Farewell Shanghai!
Well, I can hardly believe it, but come Thursday I'll be saying goodbye to Shanghai, and saying hello to Xi'an, Qingdao, Hong Kong and Singapore, before flying back to London!
My China journey isn't over just yet, and I'm sure there will be a BIG blog entry to come after I've finished with my 3 weeks of travelling. But I thought I'd take this opportunity to reflect on my time in this incredible city.
It's been a rollercoaster ride. Over the past few months I've had moments of sheer elation, moments of fear, moments of hilarity, and moments of amazement, where my jaw has been left on the floor. China is an incredible place and I'd urge anyone to come and visit. Coming here has been by far the scariest thing I have ever done - but I am so so glad that I have done it.
I'll take this opportunity to mention some of the key people who've been a part of my Shanghai life. Huge thanks must go to...
Jane (my Mandarin teacher) - for making Mandarin seem easy at times! Her dry sense of humour and her love of Prince William really made me smile.
My China journey isn't over just yet, and I'm sure there will be a BIG blog entry to come after I've finished with my 3 weeks of travelling. But I thought I'd take this opportunity to reflect on my time in this incredible city.
It's been a rollercoaster ride. Over the past few months I've had moments of sheer elation, moments of fear, moments of hilarity, and moments of amazement, where my jaw has been left on the floor. China is an incredible place and I'd urge anyone to come and visit. Coming here has been by far the scariest thing I have ever done - but I am so so glad that I have done it.
I'll take this opportunity to mention some of the key people who've been a part of my Shanghai life. Huge thanks must go to...
Jane (my Mandarin teacher) - for making Mandarin seem easy at times! Her dry sense of humour and her love of Prince William really made me smile.
The women on the baozi stand on Liuzhou Lu - for not laughing (too hard) when I asked, quite often, for 'yi ge zhu rou'. (one steamed bun with pork in the middle)
The woman at the KungFu Fast Food place (a meeting point for Elisabeth and I) - for knowing that yes, I do just want 'yi bei kele' (a coke), and that I 'bu yao bing' (don't want ice).
Angela, Cissy, Lily and Jacqui - for being our facilitators, for being hilariously crazy, and for lending a sympathetic ear/providing some hugs when the homesickness hit.
The woman at the KungFu Fast Food place (a meeting point for Elisabeth and I) - for knowing that yes, I do just want 'yi bei kele' (a coke), and that I 'bu yao bing' (don't want ice).
Angela, Cissy, Lily and Jacqui - for being our facilitators, for being hilariously crazy, and for lending a sympathetic ear/providing some hugs when the homesickness hit.
Ayi (our cook at school) - for cooking fantastic food for us every day, and helping me practise my Mandarin.
James (our loyal driver) - for being reliable, for providing many a laugh, even across the language barrier, and for having the most profound and wise tone of voice that I have ever known.
Paganini (an English teacher and violin teacher - (get it?) - who bombarded Elisabeth and I with his sales pitch in about 60 seconds on the metro) - for providing me with one of the most random and hilarious moments of my time in China.
James (our loyal driver) - for being reliable, for providing many a laugh, even across the language barrier, and for having the most profound and wise tone of voice that I have ever known.
Paganini (an English teacher and violin teacher - (get it?) - who bombarded Elisabeth and I with his sales pitch in about 60 seconds on the metro) - for providing me with one of the most random and hilarious moments of my time in China.
Elisabeth, Lenore, Cori, Cary and Cheryl (my fellow teachers) - for being great friends, great travel buddies, for supporting me, and for being there to share stories of both hilarity and woe.
Ashley, Liz and Betsy (more fellow teachers) - for offering advice, and for introducing me to the wonderful world of KTV (Chinese karaoke).
Touba (my boss and general life-saver) - for helping me out with numerous things, for getting water back into my apartment when I lost it (BAD times), and for giving me pearls of Chinese wisdom on a regular basis.
The kids - for being intelligent, for being crazy, and for being adorable...most of the time!
And not forgetting the folks in the UK...
My friends - for being supportive, for making the effort to keep in touch in spite of no Facebook, and for being patient with temperamental Skype!
My family - for loving me lots, for still being there at any time of day when I've had my dips, and for sending me loads of chocolate!
My friends - for being supportive, for making the effort to keep in touch in spite of no Facebook, and for being patient with temperamental Skype!
My family - for loving me lots, for still being there at any time of day when I've had my dips, and for sending me loads of chocolate!
Ningbo and Putuoshan
The Chinese have a very strange approach to holidays. The most recent vacation period (the Dragon Boat festival) was technically a holiday...but it was a preceded by a 7 day working week! That's right, on the Saturday and Sunday before the 3 day break, we were all working and the kids were in school. They call them 'make-up' days. Anyway, after our 7 day stint, we were well and truly ready for a break . So Elisabeth and I headed to Ningbo and the beautiful Buddhist island of Putuoshan - and it was quite the adventure!
We spent our first day exploring Ningbo - a city that certainly seems much easier to navigate on foot than massive Shanghai! We had a walk around Moon Lake, a very pleasant area near to our hostel; we found an old and impressive Drum Tower, covered in ivy; and walked around the new area of the city called Tianyi Square, which, with its fountains and relaxed atmosphere, felt very European. We also stumbled upon a park area where we saw loads of old men playing Chinese chess, which was fun!
In the evening, we treated ourselves to a pizza in Ningbo's 'Old Bund' area. The meal was an interesting one. The pizza was good - but our fellow diners were the real talking point. To the left of us, we had two Americans - a man in his late 20s, and a woman of a similar age. He had the loudest voice I've ever heard...and also seemed to have an extremely high opinion of himself. Elisabeth and I overheard (with very little effort) that he was setting up an 'innovative' travel website to help people to get the most out of their time in China. He thought he was brilliant because instead of going to all the regular touristy spots, he was having the 'real China experience' by attempting to interact with the locals. The woman (who really didn't seem to have much going on upstairs) was only helping to increase the size of his ego by saying things like 'oh that's such a good idea, so creative'. Elisabeth and I were attempting to hide our laughter for most of the meal, for several reasons. Firstly, there are hundreds of travel websites for China...and his didn't sound much different to any of the others out there. Secondly, I'm not sure how he's interacting with the locals...because his Mandarin was pretty much non-existent (in spite of him having spent 4 years in the country...!) And finally, I was holding back the giggles because I'd literally never known someone who liked the sound of his voice so much...and who came out with so much rubbish!
Thankfully, the people to our right were much more pleasant. We befriended them, and headed over the bar across the road to watch one of the World Cup games (yes, it's huge here!) It was a really enjoyable evening - and Daisy and Kevin (both young Chinese people) were great company.
We spent our first day exploring Ningbo - a city that certainly seems much easier to navigate on foot than massive Shanghai! We had a walk around Moon Lake, a very pleasant area near to our hostel; we found an old and impressive Drum Tower, covered in ivy; and walked around the new area of the city called Tianyi Square, which, with its fountains and relaxed atmosphere, felt very European. We also stumbled upon a park area where we saw loads of old men playing Chinese chess, which was fun!
In the evening, we treated ourselves to a pizza in Ningbo's 'Old Bund' area. The meal was an interesting one. The pizza was good - but our fellow diners were the real talking point. To the left of us, we had two Americans - a man in his late 20s, and a woman of a similar age. He had the loudest voice I've ever heard...and also seemed to have an extremely high opinion of himself. Elisabeth and I overheard (with very little effort) that he was setting up an 'innovative' travel website to help people to get the most out of their time in China. He thought he was brilliant because instead of going to all the regular touristy spots, he was having the 'real China experience' by attempting to interact with the locals. The woman (who really didn't seem to have much going on upstairs) was only helping to increase the size of his ego by saying things like 'oh that's such a good idea, so creative'. Elisabeth and I were attempting to hide our laughter for most of the meal, for several reasons. Firstly, there are hundreds of travel websites for China...and his didn't sound much different to any of the others out there. Secondly, I'm not sure how he's interacting with the locals...because his Mandarin was pretty much non-existent (in spite of him having spent 4 years in the country...!) And finally, I was holding back the giggles because I'd literally never known someone who liked the sound of his voice so much...and who came out with so much rubbish!
Thankfully, the people to our right were much more pleasant. We befriended them, and headed over the bar across the road to watch one of the World Cup games (yes, it's huge here!) It was a really enjoyable evening - and Daisy and Kevin (both young Chinese people) were great company.
The following day was quite a stressful one! It started with discovering a HUGE spider in the hostel bathroom!! (see picture!) But the stress really started when we tried to get to Putuoshan! It was our intention to try to make it Putuoshan (a small island off the coast of Ningbo) by ferry. But, as we began to search for a taxi to take us to the ferry terminal, it became clear that ferries to the island had been cancelled because of the bad weather (it was raining quite heavily at this point). We had a bit of a fiasco for about an hour, which involved being told lots of contradictory information...and almost being fooled into paying a £60 taxi fare to be taken to a different port!! Our Mandarin was really put to the test. We eventually went back to our hostel in Ningbo and got the front desk to phone to check whether ferries were running from a different port. They were - so we got on a bus to take us to said port (all the buses are in characters...so this was fun!), and then got a quick ferry over from there. We relied on the kindness of strangers at many points during this manic morning - including a Chinese soldier from Beijing who helped us to find the right ferry (and even called our hotel to them know we'd be late)- what a hero! We definitely wouldn't have made it over without his help.
When we eventually arrived at Putuoshan, we realised that the effort and logistical problems had all been worth it. It was a beautiful place - long beaches, lush vegetation and lots of fresh air. We dropped our stuff off at our hotel (which was so big and deserted that it made me think of 'The Shining'!), cast aside thoughts of scary Jack Nicholson, and headed straight for the beach. We had a relaxing walk along the very quiet beach (the Chinese like to avoid the sun, so it was all Westerners on that part of the island), and walked along the cliffs' tree-lined paths.
From time to time, we saw Buddhist monks, as the island is dedicated to the Buddhist goddess Guanyin. The island felt extremely tranquil and peaceful. There is a huge golden statue of the goddess on the SE coast of the island, which we went to visit. It was extremely impressive and made us appreciate that, for many people, the island is a place of pilgrimage. We also paid a visit to a temple area (with striking views out to sea), and a small but beautiful pagoda.
The following day, we spent a bit of time in the morning seeing some of the statues that are around the port area, before beginning the journey back to Shanghai - which was much easier than our journey over to Putuoshan! A few more days on this beautiful island would have been wonderful - I enjoyed the calm atmosphere so much. I can't describe how hectic Shanghai feels sometimes, in spite of it being a wonderful city in many other respects! In any case, it was great to see another side to Chinese life, to practice our Mandarin, and to breathe in some proper sea air :)
When we eventually arrived at Putuoshan, we realised that the effort and logistical problems had all been worth it. It was a beautiful place - long beaches, lush vegetation and lots of fresh air. We dropped our stuff off at our hotel (which was so big and deserted that it made me think of 'The Shining'!), cast aside thoughts of scary Jack Nicholson, and headed straight for the beach. We had a relaxing walk along the very quiet beach (the Chinese like to avoid the sun, so it was all Westerners on that part of the island), and walked along the cliffs' tree-lined paths.
From time to time, we saw Buddhist monks, as the island is dedicated to the Buddhist goddess Guanyin. The island felt extremely tranquil and peaceful. There is a huge golden statue of the goddess on the SE coast of the island, which we went to visit. It was extremely impressive and made us appreciate that, for many people, the island is a place of pilgrimage. We also paid a visit to a temple area (with striking views out to sea), and a small but beautiful pagoda.
The following day, we spent a bit of time in the morning seeing some of the statues that are around the port area, before beginning the journey back to Shanghai - which was much easier than our journey over to Putuoshan! A few more days on this beautiful island would have been wonderful - I enjoyed the calm atmosphere so much. I can't describe how hectic Shanghai feels sometimes, in spite of it being a wonderful city in many other respects! In any case, it was great to see another side to Chinese life, to practice our Mandarin, and to breathe in some proper sea air :)
What I've been up to recently... (for want of a better title!)
1) Teaching my older kids about clothes. Below are a few pictures of some of my older kids, learning how to describe their outfits. Rather than cart my whole wardrobe to school, I brought in some family pictures, and got the children to describe what everyone was wearing. They really enjoyed it!
2) Celebrating my birthday. I turned the grand old age of 22 last week! Unfortunately, I had to teach 7 classes on my birthday...(!) - but I did get lots of hugs and kisses from my students, which was nice. I also had a wonderful start to my birthday as James, our loyal driver, who usually only speaks Chinese, burst into song (with his beautiful baritone voice) and belted out 'Happy Birthday' in English when he picked me up. It was so unexpected and so brilliant! :) I celebrated my birthday properly the following day, with a meal out and drinks with my Chinese and American colleagues. This was great fun, and it was nice to spend a bit more time with the Chinese teachers outside of work.
3) Exploring more of beautiful Hangzhou. Lenore and I decided to head back to Hangzhou for an overnight stay last weekend. We saw some more of the West Lake area, went to a night market, ventured into the hills in search of the famous tea villages, and went to a temple area. On our travels, we befriended a Spanish guy, who's currently working in the south of China. It was great fun to compare stories/impressions of China - and safety in numbers is key when you're heading into more remote territory!
4) Solving a mystery in Renmin Square. I headed over to Renmin Square the other afternoon, in search of a place to read in the sun. It's a really interesting part of the city - it used to be the site of the old Shanghai racecourse, but now it plays home to the Shanghai Museum, the Art Gallery, various famous hotels and tall buildings, as well as an impressive park.
When I got to the park area, I stumbled upon a rather bizarre sight. There were hundreds of old people (in their 60s and 70s), sitting around, all with a laminated bit of A4 paper or a small display board. On every bit of paper there was a picture of a person in their 20s/30s, and then lots of characters. The only bits I could make out of the characters were that every sheet had a height figure, and a sum of money. What was going on?! I tried to take a picture of said phenomenon, but was greeted by shouting and waving of arms...so I swiftly put my camera away. I walked away and tried to work out what had happened. My inital thought was that the boards were for missing people, and that these were the parents appealing for information about their lost son/daughter. But it didn't feel quite right. The atmosphere in the park did not feel solemn enough to support that explanation.
About an hour later, I met up with Lenore and told her about what I'd seen. She solved the mystery. Of course, what I'd actually caught a glimpse of was the weird world of arranged marriages. The bits of paper were advertisements for potential brides and grooms...although the young people themselves weren't there. Their parents meet in this spot to exchange information about their offspring, and try to arrange dates. It seems very ironic that the meeting spot should be 'People's (Renmin) Square' - a square where you can buy all manner of things in the surrounding shopping centres...and a partner for your child if you go to the park. Odd...!
And finally...
5) Teaching my kids how to headbang. The latest unit I've been teaching to my 6 year olds concerns musical instruments. I've been reviewing instruments they already know, and introducing some new ones - namely 'Violin', 'Cello' and 'Bass Guitar'. The tracks on the textbook's CD were dry to say the least, so, when teaching this unit, I played them Grieg's 'Morning' (for the violin sound), Saint-Saën's 'The Swan' (for the cello sound), and...The White Stripes' 'Seven Nation Army' for that iconic bassline at the beginning (YouTube it if you're not sure what I'm talking about)! They went crazy when they heard the last one...there was lots of marching, lots of air guitaring, and lots of headbanging. :) I was so delighted to see that, in spite of the strict classroom environment, the kids still had the capability to literally let their hair down and rock!
About an hour later, I met up with Lenore and told her about what I'd seen. She solved the mystery. Of course, what I'd actually caught a glimpse of was the weird world of arranged marriages. The bits of paper were advertisements for potential brides and grooms...although the young people themselves weren't there. Their parents meet in this spot to exchange information about their offspring, and try to arrange dates. It seems very ironic that the meeting spot should be 'People's (Renmin) Square' - a square where you can buy all manner of things in the surrounding shopping centres...and a partner for your child if you go to the park. Odd...!
And finally...
5) Teaching my kids how to headbang. The latest unit I've been teaching to my 6 year olds concerns musical instruments. I've been reviewing instruments they already know, and introducing some new ones - namely 'Violin', 'Cello' and 'Bass Guitar'. The tracks on the textbook's CD were dry to say the least, so, when teaching this unit, I played them Grieg's 'Morning' (for the violin sound), Saint-Saën's 'The Swan' (for the cello sound), and...The White Stripes' 'Seven Nation Army' for that iconic bassline at the beginning (YouTube it if you're not sure what I'm talking about)! They went crazy when they heard the last one...there was lots of marching, lots of air guitaring, and lots of headbanging. :) I was so delighted to see that, in spite of the strict classroom environment, the kids still had the capability to literally let their hair down and rock!
Expo Fever
Ever since I arrived in Shanghai, I have been well and truly bombarded by this thing called the Expo. Its logo, its mascot, its song (sung by Jackie Chan) and its theme ('Better City, Better Life') have appeared EVERYWHERE. If I had a pound, or even a yuan, for everytime I'd seen a Hai Bao (the mascot), I'd be a very rich woman indeed. People have been selling merchandise in the street, Expo volunteers have been sprouting up all over the place (in dashing white and blue tracksuits), and advertisements have been dominating billboards and TV screens. In every school where I teach, there is a 6ft cuddly Hai Bao in the entrance; and some of my children wear Expo clothes...some from the official shops, and some that have been (presumably) knitted by their grandparents.
But 'what exactly is the Expo?' I hear you cry! This is a question that's passed my lips many times over the past few months. And, in short, it's a question that isn't easily answered. In theory, the World Expo (according to the website) is a "large-scale" event which "aims to promote the exchange of ideas and development of the world economy, culture, science and technology, to allow exhibitors to publicise and display their achievements and improve international relationships." But, after having finally made it over to the Expo site this week, I'm not sure it entirely matches up with the aforementioned description...
The Chinese have spent a hell of a lot of money on this Expo - twice as much as they spent on the Beijing Olympics. So, admittedly, I was expecting fantastic things. Up until last Friday, I could certainly see where some of the money had been spent from my day-to-day wanderings in Shanghai - namely on (truly excessive) advertising, flowers, statues/decorations, and on public transport. An additional metro line has been built, security has stepped up considerably, and there are manned Expo information stands all across the city. So, Shanghai's facilities and its general appearance have certainly improved over the past few months. However, when I did actually enter the Expo site (which occupies a significant chunk of prime riverside territory), I must admit that I was a little disappointed.
The whole site consists of pavilions for the world's major countries, general pavilions on certain themes, and business/technology stands. It's a vast area covering 5km square, and, during my one day there, we didn't even cover a quarter of it! We spent most of our day at the country pavilions. After getting through some extensive security and being herded like cattle, we stumbled upon the China pavilion. An arguably impressive bright red building, this is one of the biggest atractions at the Expo. Unsurprisingly, we couldn't actually get into it, because you need a reservation, as well as the patience to wait in a queue for several hours! But we did admire the outside of it and take our fair share of photos.
We then moved on to the Expo Boulevard and the theme pavilions, which feature heavily on the adverts. They did look quite impressive, but given that it was a rainy day, they didn't quite match up to my expectations! After a brief look around the Environmental pavilion, which featured stands from WWF and the Water Council, we stumbled upon the stupidly named 'Urbanian' pavilion. I think Peter 'Insania' Andre might have been on the Expo's organising committee. The name alone prevented me from entering the building!
But 'what exactly is the Expo?' I hear you cry! This is a question that's passed my lips many times over the past few months. And, in short, it's a question that isn't easily answered. In theory, the World Expo (according to the website) is a "large-scale" event which "aims to promote the exchange of ideas and development of the world economy, culture, science and technology, to allow exhibitors to publicise and display their achievements and improve international relationships." But, after having finally made it over to the Expo site this week, I'm not sure it entirely matches up with the aforementioned description...
The Chinese have spent a hell of a lot of money on this Expo - twice as much as they spent on the Beijing Olympics. So, admittedly, I was expecting fantastic things. Up until last Friday, I could certainly see where some of the money had been spent from my day-to-day wanderings in Shanghai - namely on (truly excessive) advertising, flowers, statues/decorations, and on public transport. An additional metro line has been built, security has stepped up considerably, and there are manned Expo information stands all across the city. So, Shanghai's facilities and its general appearance have certainly improved over the past few months. However, when I did actually enter the Expo site (which occupies a significant chunk of prime riverside territory), I must admit that I was a little disappointed.
The whole site consists of pavilions for the world's major countries, general pavilions on certain themes, and business/technology stands. It's a vast area covering 5km square, and, during my one day there, we didn't even cover a quarter of it! We spent most of our day at the country pavilions. After getting through some extensive security and being herded like cattle, we stumbled upon the China pavilion. An arguably impressive bright red building, this is one of the biggest atractions at the Expo. Unsurprisingly, we couldn't actually get into it, because you need a reservation, as well as the patience to wait in a queue for several hours! But we did admire the outside of it and take our fair share of photos.
We then moved on to the Expo Boulevard and the theme pavilions, which feature heavily on the adverts. They did look quite impressive, but given that it was a rainy day, they didn't quite match up to my expectations! After a brief look around the Environmental pavilion, which featured stands from WWF and the Water Council, we stumbled upon the stupidly named 'Urbanian' pavilion. I think Peter 'Insania' Andre might have been on the Expo's organising committee. The name alone prevented me from entering the building!
The first country pavilion we saw was Thailand, which really looked beautiful from the outside - see pictures below. After a 50 minute wait (why oh why did I not bring a fold away chair?!), and some serious pushing, we made it inside. It was divided into 3 main sections - a room with a giant water feature; a room with large screens and a brief presentation about Thailand's history (plus a talking robot god thing); and a 3D cinema show, presumably compiled by the Thailand tourist board (who must be having a pretty tough time at the moment). The latter room was really fun, and we got sprayed with water and could smell flowers which really made it quite a unique experience.
After grabbing some yummy food from the Thailand restaurant (all the pavilions offer cuisine from their country), we walked around the outside of the Australian and Malaysian pavilions. Australia had some very strange metal kangaroo sculptures, which were weird to say the least! We then ventured on to the Philippines pavilion - which, quite simply, didn't know what it was doing! It consisted of a large hall with a complete mish-mash of displays. There was a random collection of musical instruments, some traditional clothing, a man with a guitar singing a few songs, and a stand devoted to crisp-like snacks in the middle. I could understand why the queue was so short!
We then moved on to New Zealand - which was a much more organised affair! They'd really stuck to the theme, and step by step they answered the question 'What is a 'Better Life'?' It was quite a sweet little pavilion, featuring lots of images, videos, and 'sets' of New Zealand life, finishing with a comparatively peaceful roof top garden.
After grabbing some yummy food from the Thailand restaurant (all the pavilions offer cuisine from their country), we walked around the outside of the Australian and Malaysian pavilions. Australia had some very strange metal kangaroo sculptures, which were weird to say the least! We then ventured on to the Philippines pavilion - which, quite simply, didn't know what it was doing! It consisted of a large hall with a complete mish-mash of displays. There was a random collection of musical instruments, some traditional clothing, a man with a guitar singing a few songs, and a stand devoted to crisp-like snacks in the middle. I could understand why the queue was so short!
We then moved on to New Zealand - which was a much more organised affair! They'd really stuck to the theme, and step by step they answered the question 'What is a 'Better Life'?' It was quite a sweet little pavilion, featuring lots of images, videos, and 'sets' of New Zealand life, finishing with a comparatively peaceful roof top garden.
After covering the Oceania/South Asia section, we headed for the Europe area. We spent a lot of time admiring the architecture of the pavilions. My personal favourites were:
Latvia - the structure was made of square pieces of plastic which fluttered in the wind. They were also playing really loud techno music...which was interesting!
Norway - beautiful large wooden beams and crisp white material. Looked very pristine and Scandinavian.
UK (not that I'm biased or anything) - Britain's pavilion is surprisingly very impressive and has attracted a lot of attention. It's been nicknamed the 'Seed Cathedral' because it is constructed from thousands of long clear poles, which contain plant seeds. It kind of looks like a porcupine, and they light it up at night.
We didn't explore many of the European pavilions inside, simply because the queues were horrendous. But we did see Iceland (which offered a 360 degree cinema presentation...again, their tourist board must be feeling it at the moment!), and went into Luxembourg, which had lots of pictures of the country and lots of random videos of people speaking French, which was nice.
After Europe, we switched continents and headed to the African pavilion. Yes, there was just one pavilion for the entire continent (with the exception of a few countries). But the African pavilion was very vibrant. It had a performance area (where we saw a woman singing and dancing), and an impressive display as you came in the main entrance of huge faces! We also had a very brief look around the Americas area, taking in Brasil's bright green pavilion, and paying a short visit to Cuba. The entire Cuban pavilion was basically a bar, with a small display of cigars...! Fun times!
Latvia - the structure was made of square pieces of plastic which fluttered in the wind. They were also playing really loud techno music...which was interesting!
Norway - beautiful large wooden beams and crisp white material. Looked very pristine and Scandinavian.
UK (not that I'm biased or anything) - Britain's pavilion is surprisingly very impressive and has attracted a lot of attention. It's been nicknamed the 'Seed Cathedral' because it is constructed from thousands of long clear poles, which contain plant seeds. It kind of looks like a porcupine, and they light it up at night.
We didn't explore many of the European pavilions inside, simply because the queues were horrendous. But we did see Iceland (which offered a 360 degree cinema presentation...again, their tourist board must be feeling it at the moment!), and went into Luxembourg, which had lots of pictures of the country and lots of random videos of people speaking French, which was nice.
After Europe, we switched continents and headed to the African pavilion. Yes, there was just one pavilion for the entire continent (with the exception of a few countries). But the African pavilion was very vibrant. It had a performance area (where we saw a woman singing and dancing), and an impressive display as you came in the main entrance of huge faces! We also had a very brief look around the Americas area, taking in Brasil's bright green pavilion, and paying a short visit to Cuba. The entire Cuban pavilion was basically a bar, with a small display of cigars...! Fun times!
By the time 5pm hit, we were all exhausted...as were several other people (see photos). On our way out, we had a quick look at the Spanish pavilion (a huge wicker structure), but then headed for the exit...and onto 'Whisk', a chocolate-based cafe, to bring our low blood sugar back up to normal levels!
So, what is the Expo? Random, that's for sure. I certainly got the impression that the Chinese people (who make up 95% of the visitors, in spite of it being an 'international' event), were much more impressed with it that we were! Their 'oohs' and 'aahs' during the pavilion presentations and queuing stamina certainly proved that.
And has the Expo made Shanghai a 'Better City'? It's certainly a more crowded one (500,000 people attended on the Saturday following our visit)...and I suppose providing an opportunity to be exposed to other cultures, albeit in an artificial way, can only be a good thing for the city. But, admittedly, I was expecting a little more from an event that had had so much hype around it. Like so many things in China, it was 'an experience', and I'm glad I've seen it. But, personally, I think there are far better ways to spend a rainy day in a city that is already full of the powerful 'international relationships' that the Expo supposedly aims to strengthen.
