flight "HURRAH" the bad news....I arrived in Nanjing 11 hours later without one of my bags. Apparently its MIA somewhere in Frankfurt terminal 1. PANIC PANIC PANIC.
On the brightside, my big pink case arrived with all the "essentials" but my rucksack had every pair of pants I own in it. So I am in Nanjing with one set of underwear...the inside-out trick wont last long. I left my details with a small chinese lady at the Nanjing airport after filling in a form asking: What was in the rucksack? Answer: Kickers socks and Bra's. How poetic.
After picking up our bags, Jazza flagged us a taxi while me and Jess stood behind gazing in wonder as he spouted some fantastic chinese. I got as far as "ni hao" and thats about it. I felt really upset about my lack of bag but soon forgot my troubles as we drove to the centre of Nanjing. Apart from the UNBELIEVABLE humidity and heat...the place is fantastic. Nanjing has the usual skyscrapers of any big Chinese city, but a great amount of small shops and people riding around everywhere on bikes and scooters (the ladies with high-heel shoes on!)
We arrived outside Jazza's flat in the blistering afternoon heat. Eric,(Jazza's flatmate) is a fantastically helpful chinese guy who directed me and Jess to our Hostel. Everything about the place really is fantastic...apart from the distance University...short in English terms but in this heat its like climbing a bloody mountain. I really do look like a sweaty red faced man in Nanjing. So unattractive...dripping of sweat. HEN HAO. Our room at the hostel is so clean, and the bathroom is massive...I jumped straight into the shower and cabbaged on the massive double bed.
If I am honest...I still cant believe I'm really truly here. Its now 9am here and after 12 hours sleep to attempt to get over the jet lag I'm just so excited to explore the city! Especially, to try more of the fantastic food. Last night I ate my first authentic Chinese meal and it was so tasty.It was a big bowl of noodles in a hot pork soup type of thing, with really tender chunks of meat and a fried egg on top. I really cant use chopsticks... I am going to have to practise!
I will keep you posted on my other goings on. I really hope I get my rucksack back...it had all my hats in too! I have my placement tests for Uni this week so its going to have to do some serious studying, I've forgotten everything!
Much love to you all! Lots of pictures coming soon, love Bex xxx
Your plane is delayed at Heathrow...you have 6 minutes to catch your connection to Nanjing and you have a bag which "no word of a lie" weighs a ton. You are red faced, sweating and have two friends bellowing at you to RUN FASTER!!! This is how I started my journey to China....
Right now i'm sitting in a beautiful Youth Hostel named "Jasmine International" and its every bit as gorgeous as the name. Its quaint and picturesque and the Air Con is so cold, Jess thought she had caught the flu this morning. Bloody lovely in comparison to the heat outside!
Yesterday was so so stressful. So yes, there we were: Me, Jess and Jazza delayed in Heathrow hoping to God we would catch our connection in Frankfurt in time. We arrived with 14 minutes to spare before our flight left. Have you seen the scene in "Home Alone" where the family are running for their flight knocking small children out of the way and so on??...that was us! We shouted at a random woman at the lufthanza desk: "Has the nanjing flight left yet!!??" she replied in a rather angry German accent..."IT leaves in 6 minutes but you will have to hurry."
NO SHIT SHERLOCK.
The happy ending to this tale is that we made it on the flight "HURRAH" the bad news....I arrived in Nanjing 11 hours later without one of my bags. Apparently its MIA somewhere in Frankfurt terminal 1. PANIC PANIC PANIC.
On the brightside, my big pink case arrived with all the "essentials" but my rucksack had every pair of pants I own in it. So I am in Nanjing with one set of underwear...the inside-out trick wont last long. I left my details with a small chinese lady at the Nanjing airport after filling in a form asking: What was in the rucksack? Answer: Kickers socks and Bra's. How poetic.
After picking up our bags, Jazza flagged us a taxi while me and Jess stood behind gazing in wonder as he spouted some fantastic chinese. I got as far as "ni hao" and thats about it. I felt really upset about my lack of bag but soon forgot my troubles as we drove to the centre of Nanjing. Apart from the UNBELIEVABLE humidity and heat...the place is fantastic. Nanjing has the usual skyscrapers of any big Chinese city, but a great amount of small shops and people riding around everywhere on bikes and scooters (the ladies with high-heel shoes on!)
We arrived outside Jazza's flat in the blistering afternoon heat. Eric,(Jazza's flatmate) is a fantastically helpful chinese guy who directed me and Jess to our Hostel. Everything about the place really is fantastic...apart from the distance University...short in English terms but in this heat its like climbing a bloody mountain. I really do look like a sweaty red faced man in Nanjing. So unattractive...dripping of sweat. HEN HAO. Our room at the hostel is so clean, and the bathroom is massive...I jumped straight into the shower and cabbaged on the massive double bed.
If I am honest...I still cant believe I'm really truly here. Its now 9am here and after 12 hours sleep to attempt to get over the jet lag I'm just so excited to explore the city! Especially, to try more of the fantastic food. Last night I ate my first authentic Chinese meal and it was so tasty.It was a big bowl of noodles in a hot pork soup type of thing, with really tender chunks of meat and a fried egg on top. I really cant use chopsticks... I am going to have to practise!
I will keep you posted on my other goings on. I really hope I get my rucksack back...it had all my hats in too! I have my placement tests for Uni this week so its going to have to do some serious studying, I've forgotten everything!
Much love to you all! Lots of pictures coming soon, love Bex xxx
Wednesday 2 September 2009
The journey begins in the morning...
We fly tomorrow: Jess has not packed and my suitcase is too heavy...STATUS: panic.
The Yanz and I fly to Nanjing via Frankfurt at 2.20pm tomorrow from Heathrow: Terminal 1...
My stomach is churning in a nervous/excited/uber-spaz way. After arriving in London yesterday and realising i'd left my mobile phone in the car back in Durham I was not off to the best start. Typically, my parents were my saviour and the postman dropped it off this morning 10am sharp, at the House of Yanz.
Shopped today in Camden in the nervous hope I could actually squash another morsel into my already stuffed case. I was wrong. Still 3K over my 30K allowance. Oh dear, Oh dear...
Fran has the added comfort of another few days before she joins me and Jess in Nanjing. The thought of me and Yanz wandering around lost in Nanjing has entered my mind without the wisdom of Fran, yet I'm staying positive. Maps are the way forward.
We shall be next updating you all after we arrive in China. This thought simultaneously frightens and excites me! Let us just hope I don't forget my "ni hao's" and all shall be well.
Au Revoir,
Bex. xx
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