So, what is the Expo? Random, that's for sure. I certainly got the impression that the Chinese people (who make up 95% of the visitors, in spite of it being an 'international' event), were much more impressed with it that we were! Their 'oohs' and 'aahs' during the pavilion presentations and queuing stamina certainly proved that.
And has the Expo made Shanghai a 'Better City'? It's certainly a more crowded one (500,000 people attended on the Saturday following our visit)...and I suppose providing an opportunity to be exposed to other cultures, albeit in an artificial way, can only be a good thing for the city. But, admittedly, I was expecting a little more from an event that had had so much hype around it. Like so many things in China, it was 'an experience', and I'm glad I've seen it. But, personally, I think there are far better ways to spend a rainy day in a city that is already full of the powerful 'international relationships' that the Expo supposedly aims to strengthen.
More teaching anecdotes..and a few pictures
Recently, I've been making a big effort to bring as many real objects into the classroom as possible, to aid the whole language learning process. The kids can become bored by the laminated pictures I have, and when I bring an object in, it usually generates excitement and gets them to speak more. A few objects I've brought in (and the associated reactions of the children) are detailed below...
- The Chef's Hat. I acquired this when completing my fun dumpling making class during my first week in China. It's been a valuable teaching aid! I've used it in restaurant role play activities with both my 6 year olds, and my older students. On the whole, most of the kids love it, and are so eager to be the chef/waiter and try the hat on. Some of the girls got a little embarrassed by it - simply because the hat was difficult to fit over their pigtails; and some of the tiniest kids had trouble actually keeping the hat above their eyes because their heads are so small! But, all in all, the hat was a success!
- The Scrubbing Brush. I used this during a lesson on household items. The kids went absolutely crazy when I got them to stick their hands out and feel the bristles. I never knew such a mundane object would cause such hilarity.
- The X rays. Believe it or not, I have to teach my 6 year old kids the words for occupations and places of work. In the textbook, they list 'Farmer/Farm', 'Banker/Bank', 'Doctor/Hospital', and (wait for it...) 'Scientist/Science Centre' (really!) It's quite hard to make these exciting...but fortunately, as luck would have it, I brought X ray film with me to China. I had to have chest X rays done before I came as part of visa/residency regulations, and went to great lengths to obtain the X ray film to show the hospital on my arrival. However, in the end we all had to have the examinations done again anyway, leaving me with some random X rays at my disposal. I wondered whether it might scare the kids...but thankfully, they thought they were amazing and they couldn't sit still! Now 'X ray' (particularly if you make an 'X' sign with you arms) is their new favourite word.
-The British Money. For the aforementioned occupations topic, I also decided to spice up 'Bank/Banker' by bringing in some British notes for the kids to look at. Again, this caused some jaws to drop...but with one group, they all spontaneously started to applaud! It was very strange, but very amusing at the same time!
I'll leave you with a few cute/funny things some of the 6 year old kids do:
1) Say 'uh-oh!' when I drop something or when a laminated picture flies across the floor
2) Tell me that they love me
3) Cling onto my legs and then start climbing up
4) Wave their arms frantically in the air and have weird grimaces on their faces when they are really desperate to be picked for an activity
5) Wear their trousers back to front
6) Wear their shoes on the wrong feet
7) Give me a high five when I use good Mandarin
8) Mispronounce the word 'six'
9) Pack my bag for me at the end of the lesson
10) Cry when they lose a round of musical chairs
11) Show me their wobbly teeth
12) Sing like divas - really big gestures and amazing expression (think Shirley Bassey)
I think I'll miss them quite a bit...!
- The Chef's Hat. I acquired this when completing my fun dumpling making class during my first week in China. It's been a valuable teaching aid! I've used it in restaurant role play activities with both my 6 year olds, and my older students. On the whole, most of the kids love it, and are so eager to be the chef/waiter and try the hat on. Some of the girls got a little embarrassed by it - simply because the hat was difficult to fit over their pigtails; and some of the tiniest kids had trouble actually keeping the hat above their eyes because their heads are so small! But, all in all, the hat was a success!
- The Scrubbing Brush. I used this during a lesson on household items. The kids went absolutely crazy when I got them to stick their hands out and feel the bristles. I never knew such a mundane object would cause such hilarity.
- The X rays. Believe it or not, I have to teach my 6 year old kids the words for occupations and places of work. In the textbook, they list 'Farmer/Farm', 'Banker/Bank', 'Doctor/Hospital', and (wait for it...) 'Scientist/Science Centre' (really!) It's quite hard to make these exciting...but fortunately, as luck would have it, I brought X ray film with me to China. I had to have chest X rays done before I came as part of visa/residency regulations, and went to great lengths to obtain the X ray film to show the hospital on my arrival. However, in the end we all had to have the examinations done again anyway, leaving me with some random X rays at my disposal. I wondered whether it might scare the kids...but thankfully, they thought they were amazing and they couldn't sit still! Now 'X ray' (particularly if you make an 'X' sign with you arms) is their new favourite word.
-The British Money. For the aforementioned occupations topic, I also decided to spice up 'Bank/Banker' by bringing in some British notes for the kids to look at. Again, this caused some jaws to drop...but with one group, they all spontaneously started to applaud! It was very strange, but very amusing at the same time!
I'll leave you with a few cute/funny things some of the 6 year old kids do:
1) Say 'uh-oh!' when I drop something or when a laminated picture flies across the floor
2) Tell me that they love me
3) Cling onto my legs and then start climbing up
4) Wave their arms frantically in the air and have weird grimaces on their faces when they are really desperate to be picked for an activity
5) Wear their trousers back to front
6) Wear their shoes on the wrong feet
7) Give me a high five when I use good Mandarin
8) Mispronounce the word 'six'
9) Pack my bag for me at the end of the lesson
10) Cry when they lose a round of musical chairs
11) Show me their wobbly teeth
12) Sing like divas - really big gestures and amazing expression (think Shirley Bassey)
I think I'll miss them quite a bit...!
Nanjing
After the Britishness of Thames Town (or not...), I thought it was time to get back to some more sensible and authentic tourism, and discover a bit more about China's history. So, Elisabeth and I headed to Nanjing.
On arrival, Nanjing seemed very much like any other Chinese city, with skycrapers galore, hectic traffic and people everywhere. It didn't seem quite as quaint, and compact and old-fashioned as I'd anticipated. However, after a bit of exploration, we managed to stumble upon some of the city's historical sights - which are mainly to be found on Zijin (Purple) Mountain, to the East of the city centre.
The mountain area was beautiful. It was such a joy to be surrounded by tall trees, smell green grass, and breathe clean air. We visited the Linggu Temple first, which was quite small and really showed a blend of modern and traditional - the Buddhist monk (in traditional dress) whizzing past on a moped sums up the whole atmosphere of the temple! It was pleasant enough, but felt very similar to many of the temples I've already seen. What was odd was the number of statues of tortoises around the place. I don't know whether they have some special siginificance...but whoever built the temple certainly liked them!
After visiting the temple, we went to the Beamless Hall, which is exactly what it sounds like - a grand hall with no beams to support it. At 22 metres high and 53 metres wide, it's pretty impressive...but could have done without the weird waxwork models which were a major modern feature of the hall! We also went to explore Tan Yankai's tomb (a former prominent Chinese political figure), and climbed up the Linggu Pagoda for some misty views of the city and the rest of the mountain.
On arrival, Nanjing seemed very much like any other Chinese city, with skycrapers galore, hectic traffic and people everywhere. It didn't seem quite as quaint, and compact and old-fashioned as I'd anticipated. However, after a bit of exploration, we managed to stumble upon some of the city's historical sights - which are mainly to be found on Zijin (Purple) Mountain, to the East of the city centre.
The mountain area was beautiful. It was such a joy to be surrounded by tall trees, smell green grass, and breathe clean air. We visited the Linggu Temple first, which was quite small and really showed a blend of modern and traditional - the Buddhist monk (in traditional dress) whizzing past on a moped sums up the whole atmosphere of the temple! It was pleasant enough, but felt very similar to many of the temples I've already seen. What was odd was the number of statues of tortoises around the place. I don't know whether they have some special siginificance...but whoever built the temple certainly liked them!
After visiting the temple, we went to the Beamless Hall, which is exactly what it sounds like - a grand hall with no beams to support it. At 22 metres high and 53 metres wide, it's pretty impressive...but could have done without the weird waxwork models which were a major modern feature of the hall! We also went to explore Tan Yankai's tomb (a former prominent Chinese political figure), and climbed up the Linggu Pagoda for some misty views of the city and the rest of the mountain.
The mountain area also boasts the spectacular Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum. Dr. Sun was a Chinese political leader and was extremely revolutionary (as the Memorial Museum informed us) - he was dubbed the 'Man of the Century' on several notices around the place. I'll let the Wikipedia article do the rest...! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yatsen The whole memorial to Dr. Sun was quite extensive, and had both an Eastern and Western feel. The large archway marking the entrance into the area looked typically Chinese, but as we made our way up the hundreds of steps to the tomb area, we saw rather Western-looking lions, and could see mosaic tiling in the tomb itself. It was a beautiful area and a real testament to how much this man was admired by his people.
At the end of the day we spent some time wandering around central Nanjing, seeing it lit up at night. It was all a bit tacky, but fun all the same. After our traditional Chinese hot pot dinner, we gave into temptation and indulged in some serious Haagen Dazs - delicious! However, one really sad thing that we did see as we were walking around was cruelty to animals. The area we were in had loads of pet shops (at least we think they were supposed to be pets!) selling hamsters, rabbits, birds, and small fluffy dogs. Most of them were either in tiny cages stacked on top of each other, or, in the case of the hamsters, just all in one big plastic container with hardly room to breathe. Having always had pets at home, it was absolutely horrible to see these animals being treated in this way. The RSPCA would have had a field day.
The following day, we got an early start and headed to Zhonghua Gate. Like my university city (York), Nanjing has some rather extensive city walls - so I thought it would be interesting to visit and compare to the British counterpart. The gate we visited is located in the South of the city. Built in the late 1300s, the particular gate we visited was like nothing I've ever seen...and really made me wonder how the Japanese (who infamously invaded Nanjing in 1937) ever got through it. The gate consists of various archways - so it's not just one wall, it's several. It's quite high (20 metres), and includes large ramps that were designed for soldiers on horseback in mind. An interesting aspect of the wall was the fact that each brick includes the name of the bricklayer...so that people could be held accountable if there was something wrong with a particular section. Even though it's over 600 years old, you can still make out the characters on the bricks.
The following day, we got an early start and headed to Zhonghua Gate. Like my university city (York), Nanjing has some rather extensive city walls - so I thought it would be interesting to visit and compare to the British counterpart. The gate we visited is located in the South of the city. Built in the late 1300s, the particular gate we visited was like nothing I've ever seen...and really made me wonder how the Japanese (who infamously invaded Nanjing in 1937) ever got through it. The gate consists of various archways - so it's not just one wall, it's several. It's quite high (20 metres), and includes large ramps that were designed for soldiers on horseback in mind. An interesting aspect of the wall was the fact that each brick includes the name of the bricklayer...so that people could be held accountable if there was something wrong with a particular section. Even though it's over 600 years old, you can still make out the characters on the bricks.
After eventually managing to leave the Gate (we were surrounded by hundreds of Chinese school children shouting 'Hello! Hello!'), we headed to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial. Before coming to China, I'd obviously heard of The Rape of Nanjing...but, admittedly, really didn't know much about it at all. After a couple of emotionally draining hours, I became educated on everything that happened in 1937, when the Japanese army invaded China. They occupied Nanjing, and then, over a period of six weeks, committed some of the most horrible acts on human beings I've ever heard about.
The memorial consisted of 3 main sections - the outdoor memorials, the 'Site of the Mass Graves of 10,000 corpses', and the museum of exhibits and historical evidence.
1) The Outdoor Memorials. Artistic dark grey statues of distressed people, lots of stones and modern, blunt architecture - these are the sights that greet you as you enter the memorial area. It's a stark landscape, with the words 'Three Hundred Thousand Victims' (in various languages) emblazoned across a dark stone monument. It was all very powerful...although I could have done without the dramatic atonal music being played out of speakers disguised as rocks - completely unnecessary. There was also an outdoor section dedicated to 'Peace', which consisted of a simple long pond, and a white statue. However, the most moving part for me was a section of ground where the footprints of massacre survivors had been moulded into brass. It was such an effective and heart-wrenching display.
2) The 'Site of the Mass Graves of 10,000 corpses'. This was an extremely bleak, but also extremely frustrating part of the memorial. It consisted of a room with open graves with real skeletons of massacre victims lying in them. From the viewing platform, people could read about what had happened to each skeleton, and begin to understand the truly horrific nature of some of the injuries that had killed these people. That was the extremely bleak part. The frustration came when I witnessed the reaction of some of the other tourists there. People were taking lots of pictures, talking loudly, running about, and generally not paying an ounce of respect for the dead. In some ways, that was more horrifying than the bodies on display.
3) The Museum of Exhibits If people didn't shut up in the previous section, they certainly shut up in the museum. This was the most harrowing bit of the whole memorial. It basically consisted of photographs, historical artefacts (weapons, items carried by the Japanese army, newspapers), and, stories from 'Historical Witnesses' - both Chinese and Japanese. The stories, written in Chinese, Japanese and English, were both horrific and incredibly moving - a lot of tears were being shed in that place, including my own. There were some that I had to stop reading because they were just too unbearable. However, a more positive side to the museum was the documentation of the work carried out by German businessman, John Rabe. He set up safety zones within the city which helped to save some of the people. The photographs of said people, taken within the last 10 years, form a striking wall of faces at the end of the exhibition.
The memorial consisted of 3 main sections - the outdoor memorials, the 'Site of the Mass Graves of 10,000 corpses', and the museum of exhibits and historical evidence.
1) The Outdoor Memorials. Artistic dark grey statues of distressed people, lots of stones and modern, blunt architecture - these are the sights that greet you as you enter the memorial area. It's a stark landscape, with the words 'Three Hundred Thousand Victims' (in various languages) emblazoned across a dark stone monument. It was all very powerful...although I could have done without the dramatic atonal music being played out of speakers disguised as rocks - completely unnecessary. There was also an outdoor section dedicated to 'Peace', which consisted of a simple long pond, and a white statue. However, the most moving part for me was a section of ground where the footprints of massacre survivors had been moulded into brass. It was such an effective and heart-wrenching display.
2) The 'Site of the Mass Graves of 10,000 corpses'. This was an extremely bleak, but also extremely frustrating part of the memorial. It consisted of a room with open graves with real skeletons of massacre victims lying in them. From the viewing platform, people could read about what had happened to each skeleton, and begin to understand the truly horrific nature of some of the injuries that had killed these people. That was the extremely bleak part. The frustration came when I witnessed the reaction of some of the other tourists there. People were taking lots of pictures, talking loudly, running about, and generally not paying an ounce of respect for the dead. In some ways, that was more horrifying than the bodies on display.
3) The Museum of Exhibits If people didn't shut up in the previous section, they certainly shut up in the museum. This was the most harrowing bit of the whole memorial. It basically consisted of photographs, historical artefacts (weapons, items carried by the Japanese army, newspapers), and, stories from 'Historical Witnesses' - both Chinese and Japanese. The stories, written in Chinese, Japanese and English, were both horrific and incredibly moving - a lot of tears were being shed in that place, including my own. There were some that I had to stop reading because they were just too unbearable. However, a more positive side to the museum was the documentation of the work carried out by German businessman, John Rabe. He set up safety zones within the city which helped to save some of the people. The photographs of said people, taken within the last 10 years, form a striking wall of faces at the end of the exhibition.
As harrowing as it was, I'm very glad I've seen the Massacre Memorial, and indeed visited Nanjing. To discover a bit of China's rather complex history was an interesting, if a little daunting, experience. I see things that shock me every day in China - and Nanjing is certainly no exception.
Thames Town...
Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like. And yes, I did visit it. Surreal doesn't even cover it.
It all started in Shanghai's Urban Planning Museum - a major tourist attraction tracking the development of this incredible city over the past 200 years. A few weeks ago, Lenore, Elisabeth and I wandered around the museum for a few hours, looking at the displays, and becoming a tad overwhelmed by the blatant World Expo advertising at work. As we were strolling around, we stumbled upon a rather interesting section of the museum informing us that there was an area of Shanghai inspired by British architecture, and boasting statues of famous people from my homeland. This was a concept that intrigued me...
So, one overcast Saturday, Elisabeth and I went in search of the urban phenomenon that is Thames Town. One metro ride and one bus ride later, we were there...and it all looked a little bit odd! It was a ghost town...there were very few people around, quite a novelty given that we were still technically in Shanghai. We soon found a map so we could get our bearings a bit - and what a funny map it was! It informed us that Thames Town was home to:
- Various gardens: Hampton, Chelsea, Victoria, and Kensinton (no 'g' - obviously going for the phonetic Cockney spelling to make it all the more authentic)
- Various streets: Oxford, Chelsea, Soho, Kent, Hampton, Victoria, and High (of course!)
- Two 'rivers' (more like small canals!): the Thames and the Cam
- Two small islands - 'Skye' and 'Arran' (these caused the biggest laugh!)
- One 'Nottingham Greenland' (most of the Baguley family hail from this part of the world, so this was quite funny to see too!)
The whole place was like a weird kind of dream world. As I walked along Kent Street, becoming baffled by the mock Tudor designs, the very Bath-esque terraced town houses, and the red telephone boxes , it felt very strange indeed. It even brought on a few pangs of homesickness...but these were interrupted by the sheer hilarity of the situation! This was a side of China I never thought I would see!
Most of the town is merely a facade. The 'Tea Room' doesn't serve tea, you can't get a pint in the 'Pubs', and the houses have no one living in them...at least that's what it looked like from the outside. We'd basically stepped onto what looked like an abadoned film set. There are a handful of places where you can get food...but it definitely wasn't British! My stomach was all geared up for Steak and Ale pie, Fish and Chips, and a nice Bacon Buttie...but no such luck!
The statues of famous British people are one of the main 'attractions' of the town - although, weirdly, they don't have name plaques next to them, leaving people to do the detective work regarding their identities. Some of them were obviously recognisable (to my British eyes, anyway!) - Shakespeare, Florence Nightingale, Churchill, and, of course, Harry Potter (complete with broomstick). But some of the others weren't so obvious. There was one that I presumed was Charles Dickens...a guess which was confirmed (I think) by the discovery of 'Nell Garden' nearby! Another statue was presumably Princess Diana...and I think one of them was Darwin (had the beard and was dressed in the right kind of clothes). There were others that were just plain weird (if the latter attractions weren't weird enough). At a fake bus stop, there was a random collection of people (not famous) ... which really begged the question 'why?!' There was also a statue of some random child, who I thought was meant to be Oliver Twist at first, but then decided against it. I've included the picture below - answers on a postcard please.
Although there weren't many tourists there, there were lots of modelling shoots going on whilst we were there...so the film set hadn't been entirely abandoned. We've seen this a lot in China - beautiful young Chinese people in the most elaborate outfits posing in random places for a professional photography team. We saw them on the Wall, we saw them in Hangzhou, and we see them in the prettiest parts of Shanghai. Thames Town seems to be THE place for wedding photography. We must have seen about 30 (fake) brides during that day - which made the experience all the more surreal. The densest concentration of them was in the 'Love Square' in front of the fake British church - built in a traditional style but with nothing inside!
I was always expecting to see weird stuff in China. Usually, every day brings yet another oddity. My Thames Town experience probably ranks in the upper echelons of the Weird Chinese Stuff List. I never thought I'd be seeing statues of Shakespeare, let alone Harry Potter, in Asian climes. Why did they build Thames Town? I don't really know. But it was interesting to see all the same...
For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Town ...!
It all started in Shanghai's Urban Planning Museum - a major tourist attraction tracking the development of this incredible city over the past 200 years. A few weeks ago, Lenore, Elisabeth and I wandered around the museum for a few hours, looking at the displays, and becoming a tad overwhelmed by the blatant World Expo advertising at work. As we were strolling around, we stumbled upon a rather interesting section of the museum informing us that there was an area of Shanghai inspired by British architecture, and boasting statues of famous people from my homeland. This was a concept that intrigued me...
So, one overcast Saturday, Elisabeth and I went in search of the urban phenomenon that is Thames Town. One metro ride and one bus ride later, we were there...and it all looked a little bit odd! It was a ghost town...there were very few people around, quite a novelty given that we were still technically in Shanghai. We soon found a map so we could get our bearings a bit - and what a funny map it was! It informed us that Thames Town was home to:
- Various gardens: Hampton, Chelsea, Victoria, and Kensinton (no 'g' - obviously going for the phonetic Cockney spelling to make it all the more authentic)
- Various streets: Oxford, Chelsea, Soho, Kent, Hampton, Victoria, and High (of course!)
- Two 'rivers' (more like small canals!): the Thames and the Cam
- Two small islands - 'Skye' and 'Arran' (these caused the biggest laugh!)
- One 'Nottingham Greenland' (most of the Baguley family hail from this part of the world, so this was quite funny to see too!)
The whole place was like a weird kind of dream world. As I walked along Kent Street, becoming baffled by the mock Tudor designs, the very Bath-esque terraced town houses, and the red telephone boxes , it felt very strange indeed. It even brought on a few pangs of homesickness...but these were interrupted by the sheer hilarity of the situation! This was a side of China I never thought I would see!
Most of the town is merely a facade. The 'Tea Room' doesn't serve tea, you can't get a pint in the 'Pubs', and the houses have no one living in them...at least that's what it looked like from the outside. We'd basically stepped onto what looked like an abadoned film set. There are a handful of places where you can get food...but it definitely wasn't British! My stomach was all geared up for Steak and Ale pie, Fish and Chips, and a nice Bacon Buttie...but no such luck!
The statues of famous British people are one of the main 'attractions' of the town - although, weirdly, they don't have name plaques next to them, leaving people to do the detective work regarding their identities. Some of them were obviously recognisable (to my British eyes, anyway!) - Shakespeare, Florence Nightingale, Churchill, and, of course, Harry Potter (complete with broomstick). But some of the others weren't so obvious. There was one that I presumed was Charles Dickens...a guess which was confirmed (I think) by the discovery of 'Nell Garden' nearby! Another statue was presumably Princess Diana...and I think one of them was Darwin (had the beard and was dressed in the right kind of clothes). There were others that were just plain weird (if the latter attractions weren't weird enough). At a fake bus stop, there was a random collection of people (not famous) ... which really begged the question 'why?!' There was also a statue of some random child, who I thought was meant to be Oliver Twist at first, but then decided against it. I've included the picture below - answers on a postcard please.
Although there weren't many tourists there, there were lots of modelling shoots going on whilst we were there...so the film set hadn't been entirely abandoned. We've seen this a lot in China - beautiful young Chinese people in the most elaborate outfits posing in random places for a professional photography team. We saw them on the Wall, we saw them in Hangzhou, and we see them in the prettiest parts of Shanghai. Thames Town seems to be THE place for wedding photography. We must have seen about 30 (fake) brides during that day - which made the experience all the more surreal. The densest concentration of them was in the 'Love Square' in front of the fake British church - built in a traditional style but with nothing inside!
I was always expecting to see weird stuff in China. Usually, every day brings yet another oddity. My Thames Town experience probably ranks in the upper echelons of the Weird Chinese Stuff List. I never thought I'd be seeing statues of Shakespeare, let alone Harry Potter, in Asian climes. Why did they build Thames Town? I don't really know. But it was interesting to see all the same...
For more information, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thames_Town ...!
Guilin and Yangshuo
During my time in China so far, I've mainly experienced urban life. I live in Shanghai, my last big excursion was to Beijing, and even the water 'towns' I've visited have had their city-like qualities - after all, 1 billion people have got to go somewhere! As much as I love city life, I am missing two very important things: clean air, and (real) greenery. So, to rectify this, Elisabeth and I decided to head to the beautiful Guangxi province for our May holiday - a prime opportunity to see some of rural China.
The area is only two hours away on an aeroplane...but when we arrived, it immediately felt very different to the China that we'd seen so far. We landed at Guilin airport, quite a quaint little place with a 1960s feel, and a real contrast to Shanghai's super modern travel facilities. After hopping onto the shuttle bus, we arrived at our hostel and had a wander around Guilin. It's a pretty little city with a large main square and market area, some lakes and illuminated pagodas. We had a wander around the market and grabbed a drink, but then headed back to our hostel and booked a boat ride to take us to Yangshuo the following day. As nice as Guilin is, we'd been advised not to spend too much time there, as Yangshuo, a smaller town about a 90 minute bus ride south, was much better.
After a hearty breakfast (where I ate my first bit of bacon in 2 and a half months), we got picked up in a minibus and driven to the famous Li river for our raft ride to Yangshuo. It was absolutely brilliant - one of my favourite parts of my time in China so far. The raft held 6 people and took us along the most gorgeous stretch of river, where we could really appreciate the magnificent karst landscape that surrounded us. Guangxi province is famed for its crazy mountains, which seem to jut out of nowhere. Elisabeth rightly described the landscape as 'like something a kid has just scribbled on a bit of paper when told to draw mountains'. It's dramatic, beautiful and quite simply like nothing I've ever seen. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. But yeah, as the Lonely Planet puts it, it's 'bloody gorgeous'!
The area is only two hours away on an aeroplane...but when we arrived, it immediately felt very different to the China that we'd seen so far. We landed at Guilin airport, quite a quaint little place with a 1960s feel, and a real contrast to Shanghai's super modern travel facilities. After hopping onto the shuttle bus, we arrived at our hostel and had a wander around Guilin. It's a pretty little city with a large main square and market area, some lakes and illuminated pagodas. We had a wander around the market and grabbed a drink, but then headed back to our hostel and booked a boat ride to take us to Yangshuo the following day. As nice as Guilin is, we'd been advised not to spend too much time there, as Yangshuo, a smaller town about a 90 minute bus ride south, was much better.
After a hearty breakfast (where I ate my first bit of bacon in 2 and a half months), we got picked up in a minibus and driven to the famous Li river for our raft ride to Yangshuo. It was absolutely brilliant - one of my favourite parts of my time in China so far. The raft held 6 people and took us along the most gorgeous stretch of river, where we could really appreciate the magnificent karst landscape that surrounded us. Guangxi province is famed for its crazy mountains, which seem to jut out of nowhere. Elisabeth rightly described the landscape as 'like something a kid has just scribbled on a bit of paper when told to draw mountains'. It's dramatic, beautiful and quite simply like nothing I've ever seen. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking. But yeah, as the Lonely Planet puts it, it's 'bloody gorgeous'!
After our two hour trip down the river, we got another bus...or rather cart...to Yangshuo itself. It was one hell of a bumpy ride and you really had to brace yourself as we hurtled along these crazy dirt tracks! From our luxurious transportation, we caught some fascinating glimpses of rural Chinese life. From the river we'd seen water buffalo, some really fat pigs being loaded onto a boat, and farm workers scattered about, sporting the stereotypical pointed straw hats. We saw more scenes like this as we made our way through the paddy fields. It was both fascinating and daunting to see this other end of the Chinese economical spectrum.
On arrival in Yangshuo we got our bearings and found our hostel. We spent the rest of the day exploring the town, looking at the numerous gift shops (it's very touristy in the centre) and admiring the karst peaks that are everywhere! We also stumbled upon the infamous 'Farmer's Market'...where they sell pretty much every kind of meat you can think of. It was GRIM - it really made me feel sick to the stomach! Let's just say that my beloved hounds, Frank, Rosie and George, would not have been safe in there...
After the horror of the market we spent some time relaxing by a lake as the sun set. It was a really beautiful spot and we spent a lot of time taking photos and enjoying the fact that we were away from the hustle and bustle of Shanghai. In the evening, we met up with my friends Anna and Harriet, both from York, who are currently teaching in Chongqing. They'd been given some last minute holiday time, so it was great to see them and have a catch up (even though I'd only seen Anna the week before)! The last time we'd all been in the same room, we were learning Mandarin with our Singaporean friend Jake, back in York before graduation. We ate at a lovely vegetarian restaurant (I really didn't want meat after the market!) where the food was beautifully presented.
On arrival in Yangshuo we got our bearings and found our hostel. We spent the rest of the day exploring the town, looking at the numerous gift shops (it's very touristy in the centre) and admiring the karst peaks that are everywhere! We also stumbled upon the infamous 'Farmer's Market'...where they sell pretty much every kind of meat you can think of. It was GRIM - it really made me feel sick to the stomach! Let's just say that my beloved hounds, Frank, Rosie and George, would not have been safe in there...
After the horror of the market we spent some time relaxing by a lake as the sun set. It was a really beautiful spot and we spent a lot of time taking photos and enjoying the fact that we were away from the hustle and bustle of Shanghai. In the evening, we met up with my friends Anna and Harriet, both from York, who are currently teaching in Chongqing. They'd been given some last minute holiday time, so it was great to see them and have a catch up (even though I'd only seen Anna the week before)! The last time we'd all been in the same room, we were learning Mandarin with our Singaporean friend Jake, back in York before graduation. We ate at a lovely vegetarian restaurant (I really didn't want meat after the market!) where the food was beautifully presented.
After dinner, we headed to a hostel bar and met some fellow teachers, mainly British and American. We compared all of our experiences, which was, as always, very interesting - nothing seems consistent in China! We met one girl from Brighton who had come to China by herself and is the only foreigner working in her town. It made me very thankful that I've got Western faces around me to share this experience as she said she'd found it quite difficult being on her own. She was a very brave girl!
The following day, Elisabeth and I hired some bikes from our hostel and went out to explore more of the beautiful scenery around Yangshuo. For the first part of the day, we were accompanied by our hostel owner's sister, who took us on a little tour along many a dirt track. It was great fun! During the late morning, we went on another rafting trip, this time down the Yulong river. It was just two people to a raft this time, and every now and then you'd go down mini waterfalls, so it was a little more extreme than our ride the previous day. It was hilarious, particularly when our raft got stuck on the edge of one waterfall! The downside to the rafting trip was the presence of people trying to sell us stuff, even when we were on the water! They've got their boats, and will row over to you to try and sell drinks. I could have done without that!
After our rafting, we got back on our bikes and headed to Moon Hill, a famous karst peak with a prominent moon-shaped hole in the middle of it. It's really quite stunning and unique. During our raft trip, our boat man was pointing out all of these peaks which supposedly resembled things...thumbs, people, horses...I wasn't entirely convinced! But Moon Hill really did live up to its name.
The following day, Elisabeth and I hired some bikes from our hostel and went out to explore more of the beautiful scenery around Yangshuo. For the first part of the day, we were accompanied by our hostel owner's sister, who took us on a little tour along many a dirt track. It was great fun! During the late morning, we went on another rafting trip, this time down the Yulong river. It was just two people to a raft this time, and every now and then you'd go down mini waterfalls, so it was a little more extreme than our ride the previous day. It was hilarious, particularly when our raft got stuck on the edge of one waterfall! The downside to the rafting trip was the presence of people trying to sell us stuff, even when we were on the water! They've got their boats, and will row over to you to try and sell drinks. I could have done without that!
After our rafting, we got back on our bikes and headed to Moon Hill, a famous karst peak with a prominent moon-shaped hole in the middle of it. It's really quite stunning and unique. During our raft trip, our boat man was pointing out all of these peaks which supposedly resembled things...thumbs, people, horses...I wasn't entirely convinced! But Moon Hill really did live up to its name.
We spent our afternoon exploring the Water Caves outside of Yangshuo. This was one of my favourite parts of the trip. As you'd expect, you reach said caves by taking a small boat into them - lots of ducking and head holding was needed to protect yourself from the rocks! The caves were incredible. Some of it didn't look real because it was so pretty - but once you touched the rock you could tell it was all completely natural. At their tallest, the caves are 60 metres high and, like the karst peaks, certain parts of the caves were supposed to resemble things...namely jellyfish, women and elephants. I was a bit more convinced this time. After a look around, we were led to the cave's infamous mud baths. You can buy a cheap swimming costume before you go in and then bathe in mud, if you wish. We did it. It was such a bizarre experience, and the mud felt pretty disgusting between your toes...but it was really good fun! You wash off afterwards and then get led to a natural hot spring - very relaxing indeed!
We biked back to Yangshuo in the early evening. At the end of our adventurous day, we met up with Anna and Harriet again and went out for a well deserved pizza. I think Pizza Express are going to get a lot of custom when I return. We also did a spot of shopping and picked up gifts for family and friends. At this point my skin started to turn a scarlet colour! I'd stupidly forgotten my sun cream for my trip. In spite of investing in some cream whilst there, it didn't work AT ALL (SPF 30...I think not). You can see just how red it got from the pictures....so my skin is no longer 'English Rose' style...rather 'so hot you could fry bacon on it'. Nice!
The following day, I did one of the scariest things I've ever done in my life...Rachel went rock climbing. Elisabeth, who's much fitter and more adventurous than me, had twisted my arm...and seeing as how Yangshuo is something of a rock climbing mecca, it seemed like a good place to give it a go. Before I detail my experience, I'll just give you some idea of how unprepared I was for this activity:
1) I was born and raised in the Fens. It's as flat as a pancake. I used to refer to a slight incline as a mountain.
2) I've never done any kind of climbing before...not even on one of those indoor climbing walls with the coloured markers.
3) I was wearing jeans. BIG MISTAKE!
Understandably, I was pretty damn scared when I arrived. Although the area where we were climbing was called 'Little Frog', the sheer rock face that greeted us didn't really gel with the innocent sounding name! I honestly thought I would not be able to do it, particularly when I couldn't even get the climbing 'gear' on properly! I was thankfully attached to a rope, which was attached to the top of the wall, and then to my 'buddy' at the bottom. I'm not going to lie - it was extremely difficult. We were under the impression that we were starting on 'beginner' level...but the level we were actually on was more intermediate on the rock climbing scale. As I made my first few moves up the wall, I was shaking like a leaf...through fear and through my muscles going, 'Rachel what are you doing to us?!?!' However, somehow, I'm not entirely sure how, I did do it. I was shaking for most of the time, and I shed sweat, tears and probably a bit of blood (a few scrapes!). About half way up, I wanted to stop, but my 'buddy' on the ground pushed me on. I'm glad he did. I made it to the top...and after kind of abseiling back down (a lot harder than you might think!), I burst into tears through sheer relief more than anything! Teaching 30 crazy 6 year olds is a walk in the park in comparison!
We biked back to Yangshuo in the early evening. At the end of our adventurous day, we met up with Anna and Harriet again and went out for a well deserved pizza. I think Pizza Express are going to get a lot of custom when I return. We also did a spot of shopping and picked up gifts for family and friends. At this point my skin started to turn a scarlet colour! I'd stupidly forgotten my sun cream for my trip. In spite of investing in some cream whilst there, it didn't work AT ALL (SPF 30...I think not). You can see just how red it got from the pictures....so my skin is no longer 'English Rose' style...rather 'so hot you could fry bacon on it'. Nice!
The following day, I did one of the scariest things I've ever done in my life...Rachel went rock climbing. Elisabeth, who's much fitter and more adventurous than me, had twisted my arm...and seeing as how Yangshuo is something of a rock climbing mecca, it seemed like a good place to give it a go. Before I detail my experience, I'll just give you some idea of how unprepared I was for this activity:
1) I was born and raised in the Fens. It's as flat as a pancake. I used to refer to a slight incline as a mountain.
2) I've never done any kind of climbing before...not even on one of those indoor climbing walls with the coloured markers.
3) I was wearing jeans. BIG MISTAKE!
Understandably, I was pretty damn scared when I arrived. Although the area where we were climbing was called 'Little Frog', the sheer rock face that greeted us didn't really gel with the innocent sounding name! I honestly thought I would not be able to do it, particularly when I couldn't even get the climbing 'gear' on properly! I was thankfully attached to a rope, which was attached to the top of the wall, and then to my 'buddy' at the bottom. I'm not going to lie - it was extremely difficult. We were under the impression that we were starting on 'beginner' level...but the level we were actually on was more intermediate on the rock climbing scale. As I made my first few moves up the wall, I was shaking like a leaf...through fear and through my muscles going, 'Rachel what are you doing to us?!?!' However, somehow, I'm not entirely sure how, I did do it. I was shaking for most of the time, and I shed sweat, tears and probably a bit of blood (a few scrapes!). About half way up, I wanted to stop, but my 'buddy' on the ground pushed me on. I'm glad he did. I made it to the top...and after kind of abseiling back down (a lot harder than you might think!), I burst into tears through sheer relief more than anything! Teaching 30 crazy 6 year olds is a walk in the park in comparison!
After an, ahem, rigorous morning, I had a bit of a more relaxing afternoon! We hired some bikes and went for a ride back towards the Moon Hill. I spent most of the afternoon sitting in the shade (the heat was crazy by this point), reading, drinking a big cold drink and admiring the views. I don't get much of a chance just to sit in Shanghai. My schedule is pretty hectic...so it was good to just rest for a while and take in the truly gorgeous scenery.
In the evening we did a cookery workshop at our hostel. It was a free activity, and wasn't professional by any stretch of the imagination. However, it was a really pleasant way to spend a couple of hours. It was run by another relative of the hostel owner. I've eaten so much great food here in China, so it was a fantastic opportunity to learn how to make some of our favourite meals properly - an egg and tomato dish, a beef and potato dish, and Chinese vegetables. They were surprisingly easy to master...but learning about some of the 'hidden' ingredients was really useful. It's amazing what ginger can do. We ate what we'd made with various members of the family who help to run the hostel - including a 5 year old girl who we taught some basic English. She was very sweet :) Being around 6 year olds has really made me a lot better with kids than I ever was before this experience!
In the evening we did a cookery workshop at our hostel. It was a free activity, and wasn't professional by any stretch of the imagination. However, it was a really pleasant way to spend a couple of hours. It was run by another relative of the hostel owner. I've eaten so much great food here in China, so it was a fantastic opportunity to learn how to make some of our favourite meals properly - an egg and tomato dish, a beef and potato dish, and Chinese vegetables. They were surprisingly easy to master...but learning about some of the 'hidden' ingredients was really useful. It's amazing what ginger can do. We ate what we'd made with various members of the family who help to run the hostel - including a 5 year old girl who we taught some basic English. She was very sweet :) Being around 6 year olds has really made me a lot better with kids than I ever was before this experience!
The following day we headed to the Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces, just north of Guilin. This is a huge mountainous area, consisting of rice terraces (of course), and scattered villages. During the day we went to two villages and then had a walk on the terraces themselves. The first village we went to was, well, the weirdest thing I've ever seen in my life. It was named the 'Long Haired' village. It's exactly what you're thinking. It's full of women who have extremely long hair - I'm talking down to the knees. On arrival, most of the women had their hair wrapped up in turbans...but pretty soon we were ushered into this barn where they were putting on a show. It was pretty grotesque to be honest, and it really made me question how 'authentic' this village actually was! The tradition goes that the women grow their hair to attract men, and then keep their hair this way for their whole lives. If you're unmarried, you keep your hair wrapped up (so your husband is the first one to see it); if you're married, you wear your hair in a certain style; and if you're a mother, you wear it in a different style. The weird show consisted of singing and dancing, and ended with a climactic unravelling (and brushing) of the hair. To my Western eyes, the hair looked disgusting, unkempt and unclean. It just made me want to cut all my hair off!!
After the bizarre village (I was quite glad to leave!), we headed to Ping'an, another village, which was much nicer. We sampled some of the speciality bamboo rice (rice cooked inside a hollow bamboo stalk), and then had a wander around. Being on the side of a mountain, there was quite a lot of steep walking involved, but the views were well worth it. When we reached the highest point in the village we got incredible views of the rice terraces...and had an opportunity to walk along them. They are a lot steeper than they look...and are very very muddy and bog-like!! Wearing suede trainers that day was a big mistake! Seeing the rice terraces here, with men dotted about here and there working on the land, really made me appreciate how much hard work goes into farming all of the rice. It's certainly going to make me look at all the grains that I'm eating in a very different light! After taking some pictures, we got back on our bus which took us down from the mountain top via a series of blind hairpin bends. I was surprisingly calm throughout the whole thing, though lots of other tourists were gripping on for dear life. Fun times!
We headed back to Guilin for the last night of our trip. Feeling pretty exhausted, we had a relaxed final night before getting our flight back the following day.
After the bizarre village (I was quite glad to leave!), we headed to Ping'an, another village, which was much nicer. We sampled some of the speciality bamboo rice (rice cooked inside a hollow bamboo stalk), and then had a wander around. Being on the side of a mountain, there was quite a lot of steep walking involved, but the views were well worth it. When we reached the highest point in the village we got incredible views of the rice terraces...and had an opportunity to walk along them. They are a lot steeper than they look...and are very very muddy and bog-like!! Wearing suede trainers that day was a big mistake! Seeing the rice terraces here, with men dotted about here and there working on the land, really made me appreciate how much hard work goes into farming all of the rice. It's certainly going to make me look at all the grains that I'm eating in a very different light! After taking some pictures, we got back on our bus which took us down from the mountain top via a series of blind hairpin bends. I was surprisingly calm throughout the whole thing, though lots of other tourists were gripping on for dear life. Fun times!
We headed back to Guilin for the last night of our trip. Feeling pretty exhausted, we had a relaxed final night before getting our flight back the following day.
Visiting Guilin and Yangshuo, and seeing some of rural China, was a fascinating experience. It was wonderful to have some fresh air, to see some greenery, get some exercise and to get some colour (maybe a little too much) into my skin! But the best thing about the trip was seeing the huge difference between urban and rural living. Personally, it's put a lot of things into perspective, and made me truly appreciate the diversity of cultures here. This really hit home when we landed back in Shanghai. It was hard to believe that I hadn't left the country, such is the difference between the two areas. Travel certainly does broaden the mind, that's for sure...
A Sudden Influx of Brits!
When I arrived in China, I experienced a weird kind of culture shock. Not only did I have to adjust to Chinese life, language and customs, I also found myself having to get used to the American ways of my fellow teaching colleagues. I've never been to the States (only Canada, and that's COMPLETELY different, or so I've been told!) - so at the moment I'm getting to know two cultures at once. At times, this is quite overwhelming. I have enough trouble understanding Chinese people, but when my English speaking friends start using words that have never passed my lips or entered my ears, it can be a bit confusing!! Similarly, when I talk about 'trousers' or the 'pavement', I get blank stares!
It's a very strange experience. Don't get me wrong, I'm getting on very well with my friends from across the pond - they are really interesting and intelligent people and I'm sure we'll be keeping in touch long after this experience is over. We do find similar things over here quite alien, with us all being from the 'Western world'. But there have been other situations where we have found ourselves reacting quite differently. According to some of the Chinese teachers, I am 'very very different' to the others here - my accent, my appearance, and my mannerisms, apparently! I am not sure if that is in a good way or a bad way - I think they are too timid/polite to disclose any further information. If I ever find out I'll let you know!
At the moment, I'm not hearing a lot of British accents other than when I speak to my family and friends on Skype. I can definitely feel my intonation changing as a result! I've met one Scottish guy during my time here...but that's been it...until last week when my wave of British visitors started!
My first visitor was Jessy, my roommate during orientation week. She's from Bedford, but at the moment she's teaching at a university near Qingdao, a 90 minute flight north of Shanghai. It was really great to see her and have a proper catch up - as well as compare our experiences of teaching in China so far. Unlike me, she is given pretty much full control over the curriculum she teaches - which has its pros and cons. I was rather envious that Jessy can socialise with her students...I just don't think going for a coffee with one of my 6 year olds would work.
During Jessy's stay, we explored the Bund area, where you can enjoy some stunning riverside views of old and new Shanghai. It's one of my favourite parts of the city - the striking Oriental Pearl Tower and accompanying skyscrapers on one side, and a gorgeous row of European-looking 19th century buildings on the other. We shamelessly had a ride on the 'Sightseeing Tunnel' which transports people under the river so you can appreciate the views from both sides of the Huangpu. It was an hilarious experience. It's just as tacky as it sounds - think neon lights, weird voiceovers (in Mandarin and English), and themed sections. It was all a bit dated and didn't exactly match up to the super modern buildings that dominate the ground above...but we enjoyed it anyway! We had beautiful weather, so the Shanghai skyline really did look spectacular.
To finish off the day, we went out for a meal with some of Jessy's friends who'd travelled with her from Qingdao. The cuisine of choice was Indian - and it tasted great! As much as I am enjoying Chinese food, it can actually get a bit repetitive...so a bit of variety was definitely called for!
The following day, my second wave of British visitors arrived. On Saturday, I got an unexpected message from Steph and Sarah, two friends from York, who, it turns out, were stranded in Shanghai because of the volcanic ash over Europe! After several frantic texts, I managed to find their hotel and went to help them out in what was a truly bizarre and quite traumatic situation. They had been through quite an ordeal. They had been over to China to visit Anna and Harriet, two other friends from York, who are currently teaching in Chongqing. Mid-way through their return flight back to the UK, there was an announcement on the tannoy (in Mandarin)...which produced an horrific reaction from the Chinese people on the flight! Steph and Sarah were horrified, and thought that the plane was about to crash. What had actually been announced was that the plane could not land in Europe, so they would all be going back to Shanghai...but it took quite some time for this message to be communicated to them. Anyway, they landed back in Shanghai, were placed in a hotel and given very little information about what was going on...although they had been told that they could be in Shanghai for up to 10 days. When I arrived at the hotel, the girls were quite anxious and tired...and the atmosphere in the foyer was tense. People were paying ridiculous amounts of money to try to get on earlier flights, and there was generally a lot of panic in the air! I helped out as best I could. We spent part of the first day at my apartment so that the girls could use the internet, wash some clothes...and have a cup of British tea!! (I have an emergency stash) We also found an internet cafe within a hostel so the girls could use the internet for longer periods while I was at school (I only have one pass to my apartment!)...which also proved to be a good place for finding out information about the air travel situation from other stranded passengers.
The girls ended up being in Shanghai for a week - and we managed to spend some time together in between my classes. We went to Element Fresh, a very Western restaurant where you can get amazing salads, sandwiches and soups. We went to hear some jazz one evening - a good way to relax in a stressful situation! We also went to a ladies night at an expat bar - where ladies don't have to pay for drinks! A few of the other girls who were on the same flight joined us and we had a great night out :) Thankfully the girls are now safely back in England after getting a couple of seats on a flight when the UK airports opened. It was great to see them, albeit in a slightly bizarre context!
My latest British visitor to Shanghai was Anna, one of my friends from Chongqing. She booked some flights over when she heard the girls were in trouble. The girls' earlier flight meant that she actually missed seeing them - but still came over, as we'd been meaning to meet up anyway! We spent a really enjoyable weekend together in Shanghai. We went to a fabric market, as Anna wanted to get some clothes made - and this can be done very cheaply in Shanghai. It was a really fun experience! I was overwhelmed with all of the stalls there, but I am definitely going to go back soon to get measured up for some tailor-made outfits. We also explored an area called Tianzifang, which I'd seen very briefly in my orientation week - lots of cafes, art galleries and restaurants. We ate there in the evening with some of my American friends, and with some of Anna's friends who she'd met during her orientation period in China. Again, it was very interesting to compare all our teaching experiences.
Just before Anna left, we headed to a recommended specialist chocolate cafe. It was AMAZING. Generally speaking, the chocolate over here is, well, pretty awful! You can get this stuff called 'Dove' which looks like Galaxy, but really doesn't taste like it. Anyway, this cafe, called Whisk, was incredible! We shared this amazing hot chocolate (literally like melted chocolate in a mug), a melted chocolate pudding, and a chocolate cake with cream on the side. Heaven! Whilst at the cafe, we met one of Anna's friends, who is one of the directors of a Chinese budget flight company. He'd kindly arranged Anna's flights for her when he heard she was trying to get to Shanghai to see the girls. He was really interesting to talk to...and has offered some very very cheap internal flights for the future - a useful contact to have!
It's been great being able to see so many Brits recently. With my double culture shock, sometimes it can feel like I am very very far away from home. But having some familiar accents around me really made me realise that this world isn't so big after all...and that I'm actually not the only person on this earth who talks about the 'till' instead of the 'checkout'!!
It's a very strange experience. Don't get me wrong, I'm getting on very well with my friends from across the pond - they are really interesting and intelligent people and I'm sure we'll be keeping in touch long after this experience is over. We do find similar things over here quite alien, with us all being from the 'Western world'. But there have been other situations where we have found ourselves reacting quite differently. According to some of the Chinese teachers, I am 'very very different' to the others here - my accent, my appearance, and my mannerisms, apparently! I am not sure if that is in a good way or a bad way - I think they are too timid/polite to disclose any further information. If I ever find out I'll let you know!
At the moment, I'm not hearing a lot of British accents other than when I speak to my family and friends on Skype. I can definitely feel my intonation changing as a result! I've met one Scottish guy during my time here...but that's been it...until last week when my wave of British visitors started!
My first visitor was Jessy, my roommate during orientation week. She's from Bedford, but at the moment she's teaching at a university near Qingdao, a 90 minute flight north of Shanghai. It was really great to see her and have a proper catch up - as well as compare our experiences of teaching in China so far. Unlike me, she is given pretty much full control over the curriculum she teaches - which has its pros and cons. I was rather envious that Jessy can socialise with her students...I just don't think going for a coffee with one of my 6 year olds would work.
During Jessy's stay, we explored the Bund area, where you can enjoy some stunning riverside views of old and new Shanghai. It's one of my favourite parts of the city - the striking Oriental Pearl Tower and accompanying skyscrapers on one side, and a gorgeous row of European-looking 19th century buildings on the other. We shamelessly had a ride on the 'Sightseeing Tunnel' which transports people under the river so you can appreciate the views from both sides of the Huangpu. It was an hilarious experience. It's just as tacky as it sounds - think neon lights, weird voiceovers (in Mandarin and English), and themed sections. It was all a bit dated and didn't exactly match up to the super modern buildings that dominate the ground above...but we enjoyed it anyway! We had beautiful weather, so the Shanghai skyline really did look spectacular.
To finish off the day, we went out for a meal with some of Jessy's friends who'd travelled with her from Qingdao. The cuisine of choice was Indian - and it tasted great! As much as I am enjoying Chinese food, it can actually get a bit repetitive...so a bit of variety was definitely called for!
The following day, my second wave of British visitors arrived. On Saturday, I got an unexpected message from Steph and Sarah, two friends from York, who, it turns out, were stranded in Shanghai because of the volcanic ash over Europe! After several frantic texts, I managed to find their hotel and went to help them out in what was a truly bizarre and quite traumatic situation. They had been through quite an ordeal. They had been over to China to visit Anna and Harriet, two other friends from York, who are currently teaching in Chongqing. Mid-way through their return flight back to the UK, there was an announcement on the tannoy (in Mandarin)...which produced an horrific reaction from the Chinese people on the flight! Steph and Sarah were horrified, and thought that the plane was about to crash. What had actually been announced was that the plane could not land in Europe, so they would all be going back to Shanghai...but it took quite some time for this message to be communicated to them. Anyway, they landed back in Shanghai, were placed in a hotel and given very little information about what was going on...although they had been told that they could be in Shanghai for up to 10 days. When I arrived at the hotel, the girls were quite anxious and tired...and the atmosphere in the foyer was tense. People were paying ridiculous amounts of money to try to get on earlier flights, and there was generally a lot of panic in the air! I helped out as best I could. We spent part of the first day at my apartment so that the girls could use the internet, wash some clothes...and have a cup of British tea!! (I have an emergency stash) We also found an internet cafe within a hostel so the girls could use the internet for longer periods while I was at school (I only have one pass to my apartment!)...which also proved to be a good place for finding out information about the air travel situation from other stranded passengers.
The girls ended up being in Shanghai for a week - and we managed to spend some time together in between my classes. We went to Element Fresh, a very Western restaurant where you can get amazing salads, sandwiches and soups. We went to hear some jazz one evening - a good way to relax in a stressful situation! We also went to a ladies night at an expat bar - where ladies don't have to pay for drinks! A few of the other girls who were on the same flight joined us and we had a great night out :) Thankfully the girls are now safely back in England after getting a couple of seats on a flight when the UK airports opened. It was great to see them, albeit in a slightly bizarre context!
My latest British visitor to Shanghai was Anna, one of my friends from Chongqing. She booked some flights over when she heard the girls were in trouble. The girls' earlier flight meant that she actually missed seeing them - but still came over, as we'd been meaning to meet up anyway! We spent a really enjoyable weekend together in Shanghai. We went to a fabric market, as Anna wanted to get some clothes made - and this can be done very cheaply in Shanghai. It was a really fun experience! I was overwhelmed with all of the stalls there, but I am definitely going to go back soon to get measured up for some tailor-made outfits. We also explored an area called Tianzifang, which I'd seen very briefly in my orientation week - lots of cafes, art galleries and restaurants. We ate there in the evening with some of my American friends, and with some of Anna's friends who she'd met during her orientation period in China. Again, it was very interesting to compare all our teaching experiences.
Just before Anna left, we headed to a recommended specialist chocolate cafe. It was AMAZING. Generally speaking, the chocolate over here is, well, pretty awful! You can get this stuff called 'Dove' which looks like Galaxy, but really doesn't taste like it. Anyway, this cafe, called Whisk, was incredible! We shared this amazing hot chocolate (literally like melted chocolate in a mug), a melted chocolate pudding, and a chocolate cake with cream on the side. Heaven! Whilst at the cafe, we met one of Anna's friends, who is one of the directors of a Chinese budget flight company. He'd kindly arranged Anna's flights for her when he heard she was trying to get to Shanghai to see the girls. He was really interesting to talk to...and has offered some very very cheap internal flights for the future - a useful contact to have!
It's been great being able to see so many Brits recently. With my double culture shock, sometimes it can feel like I am very very far away from home. But having some familiar accents around me really made me realise that this world isn't so big after all...and that I'm actually not the only person on this earth who talks about the 'till' instead of the 'checkout'!!
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Songjiang and more of Shanghai
A few weekends ago, I took a short trip to Songjiang, an area 30km out of central Shanghai. The three of us (myself, Cori, and Elisabeth's visiting friend, Sarah) reached the area by metro...and noticed quite a striking difference between the Shanghai we left and the Shanghai suburbs that we encountered - it was much quieter, and much easier on the lungs! I'm not sure I've mentioned this, but Shanghai air is pretty bad on some days, depending on what the weather's like. The only health issues I've had whilst here have been coughs - undoubtedly triggered by the Shanghai smog!
Anyway, we had a great day in Songjiang. We visited two of the sights there, the first of which was the Square Pagoda. With most pagodas being round, it was quite a novelty. It was in this lovely park area, which also played home to a temple and some small lakes. We decided to climb said pagoda (of course!)...and were shocked by how small and narrow everything was inside! The staircases were so steep, and as we climbed further and further up inside the pagoda, the archways got smaller. When we reached the top, I was crawling around on my hands and knees!! It was hilarious - I really felt like I was in Alice in Wonderland. We saw some great views from the pagoda of the rest of the park...and also spent some time watching a Tai Chi session taking place below us, which was fascinating to watch.
After a brief look around the temple and a wander around the park, we headed over to Songjiang Mosque. We got a taxi over there as we had no idea where we were going...and as soon as we got out of the car we attracted a lot of attention! In front of the mosque there were loads of food stalls, so we bought some sesame bread stuff from one of the street vendors, and then headed into the mosque. We had the place to ourselves - and even bagged ourselves our very own tour guide. He only spoke Mandarin, but Cori (who has studied the language for several years) managed to translate about 60% of the stuff he was saying. I maybe caught about 5% - I was very proud of such an achievement! The mosque was small, but beautiful. It's 800 years old, and lots of the architecture is very creative. One of my favourite bits was this area where there was a really pretty tiled roof - which was meant to look a bit like a dragon. We walked through some of the bamboo gardens surrounding the mosque, saw some of the prayer rooms, as well as a tombstone area. It was very tranquil and offered quite a contrast to the bustling nature of the Muslim community just outside.
After our tour, we asked our guide if he could recommend a good place to eat dumplings, as Sarah, Elisabeth's friend from the USA, had yet to try some during her trip to China! He led us to this really cheap and friendly restaurant. We had a really good, really fresh and really filling meal for about 50p. Good times!
After visiting Songjiang, I spent the rest of my weekend seeing a bit more of Shanghai. I took Sarah to Old Town after we got back from Songjiang, so that she could stock up on souvenirs before her return to the West. (Elisabeth was ill over the weekend, so I took over as Shanghai Social Secretary!) Old Town is a bit tacky, but it's great fun - lots of salesmen and women pushing their products! I bought a necklace (after a lot of bargaining) and a couple of gifts for people at home. Also over the weekend, I explored a bit more around the Xujiahui area of Shanghai, which I pass through most days but rarely have the time to explore properly. It's a real mish-mash! There are HUGE shopping centres, department stores and electronics specialists - which is very overwhelming. I had a bit of a look around the shopping centres just to see a bit of Shanghai at the more modern and richer end of the social spectrum. I discovered a branch of 'Clarks' shoes which we all know and love...where they were charging about £250 per pair! I also came across a 'Western Imports' section in a department store...where they charge £4.50 for a box of standard Walkers shortbread! I'm craving shortbread...but not that much! In this instance, it really wasn't difficult to resist Western temptations.
I also discovered a cute little park near the shopping centre, tucked away down this side street. It was dedicated to Xu Guangqi, a famous Chinese scientist and astrologer born in the 16th century. There were several statues of him within the park, as well as his tomb...which is pretty huge! The park was very peaceful. There were people playing cards, couples strolling around...and an old man doing some pretty extreme stretches on a statue - see photo below!
Before I headed home, I saw a really bizarre sight...a huge cathedral in the middle of skyscrapers. I popped in, just to see what a Chinese cathedral was like. It looked pretty much like any English cathedral...stained glass windows, big pillars, candles everywhere - yet the mass being said at the time was in Mandarin. It was truly bizarre...and was a sight I just never thought I'd see before I came to Shanghai!
Anyway, I'll sign off now - thanks for reading...enjoy the pictures below!
xxx
Anyway, we had a great day in Songjiang. We visited two of the sights there, the first of which was the Square Pagoda. With most pagodas being round, it was quite a novelty. It was in this lovely park area, which also played home to a temple and some small lakes. We decided to climb said pagoda (of course!)...and were shocked by how small and narrow everything was inside! The staircases were so steep, and as we climbed further and further up inside the pagoda, the archways got smaller. When we reached the top, I was crawling around on my hands and knees!! It was hilarious - I really felt like I was in Alice in Wonderland. We saw some great views from the pagoda of the rest of the park...and also spent some time watching a Tai Chi session taking place below us, which was fascinating to watch.
After a brief look around the temple and a wander around the park, we headed over to Songjiang Mosque. We got a taxi over there as we had no idea where we were going...and as soon as we got out of the car we attracted a lot of attention! In front of the mosque there were loads of food stalls, so we bought some sesame bread stuff from one of the street vendors, and then headed into the mosque. We had the place to ourselves - and even bagged ourselves our very own tour guide. He only spoke Mandarin, but Cori (who has studied the language for several years) managed to translate about 60% of the stuff he was saying. I maybe caught about 5% - I was very proud of such an achievement! The mosque was small, but beautiful. It's 800 years old, and lots of the architecture is very creative. One of my favourite bits was this area where there was a really pretty tiled roof - which was meant to look a bit like a dragon. We walked through some of the bamboo gardens surrounding the mosque, saw some of the prayer rooms, as well as a tombstone area. It was very tranquil and offered quite a contrast to the bustling nature of the Muslim community just outside.
After our tour, we asked our guide if he could recommend a good place to eat dumplings, as Sarah, Elisabeth's friend from the USA, had yet to try some during her trip to China! He led us to this really cheap and friendly restaurant. We had a really good, really fresh and really filling meal for about 50p. Good times!
After visiting Songjiang, I spent the rest of my weekend seeing a bit more of Shanghai. I took Sarah to Old Town after we got back from Songjiang, so that she could stock up on souvenirs before her return to the West. (Elisabeth was ill over the weekend, so I took over as Shanghai Social Secretary!) Old Town is a bit tacky, but it's great fun - lots of salesmen and women pushing their products! I bought a necklace (after a lot of bargaining) and a couple of gifts for people at home. Also over the weekend, I explored a bit more around the Xujiahui area of Shanghai, which I pass through most days but rarely have the time to explore properly. It's a real mish-mash! There are HUGE shopping centres, department stores and electronics specialists - which is very overwhelming. I had a bit of a look around the shopping centres just to see a bit of Shanghai at the more modern and richer end of the social spectrum. I discovered a branch of 'Clarks' shoes which we all know and love...where they were charging about £250 per pair! I also came across a 'Western Imports' section in a department store...where they charge £4.50 for a box of standard Walkers shortbread! I'm craving shortbread...but not that much! In this instance, it really wasn't difficult to resist Western temptations.
I also discovered a cute little park near the shopping centre, tucked away down this side street. It was dedicated to Xu Guangqi, a famous Chinese scientist and astrologer born in the 16th century. There were several statues of him within the park, as well as his tomb...which is pretty huge! The park was very peaceful. There were people playing cards, couples strolling around...and an old man doing some pretty extreme stretches on a statue - see photo below!
Before I headed home, I saw a really bizarre sight...a huge cathedral in the middle of skyscrapers. I popped in, just to see what a Chinese cathedral was like. It looked pretty much like any English cathedral...stained glass windows, big pillars, candles everywhere - yet the mass being said at the time was in Mandarin. It was truly bizarre...and was a sight I just never thought I'd see before I came to Shanghai!
Anyway, I'll sign off now - thanks for reading...enjoy the pictures below!
xxx
A few school anecdotes
I thought now, at my 2 month anniversary of Shanghai life, it would be a good opportunity to give you all an update on the teaching. As much as I wanted to come to China for a complete change of pace and to experience living in a different culture (and believe me, it's different!), I also came to give teaching a try...and see if following in the footsteps of my mum, dad, grandmother, and various other family members, would be a good way to go. To be honest, I'm not rushing to get a PGCE application in...and I think teaching out here is a whole different ball game to the UK education system. But, I'm enjoying teaching here a lot more than I thought I would, and discovering skills that I wasn't even sure I had. So that's all good!
The majority of the children are great. Yes, sometimes they test my patience, sometimes they do things which merit the Rachel Teacher Stare being given, and sometimes it seems like they will never be quiet, in spite of me shouting 'an jing! an jing!' at the top of my voice (my KEY Mandarin classroom phrase!) However, they are also extremely intelligent - I sometimes have to remind myself just how young they are and how remarkable their English is when I get a bit frustrated. As well as being smart, they're also very funny, and they give me so many hugs - which is nice! Some of them literally throw themselves on me and grip onto my legs when I attempt to leave the room. I haven't been rugby tackled yet, but I think that day will come!
As well as the hugs, the kids (particularly the older ones) give me chocolate, weird Chinese food ('ooh, this is delicious...yum yum yum!' - she lies), and even pictures that they've drawn. One of the children in my senior class is a brilliant artist...far better than I have ever been! She drew this lovely picture of me (complete with my scarf and my backpack on), and her, and several other children, and wrote 'Rachel, I like you!' at the top of the page. That's always nice to know.
I'm trying to make my lessons as fun and interactive as possible. When teaching a lesson on food, I did my shopping on the way to the class and got the kids to unpack my bag and name all of the items - they got so excited - 'CARRROTTTTS!!!' I'm also using the Shanghai Expo mascot, Hai Bao (whom the children all know and love), in my lessons. I bought a cuddly toy and I used it when I was teaching directions ('take Hai Bao East', 'take Hai Bao North'), and countries ('Hai Bao wants to go to Canada', 'Hai Bao wants to go to New Zealand'). This week I did a lesson on clothes and brought in a few items from my wardrobe for the kids to put on. Seeing a 6 year old child walking around with my linen trousers on (which are even too big for me now thanks to the Eastern diet!) was so funny!
The thing that my younger children love the most is the song, 'The Wheels on the Bus' which I've used in all my lessons on transport. Everytime we finish it they all shout 'One more time! One more time!' Sometimes when I'm singing that song, making the wipers go 'swish', the horn go 'beep' and the babies go 'wah wah wah' (some playschool nostaliga for you), I cast my mind back to April 2009. I think to myself 'this time last year I was slaving away on an essay about Shakespeare's 'Venus and Adonis', and trying to get my head around the maternal imagery in the novels of Colette...up to my eyeballs in criticism and stressing about word counts'.
So, admittedly, teaching under 11s isn't really pushing me academically...but it is pushing me in so many other ways. I'm toughening up (kids can be cruel!), I'm multi-tasking to the max, and I'm learning the fine art of thinking on your feet. I'm also practising bits of Mandarin in the classroom. When I know the translation for a word or phrase which the kids clearly don't understand, I'll give it to them. One group (my favourite class) always go 'Very good, Rachel', smile and stick two thumbs up, whenever I use some Mandarin successfully...pretty much mirroring the style that I use when praising them! :) Bless...if only they were that cute all of the time!
xxx
The majority of the children are great. Yes, sometimes they test my patience, sometimes they do things which merit the Rachel Teacher Stare being given, and sometimes it seems like they will never be quiet, in spite of me shouting 'an jing! an jing!' at the top of my voice (my KEY Mandarin classroom phrase!) However, they are also extremely intelligent - I sometimes have to remind myself just how young they are and how remarkable their English is when I get a bit frustrated. As well as being smart, they're also very funny, and they give me so many hugs - which is nice! Some of them literally throw themselves on me and grip onto my legs when I attempt to leave the room. I haven't been rugby tackled yet, but I think that day will come!
As well as the hugs, the kids (particularly the older ones) give me chocolate, weird Chinese food ('ooh, this is delicious...yum yum yum!' - she lies), and even pictures that they've drawn. One of the children in my senior class is a brilliant artist...far better than I have ever been! She drew this lovely picture of me (complete with my scarf and my backpack on), and her, and several other children, and wrote 'Rachel, I like you!' at the top of the page. That's always nice to know.
I'm trying to make my lessons as fun and interactive as possible. When teaching a lesson on food, I did my shopping on the way to the class and got the kids to unpack my bag and name all of the items - they got so excited - 'CARRROTTTTS!!!' I'm also using the Shanghai Expo mascot, Hai Bao (whom the children all know and love), in my lessons. I bought a cuddly toy and I used it when I was teaching directions ('take Hai Bao East', 'take Hai Bao North'), and countries ('Hai Bao wants to go to Canada', 'Hai Bao wants to go to New Zealand'). This week I did a lesson on clothes and brought in a few items from my wardrobe for the kids to put on. Seeing a 6 year old child walking around with my linen trousers on (which are even too big for me now thanks to the Eastern diet!) was so funny!
The thing that my younger children love the most is the song, 'The Wheels on the Bus' which I've used in all my lessons on transport. Everytime we finish it they all shout 'One more time! One more time!' Sometimes when I'm singing that song, making the wipers go 'swish', the horn go 'beep' and the babies go 'wah wah wah' (some playschool nostaliga for you), I cast my mind back to April 2009. I think to myself 'this time last year I was slaving away on an essay about Shakespeare's 'Venus and Adonis', and trying to get my head around the maternal imagery in the novels of Colette...up to my eyeballs in criticism and stressing about word counts'.
So, admittedly, teaching under 11s isn't really pushing me academically...but it is pushing me in so many other ways. I'm toughening up (kids can be cruel!), I'm multi-tasking to the max, and I'm learning the fine art of thinking on your feet. I'm also practising bits of Mandarin in the classroom. When I know the translation for a word or phrase which the kids clearly don't understand, I'll give it to them. One group (my favourite class) always go 'Very good, Rachel', smile and stick two thumbs up, whenever I use some Mandarin successfully...pretty much mirroring the style that I use when praising them! :) Bless...if only they were that cute all of the time!
xxx
Beijing
WARNING: VERY LONG BLOG ENTRY BECAUSE BEIJING WAS AMAZING. FOR THE QUICKER OPTION, THERE ARE PICTURES BELOW!
Three things on my list of 'must-sees' before heading to the Orient were The Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City. So, with a long weekend approaching, Elisabeth and I decided to plan a trip to Beijing. And what a weekend it was!
The three of us (myself, Elisabeth, and Elisabeth's friend, Sarah) left Shanghai late evening and caught a domestic flight to the capital, arriving at our destination in the early hours of the morning. Weary and tired, we grabbed a taxi which took us directly to our hostel. We perked up a bit during the ride there, as the taxi driver pumped up the volume on the radio and turned an ordinary vehicle into a Party on Wheels - it was a fun/loud way to start our trip!
After a good night's sleep, we grabbed a Chinese/Western combination breakfast at the hostel's restaurant, and then headed out into central Beijing. We went to Tiananmen Square first. As soon as we came out of the metro station, we were struck by the iconic image of Mao on the Gate of Heavenly Peace. It was quite a sight and we spent a bit of time just taking it all in and telling ourselves that yes, we really were here. The area was quite busy, with lots of tourists and guards. After taking some photos, we crossed over the bridge and filed under Mao's image. By accident, we purchased a ticket to explore the Gate of Heavenly Peace and go up to see the view of Tiananmen Square. This was well worth the fee as it really made us appreciate how huge the square is - the biggest city square in the world. The gate itself was beautifully decorated with really colourful paintwork. I was particularly fascinated by the ceiling, and strained my neck/battled with the flash function on my camera to get some photos.
Three things on my list of 'must-sees' before heading to the Orient were The Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City. So, with a long weekend approaching, Elisabeth and I decided to plan a trip to Beijing. And what a weekend it was!
The three of us (myself, Elisabeth, and Elisabeth's friend, Sarah) left Shanghai late evening and caught a domestic flight to the capital, arriving at our destination in the early hours of the morning. Weary and tired, we grabbed a taxi which took us directly to our hostel. We perked up a bit during the ride there, as the taxi driver pumped up the volume on the radio and turned an ordinary vehicle into a Party on Wheels - it was a fun/loud way to start our trip!
After a good night's sleep, we grabbed a Chinese/Western combination breakfast at the hostel's restaurant, and then headed out into central Beijing. We went to Tiananmen Square first. As soon as we came out of the metro station, we were struck by the iconic image of Mao on the Gate of Heavenly Peace. It was quite a sight and we spent a bit of time just taking it all in and telling ourselves that yes, we really were here. The area was quite busy, with lots of tourists and guards. After taking some photos, we crossed over the bridge and filed under Mao's image. By accident, we purchased a ticket to explore the Gate of Heavenly Peace and go up to see the view of Tiananmen Square. This was well worth the fee as it really made us appreciate how huge the square is - the biggest city square in the world. The gate itself was beautifully decorated with really colourful paintwork. I was particularly fascinated by the ceiling, and strained my neck/battled with the flash function on my camera to get some photos.
We then ventured into the Forbidden City - the sight we originally thought we'd bought a ticket for! It's described in the guidebook as 'the largest and best-preserved cluster of ancient buildings in China.' Although I've only seen a very small part of this truly vast country, and so can't really compare it to other ancient areas of China, I was absolutely staggered by the Forbidden City - its sheer size, its grandiose nature, and its little details. It consists of a series of large archways which separate out all of the different sections. There are beautiful traditional buildings, courtyards, and various Chinese cultural displays to be seen. We explored a good chunk of it, but really I think it would take you about 3 days to see all of the exhibitions! Some of the things that we saw were:
1) The Three Great Halls - these all contained rooms where emperors of days gone by would have spent their time. Although they were quite dark (and so posed photographic problems), you could see that they were extremely grand with really large and decadent pieces of furniture...and once again, very beautiful ceilings!
2) The Clock Exhibition Hall - this contained an amazing collection of clocks, some of them Chinese and some of them European (mostly British...we're good at making clocks!) Some of them were absolutely huge, in that they came with their own staircase; some of them were very ornate; and some of them (as we saw in a demonstration) had elaborate mechanical functions.
3) The Imperial Garden - this was a really lovely part of the Forbidden City. Lots of pavilions, rocky formations, and gorgeous cypress trees. One particular cypress tree (with two distinct entwined branches) had symbolic romantic significance (as the sign informed me) and was definitely one of my favourite bits of the city - very very pretty.
We also walked through various other rooms lining the huge courtyard areas and saw displays of jewellery, clothing, stone drums (old, huge rocks with characters carved into the sides), and crockery - all very impressive.
One of my favourite things about the Forbidden City was the fact that we did have some parts entirely to ourselves, in spite of some of the other areas being quite crowded. At some points it was hard to believe that we were in the centre of one of the largest cities in the world.
1) The Three Great Halls - these all contained rooms where emperors of days gone by would have spent their time. Although they were quite dark (and so posed photographic problems), you could see that they were extremely grand with really large and decadent pieces of furniture...and once again, very beautiful ceilings!
2) The Clock Exhibition Hall - this contained an amazing collection of clocks, some of them Chinese and some of them European (mostly British...we're good at making clocks!) Some of them were absolutely huge, in that they came with their own staircase; some of them were very ornate; and some of them (as we saw in a demonstration) had elaborate mechanical functions.
3) The Imperial Garden - this was a really lovely part of the Forbidden City. Lots of pavilions, rocky formations, and gorgeous cypress trees. One particular cypress tree (with two distinct entwined branches) had symbolic romantic significance (as the sign informed me) and was definitely one of my favourite bits of the city - very very pretty.
We also walked through various other rooms lining the huge courtyard areas and saw displays of jewellery, clothing, stone drums (old, huge rocks with characters carved into the sides), and crockery - all very impressive.
One of my favourite things about the Forbidden City was the fact that we did have some parts entirely to ourselves, in spite of some of the other areas being quite crowded. At some points it was hard to believe that we were in the centre of one of the largest cities in the world.
After a good 3-4 hours, we reached the end of the Forbidden City - heralded by a rather blunt and amusing sign declaring 'Visit is over'! We walked over the moat and were greeted by the sight of JIngshan Park - a large hill constructed from the excavated earth from the aforementioned moat. After grabbing a quick bite to eat, we climbed said hill, and saw some Beijingers on the way up playing card games and enjoying the afternoon sun. When we reached the top, we were rewarded with stunning views across Beijing, and could clearly see the route we had taken through the Forbidden City - we'd walked a long way! We took lots of photos up here. As we were walking around the summit, we were approached by some women who were trying to get us to dress up in 'traditional' Chinese costumes and pose for photographs on a throne...for a price! We refused outright at first, but then they lowered their price to the equivalent of 50p...so we shamelessly indulged in this very very very touristy attraction! They put these costumes over our clothes and put these elaborate headdresses on us, and then did a little photo shoot on Elisabeth's camera for a few minutes. We attracted a lot of attention, and pretty soon the women were inundated with people wanting to do the same thing...so we certainly boosted business! Although I hate to admit it, it was a really fun part of the day!
After Jingshan Park, we descended the hill and took a walk back to Tiananmen Square where our day had begun. We spent a bit of time in the square, admiring the buildings and surveying the outside of the Mao Memorial Hall, the Great Hall of the People and the Monument to the People's Heroes. The most interesting part of the square for me was a collection of statues outside the Memorial Hall - I've included some pictures below. We stayed in the square to witness the flag lowering ceremony, which takes place every evening at sunset. Guards in meticulous uniforms file out of the the Gate of Heavenly Peace and surround the flag, whilst it is lowered, in time with the setting of the sun. Although it involved a bit of waiting around, I'm glad we took the time to witness this regimented operation. There is a similar ceremony in the morning to raise the flag as the sun rises...but I'm really not good in the mornings!
In the evening, we headed to a recommended restaurant to sample some Peking Duck, the capital's culinary speciality. The restaurant was huge and occupied several floors. We decided to order half a roast duck (with pancakes and all the traditional trimmings) - I didn't think the 3 of us would have been able to manage a whole one! The duck was brought out whole - and when I say whole, I mean whole - head included. It was carved in front of us, so we could witness the art of serving the duck correctly - it's all about very careful and precise motions to cut the meat in the neatest way possible. The meat and skin were served on our table, and a little plate with half of the duck's head and a slice of meat draped over it was also given to us! The whole head would have been gruesome enough, but seeing as how they had chopped it down the middle, we could see a cross section of the poor duck's brain, eye and beak...it was disgusting! Thankfully, the meat was not. It was the most delicious duck I have ever had and the skin was amazing. I'm salivating now just thinking about it!
I was full after the duck, but my fellow travellers were still a little peckish(!), so we headed over to a snack street - quite an experience. I've seen a lot of street food in Shanghai, and most of it looks pretty normal. The most popular things are brown boiled eggs, omelette/egg based snacks, and, my personal favourite, bao zi (steamed buns with meat filling). The street food in Beijing however was much more exotic, often stomach churning. As we walked along this busy street, we saw seahorses, starfish, little scorpions, and locusts...and some of them were still alive, squirming on their sticks. It was weird!!
I was full after the duck, but my fellow travellers were still a little peckish(!), so we headed over to a snack street - quite an experience. I've seen a lot of street food in Shanghai, and most of it looks pretty normal. The most popular things are brown boiled eggs, omelette/egg based snacks, and, my personal favourite, bao zi (steamed buns with meat filling). The street food in Beijing however was much more exotic, often stomach churning. As we walked along this busy street, we saw seahorses, starfish, little scorpions, and locusts...and some of them were still alive, squirming on their sticks. It was weird!!
After a very successful first day, we got a comparatively early night in preparation for tackling the Great Wall the following day. It was quite a trek to make it to the wall itself, nevermind actually walking along it! There are several different sections you can visit, all located a few hours north of Beijing. Some of the sections are very touristy and quite easy to get to, and some are very remote and involve very difficult (and near life-threatening!) hikes. We decided on the middling option - the less touristy, medium difficulty Mutianyu section. Although we looked into going to the wall in a tourist group (certainly an easier option), due to lack of time, we ended up making our own way there. On reflection, this was definitely a good decision as it allowed us the time to see the wall at our own pace, and explore more remote sections on our own. But it involved a bit of a stressful first part of the day, trying to make it to the right bus station, get on the right bus, get to the right town, and get in a minibus with a driver we could trust. We had to call our lovely friend and fellow teacher Lenore for some guidance - without her help, we wouldn't have made it to the wall! Anyway, after 2 and half hours, we caught our first glimpses of Mutianyu.
Before we could actually walk on the wall itself, we had to climb up quite a steep walkway. The Great Wall is in the mountains, so walking up to it and walking along it is not easy! I was so glad that I'd worn my walking boots and lots of layers of clothing as it was a steep climb, and not warm - although thankfully, we had blue skies and sunshine for the whole day.
When we finally made it up to the wall itself, I was in awe. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Although I'd obviously seen countless pictures of the wall (including the one on the front of my trusty Lonely Planet), actually being there was an incredible experience, and one that I will never forget for the rest of my life. I'm going to let the pictures do a lot of the talking, but it's safe to say that seeing the Great Wall was the best thing I have done in China so far.
We spent about 3 and a half hours on the wall, exploring the numerous watchtowers and taking in the incredible views across the mountain range. The middle of the wall was the busiest area, but the end of the section was very peaceful and was my favourite part. We did the big climb up to one of the highest points of the section. It was a strain on the old thighs (my legs have never felt so toned!), but well worth it for the view we got at the top! At the end of the wall (where we were told we couldn't go any further), we talked to a Chinese man who was selling water. He walks the wall everyday to make it to this point. I asked him if he gets tired (I was feeling pretty flushed by this point!) - he said that he didn't, because he has good lungs! What a pro.
The descent from this high point was probably the scariest bit of the day as it was very steep. I took it quite slowly and made it down without falling to the ground in a lump - good times! We walked to an area where you can make it back down to the ground, and we all decided to take the cable car on offer as we were all a bit shaky by that point! This was fun and gave us a few more minutes to see some great views of the wall...before facing the hawkers at the bottom. I gave into temptation and bought an 'I climbed the Great Wall T-shirt' for about £2.50, which I shall, of course, wear with pride on my return to the UK!
After we'd made our way through the inevitable Great Wall souvenir stands, we were surprised to find our minibus driver waiting for us at the bottom. He'd obviously been there all day, waiting for us to come back! At first, I thought this was really weird, and thought that he would demand a whole day's wages from us if we took a lift with him. However, after some thought, we worked out that if we paid him the same fare as the one we'd given him for the lift there, that was actually a pretty decent day's pay by Chinese standards (although very cheap by Western standards). We double checked the rate with him, trusted our gut instincts and took the ride. Everything was fine - he took us to the right point, charged us the same rate, and even kindly pointed out which bus we needed to take to get back to Beijing.
Before we could actually walk on the wall itself, we had to climb up quite a steep walkway. The Great Wall is in the mountains, so walking up to it and walking along it is not easy! I was so glad that I'd worn my walking boots and lots of layers of clothing as it was a steep climb, and not warm - although thankfully, we had blue skies and sunshine for the whole day.
When we finally made it up to the wall itself, I was in awe. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. Although I'd obviously seen countless pictures of the wall (including the one on the front of my trusty Lonely Planet), actually being there was an incredible experience, and one that I will never forget for the rest of my life. I'm going to let the pictures do a lot of the talking, but it's safe to say that seeing the Great Wall was the best thing I have done in China so far.
We spent about 3 and a half hours on the wall, exploring the numerous watchtowers and taking in the incredible views across the mountain range. The middle of the wall was the busiest area, but the end of the section was very peaceful and was my favourite part. We did the big climb up to one of the highest points of the section. It was a strain on the old thighs (my legs have never felt so toned!), but well worth it for the view we got at the top! At the end of the wall (where we were told we couldn't go any further), we talked to a Chinese man who was selling water. He walks the wall everyday to make it to this point. I asked him if he gets tired (I was feeling pretty flushed by this point!) - he said that he didn't, because he has good lungs! What a pro.
The descent from this high point was probably the scariest bit of the day as it was very steep. I took it quite slowly and made it down without falling to the ground in a lump - good times! We walked to an area where you can make it back down to the ground, and we all decided to take the cable car on offer as we were all a bit shaky by that point! This was fun and gave us a few more minutes to see some great views of the wall...before facing the hawkers at the bottom. I gave into temptation and bought an 'I climbed the Great Wall T-shirt' for about £2.50, which I shall, of course, wear with pride on my return to the UK!
After we'd made our way through the inevitable Great Wall souvenir stands, we were surprised to find our minibus driver waiting for us at the bottom. He'd obviously been there all day, waiting for us to come back! At first, I thought this was really weird, and thought that he would demand a whole day's wages from us if we took a lift with him. However, after some thought, we worked out that if we paid him the same fare as the one we'd given him for the lift there, that was actually a pretty decent day's pay by Chinese standards (although very cheap by Western standards). We double checked the rate with him, trusted our gut instincts and took the ride. Everything was fine - he took us to the right point, charged us the same rate, and even kindly pointed out which bus we needed to take to get back to Beijing.
When we got back to Beijing, we grabbed a quick meal at a Chinese fast food place (they are actually really good - will explain more in a later blog), and then managed to get some last minute tickets for a Peking opera performance. The opera was staged in this theatre within a nice hotel in Beijing. This was a really interesting experience! Having played in the orchestra for various musicals and operas during school and university, it was bizarre to witness the Chinese equivalent. The 9-piece orchestra, consisting entirely of traditional Chinese instruments, began the performance being seated on the stage and played an overture for about 15 minutes. After this, they played from the wings. The sound of the orchestra is quite difficult to describe. The music felt quite disjointed, and often multiple instruments were playing a melody in unison, accompanied by complex rhythms on percussion. It certainly wasn't easy to listen to...the opposite end of the musical spectrum to Rodgers & Hammerstein!
The opera didn't really have a storyline as such...but rather it consisted of 3 long sections depiciting different scenes. You just had to go with it really! After the overture, the first singer came on stage - a woman who, as the subtitles to the sides of the stage informed us, was a goddess scattering flowers. Her white and pink dress was visually stunning, her make-up (even from our balcony seats) gave her a striking appearance....but her most powerful asset was her voice. The style of singing in Peking opera is screeching - a style that developed so that the singers could be heard over crowds. It's not exactly pleasant to listen to, but it's so unique, and that gives it a bizarre appeal. Along with the singing, the woman did some dancing and used the ribbons on her dress to make symbolic gestures about the content of her arias. With the lack of scenery on stage, the movement of the body is really important in terms of setting the scene.
The next, much shorter scene involved a male singer (with a softer, more pleasant tone to his voice) elevated on a throne in the role of some kind of authoritarian figure, surrounded by minions. The plot was basically that they were planning an attack on a 'Monkey King'. (stay with me...) There was lots of banging of drums before the presentation of the various attacks on this odd ape-figure. The final scene, depicting these attempted attacks involved a surprising amount of slapstick...which I really wasn't expecting from one of China's oldest art forms. A lot of this section was also very acrobatic - not enough to rival the Acrobatics Show we'd seen in the first week here (see earlier blog), but impressive all the same.
I left the Peking opera, after about an hour and a half's entertainment, feeling very glad that I'd witnessed it...but not that keen to return to see another performance. The tone of the singing is just not easy on the ear!! I'll try to post some videos at a later date so you can appreciate what I mean!
On our third and final day in Beijing, we once again got up early, checked out of the hostel, and headed straight to the Panjiayuan flea market. This was brilliant. It had an amazing atmosphere...it reminded me of that scene in the classic children's film 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks' where they go to the market in Portobello Road. This is THE place in Beijing to get arts, crafts, and antiques. It was quite an overwhelming experience - stalls everywhere, salesmen and women shouting out their 'best' prices, and a lot of bargaining. Bargaining is very much an accepted part of Chinese shopping culture - you can do it in a lot of places, particularly in the market. So this gave us a great opportunity to practice our Mandarin and get ourselves a few good deals! I bought a few pieces of jewellery, a picture (for a fifth of the original price...and got a free box for it), a little percussion instrument in the shape of a frog (for novelty value), and a Chairman Mao clock (again, for novelty value). The Mao clock salesman was very funny...I hope the photo below (taken by Elisabeth) helps to bring the moment to life!
The opera didn't really have a storyline as such...but rather it consisted of 3 long sections depiciting different scenes. You just had to go with it really! After the overture, the first singer came on stage - a woman who, as the subtitles to the sides of the stage informed us, was a goddess scattering flowers. Her white and pink dress was visually stunning, her make-up (even from our balcony seats) gave her a striking appearance....but her most powerful asset was her voice. The style of singing in Peking opera is screeching - a style that developed so that the singers could be heard over crowds. It's not exactly pleasant to listen to, but it's so unique, and that gives it a bizarre appeal. Along with the singing, the woman did some dancing and used the ribbons on her dress to make symbolic gestures about the content of her arias. With the lack of scenery on stage, the movement of the body is really important in terms of setting the scene.
The next, much shorter scene involved a male singer (with a softer, more pleasant tone to his voice) elevated on a throne in the role of some kind of authoritarian figure, surrounded by minions. The plot was basically that they were planning an attack on a 'Monkey King'. (stay with me...) There was lots of banging of drums before the presentation of the various attacks on this odd ape-figure. The final scene, depicting these attempted attacks involved a surprising amount of slapstick...which I really wasn't expecting from one of China's oldest art forms. A lot of this section was also very acrobatic - not enough to rival the Acrobatics Show we'd seen in the first week here (see earlier blog), but impressive all the same.
I left the Peking opera, after about an hour and a half's entertainment, feeling very glad that I'd witnessed it...but not that keen to return to see another performance. The tone of the singing is just not easy on the ear!! I'll try to post some videos at a later date so you can appreciate what I mean!
On our third and final day in Beijing, we once again got up early, checked out of the hostel, and headed straight to the Panjiayuan flea market. This was brilliant. It had an amazing atmosphere...it reminded me of that scene in the classic children's film 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks' where they go to the market in Portobello Road. This is THE place in Beijing to get arts, crafts, and antiques. It was quite an overwhelming experience - stalls everywhere, salesmen and women shouting out their 'best' prices, and a lot of bargaining. Bargaining is very much an accepted part of Chinese shopping culture - you can do it in a lot of places, particularly in the market. So this gave us a great opportunity to practice our Mandarin and get ourselves a few good deals! I bought a few pieces of jewellery, a picture (for a fifth of the original price...and got a free box for it), a little percussion instrument in the shape of a frog (for novelty value), and a Chairman Mao clock (again, for novelty value). The Mao clock salesman was very funny...I hope the photo below (taken by Elisabeth) helps to bring the moment to life!
On our last afternoon in Beijing, we headed North West to the Summer Palace - not really a palace, but more a collection of temples, pagodas, lakes and gardens. Unfortunately, too many other people had had the same idea as us. The place was inundated with tour groups, all in matching hats, following various different guiding flags. It was hectic to say the least. The actual surroundings were gorgeous - the buildings were very impressive, particularly the Hall of Benevolence and Longevity which was near the entrance and surrounded by bronze figures. The extensive Kunming Lake, which forms the centre of the site, also looked beautiful. But there were just too many people!! At one point, the three of us stopped for an ice-cream, and perched in front of a building on some steps. After a while, the phrase 'feeding time at the zoo' popped into my head, as we suddenly became surrounded by a series of lenses. We put up with it...but I was not impressed when one woman came up to me and started posing next to me. I picked up my backpack and walked off! I know it might sound like I was being a bit of a drama queen, but believe me, it is so annoying when people do that...pose for a photograph without asking your permission. It's as if you're a waxwork model, or some kind of pet. Grrrr! Photographic frustrations and a spot of Rachel Rage aside, we did manage to see a good chunk of the area and enjoy the occasional bit of peace and quiet. It made me feel so lucky that we'd had such quiet moments at the Great Wall and in the Forbidden CIty!
We left the Summer Palace late afternoon and headed to the airport to catch our flight back to Shanghai. On the way, we passed the Bird's Nest Stadium, the amazing structure that formed the heart of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I took a few quick shots from the taxi - I'm glad that we'd at least caught a glimpse of it!
I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Beijing. I could tick off a few things on the China list, get a lot of blog material (maybe a little too much?!), and finally say that I'd walked along that thing that's so big you can see it from space...apparently! A great way to spend a few days off.
We left the Summer Palace late afternoon and headed to the airport to catch our flight back to Shanghai. On the way, we passed the Bird's Nest Stadium, the amazing structure that formed the heart of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I took a few quick shots from the taxi - I'm glad that we'd at least caught a glimpse of it!
I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Beijing. I could tick off a few things on the China list, get a lot of blog material (maybe a little too much?!), and finally say that I'd walked along that thing that's so big you can see it from space...apparently! A great way to spend a few days off.
Zhujiajiao
Along comes another weekend, and along comes another opportunity to see some more of life outside Shanghai. Don't get me wrong, I do like the Shanghai life very much indeed...but it is nice to have a bit of a change at the weekend! Our latest excursion was to the small town of Zhujiajiao, proclaimed 'China's most liveable city' on a sign near the entrance.
We caught a bus from Shanghai's Indoor Stadium, which took us on the hour-long journey out of the city. When we stepped off the coach, it was absolutely bizarre to see hardly any cars on the road, and hear the sound of silence...only interrupted by the occasional twitter of birdsong. What a change!
Like sheep, we followed our coach party in the direction of the town, as it really wasn't obvious which way to walk! There was a ticketed system to enter...but the ticket we'd purchased allowed us access to the town and all of its sights, so we got a pretty good deal. We were greeted by canals lined with traditional Chinese buildings, beautiful little bridges, people relaxing in boats, locals sitting in deck chairs, and several small shops and cafes to cater for us tourists. It was a lovely sight and immediately made me feel calm and relaxed...which is certainly not the case when you're fighting your way onto a train in busy Shanghai!
One of the first interesting places we stumbled upon was an art shop. The lady who owned the shop was painting a canvas as we walked in, and immediately put down her brushes to show us some of the work on display. Most of them were large, long scrolls depiciting typical Chinese sights and symbols, along with some smaller framed pieces and cards. Some of the stuff was a bit tacky, but a lot of it was beautiful and looked very authentic compared to some of the other 'artwork' I have seen here. At that point we didn't buy anything, but later returned (after seeing some of her inferior competitors) and bought a few things - perfect gifts.
After walking a bit further along the canal, we came across a more densely packed area of the town which contained a lot of souvenir shops. Here, we were greeted by sounds of 'looka looka', 'hello hello' and 'please come in'. Most of the time, we didn't venture in and just politely nodded or gave them a 'bu yao'. I was more captivated by the food stalls in this area. The Chinese eat some strange things. This town's culinary speciality was a chunk of pork with a great big bone sticking through the middle of it, wrapped in a leaf with string around it, and covered in a sticky sauce. I had no idea how you'd go about eating one of those elegantly - but we decided to go for the miniature, more manageable version in a restaurant nearby. It tasted great, but half of it was fat, which I left on the plate! As is the Chinese way, we ordered multiple dishes - which were all very tasty. The setting was beautiful - we were given an outdoor, riverside table, so we didn't have to miss out on the glorious sunshine as we were eating our meal. During our lunch, we were serenaded (although we didn't want to be!) by a man playing an erhu (two stringed Chinese instrument), and a wailing woman. It wasn't pleasant, and they weren't very good. They asked for money but we were strong and didn't give in, lying through our teeth that we had no cash. They did walk away after a little encouragement from the maitre d'....or whatever the Chinese equivalent of that might be!
After lunch we continued to walk along the narrow winding streets, taking in the atmosphere, before making our way back to the quieter waterways. The bridges (in plentiful supply) were very pretty and ornate, and provided plenty of photo opportunities - see below. Near one of the canals, we stumbled upon a musical instrument stall, which looked like a lot of fun! As I've said in previous blogs, one thing I'm really missing is my clarinet...and my saxophone for that matter; so I thought investing in the Chinese equivalent might help to relieve my musical cravings. I had a go on a few of the wind instruments, much to the hilarity of the salespeople and fellow shoppers around me. After a bit of bargaining, I managed to get a good deal on a Chinese recorder-type-thing - also known as a 'hulusi'. They even threw in a rather nice little case for free, so it hopefully won't get damaged in transit!
Apart from admiring the beautiful canals, we also visited four of Zhujiajiao's sights: a small sculpture exhibition, the Daqing Post Office, the City God Temple, and the gardens. We found the exhibition by accident really - but it had some interesting pieces of work on display, mostly made of wood. The most impressive thing there was this sculpture of the Buddha - which is the biggest wooden Buddha in the world, apparently. It was surrounded by these smaller, more child-like Buddha figures which were very cute. We didn't spend too long at the second sight - it was basically an overview of the history of China's postal service, so it wasn't that riveting! We did see a few funny 'Chinglish' signs there though. I'm developing quite a collection of photographs of bizarre/amusing translations which I will probably showcase in a later blog. The City God Temple was small but very pretty - lots of the trees in the courtyards had red ribbons attached to them with prayers/dedications on them, and there were lots of bright red candles burning everywhere so it felt very atmospheric. The gardens were a bit of mixed bag. Parts were very nice and quiet, whereas other bits were having work done to them, no doubt in prepartion for the onslaught of tourists in the summer season! I've included a few pictures of the nicer parts below!
All in all, a very nice day was had in Zhujiajiao. Gorgeous weather, a change of scene, and a Chinese musical instrument - happy times!
xxx
We caught a bus from Shanghai's Indoor Stadium, which took us on the hour-long journey out of the city. When we stepped off the coach, it was absolutely bizarre to see hardly any cars on the road, and hear the sound of silence...only interrupted by the occasional twitter of birdsong. What a change!
Like sheep, we followed our coach party in the direction of the town, as it really wasn't obvious which way to walk! There was a ticketed system to enter...but the ticket we'd purchased allowed us access to the town and all of its sights, so we got a pretty good deal. We were greeted by canals lined with traditional Chinese buildings, beautiful little bridges, people relaxing in boats, locals sitting in deck chairs, and several small shops and cafes to cater for us tourists. It was a lovely sight and immediately made me feel calm and relaxed...which is certainly not the case when you're fighting your way onto a train in busy Shanghai!
One of the first interesting places we stumbled upon was an art shop. The lady who owned the shop was painting a canvas as we walked in, and immediately put down her brushes to show us some of the work on display. Most of them were large, long scrolls depiciting typical Chinese sights and symbols, along with some smaller framed pieces and cards. Some of the stuff was a bit tacky, but a lot of it was beautiful and looked very authentic compared to some of the other 'artwork' I have seen here. At that point we didn't buy anything, but later returned (after seeing some of her inferior competitors) and bought a few things - perfect gifts.
After walking a bit further along the canal, we came across a more densely packed area of the town which contained a lot of souvenir shops. Here, we were greeted by sounds of 'looka looka', 'hello hello' and 'please come in'. Most of the time, we didn't venture in and just politely nodded or gave them a 'bu yao'. I was more captivated by the food stalls in this area. The Chinese eat some strange things. This town's culinary speciality was a chunk of pork with a great big bone sticking through the middle of it, wrapped in a leaf with string around it, and covered in a sticky sauce. I had no idea how you'd go about eating one of those elegantly - but we decided to go for the miniature, more manageable version in a restaurant nearby. It tasted great, but half of it was fat, which I left on the plate! As is the Chinese way, we ordered multiple dishes - which were all very tasty. The setting was beautiful - we were given an outdoor, riverside table, so we didn't have to miss out on the glorious sunshine as we were eating our meal. During our lunch, we were serenaded (although we didn't want to be!) by a man playing an erhu (two stringed Chinese instrument), and a wailing woman. It wasn't pleasant, and they weren't very good. They asked for money but we were strong and didn't give in, lying through our teeth that we had no cash. They did walk away after a little encouragement from the maitre d'....or whatever the Chinese equivalent of that might be!
After lunch we continued to walk along the narrow winding streets, taking in the atmosphere, before making our way back to the quieter waterways. The bridges (in plentiful supply) were very pretty and ornate, and provided plenty of photo opportunities - see below. Near one of the canals, we stumbled upon a musical instrument stall, which looked like a lot of fun! As I've said in previous blogs, one thing I'm really missing is my clarinet...and my saxophone for that matter; so I thought investing in the Chinese equivalent might help to relieve my musical cravings. I had a go on a few of the wind instruments, much to the hilarity of the salespeople and fellow shoppers around me. After a bit of bargaining, I managed to get a good deal on a Chinese recorder-type-thing - also known as a 'hulusi'. They even threw in a rather nice little case for free, so it hopefully won't get damaged in transit!
Apart from admiring the beautiful canals, we also visited four of Zhujiajiao's sights: a small sculpture exhibition, the Daqing Post Office, the City God Temple, and the gardens. We found the exhibition by accident really - but it had some interesting pieces of work on display, mostly made of wood. The most impressive thing there was this sculpture of the Buddha - which is the biggest wooden Buddha in the world, apparently. It was surrounded by these smaller, more child-like Buddha figures which were very cute. We didn't spend too long at the second sight - it was basically an overview of the history of China's postal service, so it wasn't that riveting! We did see a few funny 'Chinglish' signs there though. I'm developing quite a collection of photographs of bizarre/amusing translations which I will probably showcase in a later blog. The City God Temple was small but very pretty - lots of the trees in the courtyards had red ribbons attached to them with prayers/dedications on them, and there were lots of bright red candles burning everywhere so it felt very atmospheric. The gardens were a bit of mixed bag. Parts were very nice and quiet, whereas other bits were having work done to them, no doubt in prepartion for the onslaught of tourists in the summer season! I've included a few pictures of the nicer parts below!
All in all, a very nice day was had in Zhujiajiao. Gorgeous weather, a change of scene, and a Chinese musical instrument - happy times!
xxx
Battling through The Language Barrier
One huge part of the China Challenge has been attempting to tackle the language. I cannot emphasise enough how different Mandarin is to any other language I've encountered before. I studied French for about 10 years on and off at school and at university, I've got some knowledge of German and Latin from my SHS days, and I've learnt bits of Polish, Spanish and Dutch for holidays. But, unlike the aforementioned languages, where you usually come across words that sound similar to the English, are taken from the English, or that English has taken from the other language, there is no such relationship between my mother tongue and Mandarin Chinese. You simply cannot make an educated guess about the meaning of words...with the possible exception of 'kafei' (coffee).
There's also the issue of characters, which is completing baffling. Even now, I can only write a few characters, and recognise maybe 30. My saving grace has been 'pinyin', the system of writing the phonetic spelling of words so that Westerners can attempt to pronounce the characters - but this is still complicated. Added to this, Mandarin is a tonal language, so 4 different words which look the same when written in pinyin have 4 different meanings depending upon the way that they are pronounced. The highest tone literally has to be sung - so my musical background has certainly helped me with getting to grips with this part of the language!
In spite of these obstacles, Mandarin is fascinating, and makes much more sense as you begin to get familiar with the basics. The word for 'delicious', literally translates as 'good eats' ('haochi' - pronounced 'how cherr'). The words for the different types of meat are made by putting the name of the animal and then the word 'rou' after it, which makes life a little easier. At the moment, I'm coping, thanks to the bits of tuition I had before departure, and my survivial Mandarin course during the orientation week. I can introduce myself, I can buy things and bargain in the markets, and I can ask where things are...and usually understand the answer.
But I have admittedly been feeling frustrated when I can't understand things that people say to me. This is particularly hard in the classroom. I am told to speak in English for the whole of the lesson, to maximise the children's exposure to the language and my pronunciation - my facilitator will provide translation if needed. However, before and after the lesson, the younger ones I teach will often come up to me and speak in their native tongue. I can make out bits, but not enough to give a full response and really engage with them. It makes me feel really embarrassed and stupid. So, given that they're trying so hard to speak English, I've decided to make more of an effort to improve my Mandarin for the remaining 3 months that I'm here. Although I am picking up more and more each day, I think some formal tuition, which I can immediately put into practice in the real world, will really accelerate my learning of the language. So, because I am very much a geek/boff at heart (and proud of it), I'm going back to school!
Elisabeth and I decided to pair up and go in search of some private Mandarin tuition - and it was quite an experience. One of the magazines for expats which we get (City Weekend) is full of advertisements for language schools, aimed at businessmen, teachers, or people who have moved to Shanghai for one reason or another. We scoured the pages, did a bit of research and set aside a day to go to 2 different schools to have a demo lesson and see exactly how much money we could get off the advertised prices. Our first stop was a place called 'Colourful Mandarin', near Shanghai's Indoor Stadium. It took us quite a while to find this place...and from the start we were distinctly unimpressed with the company given the location of the office. It was in this side alley a few floors up, which you accessed from stairs outside. It wasn't clearly labelled, so when we walked in we really weren't sure whether we'd arrived in the right place! It was the right place...but the office was a bit dark and dingy, the prices were higher than advertised, they wanted us to sign up (and pay up front) for 50 hours of lessons, and they were quite pushy! We still had the (free) demo lesson, but didn't really learn a lot...so we politely said that we'd call them later on to give them an answer.
Our next stop was a place called 'iMandarin'. This was located in quite a swanky area. The office was in this complex where lots of Western companies and organisations were also based, and it immediately felt a lot more professional than the previous school. On arrival, we were led to a very nice room with a great view over the city. Again, they wanted us to pay up front for lessons - but they were a little cheaper, and it felt much more reputable. I wasn't completely happy with the whole paying everything up front business...but had the demo lesson anyway. The teacher, Jane (a different person to the lady who'd spoken with us about how the course works), was brilliant. She spoke in Mandarin for most of the lesson, and we surprised ourselves with how much we already knew. We also both felt like we learnt a lot, even from a short, 30 minute session. But the most interesting moment came at the end of the lesson, when Jane asked 'Why have you chosen iMandarin?' We explained that they seemed professional and the rate was good. She disagreed on the affordability of the lessons. She lowered her voice, reached in her bag, and pulled out business cards for another school that she has just set up herself, after 5 years of working for iMandarin. The lessons for 2 of us were nearly half the price of iMandarin's, and less than a quarter of the price that you'd pay for private language tuition in the UK. She said that iMandarin could charge a lot because of the great location, and the fact that a lot of their customers in the past had been the staff of high profile organisations like Apple. She said that lessons were a lot more flexible, she'd got a much better textbook that would push us further, and that we could start pretty much straight away. She asked us to call her if we were interested.
As we left iMandarin, we looked at the business card again and, a little later, decided to go in search of this place that Jane had recommended. On the metro, we bumped into Jane, and so she showed us the way. The school was located in an office building which was really nice - not as posh as the other one, but still very clean and light and the classrooms looked like a good working environment. She showed us the textbook she used and went through the flexible 'pay as you go' system with us - which seemed very fair and easy on the bank balance. We arranged our first session with her then, and are now very much in the swing of lessons. We have an evening class twice a week (Monday and Wednesday, so this doesn't sacrifice weekend travel time). We feel like we're growing in confidence and improving already. Last week we were talking about the family, and, ironically, that morning I had been teaching my youngest students the words for different family members in English - from teacher to student in the space of a few hours!
Anyway, I'll keep you all posted on the Mandarin tuition. It's certainly going to help me while I'm here, and be a very healthy addition to the old CV.
Zai Jian!
xxx
There's also the issue of characters, which is completing baffling. Even now, I can only write a few characters, and recognise maybe 30. My saving grace has been 'pinyin', the system of writing the phonetic spelling of words so that Westerners can attempt to pronounce the characters - but this is still complicated. Added to this, Mandarin is a tonal language, so 4 different words which look the same when written in pinyin have 4 different meanings depending upon the way that they are pronounced. The highest tone literally has to be sung - so my musical background has certainly helped me with getting to grips with this part of the language!
In spite of these obstacles, Mandarin is fascinating, and makes much more sense as you begin to get familiar with the basics. The word for 'delicious', literally translates as 'good eats' ('haochi' - pronounced 'how cherr'). The words for the different types of meat are made by putting the name of the animal and then the word 'rou' after it, which makes life a little easier. At the moment, I'm coping, thanks to the bits of tuition I had before departure, and my survivial Mandarin course during the orientation week. I can introduce myself, I can buy things and bargain in the markets, and I can ask where things are...and usually understand the answer.
But I have admittedly been feeling frustrated when I can't understand things that people say to me. This is particularly hard in the classroom. I am told to speak in English for the whole of the lesson, to maximise the children's exposure to the language and my pronunciation - my facilitator will provide translation if needed. However, before and after the lesson, the younger ones I teach will often come up to me and speak in their native tongue. I can make out bits, but not enough to give a full response and really engage with them. It makes me feel really embarrassed and stupid. So, given that they're trying so hard to speak English, I've decided to make more of an effort to improve my Mandarin for the remaining 3 months that I'm here. Although I am picking up more and more each day, I think some formal tuition, which I can immediately put into practice in the real world, will really accelerate my learning of the language. So, because I am very much a geek/boff at heart (and proud of it), I'm going back to school!
Elisabeth and I decided to pair up and go in search of some private Mandarin tuition - and it was quite an experience. One of the magazines for expats which we get (City Weekend) is full of advertisements for language schools, aimed at businessmen, teachers, or people who have moved to Shanghai for one reason or another. We scoured the pages, did a bit of research and set aside a day to go to 2 different schools to have a demo lesson and see exactly how much money we could get off the advertised prices. Our first stop was a place called 'Colourful Mandarin', near Shanghai's Indoor Stadium. It took us quite a while to find this place...and from the start we were distinctly unimpressed with the company given the location of the office. It was in this side alley a few floors up, which you accessed from stairs outside. It wasn't clearly labelled, so when we walked in we really weren't sure whether we'd arrived in the right place! It was the right place...but the office was a bit dark and dingy, the prices were higher than advertised, they wanted us to sign up (and pay up front) for 50 hours of lessons, and they were quite pushy! We still had the (free) demo lesson, but didn't really learn a lot...so we politely said that we'd call them later on to give them an answer.
Our next stop was a place called 'iMandarin'. This was located in quite a swanky area. The office was in this complex where lots of Western companies and organisations were also based, and it immediately felt a lot more professional than the previous school. On arrival, we were led to a very nice room with a great view over the city. Again, they wanted us to pay up front for lessons - but they were a little cheaper, and it felt much more reputable. I wasn't completely happy with the whole paying everything up front business...but had the demo lesson anyway. The teacher, Jane (a different person to the lady who'd spoken with us about how the course works), was brilliant. She spoke in Mandarin for most of the lesson, and we surprised ourselves with how much we already knew. We also both felt like we learnt a lot, even from a short, 30 minute session. But the most interesting moment came at the end of the lesson, when Jane asked 'Why have you chosen iMandarin?' We explained that they seemed professional and the rate was good. She disagreed on the affordability of the lessons. She lowered her voice, reached in her bag, and pulled out business cards for another school that she has just set up herself, after 5 years of working for iMandarin. The lessons for 2 of us were nearly half the price of iMandarin's, and less than a quarter of the price that you'd pay for private language tuition in the UK. She said that iMandarin could charge a lot because of the great location, and the fact that a lot of their customers in the past had been the staff of high profile organisations like Apple. She said that lessons were a lot more flexible, she'd got a much better textbook that would push us further, and that we could start pretty much straight away. She asked us to call her if we were interested.
As we left iMandarin, we looked at the business card again and, a little later, decided to go in search of this place that Jane had recommended. On the metro, we bumped into Jane, and so she showed us the way. The school was located in an office building which was really nice - not as posh as the other one, but still very clean and light and the classrooms looked like a good working environment. She showed us the textbook she used and went through the flexible 'pay as you go' system with us - which seemed very fair and easy on the bank balance. We arranged our first session with her then, and are now very much in the swing of lessons. We have an evening class twice a week (Monday and Wednesday, so this doesn't sacrifice weekend travel time). We feel like we're growing in confidence and improving already. Last week we were talking about the family, and, ironically, that morning I had been teaching my youngest students the words for different family members in English - from teacher to student in the space of a few hours!
Anyway, I'll keep you all posted on the Mandarin tuition. It's certainly going to help me while I'm here, and be a very healthy addition to the old CV.
Zai Jian!
xxx
Evenings in Shanghai / Trip to Hangzhou
I've been doing a lot of exploring of Shanghai over the past 5 weeks - and, to sum up, I feel as if I've probably only seen about 5-10% of the city, in spite of being out and about most evenings/weekends! This place is HUGE - London seems quite quaint in comparison. I've seen so many different pockets of the city - and I'm gradually beginning to piece them together. I have these moments of revelation where I get to a junction and realise that it's close to another place that I thought was further away - and that's always a happy moment.
With my teaching commitment during the day, I've seen a lot of Shanghai at night. We went to a jazz club one evening, which was great. It was quite a cosy venue, with a little live band, and perhaps one of the coolest guitar players I've ever seen....who looked a bit like Bill Bailey, incidentally. We had some great cocktails there, and just had a very relaxing evening. One of the things I'm missing the most whilst I'm here is playing my musical instruments. I did toy with the idea of bringing my clarinet, but Western medicines had to take precedence in the packing! Anyway, it was great to hear some live music and see some very talented musicians.
I also went to get a massage one evening. There are loads of places where you can get massages - some dodgy, some perfectly legitimate! One of my fellow teachers had recommended one of the perfectly legitimate places close to where we stayed in our first week. I paid about £7 for an hour long full body massage which was amazing! It was just what I needed after picking up numerous children for goodbye hugs in class (this is an acceptable, and popular, form of praise in the Chinese classroom!), carrying round lots of textbooks and materials in my backpack, and running to catch various forms of transportation. I literally almost fell asleep on the table because I felt so relaxed. The place was very nicely decorated and everything felt quite luxurious. I'm actually going to mention the toilets too...because they were exquisite compared to some of the bathroom facilities I have seen over the past few weeks!! I have seen some pretty grim sights, I can tell you! So it was wonderful to walk into a toilet where you a) had a proper toilet with a toilet seat b) had toilet paper and c) had somewhere to wash your hands. This place even had hand lotion - bliss. I would have paid £7 for the toilet alone.
Another evening which deserves a mention was when Elisabeth and I found a Belgian bar, which I'd like to rename the Place of Dreams. It was warm, it had Belgian beer, and it had CHEESE! For those of you who know me well, you will know that I love a good bit of cheese, or anything cheesey. And although I've been enjoying the food out here very much, I have been craving a good bit of mature cheddar. It's pretty much non-existent here. A lot of Chinese people do not eat a lot of dairy products at all - some are even lactose intolerant. I've been trying to have a bit of (rather expensive) milk each day to stop my body from rejecting dairy products altogether - this happened to a friend on her return from Africa living on pretty much a vegan diet for several months. So, it was a wonderful moment when we saw the words 'Cheese Board', shining out like some kind of beacon. We devoured the lot pretty quickly. It was expensive, but worth every penny.
Following The Great Cheese Fest 2010, 4 of us decided to head to another water town near to Shanghai, called Hangzhou. I'd enjoyed Suzhou a lot the previous week, in spite of it being a bit more industrial than I'd hoped. But Hangzhou, I'm happy to say, was far better. This city is famous for having a huge lake right in the middle of it. After Suzhou, I presumed that the beauty of the lake would probably be marred by an overwhelming urban landscape. But this wasn't the case.
When we arrived, we walked from the train station, following signs to the 'West Lake' area of the city. It felt like a long walk, as the weather was much hotter than in Shanghai (26 degrees); but when we arrived at the lake, it was a beautiful sight. Yes, we could see the city skyline on one side of the lake...but this was balanced by the gorgeous mountains over the other side. It felt very very tranquil, and, unlike Suzhou, the urban and the rural seemed to be happily sitting side by side.
After a quick lunch in a Muslim noodle place (where the food was VERY spicy...much water needed), we had a little walk along one section of the lake, and then, after a bit of bargaining, secured a cheap ride on our own private boat. Getting out onto the lake itself provided some brilliant photo opportunities and a chance for us to practice some more Mandarin with our guide. It was a really pleasant way to spend a few hours...although, let's just say, I'm glad that I can swim as the sides of the boat dipped pretty close to the water at several points!
After our boat ride, we walked along the more rural side of the lake, and saw some lovely little garden areas, before making our way around to the Leifeng Pagoda, one of Hangzhou's main attractions. Within the pagoda itself there was a museum, and a section devoted to the original foundations of the pagoda (dating back to 977 AD). Lots of people had thrown money onto these foundations. The pagoda is nestled within the spectacular mountain scenery, so climbing to the top allowed us to witness to some wonderful views - and this was definitely my favourite part of the day. We were blessed with amazing weather - hot, sunny, and completely blue skies...certainly enough to turn my pale pale skin to reddy pink. Aside from the lovely lake, and the impressive mountains (which even had their own little pagodas on top), it was a joy to see so much sky. This might sound a bit weird, but the flat English Fens which I'm used to are famous for their big skies...so it was nice to capture that feeling over here!
I could have easily spent a few more days in Hangzhou...in fact, I may well return at a later point in my trip to explore the lake a bit more (it was pretty extensive!)...but for now, I'll leave you with these pictures. I hope they do this beautiful city justice.
Rachel
xxx
With my teaching commitment during the day, I've seen a lot of Shanghai at night. We went to a jazz club one evening, which was great. It was quite a cosy venue, with a little live band, and perhaps one of the coolest guitar players I've ever seen....who looked a bit like Bill Bailey, incidentally. We had some great cocktails there, and just had a very relaxing evening. One of the things I'm missing the most whilst I'm here is playing my musical instruments. I did toy with the idea of bringing my clarinet, but Western medicines had to take precedence in the packing! Anyway, it was great to hear some live music and see some very talented musicians.
I also went to get a massage one evening. There are loads of places where you can get massages - some dodgy, some perfectly legitimate! One of my fellow teachers had recommended one of the perfectly legitimate places close to where we stayed in our first week. I paid about £7 for an hour long full body massage which was amazing! It was just what I needed after picking up numerous children for goodbye hugs in class (this is an acceptable, and popular, form of praise in the Chinese classroom!), carrying round lots of textbooks and materials in my backpack, and running to catch various forms of transportation. I literally almost fell asleep on the table because I felt so relaxed. The place was very nicely decorated and everything felt quite luxurious. I'm actually going to mention the toilets too...because they were exquisite compared to some of the bathroom facilities I have seen over the past few weeks!! I have seen some pretty grim sights, I can tell you! So it was wonderful to walk into a toilet where you a) had a proper toilet with a toilet seat b) had toilet paper and c) had somewhere to wash your hands. This place even had hand lotion - bliss. I would have paid £7 for the toilet alone.
Another evening which deserves a mention was when Elisabeth and I found a Belgian bar, which I'd like to rename the Place of Dreams. It was warm, it had Belgian beer, and it had CHEESE! For those of you who know me well, you will know that I love a good bit of cheese, or anything cheesey. And although I've been enjoying the food out here very much, I have been craving a good bit of mature cheddar. It's pretty much non-existent here. A lot of Chinese people do not eat a lot of dairy products at all - some are even lactose intolerant. I've been trying to have a bit of (rather expensive) milk each day to stop my body from rejecting dairy products altogether - this happened to a friend on her return from Africa living on pretty much a vegan diet for several months. So, it was a wonderful moment when we saw the words 'Cheese Board', shining out like some kind of beacon. We devoured the lot pretty quickly. It was expensive, but worth every penny.
Following The Great Cheese Fest 2010, 4 of us decided to head to another water town near to Shanghai, called Hangzhou. I'd enjoyed Suzhou a lot the previous week, in spite of it being a bit more industrial than I'd hoped. But Hangzhou, I'm happy to say, was far better. This city is famous for having a huge lake right in the middle of it. After Suzhou, I presumed that the beauty of the lake would probably be marred by an overwhelming urban landscape. But this wasn't the case.
When we arrived, we walked from the train station, following signs to the 'West Lake' area of the city. It felt like a long walk, as the weather was much hotter than in Shanghai (26 degrees); but when we arrived at the lake, it was a beautiful sight. Yes, we could see the city skyline on one side of the lake...but this was balanced by the gorgeous mountains over the other side. It felt very very tranquil, and, unlike Suzhou, the urban and the rural seemed to be happily sitting side by side.
After a quick lunch in a Muslim noodle place (where the food was VERY spicy...much water needed), we had a little walk along one section of the lake, and then, after a bit of bargaining, secured a cheap ride on our own private boat. Getting out onto the lake itself provided some brilliant photo opportunities and a chance for us to practice some more Mandarin with our guide. It was a really pleasant way to spend a few hours...although, let's just say, I'm glad that I can swim as the sides of the boat dipped pretty close to the water at several points!
After our boat ride, we walked along the more rural side of the lake, and saw some lovely little garden areas, before making our way around to the Leifeng Pagoda, one of Hangzhou's main attractions. Within the pagoda itself there was a museum, and a section devoted to the original foundations of the pagoda (dating back to 977 AD). Lots of people had thrown money onto these foundations. The pagoda is nestled within the spectacular mountain scenery, so climbing to the top allowed us to witness to some wonderful views - and this was definitely my favourite part of the day. We were blessed with amazing weather - hot, sunny, and completely blue skies...certainly enough to turn my pale pale skin to reddy pink. Aside from the lovely lake, and the impressive mountains (which even had their own little pagodas on top), it was a joy to see so much sky. This might sound a bit weird, but the flat English Fens which I'm used to are famous for their big skies...so it was nice to capture that feeling over here!
I could have easily spent a few more days in Hangzhou...in fact, I may well return at a later point in my trip to explore the lake a bit more (it was pretty extensive!)...but for now, I'll leave you with these pictures. I hope they do this beautiful city justice.
Rachel
xxx
Hangzhou Photos
Jing'an Temple, a Surreal Meal, and Suzhou
After our visit to the international clinic last Friday, we certainly intended to make the most of the rest of the weekend, and put the blood, sweat and tears of the medical exam well and truly behind us.
Our first destination was Shanghai's Jing'an Temple. To be honest, I naively expected the metro to lead us to some kind of semi-rural location. But, when we peered out of the exit, huge maps in hand, we were surrounded by the familiar sight of skyscrapers, 6 lane roads, and taxis galore. With our orienteering skills we eventually stumbled upon the temple. It looked beautiful, but very oddly placed - a traditional building surrounded by the modern. As we walked in, we saw several people performing a kind of bowing ritual with burning incense sticks (please excuse my ignorance regarding Buddhist traditions), and a series of archways which led off to praying areas. There were some beautiful statues around, of the Buddha and various gods, adorned with fruit and flowers, and a lot of golden lions - something of a theme within the temple. As I was walking around, watching people perform their religious duties, the place seemed serene...but was interrupted at regular intervals by the sound of car horns outside, and of some construction work within the temple itself! Construction seems to be everywhere in Shanghai, even within its places of worship. So, to summarise, Jing'an wasn't quite the escape from the hustle and bustle that I'd imagined...but it was an interesting place all the same. I hope you enjoy the photos - I tried to get a couple of shots to emphasise the contrast between the temple and its immediate surroundings.
After visiting the temple, we wandered around for a while and did a bit of shopping. I went in search of a Spring coat. The weather has started to get considerably warmer and so a thinner outer garment was needed. I walked into a couple of shops and had some funny experiences. Basically, I really struggled to find a coat that would a) button up and b) cover the length of my arms! As one saleswoman put it, by Chinese standards, I am very much 'XL XL!' The funniest moment came when said saleswoman tried to fit me into a tight, short sleeved coat, and basically pointed to my chest area and gestured 'these are the problem!' This would all have been highly offensive in the UK, but I took it all in very good humour. We had a good laugh through the language barrier...but I declined the offer of the ill-fitting coat, even if she did halve the price for me. However, my search was eventually successful in a shop a little further down the street - so I now have a beige trench coat which kind of makes me look a bit like Columbo...but it does the job!
In the evening, I accompanied my friend Elisabeth to a very interesting dinner! Elisabeth had been put in touch (through her father) with one of Shanghai's high court judges...who had offered to take her out to dinner to introduce her to the city. She was a bit apprehensive about meeting this woman, so I agreed to go with her to keep her company in case things were a little awkward. It turned into a rather surreal evening. This judge was an incredible woman - very successful in her field, and very nice with it! We had some delicious food at a beautiful cellar restaurant in the Xujiahui area of Shanghai, and talked for about 3 and a half hours. I think she was glad to practise her English as she doesn't get to use it much during her day-to-day job. We discussed education, the cultural differences between East and West, health services, religion, the family unit, careers, food - a whole host of subjects. She was so interested to hear about our lives...and we learnt a lot about her upbringing too. It was a really enjoyable evening.
The following day, Elisabeth and I headed for Suzhou (pronounced 'Sue Jo'), one of the famous 'water towns' about an hour outside of Shanghai. We arrived very early at the spaceship-esque Shanghai South Railway Station (near to where we live), went to the ticket desk, tried to explain that we wanted to go to Suzhou (there's no such thing as booking your train tickets online in advance!), and thankfully, got our hands on some tickets. Our experience at the train station was more like the experience you'd have at an airport. We went through security (they scan your bag before boarding any train, even the metro), and then managed to find our way to a large waiting area (similar to the departure lounge). Many people about to board had a lot of luggage - mainly in large checked plastic bags. Some people really looked like they were carrying their wordly possessions around with them! For once in my life, I was the one with a comparatively small amount of baggage. We waited for a good half hour, and then, suddenly, some announcement was made in Chinese, and hoards of people started to rush for the 'gate' to our platform...even though we'd all got reserved seats. People were so anxious to get on the train, it was unbelievable. I'm usually quite keen to get seated and sort out my luggage, but in this situation I felt like telling people to calm down! We got swept along in the mass rush to the platform, and then, after waiting for others to get off (and there were a lot of them!), we boarded the train.
The train itself was nicer than I expected it to be - soft seats, curtains, carpets, smartly dressed train attendants, and a refreshment cart. The train was quite a slow one (we got a quicker one back), but we didn't mind seeing as how we were seated opposite a really cute Chinese boy. We got out our trusty Mandarin phrasebook and started trying to talk to him and his grandfather...but he was a bit shy/bemused by the strange women speaking to him in what can only be described as pigeon Chinese. He did find my phrasebook rather interesting though - see picture below!
When we arrived in Suzhou, we were very much in the minority. I failed to see a single Westerner in the station area, which is surprising given that Suzhou is a favoured spot for tourists. The next 5 minutes were insane. It was incredibly busy and we were mobbed by people offering to sell us maps, take us for rides in rickshaws, cars or even on motorbikes, or show us the way to the nearest 'tour bus'. Somehow, we fought our way through and decided to make our own way to the centre of the town - we could see a pagoda ahead and decided to walk towards it and hope for the best. This was a good decision.
We found said pagoda (North Temple Pagoda) and climbed to the top to survey Suzhou from above. The pagoda itself (and surrounding gardens) were pretty - but, as we looked out, the so-called 'Venice-of-the-East' looked much more industrial than I had expected. Where was the water to make it a 'water town'? Where were Suzhou's famous extensive gardens? Were we really in the right place?!! Feeling a bit confused, we went to the nearest touristy stand (oh, the shame) and bought a map for about 50p. Thankfully, the kind lady on the stand helped us to find the things that we'd made the journey to see. Success!
Soon we found the famous Humble Administrator's Gardens...and very nice they were too. Lots of traditional buildings, willow-like trees, ponds, bridges...oh, and people who wanted to STALK us! Although we attract a bit of attention in Shanghai and our kids make a fuss of us, in Suzhou, we were asked to be photographed (and sometimes not even asked!) so many times. Two Chinese girls in Burberry-style hats followed us for quite a while before approaching us and saying 'hello hello, photo?!' We had to say no to some people because it did get pretty annoying after a while. One guy with an SLR followed us for ages - and we even saw him about an hour later when we came out of a shop, viewfinder to eye. It was creepy to say the least!
In spite of the unwanted attention, I did enjoy the gardens very much. From there, we visited a few of the gift shops, including a fan shop where we were a bit overwhelmed by the saleswoman's technique. Every time we even looked at or touched a fan, she was there, opening the fans, and telling us about the wood/silk they were made from. Her pushy style wasn't really necessary as the fans were beautiful...and very reasonable too.
We then went to the Temple of Mystery, in the centre of Suzhou. This was a little haven in the middle of quite a bustling city. Unlike Jing'an, this temple managed to retain its serenity without rude interruptions. Inside the temple, there were a series of golden gods...some looked serious, some looked scary, and some had some very odd expressions - I've included a few pictures below. There was a very relaxed atmosphere here which allowed us to regain a bit of 'inner calm' after the pushy salespeople and paparazzi!
The final thing we did before heading back to Shanghai was to pay a visit to Suzhou Park. We kind of stumbled upon it by accident really, but I am so glad we went there for two main reasons; firstly, we got to see some traditional Chinese music being played, and secondly, because we got to both see and participate in some truly hilarious Chinese dancing. The former was great. Having done a lot of busking in York during my time at uni, it was really interesting to see the Chinese take on informal public music. The whole 'event' consisted of some traditional Chinese instruments being played (including the 2 stringed 'erhu' and flutes), a singer (with quite a piercing tone!), and a dancer. It was quite bizarre to watch, and was really like nothing I have ever heard/seen before. I took a video...which I'll try to upload onto here at a later date. As for the hilarious Chinese dancing...well, it really was the highlight of the day! We found this square in the park, and there were about 30-40 middle aged Chinese people doing a kind of group dancing to Chinese pop music. It was quite a sight to behold. Up until this point, I hadn't really seen the Chinese just letting go and having fun - and it was a joy to see! The atmosphere was infectious, so we, of course, decided to join in - which they all loved! Pretty soon we'd got random people coming up to us and showing us the moves and wanting to talk to us. It was A LOT of fun, and a great way to end our day in Suzhou. It was nice to make our first excursion out of Shanghai, to see a bit more of this very diverse country, and to see a different side to Chinese culture.
Right, again, I've gone on for far too long, so well done if you've got to this point!
There'll be another update soon!
xxxx
Our first destination was Shanghai's Jing'an Temple. To be honest, I naively expected the metro to lead us to some kind of semi-rural location. But, when we peered out of the exit, huge maps in hand, we were surrounded by the familiar sight of skyscrapers, 6 lane roads, and taxis galore. With our orienteering skills we eventually stumbled upon the temple. It looked beautiful, but very oddly placed - a traditional building surrounded by the modern. As we walked in, we saw several people performing a kind of bowing ritual with burning incense sticks (please excuse my ignorance regarding Buddhist traditions), and a series of archways which led off to praying areas. There were some beautiful statues around, of the Buddha and various gods, adorned with fruit and flowers, and a lot of golden lions - something of a theme within the temple. As I was walking around, watching people perform their religious duties, the place seemed serene...but was interrupted at regular intervals by the sound of car horns outside, and of some construction work within the temple itself! Construction seems to be everywhere in Shanghai, even within its places of worship. So, to summarise, Jing'an wasn't quite the escape from the hustle and bustle that I'd imagined...but it was an interesting place all the same. I hope you enjoy the photos - I tried to get a couple of shots to emphasise the contrast between the temple and its immediate surroundings.
After visiting the temple, we wandered around for a while and did a bit of shopping. I went in search of a Spring coat. The weather has started to get considerably warmer and so a thinner outer garment was needed. I walked into a couple of shops and had some funny experiences. Basically, I really struggled to find a coat that would a) button up and b) cover the length of my arms! As one saleswoman put it, by Chinese standards, I am very much 'XL XL!' The funniest moment came when said saleswoman tried to fit me into a tight, short sleeved coat, and basically pointed to my chest area and gestured 'these are the problem!' This would all have been highly offensive in the UK, but I took it all in very good humour. We had a good laugh through the language barrier...but I declined the offer of the ill-fitting coat, even if she did halve the price for me. However, my search was eventually successful in a shop a little further down the street - so I now have a beige trench coat which kind of makes me look a bit like Columbo...but it does the job!
In the evening, I accompanied my friend Elisabeth to a very interesting dinner! Elisabeth had been put in touch (through her father) with one of Shanghai's high court judges...who had offered to take her out to dinner to introduce her to the city. She was a bit apprehensive about meeting this woman, so I agreed to go with her to keep her company in case things were a little awkward. It turned into a rather surreal evening. This judge was an incredible woman - very successful in her field, and very nice with it! We had some delicious food at a beautiful cellar restaurant in the Xujiahui area of Shanghai, and talked for about 3 and a half hours. I think she was glad to practise her English as she doesn't get to use it much during her day-to-day job. We discussed education, the cultural differences between East and West, health services, religion, the family unit, careers, food - a whole host of subjects. She was so interested to hear about our lives...and we learnt a lot about her upbringing too. It was a really enjoyable evening.
The following day, Elisabeth and I headed for Suzhou (pronounced 'Sue Jo'), one of the famous 'water towns' about an hour outside of Shanghai. We arrived very early at the spaceship-esque Shanghai South Railway Station (near to where we live), went to the ticket desk, tried to explain that we wanted to go to Suzhou (there's no such thing as booking your train tickets online in advance!), and thankfully, got our hands on some tickets. Our experience at the train station was more like the experience you'd have at an airport. We went through security (they scan your bag before boarding any train, even the metro), and then managed to find our way to a large waiting area (similar to the departure lounge). Many people about to board had a lot of luggage - mainly in large checked plastic bags. Some people really looked like they were carrying their wordly possessions around with them! For once in my life, I was the one with a comparatively small amount of baggage. We waited for a good half hour, and then, suddenly, some announcement was made in Chinese, and hoards of people started to rush for the 'gate' to our platform...even though we'd all got reserved seats. People were so anxious to get on the train, it was unbelievable. I'm usually quite keen to get seated and sort out my luggage, but in this situation I felt like telling people to calm down! We got swept along in the mass rush to the platform, and then, after waiting for others to get off (and there were a lot of them!), we boarded the train.
The train itself was nicer than I expected it to be - soft seats, curtains, carpets, smartly dressed train attendants, and a refreshment cart. The train was quite a slow one (we got a quicker one back), but we didn't mind seeing as how we were seated opposite a really cute Chinese boy. We got out our trusty Mandarin phrasebook and started trying to talk to him and his grandfather...but he was a bit shy/bemused by the strange women speaking to him in what can only be described as pigeon Chinese. He did find my phrasebook rather interesting though - see picture below!
When we arrived in Suzhou, we were very much in the minority. I failed to see a single Westerner in the station area, which is surprising given that Suzhou is a favoured spot for tourists. The next 5 minutes were insane. It was incredibly busy and we were mobbed by people offering to sell us maps, take us for rides in rickshaws, cars or even on motorbikes, or show us the way to the nearest 'tour bus'. Somehow, we fought our way through and decided to make our own way to the centre of the town - we could see a pagoda ahead and decided to walk towards it and hope for the best. This was a good decision.
We found said pagoda (North Temple Pagoda) and climbed to the top to survey Suzhou from above. The pagoda itself (and surrounding gardens) were pretty - but, as we looked out, the so-called 'Venice-of-the-East' looked much more industrial than I had expected. Where was the water to make it a 'water town'? Where were Suzhou's famous extensive gardens? Were we really in the right place?!! Feeling a bit confused, we went to the nearest touristy stand (oh, the shame) and bought a map for about 50p. Thankfully, the kind lady on the stand helped us to find the things that we'd made the journey to see. Success!
Soon we found the famous Humble Administrator's Gardens...and very nice they were too. Lots of traditional buildings, willow-like trees, ponds, bridges...oh, and people who wanted to STALK us! Although we attract a bit of attention in Shanghai and our kids make a fuss of us, in Suzhou, we were asked to be photographed (and sometimes not even asked!) so many times. Two Chinese girls in Burberry-style hats followed us for quite a while before approaching us and saying 'hello hello, photo?!' We had to say no to some people because it did get pretty annoying after a while. One guy with an SLR followed us for ages - and we even saw him about an hour later when we came out of a shop, viewfinder to eye. It was creepy to say the least!
In spite of the unwanted attention, I did enjoy the gardens very much. From there, we visited a few of the gift shops, including a fan shop where we were a bit overwhelmed by the saleswoman's technique. Every time we even looked at or touched a fan, she was there, opening the fans, and telling us about the wood/silk they were made from. Her pushy style wasn't really necessary as the fans were beautiful...and very reasonable too.
We then went to the Temple of Mystery, in the centre of Suzhou. This was a little haven in the middle of quite a bustling city. Unlike Jing'an, this temple managed to retain its serenity without rude interruptions. Inside the temple, there were a series of golden gods...some looked serious, some looked scary, and some had some very odd expressions - I've included a few pictures below. There was a very relaxed atmosphere here which allowed us to regain a bit of 'inner calm' after the pushy salespeople and paparazzi!
The final thing we did before heading back to Shanghai was to pay a visit to Suzhou Park. We kind of stumbled upon it by accident really, but I am so glad we went there for two main reasons; firstly, we got to see some traditional Chinese music being played, and secondly, because we got to both see and participate in some truly hilarious Chinese dancing. The former was great. Having done a lot of busking in York during my time at uni, it was really interesting to see the Chinese take on informal public music. The whole 'event' consisted of some traditional Chinese instruments being played (including the 2 stringed 'erhu' and flutes), a singer (with quite a piercing tone!), and a dancer. It was quite bizarre to watch, and was really like nothing I have ever heard/seen before. I took a video...which I'll try to upload onto here at a later date. As for the hilarious Chinese dancing...well, it really was the highlight of the day! We found this square in the park, and there were about 30-40 middle aged Chinese people doing a kind of group dancing to Chinese pop music. It was quite a sight to behold. Up until this point, I hadn't really seen the Chinese just letting go and having fun - and it was a joy to see! The atmosphere was infectious, so we, of course, decided to join in - which they all loved! Pretty soon we'd got random people coming up to us and showing us the moves and wanting to talk to us. It was A LOT of fun, and a great way to end our day in Suzhou. It was nice to make our first excursion out of Shanghai, to see a bit more of this very diverse country, and to see a different side to Chinese culture.
Right, again, I've gone on for far too long, so well done if you've got to this point!
There'll be another update soon!
xxxx
Jing'an and Suzhou Photos
Nanjing Road, the World Financial Centre and Getting (a) Physical
I've been here in Shanghai for nearly a four weeks now...crazy times! The first month has flown by! I've met so many people, seen so many interesting/random things, and eaten more food than I've ever done in my life (yet the jeans feel loose - WIN!) I'm trying to pack as much into each day as I can to really make the most of my (comparatively) short time here.
Obviously, a lot of my time is devoted to teaching here and preparing for my lessons - which I am enjoying a lot. I'm getting on well with my fellow teachers (both native and foreign), learning something new everyday, and laughing a lot at the crazy but wonderful kids. They show me when they've got wobbly teeth, they stroke my hair and say 'yellow', and they make noise like a stampede whenever I say the words 'run', 'hurry' or 'tickle'. The other day, I was teaching a lesson on the seasons. The curriculum I follow (which is sometimes a bit odd) suggested that you play a track on the curriculum CD with 'four tunes depicting the seasons'. It was WEIRD - but the kids thought it was hilarious. The music supposedly representing 'Spring' sounded like snake charming music (no, I don't know either...). When I put it on, one of the (rather chubby) children spontaneously lifted up his jumper and started doing this belly dancing thing - it made me lose my teacher facade for a second as I burst out laughing and almost fell off my miniature kindergarten chair.
When I've not been in the classroom, I've been doing LOTS of new things...I'll take this opportunity to share a few of these experiences with you:
1) Trip to Nanjing Road area - Nanjing Road is to Shanghai as Oxford Street is to London, i.e. all the tourists go there, it's swarming with people trying to sell you stuff, and most of the locals try to avoid it. It was an interesting place, and I'm certainly glad I've seen it. Think neon lights, shops galore, and a whole lot of crazy traffic! We went to Shanghai's No. 1 Department Store to have a browse around, and ended up in the official Expo merchandise area. Think of any object and they've got it there, with the words 'Expo' or Hai Bao's face on it. If I wanted to, I could be really cool and go to the Expo complete with official jumper, t-shirt, socks, shoes, bag, camera case, and hair bobble...but I don't think it would be a good look.
Whilst we were around Nanjing Road, we went into a tea shop and got about 5 or 6 different samples of delicious free tea. The thought crossed my mind as we were in there about the infamous Chinese 'tea house scam' where you get huge bills for a few cups of tea...but thankfully we didn't get charged for our samples...just a bit of a disgruntled look when we didn't buy anything!
Elisabeth and I did a stupid thing whilst on Nanjing Road - we made the mistake of going to a cinema, wanting to see a random Chinese film...and, because of our poor command of Mandarin, ended up watching the cinematic disaster that is 'Sherlock Holmes' (with Chinese subtitles)...not quite what we wanted! Don't go and see it - it's 2 hours of your life that you'll never get back. We did see the funny side of the situation...whilst our fellow Chinese cinema-goers found the funny side of the film - they thought it was truly hilarious. We were laughing at how bad it was...the Chinese were laughing at Robert Downey Jr's supposed comic genius. Good times.
2) The Shanghai World Financial Centre (SWFC) - 4 of us decided to head to the SWFC on a clear evening (quite a rarity in rainy Shanghai) to see exactly what this 'tallest building in Shanghai' business was all about. We got the metro over and were greeted by an oxymoronic sight - the staggering Shanghai skyline with impressive skyscrapers, including SWFC, next to a building site with small shacks which looked like they were people's homes. The very rich next to the very poor is something you see a lot of in Shanghai.
Anyway, back to SWFC - wow, what a building! I'll let the photos (below) do the talking really, but I was absolutely taken aback by it. It's 492 metres high, and is the world's third tallest building, with the world's highest observation deck (thank you, Lonely Planet). We decided to go the whole hog and go right to the top observation deck (floor 100), but also visited the 94th and 97th floors. It's only been open for about 18 months so it feels very shiny and new. In the lifts going up I felt like I was in Star Trek. When we reached the observation decks, the view was incredible. The cars on the roads looked tiny, the Bund looked beautiful, and we were able to look down on the neighbouring skyscrapers - a very weird feeling. The only other experience I'd had similar to this one was going up the CN tower in Toronto...but Shanghai definitely won the tall tower battle. The city looked a lot more colourful than I'd imagined...and it made us all realise what a vast area Shanghai covers.
On our way back down, we met a Chinese guy who wanted his picture taking with us (this happens a lot more than you'd think). We talked to him in a mixture of English and Mandarin. He explained that he'd been to the UK before and said that he'd been to London and 'the town with the cow...and the famous college'. After the cogs in my brain turned to solve this cross-cultural riddle, I finally blurted out 'Oxford'!
3) The Medical Examination... - not so much a tourist attraction, but certainly a Chinese experience that deserves a mention. All people who are staying in China for an extended period have to have a physical examination - both before you enter the country and afterwards. So I had lots of pre-departure doctor's visits to get lots of blood taken/Xrays done/forms stamped....only to have it all done again in China. However, what took me several months in the UK only took me one morning at an international health clinic here in China. It was an experience. I'm not a fan of needles, or anything medical really. So, the prospect of being prodded and poked in a foreign hospital was pretty terrifying. We'd also heard a lot of stories about tests that were done here that we didn't have to do in our home countries... However, I'm pleased to say that the rumours about scary additional tests weren't true - apart from an ultrasound(!) which I'll explain in a bit. The 6 of us arrived (with our translator) and had our photographs taken for the medical forms, and were then taken into a waiting area...where they'd attempted to create a peaceful atmosphere by having a fish tank in there...but it just looked a bit gross! Thankfully, the rest of the hospital was very clean. We then had to get changed into dressing gowns, take our forms, and basically go from room to room on a corridor getting the various obligatory tests done - it was all very quick, very efficient, and very conveyor-belt like. It involved a blood test (lots of deep breathing and courage needed from me!), a chest X ray, a blood pressure check, an ECG, a chest exam, an eye test, and an ultrasound. The latter check was just plain weird. Not only did they check my unpregnant womb for any sign of babies, they also checked most of my internal organs and rolled me over on my side to check my ribs. It was a bit bizarre...and that jelly stuff is cold!
We celebrated getting through the physical with a trip to our favourite street food stand where you can get these amazing steamed bun things with meat or vegetable filling for about 14p. Happy, and very relieved times all round.
OK...that's enough for now...I've got 5 other subheadings of things I ought to tell people about...but will save that for another time! Brevity is not really my thing...
Rachel xxx
Obviously, a lot of my time is devoted to teaching here and preparing for my lessons - which I am enjoying a lot. I'm getting on well with my fellow teachers (both native and foreign), learning something new everyday, and laughing a lot at the crazy but wonderful kids. They show me when they've got wobbly teeth, they stroke my hair and say 'yellow', and they make noise like a stampede whenever I say the words 'run', 'hurry' or 'tickle'. The other day, I was teaching a lesson on the seasons. The curriculum I follow (which is sometimes a bit odd) suggested that you play a track on the curriculum CD with 'four tunes depicting the seasons'. It was WEIRD - but the kids thought it was hilarious. The music supposedly representing 'Spring' sounded like snake charming music (no, I don't know either...). When I put it on, one of the (rather chubby) children spontaneously lifted up his jumper and started doing this belly dancing thing - it made me lose my teacher facade for a second as I burst out laughing and almost fell off my miniature kindergarten chair.
When I've not been in the classroom, I've been doing LOTS of new things...I'll take this opportunity to share a few of these experiences with you:
1) Trip to Nanjing Road area - Nanjing Road is to Shanghai as Oxford Street is to London, i.e. all the tourists go there, it's swarming with people trying to sell you stuff, and most of the locals try to avoid it. It was an interesting place, and I'm certainly glad I've seen it. Think neon lights, shops galore, and a whole lot of crazy traffic! We went to Shanghai's No. 1 Department Store to have a browse around, and ended up in the official Expo merchandise area. Think of any object and they've got it there, with the words 'Expo' or Hai Bao's face on it. If I wanted to, I could be really cool and go to the Expo complete with official jumper, t-shirt, socks, shoes, bag, camera case, and hair bobble...but I don't think it would be a good look.
Whilst we were around Nanjing Road, we went into a tea shop and got about 5 or 6 different samples of delicious free tea. The thought crossed my mind as we were in there about the infamous Chinese 'tea house scam' where you get huge bills for a few cups of tea...but thankfully we didn't get charged for our samples...just a bit of a disgruntled look when we didn't buy anything!
Elisabeth and I did a stupid thing whilst on Nanjing Road - we made the mistake of going to a cinema, wanting to see a random Chinese film...and, because of our poor command of Mandarin, ended up watching the cinematic disaster that is 'Sherlock Holmes' (with Chinese subtitles)...not quite what we wanted! Don't go and see it - it's 2 hours of your life that you'll never get back. We did see the funny side of the situation...whilst our fellow Chinese cinema-goers found the funny side of the film - they thought it was truly hilarious. We were laughing at how bad it was...the Chinese were laughing at Robert Downey Jr's supposed comic genius. Good times.
2) The Shanghai World Financial Centre (SWFC) - 4 of us decided to head to the SWFC on a clear evening (quite a rarity in rainy Shanghai) to see exactly what this 'tallest building in Shanghai' business was all about. We got the metro over and were greeted by an oxymoronic sight - the staggering Shanghai skyline with impressive skyscrapers, including SWFC, next to a building site with small shacks which looked like they were people's homes. The very rich next to the very poor is something you see a lot of in Shanghai.
Anyway, back to SWFC - wow, what a building! I'll let the photos (below) do the talking really, but I was absolutely taken aback by it. It's 492 metres high, and is the world's third tallest building, with the world's highest observation deck (thank you, Lonely Planet). We decided to go the whole hog and go right to the top observation deck (floor 100), but also visited the 94th and 97th floors. It's only been open for about 18 months so it feels very shiny and new. In the lifts going up I felt like I was in Star Trek. When we reached the observation decks, the view was incredible. The cars on the roads looked tiny, the Bund looked beautiful, and we were able to look down on the neighbouring skyscrapers - a very weird feeling. The only other experience I'd had similar to this one was going up the CN tower in Toronto...but Shanghai definitely won the tall tower battle. The city looked a lot more colourful than I'd imagined...and it made us all realise what a vast area Shanghai covers.
On our way back down, we met a Chinese guy who wanted his picture taking with us (this happens a lot more than you'd think). We talked to him in a mixture of English and Mandarin. He explained that he'd been to the UK before and said that he'd been to London and 'the town with the cow...and the famous college'. After the cogs in my brain turned to solve this cross-cultural riddle, I finally blurted out 'Oxford'!
3) The Medical Examination... - not so much a tourist attraction, but certainly a Chinese experience that deserves a mention. All people who are staying in China for an extended period have to have a physical examination - both before you enter the country and afterwards. So I had lots of pre-departure doctor's visits to get lots of blood taken/Xrays done/forms stamped....only to have it all done again in China. However, what took me several months in the UK only took me one morning at an international health clinic here in China. It was an experience. I'm not a fan of needles, or anything medical really. So, the prospect of being prodded and poked in a foreign hospital was pretty terrifying. We'd also heard a lot of stories about tests that were done here that we didn't have to do in our home countries... However, I'm pleased to say that the rumours about scary additional tests weren't true - apart from an ultrasound(!) which I'll explain in a bit. The 6 of us arrived (with our translator) and had our photographs taken for the medical forms, and were then taken into a waiting area...where they'd attempted to create a peaceful atmosphere by having a fish tank in there...but it just looked a bit gross! Thankfully, the rest of the hospital was very clean. We then had to get changed into dressing gowns, take our forms, and basically go from room to room on a corridor getting the various obligatory tests done - it was all very quick, very efficient, and very conveyor-belt like. It involved a blood test (lots of deep breathing and courage needed from me!), a chest X ray, a blood pressure check, an ECG, a chest exam, an eye test, and an ultrasound. The latter check was just plain weird. Not only did they check my unpregnant womb for any sign of babies, they also checked most of my internal organs and rolled me over on my side to check my ribs. It was a bit bizarre...and that jelly stuff is cold!
We celebrated getting through the physical with a trip to our favourite street food stand where you can get these amazing steamed bun things with meat or vegetable filling for about 14p. Happy, and very relieved times all round.
OK...that's enough for now...I've got 5 other subheadings of things I ought to tell people about...but will save that for another time! Brevity is not really my thing...
Rachel xxx
Shanghai World Financial Centre Photos
Rachel Laoshi
I've been teaching in Shanghai for a few weeks now, so thought it was time to devote a blog entry to that subject alone!
As I said in my previous post, I'm teaching at several different kindergartens across the city. I'm mainly teaching 5-6 year olds, and then some older classes for one day each week (10/11 years). For the most part, the children I teach are well behaved, intelligent, and very very cute. I get the odd one that tries to play the class clown, is a bit rude, or has actually be diagnosed with ADHD - but I manage to deal with them...usually with the help of their regular Chinese teacher!
I have about 20-25 children in a class when I teach the 5-6 year olds - a very small class by Chinese standards! Usually a lesson lasts 30 minutes. I start off by walking into the classroom, where the children are sitting in a horseshoe on little wooden chairs, whilst their normal Chinese teacher speaks in quite a severe tone to them. I start unpacking my things from my bag, and when the Chinese teacher gives me the nod, I take centre stage. I use the word 'stage', because, for some of the time, I really do feel like an entertainer in the classroom. From what I've seen of the rest of their lessons, the children have a very strict and regimented curriculum - so when the English teacher arrives, they are certainly ready for a fun change! I always start off by saying hello and asking them if they can remember my name - most of them can now! We sing a greeting song (with actions) to get the children warmed up, and then I'll teach a particular topic through the form of games and songs. The curriculum I follow is very music-orientated, so my vocal chords have been doing a lot of work over the past few weeks! Topics we've been covering so far have included telling the time (including o'clock, quarter past, half past), days of the week (including how to say '1st, 2nd, 3rd' etc.), shapes and weather. The children are really responsive - there are certainly plenty of hands in the air when I ask for volunteers for language games. When they get something right (which is most of the time), I always give them a 'high five', which they love (as do a lot of Chinese people, I've discovered)! They like it when I play dumb or make a bit of a fool of myself. When I was teaching 'wake up' and 'go to sleep' in the 'time' section, I actually got down on the floor and pretended to get into/out of bed - they thought that was hilarious. The great thing is that when I ask 'Who can show me what they do when they 'go to sleep'?' to check their understanding, they're only too happy to act out 'going to sleep' and make a fool of themselves too. One little girl even made an alarm clock beeping sound when she was acting out 'to wake up' - BIG high five for her!
The children all have English names, which are displayed on little name tags - this makes life a lot easier for me! The 'names' are very funny - they're usually either older sounding names (Geoffrey, Vivian) or they're the names of objects (Yoyo, Boots). I have some favourites already...
1) Bell - a really cute little girl who always wears a big puffy purple coat. She is very smart, very polite, and always smiling. She also ran after me out of a class when I'd forgotten to pick up my gloves...'teacher, teacher, here teacher!'
2) Andy - he's very intelligent, and has the look of an old man - he wears glasses on a chain that are perched on the end of his nose. He also has a brilliant laugh.
3) Selina - perhaps the most affectionate child of the bunch - she has said 'I love you' several times already and kisses me on the cheek a lot.
Although I do like teaching the younger ones, I really enjoy teaching the 10-11 year olds. The younger ones are really only taught oral English, whereas I can do reading and writing activities with the older students. Many of them are extremely intelligent, and come straight up to me as soon as I walk in the room and are DESPERATE to speak English to me. They are all so keen to learn, which is an absolute joy to see. They ask a lot of questions - about the English language and about my life in England. They've loved all of the cultural things I've brought in, and all the pictures of my family and friends. In a lesson I taught the other day, a few of the children brought in pictures of their families too, which was so lovely. They explained (using excellent English) who all the people were in the photographs, and what they were doing. One of the things I find lovely about Chinese culture is the emphasis on the family unit - lots of the children I teach live under the same roof as both their parents and their grandparents - so it's often (very active and healthy looking) grandmas and grandpas who I see if I teach the last lesson of the day.
My smartest child is an 11 year old called Tony. This is the child that, on seeing a picture in a text book of a man cooking, asked 'Rachel, is the man in the picture cooking Italian food?' - 'the man is cooking' would have been enough! He's a really great kid, and I try to talk to him a bit more after class to push his language as he is miles ahead of the other children. That's one of the hardest things I have to cope with in the older classes - the range of abilities, and the range of confidence levels as they are much more self-conscious that the 6 year olds. Some of the children, particularly the boys, can be very timid. They have the knowledge there - their written work proves that - but actually having the confidence to speak in class is a bit of a hurdle for some of them. Praising up and a hell of a lot of smiling will hopefully bring them out of their shells.
So far, the teaching's certainly been a challenge, but it's been so much more fun than I'd expected it to be. Sure, I have my dips, but it's a very fulfilling job - and has given me a whole new respect for my past teachers, and my friends who are going into the teaching profession! I'm sure there'll be many more tales to tell, but for now, I'll sign off!
Rachel
xxx
As I said in my previous post, I'm teaching at several different kindergartens across the city. I'm mainly teaching 5-6 year olds, and then some older classes for one day each week (10/11 years). For the most part, the children I teach are well behaved, intelligent, and very very cute. I get the odd one that tries to play the class clown, is a bit rude, or has actually be diagnosed with ADHD - but I manage to deal with them...usually with the help of their regular Chinese teacher!
I have about 20-25 children in a class when I teach the 5-6 year olds - a very small class by Chinese standards! Usually a lesson lasts 30 minutes. I start off by walking into the classroom, where the children are sitting in a horseshoe on little wooden chairs, whilst their normal Chinese teacher speaks in quite a severe tone to them. I start unpacking my things from my bag, and when the Chinese teacher gives me the nod, I take centre stage. I use the word 'stage', because, for some of the time, I really do feel like an entertainer in the classroom. From what I've seen of the rest of their lessons, the children have a very strict and regimented curriculum - so when the English teacher arrives, they are certainly ready for a fun change! I always start off by saying hello and asking them if they can remember my name - most of them can now! We sing a greeting song (with actions) to get the children warmed up, and then I'll teach a particular topic through the form of games and songs. The curriculum I follow is very music-orientated, so my vocal chords have been doing a lot of work over the past few weeks! Topics we've been covering so far have included telling the time (including o'clock, quarter past, half past), days of the week (including how to say '1st, 2nd, 3rd' etc.), shapes and weather. The children are really responsive - there are certainly plenty of hands in the air when I ask for volunteers for language games. When they get something right (which is most of the time), I always give them a 'high five', which they love (as do a lot of Chinese people, I've discovered)! They like it when I play dumb or make a bit of a fool of myself. When I was teaching 'wake up' and 'go to sleep' in the 'time' section, I actually got down on the floor and pretended to get into/out of bed - they thought that was hilarious. The great thing is that when I ask 'Who can show me what they do when they 'go to sleep'?' to check their understanding, they're only too happy to act out 'going to sleep' and make a fool of themselves too. One little girl even made an alarm clock beeping sound when she was acting out 'to wake up' - BIG high five for her!
The children all have English names, which are displayed on little name tags - this makes life a lot easier for me! The 'names' are very funny - they're usually either older sounding names (Geoffrey, Vivian) or they're the names of objects (Yoyo, Boots). I have some favourites already...
1) Bell - a really cute little girl who always wears a big puffy purple coat. She is very smart, very polite, and always smiling. She also ran after me out of a class when I'd forgotten to pick up my gloves...'teacher, teacher, here teacher!'
2) Andy - he's very intelligent, and has the look of an old man - he wears glasses on a chain that are perched on the end of his nose. He also has a brilliant laugh.
3) Selina - perhaps the most affectionate child of the bunch - she has said 'I love you' several times already and kisses me on the cheek a lot.
Although I do like teaching the younger ones, I really enjoy teaching the 10-11 year olds. The younger ones are really only taught oral English, whereas I can do reading and writing activities with the older students. Many of them are extremely intelligent, and come straight up to me as soon as I walk in the room and are DESPERATE to speak English to me. They are all so keen to learn, which is an absolute joy to see. They ask a lot of questions - about the English language and about my life in England. They've loved all of the cultural things I've brought in, and all the pictures of my family and friends. In a lesson I taught the other day, a few of the children brought in pictures of their families too, which was so lovely. They explained (using excellent English) who all the people were in the photographs, and what they were doing. One of the things I find lovely about Chinese culture is the emphasis on the family unit - lots of the children I teach live under the same roof as both their parents and their grandparents - so it's often (very active and healthy looking) grandmas and grandpas who I see if I teach the last lesson of the day.
My smartest child is an 11 year old called Tony. This is the child that, on seeing a picture in a text book of a man cooking, asked 'Rachel, is the man in the picture cooking Italian food?' - 'the man is cooking' would have been enough! He's a really great kid, and I try to talk to him a bit more after class to push his language as he is miles ahead of the other children. That's one of the hardest things I have to cope with in the older classes - the range of abilities, and the range of confidence levels as they are much more self-conscious that the 6 year olds. Some of the children, particularly the boys, can be very timid. They have the knowledge there - their written work proves that - but actually having the confidence to speak in class is a bit of a hurdle for some of them. Praising up and a hell of a lot of smiling will hopefully bring them out of their shells.
So far, the teaching's certainly been a challenge, but it's been so much more fun than I'd expected it to be. Sure, I have my dips, but it's a very fulfilling job - and has given me a whole new respect for my past teachers, and my friends who are going into the teaching profession! I'm sure there'll be many more tales to tell, but for now, I'll sign off!
Rachel
xxx
A few pictures of my apartment...
My first 48 hours in 'real' China
So, after one week of orientation, we left the comforting arms of our hotel and were thrown out into 'real' China on a cold Sunday morning. As I packed my suitcase I started to feel very very nervous about moving into a new apartment, teaching, and living life very much the Chinese way, rather than the touristy way I'd experienced thus far. But actually, although the past week or so has had its frustrations, and the odd teething problem here and there, I'm liking the 'real' experience very much indeed.
There are 6 of us from orientation who are completing placements in Shanghai. We were all picked up at 8am on Sunday morning and transported to our respective apartments. I was met by Touba, my waiban/school contact, at the hotel. I'd already met Touba as we had a meeting with her and some of her colleagues on the Friday of orientation week where we were told about the curriculum we'd be following, met some of our co-workers, and then went out for a welcome meal. Touba is in charge of the 6 of us and when we first met (and whenever she's seen me since), she greeted me very warmly. She was very excited that I was from England and told me about some of the friends that she has from the UK. On Sunday, she offered to carry my huge case for me...but it definitely turned into a group effort! So Touba and I were driven to Pubei Road, an area to the South West of the city, near to the Shanghai South Railway Station, where I am now living.
My apartment is within a complex with a little blokey on the gate in a very official looking uniform who gives me a nod everyday. From the outside, the apartment blocks (about 7 storeys high) look quite basic, so I lowered my expectations regarding the interior considerably! However, when I walked in, I was pleasantly surprised. Everything was a lot more modern than I expected, and a lot of the furniture and appliances are brand new. There are hardwood floors across the apartment, and I have 4 rooms - a living/dining area with a table and 4 chairs; a very cute bright blue kitchen with hob, microwave, double sink and all my crockery/pots/pans/chopsticks/utensils included; a large bedroom (the biggest I've ever had!) with a double bed, huge wardrobe, TV, desk and bedside tables; and then a bathroom with decent shower, proper toilet (no squatting required!), wash basin and a washing machine. The bedroom also has French doors to a kind of big window/clothes drying area which is handy.
After showing me how to work all the Chinese appliances (characters galore!), Touba introduced me to my landlady. She was very very friendly and smiley, but did not speak a word of English...so I attempted to communicate a few things, which was a source of much hilarity! The only issue I had when moving in was the lack of internet. However, Touba said she'd get it sorted within a few days (I translated this as a few weeks). But happily she stuck to her word. On the Tuesday, a man came round and set up the internet for me within 10 minutes. Happy Rachel.
After I'd put my stuff in my apartment, Touba and I walked round to my fellow colleagues' apartments. We're all in fairly close proximity, which is nice. We then went round to a 'China Mobile' outlet and got some cheap phones sorted for local calls, and then we all got in a minibus and headed over to the main campus. The 6 of us are working for a teacher placement organisation who post English teachers out to several kindergartens across the city. So I work at a few different schools each week. It's a complex logistical operation, but the main campus has a driver, James, who gives us lifts, and we all have Public Transportation Cards to help us get around. There have been a few issues with getting our bearings/knowing the locations of schools/working out the most efficient way of getting from A to B, but we're getting there! It takes a lot of forward route planning, patience, and making sure you've got all you need in your backpack for that day's lessons.
On the Sunday we had a training day...where we were basically told that....yes, you'll be starting tomorrow (we were warned this might happen)! We were given our schedules, I'm teaching 15 hours a week - so not too bad. The 6 of us are already planning weekend excursions, and some trips further afield during the national holiday periods.
Although the organisation covers ages 2 and a half to 11, I mainly teach 6 year olds upwards...so I generally don't have to worry about children walking in with their trousers round their ankles, or screaming for their mothers. All of the children are very very intelligent and, for the most part, well behaved. The 6 year olds are very cute and want to touch my hair and face a lot...and the 9-11 year olds are super bright, so I can have a joke with them. More teaching-specific stories to follow in a later blog!
The curriculum that we follow is very very structured - which is a blessing some ways and also an annoyance. We have text books, CDs and 'graphics' (what you and I would call 'laminated pictures') - so the preparation side for lessons is very very easy as the resources are all there. But it doesn't allow for a lot of flexibility because there is a set curriculum which needs to be covered. With some of my older classes, I can be more flexible because their English is better, and they get through the material more quickly. In one lesson, where I was teaching the topic 'Family Members' (not just 'Mum' and 'Dad', but 'niece', 'mother-in-law' and 'cousin'...I was impressed), I brought in some photographs of the Baguley clan (and pets). They LOVED them. It generated so much excitement and conversation - 'What's he called?' 'Is your dog naughty?' 'Your father has a hairy face!' (cue 'beard' being written on the board). So I'm definitely going to try to keep the lessons creative for them, whilst also covering the set curriculum. They're all very interested in Western culture, and I've brought some typically English stuff with me, so I'm definitely hoping to broaden their knowledge beyond the constraints of the textbook.
Back to Sunday...after several teaching workshops and a rather long introduction to how the organisation works, we all felt pretty exhausted. By the end of the day, we needed a bit of comfort, a bit of reassurance, and a decent meal - which is just what we got. At the end of our training session, Ashley and Liz, two of our co-workers who have been with the school for 6 months and who are here in Shanghai for a year, took us all out for a meal at an English pub (my first indulgence in Western cuisine since my arrival, I hasten to add!) They answered our queries, they told us about the social scene in Shanghai, and they provided a positive end to what had been a very overwhelming day! It felt very nice to have a bit of Western food, a bit of Western beer, and a bit of relaxation before starting teaching 12 hours later...!
After a good night's sleep (my apartment is surprisngly quiet, and my bed very comfy), I was picked up by James the driver on Monday morning. In the minibus, I had a quick chat with Lily, one of the Chinese teachers who works for the organisation. Thankfully, for many of our lessons, we are accompanied by a 'facilitator', who helps to translate difficult rubrics for the children, and acts as an extra pair of hands in the classroom. A lot of the Chinese teachers are our age, very lively, and very funny. Lily, perhaps the sweetest person I have ever met, was my facilitator for my first lesson - and what a help she was! The lessons are nice and short (usually 30 minutes), but I was so scared I'd run out of games to play, songs to sing, and things to say. Lily put my mind at rest, gave me some great tips, and helped me through that first half hour. I was pleased with the lesson - the children were responsive, intelligent, and listened very carefully and they'd understood the new stuff I'd taught them. Not bad for my first lesson.
I spent the end of my first teaching day having a meal with my 5 new friends, and fellow new starters - Elisabeth, Lenore, Cheryl, Cary and Cori. They are all recent graduates from America, who were also at the orientation. We're getting on very well, and it's great to be able to support each other through this experience - and be with a group of people who are also keen to travel and make the most of their time in China. It was Cori's birthday on our first day of teaching, so we all went out for a double celebration on Monday evening. We ate a local restaurant where we were the only Westerners in there - we got a lot of attention from the kitchen staff! We had a delicious meal with about 9 large dishes to share and some lovely tea for just under £3 - bargain. We sang 'Happy Birthday' to Cori - much to the delight of the table next to us! They were all very merry and decided to give their own rather elaborate and embarrassing toast to Cori - it was an hilarious moment!
OK, there's novel installment number 2. There's still lots more to say about the schools and the kids and the teaching and the other bits of Shanghai I've seen...but I'll give that to you in another chunk!
Thanks for reading! :)
xxx
There are 6 of us from orientation who are completing placements in Shanghai. We were all picked up at 8am on Sunday morning and transported to our respective apartments. I was met by Touba, my waiban/school contact, at the hotel. I'd already met Touba as we had a meeting with her and some of her colleagues on the Friday of orientation week where we were told about the curriculum we'd be following, met some of our co-workers, and then went out for a welcome meal. Touba is in charge of the 6 of us and when we first met (and whenever she's seen me since), she greeted me very warmly. She was very excited that I was from England and told me about some of the friends that she has from the UK. On Sunday, she offered to carry my huge case for me...but it definitely turned into a group effort! So Touba and I were driven to Pubei Road, an area to the South West of the city, near to the Shanghai South Railway Station, where I am now living.
My apartment is within a complex with a little blokey on the gate in a very official looking uniform who gives me a nod everyday. From the outside, the apartment blocks (about 7 storeys high) look quite basic, so I lowered my expectations regarding the interior considerably! However, when I walked in, I was pleasantly surprised. Everything was a lot more modern than I expected, and a lot of the furniture and appliances are brand new. There are hardwood floors across the apartment, and I have 4 rooms - a living/dining area with a table and 4 chairs; a very cute bright blue kitchen with hob, microwave, double sink and all my crockery/pots/pans/chopsticks/utensils included; a large bedroom (the biggest I've ever had!) with a double bed, huge wardrobe, TV, desk and bedside tables; and then a bathroom with decent shower, proper toilet (no squatting required!), wash basin and a washing machine. The bedroom also has French doors to a kind of big window/clothes drying area which is handy.
After showing me how to work all the Chinese appliances (characters galore!), Touba introduced me to my landlady. She was very very friendly and smiley, but did not speak a word of English...so I attempted to communicate a few things, which was a source of much hilarity! The only issue I had when moving in was the lack of internet. However, Touba said she'd get it sorted within a few days (I translated this as a few weeks). But happily she stuck to her word. On the Tuesday, a man came round and set up the internet for me within 10 minutes. Happy Rachel.
After I'd put my stuff in my apartment, Touba and I walked round to my fellow colleagues' apartments. We're all in fairly close proximity, which is nice. We then went round to a 'China Mobile' outlet and got some cheap phones sorted for local calls, and then we all got in a minibus and headed over to the main campus. The 6 of us are working for a teacher placement organisation who post English teachers out to several kindergartens across the city. So I work at a few different schools each week. It's a complex logistical operation, but the main campus has a driver, James, who gives us lifts, and we all have Public Transportation Cards to help us get around. There have been a few issues with getting our bearings/knowing the locations of schools/working out the most efficient way of getting from A to B, but we're getting there! It takes a lot of forward route planning, patience, and making sure you've got all you need in your backpack for that day's lessons.
On the Sunday we had a training day...where we were basically told that....yes, you'll be starting tomorrow (we were warned this might happen)! We were given our schedules, I'm teaching 15 hours a week - so not too bad. The 6 of us are already planning weekend excursions, and some trips further afield during the national holiday periods.
Although the organisation covers ages 2 and a half to 11, I mainly teach 6 year olds upwards...so I generally don't have to worry about children walking in with their trousers round their ankles, or screaming for their mothers. All of the children are very very intelligent and, for the most part, well behaved. The 6 year olds are very cute and want to touch my hair and face a lot...and the 9-11 year olds are super bright, so I can have a joke with them. More teaching-specific stories to follow in a later blog!
The curriculum that we follow is very very structured - which is a blessing some ways and also an annoyance. We have text books, CDs and 'graphics' (what you and I would call 'laminated pictures') - so the preparation side for lessons is very very easy as the resources are all there. But it doesn't allow for a lot of flexibility because there is a set curriculum which needs to be covered. With some of my older classes, I can be more flexible because their English is better, and they get through the material more quickly. In one lesson, where I was teaching the topic 'Family Members' (not just 'Mum' and 'Dad', but 'niece', 'mother-in-law' and 'cousin'...I was impressed), I brought in some photographs of the Baguley clan (and pets). They LOVED them. It generated so much excitement and conversation - 'What's he called?' 'Is your dog naughty?' 'Your father has a hairy face!' (cue 'beard' being written on the board). So I'm definitely going to try to keep the lessons creative for them, whilst also covering the set curriculum. They're all very interested in Western culture, and I've brought some typically English stuff with me, so I'm definitely hoping to broaden their knowledge beyond the constraints of the textbook.
Back to Sunday...after several teaching workshops and a rather long introduction to how the organisation works, we all felt pretty exhausted. By the end of the day, we needed a bit of comfort, a bit of reassurance, and a decent meal - which is just what we got. At the end of our training session, Ashley and Liz, two of our co-workers who have been with the school for 6 months and who are here in Shanghai for a year, took us all out for a meal at an English pub (my first indulgence in Western cuisine since my arrival, I hasten to add!) They answered our queries, they told us about the social scene in Shanghai, and they provided a positive end to what had been a very overwhelming day! It felt very nice to have a bit of Western food, a bit of Western beer, and a bit of relaxation before starting teaching 12 hours later...!
After a good night's sleep (my apartment is surprisngly quiet, and my bed very comfy), I was picked up by James the driver on Monday morning. In the minibus, I had a quick chat with Lily, one of the Chinese teachers who works for the organisation. Thankfully, for many of our lessons, we are accompanied by a 'facilitator', who helps to translate difficult rubrics for the children, and acts as an extra pair of hands in the classroom. A lot of the Chinese teachers are our age, very lively, and very funny. Lily, perhaps the sweetest person I have ever met, was my facilitator for my first lesson - and what a help she was! The lessons are nice and short (usually 30 minutes), but I was so scared I'd run out of games to play, songs to sing, and things to say. Lily put my mind at rest, gave me some great tips, and helped me through that first half hour. I was pleased with the lesson - the children were responsive, intelligent, and listened very carefully and they'd understood the new stuff I'd taught them. Not bad for my first lesson.
I spent the end of my first teaching day having a meal with my 5 new friends, and fellow new starters - Elisabeth, Lenore, Cheryl, Cary and Cori. They are all recent graduates from America, who were also at the orientation. We're getting on very well, and it's great to be able to support each other through this experience - and be with a group of people who are also keen to travel and make the most of their time in China. It was Cori's birthday on our first day of teaching, so we all went out for a double celebration on Monday evening. We ate a local restaurant where we were the only Westerners in there - we got a lot of attention from the kitchen staff! We had a delicious meal with about 9 large dishes to share and some lovely tea for just under £3 - bargain. We sang 'Happy Birthday' to Cori - much to the delight of the table next to us! They were all very merry and decided to give their own rather elaborate and embarrassing toast to Cori - it was an hilarious moment!
OK, there's novel installment number 2. There's still lots more to say about the schools and the kids and the teaching and the other bits of Shanghai I've seen...but I'll give that to you in another chunk!
Thanks for reading! :)
xxx
Arrival and Orientation Week
So, I’ve been in China for just over two weeks now, so thought it was about time to get on the blog bandwagon and start telling you people about what I’ve been doing! The first fortnight has been very busy, very challenging, but incredible! It’s been an ambition of mine to live abroad for a while now, so to actually be doing it is a wonderful feeling.
I've met so many friendly people over the past two weeks - the first of whom was a Chinese businesswoman called Jacqueline who was sitting next to me on the plane. We talked a lot about China and she gave me so much useful advice - I even had the opportunity to practice a bit of Mandarin with her ... with partial success and lots of laughs!
On arrival at Shanghai Pudong after 10 hours with BA (thank goodness they didn't decide to go on strike!), I appeared to be the only blonde haired and green eyed person around. The staring started at arrivals and it's continued ever since. It doesn't bother me, I find it quite funny to be honest! However, after getting my bearings I did come across one fellow blonde haired girl at arrivals - and that was Jessy, who had also travelled to China from the UK with the same teaching placement company as me. We found our pick-up party and were then escorted in a minibus to our hotel. When I arrived, Shanghai was hot - it felt like June. I was shedding layers and donning sunglasses! We drove through the city and I spent most of my time with my mouth open just in awe at the skyscrapers, helter-skelter-esque roads and crazy driving.
I spent my first week in Shanghai at one of the campuses of Jiaotong University (I think they have six different campuses in total). The 25 of us who had arrived in China (from the UK and the US) stayed in a hotel on the campus for our orientation week. The accommodation was a lot better than I expected - pretty much like any Western hotel...although noodles, rice, and spring rolls aren't generally found on the breakfast menu in the UK!
The week consisted of having TEFL-related talks, Mandarin lessons, talks from the consulate, and teaching our own mock lessons during the mornings, and then doing more touristy things in the afternoons and evenings. There was definitely a good balance between the more social side, and the important preparatory side for our placements. I enjoyed the Mandarin lessons a lot - I'd had a bit of tuition before I came to China, but it was quite comforting to revise some of the stuff I'd already been taught and it definitely helped to build my confidence. The TEFL-related talks were from teachers who are currently working in China - they told us about their incredible experiences and the ups and downs of teaching here. During the week we had to prepare a short lesson and present it to our group. I am teaching at kindergarten and primary level here (ages 2 and a half to 11...but I mostly teach the older ones, thank goodness!) - so in my mock lesson, my 20-something year old colleagues had to play dumb! This was challenging but funny! I decided to cover numbers 1-10 (presuming some basic prior knowledge) and then I taught the playschool classic that is 'Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes'. I drew a man on the board and did big labels and taught the body parts, and then sang my song - and even got complimented on my singing voice...and I don't think it was sarcastic! It went very well and my peers provided some constructive criticism to help me improve. I'd done a TEFL course prior to arrival, but actually putting all the theory into practice was nerve-wracking at first. However, it went very well and I felt myself relaxing into it as the lesson progressed.
As far as the social/tourist side goes, we crammed a lot into one week. On the Monday we went to Shanghai Zoo. The zoo's current main attraction is the pandas - who've been brought over from Chongqing in time for Shanghai's 'Expo' in May (more of that in a later blog no doubt!) They were absolutely adorable - see pictures above!
We spent one afternoon taking part in a Chinese cookery class where were learnt how to make dumplings. It was a lot of fun! We all donned chefs hats and aprons, and were taught how to roll out and shape the dough casings to fit the meaty filling. There was a real art to it...and I didn't master it at all! However, we all got a certificate for our efforts...so if you want distinctly mediocre (and very oddly shaped) Chinese dumplings making, you know who to call.
One evening in orientation week, we went to an acrobatics show. A lot of people had told me how amazing Chinese acrobatics shows were...and I certainly wasn't disappointed! It consisted of about 20 different acts - and for each one I really couldn't believe what I was seeing. There were no safety lines or wires, everything was real and very very scary. We were on the front row...which was fantastic in some respects but was also petrifying at certain points! A few of the acts we saw were:
The Bicyle act - 10 girls start riding round the stage on standard sized bicycles. Then two of them get on the same one. Then three. Then four... you get the jist! When all 10 of them were on one bicycle, cycling round the stage, I thought of that bit in Wallace and Gromit's 'A Close Shave' where all of the sheep are on Wallace's motorbike and they have to fit through a tunnel...that's the only point of reference I have! YouTube it if you don't know what I mean!
The Hat Dancers - this involved lots of guys in Mexican type costumes, running about on stage and dancing, whilst constantly moving hats around. They climbed on top of each other, did human pyramids...and were just hilarious!
The Cage of Death (for want of a better phrase) - 4 guys, and 1 girl. On motorbikes. Going 360 degrees around a wire cage. All at the same time.
It was a fantastic evening, but as I say, there were some points where it was terrifying...UK Health and Safety would have had a field day.
We visited the very touristy area of 'Old Shanghai' in the middle of the week. Some of it I liked, some of it I didn't! We were badgered constantly by shopkeepers when we first arrived, asking us to buy souvenirs, watches, bags etc. However, I soon perfected my 'bu yao' (literally, 'don't want'), which gets rid of them pretty quickly! It's quite possibly the most useful phrase I've learnt so far. Apart from the persistent salespeople, the area was beautifully decorated for the Lantern Festival - loads of fairy lights, red lanterns and tigers. A special effort had clearly been made seeing as how this year is Expo year - so there was lots of blatant advertising for this much anticipated international event. The Expo mascot, a cheeky blue chap called 'Hai Bao', was also everywhere! We had a memorable meal in the Old Town...memorable for 3 reasons:
1) I made a major social blunder with my chopsticks! I had picked up a piece of meat which was a bit too big - Jessy, who was sitting next to me said she'd share it. So I stupidly decided to try my best to cut the meat using the chopsticks...resulting in one broken chopstick, but thankfully no casualties. Silly Westerner...!
2) We had the most amazing duck I have ever tasted in my life. It came to the table whole, with a really thick sauce and delicious stuffing inside it. Thankfully it was extremely tender, so no chopstick issues for me. It was a hit with everyone, particularly Marshall, one of the American staff of the organising company, who intended to devour every last bit - 'she's still got some good meat left on her...!' LOL.
3) We were photographed for most of the meal by a Chinese guy with an SLR. Someone also made his day by giving him a high five.
We had some great food in Shanghai during the first week. As well as eating in Old Town, we had a great meal at a vegetarian restaurant - it's amazing the amount of stuff they can do with tofu! We also had a meal at a Sichuan place where the food was so spicy that my eyes started to water as soon as we walked in the restaurant! After the meal, there was a traditional Chinese face-changing performance - which involved a guy in a mask that seemed to magically change colour in the blink of an eye (to represent different emotions/personalities). I took a video and I'm still not entirely sure how he did it.
We also visited the 'artistic' quarter of Shanghai in our first week here - named 'Tian Zi Fang'. It felt very European and very different to a lot of the Shanghai that we'd already seen - lots of little alleyways, small boutiques, and lots of (expensive) cafes. We saw many photography shops with some amazing prints - I definitely intend to go back to pick up some gifts! We also paid a vsit to the Shanghai Museum, which showcases some beautiful Chinese pottery, paintings, calligraphy, and traditional dress. It was really enjoyable - and provided a lot of photo opportunities (without flash, of course)!
The end of the week was marked with a farewell dinner and karaoke session in the hotel. This was great fun, and I was a good sport and sang 'Africa' and 'Uptown Girl' with a few others. Karaoke, or 'KTV' as they call it, is a huge thing here. A few of us went to some bars on one night of orientation, and witnessed a lot of KTV - they take it extremely seriously!
I'm going to end this blog entry now before it turns into a novel. I've done a lot more since the end of orientation week, but I think I'll save all the stuff about my first week of teaching and settling into my apartment for a later date!
Zai Jian for now!
xxx
I've met so many friendly people over the past two weeks - the first of whom was a Chinese businesswoman called Jacqueline who was sitting next to me on the plane. We talked a lot about China and she gave me so much useful advice - I even had the opportunity to practice a bit of Mandarin with her ... with partial success and lots of laughs!
On arrival at Shanghai Pudong after 10 hours with BA (thank goodness they didn't decide to go on strike!), I appeared to be the only blonde haired and green eyed person around. The staring started at arrivals and it's continued ever since. It doesn't bother me, I find it quite funny to be honest! However, after getting my bearings I did come across one fellow blonde haired girl at arrivals - and that was Jessy, who had also travelled to China from the UK with the same teaching placement company as me. We found our pick-up party and were then escorted in a minibus to our hotel. When I arrived, Shanghai was hot - it felt like June. I was shedding layers and donning sunglasses! We drove through the city and I spent most of my time with my mouth open just in awe at the skyscrapers, helter-skelter-esque roads and crazy driving.
I spent my first week in Shanghai at one of the campuses of Jiaotong University (I think they have six different campuses in total). The 25 of us who had arrived in China (from the UK and the US) stayed in a hotel on the campus for our orientation week. The accommodation was a lot better than I expected - pretty much like any Western hotel...although noodles, rice, and spring rolls aren't generally found on the breakfast menu in the UK!
The week consisted of having TEFL-related talks, Mandarin lessons, talks from the consulate, and teaching our own mock lessons during the mornings, and then doing more touristy things in the afternoons and evenings. There was definitely a good balance between the more social side, and the important preparatory side for our placements. I enjoyed the Mandarin lessons a lot - I'd had a bit of tuition before I came to China, but it was quite comforting to revise some of the stuff I'd already been taught and it definitely helped to build my confidence. The TEFL-related talks were from teachers who are currently working in China - they told us about their incredible experiences and the ups and downs of teaching here. During the week we had to prepare a short lesson and present it to our group. I am teaching at kindergarten and primary level here (ages 2 and a half to 11...but I mostly teach the older ones, thank goodness!) - so in my mock lesson, my 20-something year old colleagues had to play dumb! This was challenging but funny! I decided to cover numbers 1-10 (presuming some basic prior knowledge) and then I taught the playschool classic that is 'Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes'. I drew a man on the board and did big labels and taught the body parts, and then sang my song - and even got complimented on my singing voice...and I don't think it was sarcastic! It went very well and my peers provided some constructive criticism to help me improve. I'd done a TEFL course prior to arrival, but actually putting all the theory into practice was nerve-wracking at first. However, it went very well and I felt myself relaxing into it as the lesson progressed.
As far as the social/tourist side goes, we crammed a lot into one week. On the Monday we went to Shanghai Zoo. The zoo's current main attraction is the pandas - who've been brought over from Chongqing in time for Shanghai's 'Expo' in May (more of that in a later blog no doubt!) They were absolutely adorable - see pictures above!
We spent one afternoon taking part in a Chinese cookery class where were learnt how to make dumplings. It was a lot of fun! We all donned chefs hats and aprons, and were taught how to roll out and shape the dough casings to fit the meaty filling. There was a real art to it...and I didn't master it at all! However, we all got a certificate for our efforts...so if you want distinctly mediocre (and very oddly shaped) Chinese dumplings making, you know who to call.
One evening in orientation week, we went to an acrobatics show. A lot of people had told me how amazing Chinese acrobatics shows were...and I certainly wasn't disappointed! It consisted of about 20 different acts - and for each one I really couldn't believe what I was seeing. There were no safety lines or wires, everything was real and very very scary. We were on the front row...which was fantastic in some respects but was also petrifying at certain points! A few of the acts we saw were:
The Bicyle act - 10 girls start riding round the stage on standard sized bicycles. Then two of them get on the same one. Then three. Then four... you get the jist! When all 10 of them were on one bicycle, cycling round the stage, I thought of that bit in Wallace and Gromit's 'A Close Shave' where all of the sheep are on Wallace's motorbike and they have to fit through a tunnel...that's the only point of reference I have! YouTube it if you don't know what I mean!
The Hat Dancers - this involved lots of guys in Mexican type costumes, running about on stage and dancing, whilst constantly moving hats around. They climbed on top of each other, did human pyramids...and were just hilarious!
The Cage of Death (for want of a better phrase) - 4 guys, and 1 girl. On motorbikes. Going 360 degrees around a wire cage. All at the same time.
It was a fantastic evening, but as I say, there were some points where it was terrifying...UK Health and Safety would have had a field day.
We visited the very touristy area of 'Old Shanghai' in the middle of the week. Some of it I liked, some of it I didn't! We were badgered constantly by shopkeepers when we first arrived, asking us to buy souvenirs, watches, bags etc. However, I soon perfected my 'bu yao' (literally, 'don't want'), which gets rid of them pretty quickly! It's quite possibly the most useful phrase I've learnt so far. Apart from the persistent salespeople, the area was beautifully decorated for the Lantern Festival - loads of fairy lights, red lanterns and tigers. A special effort had clearly been made seeing as how this year is Expo year - so there was lots of blatant advertising for this much anticipated international event. The Expo mascot, a cheeky blue chap called 'Hai Bao', was also everywhere! We had a memorable meal in the Old Town...memorable for 3 reasons:
1) I made a major social blunder with my chopsticks! I had picked up a piece of meat which was a bit too big - Jessy, who was sitting next to me said she'd share it. So I stupidly decided to try my best to cut the meat using the chopsticks...resulting in one broken chopstick, but thankfully no casualties. Silly Westerner...!
2) We had the most amazing duck I have ever tasted in my life. It came to the table whole, with a really thick sauce and delicious stuffing inside it. Thankfully it was extremely tender, so no chopstick issues for me. It was a hit with everyone, particularly Marshall, one of the American staff of the organising company, who intended to devour every last bit - 'she's still got some good meat left on her...!' LOL.
3) We were photographed for most of the meal by a Chinese guy with an SLR. Someone also made his day by giving him a high five.
We had some great food in Shanghai during the first week. As well as eating in Old Town, we had a great meal at a vegetarian restaurant - it's amazing the amount of stuff they can do with tofu! We also had a meal at a Sichuan place where the food was so spicy that my eyes started to water as soon as we walked in the restaurant! After the meal, there was a traditional Chinese face-changing performance - which involved a guy in a mask that seemed to magically change colour in the blink of an eye (to represent different emotions/personalities). I took a video and I'm still not entirely sure how he did it.
We also visited the 'artistic' quarter of Shanghai in our first week here - named 'Tian Zi Fang'. It felt very European and very different to a lot of the Shanghai that we'd already seen - lots of little alleyways, small boutiques, and lots of (expensive) cafes. We saw many photography shops with some amazing prints - I definitely intend to go back to pick up some gifts! We also paid a vsit to the Shanghai Museum, which showcases some beautiful Chinese pottery, paintings, calligraphy, and traditional dress. It was really enjoyable - and provided a lot of photo opportunities (without flash, of course)!
The end of the week was marked with a farewell dinner and karaoke session in the hotel. This was great fun, and I was a good sport and sang 'Africa' and 'Uptown Girl' with a few others. Karaoke, or 'KTV' as they call it, is a huge thing here. A few of us went to some bars on one night of orientation, and witnessed a lot of KTV - they take it extremely seriously!
I'm going to end this blog entry now before it turns into a novel. I've done a lot more since the end of orientation week, but I think I'll save all the stuff about my first week of teaching and settling into my apartment for a later date!
Zai Jian for now!
xxx
