I did not post yesterday as it was a fairly mundane day. Although Becka and I made a trip to Purgatory to reclaim her passport. We had foolishly decided to nip and get it and then onto a new students' gathering which was on from 1:30 until 4pm. We arrived at the Bureau just before it opened, at 1:30, and were pretty much first in line. Becka confidently handed her receipt over to retrieve her passport. It was whisked away.
Time passed.
Becka asked what was going on- the woman who had taken it looked a little non-plussed and we spent a few panicky second reminding her that we'd given her the receipt. Then she remembered and told us to wait a bit.
Time passed.
Then Becka asked again. I wasn't sure exactly about the reason but they hadn't yet finished processing it or something.
Time passed. I went across the road (fun game of Dodge-the-Truck on the way) to get some cookies that I had bought last time and had tasted really nice. However they weren't there any longer so I bought some Cheese and Rose-petal ones instead. Which weren't quite as nice...
Then back
Time passed.
Finally someone emerged from the back with a stack of passports and Becka was able to grab hers. By this time it was 3pm and we reckoned there was no point going to the party so off we headed home. *Sigh*
We had Taekwondo in the evening. My toe had finally recovered enough for me to rejoin and I was pleasantly surprised to not be the worst in the class. I even started to shout HAI with everyone else when the teacher told us to 准备 zhun bei- PREPARE (everything is shouted..). We were doing a hop forward and then high kick and mine weren't too bad. Although I still maintained my baby giraffe impression during the warm-up... At the end the instructor held a sponge kicking target and we each had to individually go up and kick it. I knew beforehand that I was going to end up kicking him in the hand... and so I did... He took it in good grace but when he was demonstrating at me I felt like the kicks were slightly closer to my face than they had been to others...
Anyway this morning my legs felt like I'd spent all night hammering them with a brick but after a morning spent revising, Becka, Nick and I headed off to 中山公园, Zhongshan Gongyuan, Zhongshan Public Park. Zhongshan means Middle Mountain and as the park is on a mountain I thought that it was named after that. It turns out it is named after Sun Yat-sen, who is called 孫中山 in China. Sun Yat-sen is unusual in that he is revered in both Taiwan and the PRC despite the fact that in general the PRC despises the Guomindang, of which Sun Yat-sen was the first leader and which currently rules Taiwan.
The Park was very nice and full of little points of interest. There was a lake, which had a sign saying "no fishing" and a man fishing about 5m away. There was also a flower garden which had a character in its name that wasn't in my dictionary and even the Chinese we asked didn't know what it was. There were some small stone statues arranged like a court with an Emperor. Becka posed in the middle for me but then all the surrounding Chinese began to take pictures of her as well so we moved on...
There was also a cable car... We bought our tickets and queued up eagerly. Here is demonstrated the difference between the UK and here. In the UK the ride would stop, you'd get in, a bar is locked down in front of you, and the ride moves on. Safety, safety, safety. Here the ride doesn't stop and you stand in front of it in a red square before it comes up behind you and you sit down as fast as possible... Then you are whisked away and it is up to you to pull a (rusty) bar down in front of you... Nick, Becka and I got in one together- which soon became a problem as three heavy laowais suddenly appeared to us to be too much weight for the rusting apparatus... Our chair kept creaking. Ominously. Too ominously as we were above tree-height. However somehow we made it to the end without plunging to our deaths- we had to leap off pretty sharpish before the chair carried on... However, when I had stopped fearing for my life, it was a very enjoyable experience. Qingdao was quite smoggy today so we could not see much. After a brief stop admiring the view/smog from the top we caught the cable down the other side. This time Becka went by herself and there was no creaking. At the bottom we bizarrely found a wine cellar left over from the German times. We squeezed down the tiny stairs and through the rather short corridor to take a look. There were old, almost destroyed from the rot, pictures of Qingdao on the walls and random bottles of alcohol on shelves. There was even some whisky from the House of Lords. Bizarrely there was also a mural of naked men and women picking grapes.
After that we walked down the hill past what looked like a compound of temples. We got all excited at seeing some old Chinese-style temples but the piles of building materials made us think that this was not what it seemed. I suspect everything was a newbuild, possibly for tourism I don't know. In any case it wasn't finished so we left.
We were waiting for the bus back and the 321 came up. The 321 is Becka and I's normal route as it seems to go everywhere we want. However this one was full. More than full. And there were more at our stop trying to cram on so we were treated to the sight of the bus's doors repeatedly closing on two men who could not quite get that extra inch of room. Eventually someone must have breathed in a lot inside the bus as they were able to squeeze forward and let the doors close- although one of them's coat was trapped in between...
We waited for the next bus :P
My blog might be quite sporadic over the next few days as it is National Week next week. This is when we all celebrate the People's Republic and get all teary-eyed over Mao. Plus we get a week off so Becka and I are off on holiday. We are starting off in Hangzhou which is a city not far from Shanghai. it is very famous as a beauty spot so we expect it will be quite busy! It is famous for its West Lake. Then we are going to Suzhou. Ruth, who is a fellow student of ours from Edinburgh currently up north in Dalian, is going to look for a wedding dress so we are going along to help. Suzhou had a street called Tiger Hill which is famous for dresses etc. And then to round it off we are going to Shanghai to sample the bright lights. Quite a trek but we are looking forward to it immensly!
Earlier today I was checking up on the Trans-Siberian Express and am now rather excited about returning to the UK that way! Plus it would mean I could get my sword back more easily... I could then also take a look at Mongolia, Russia and various Eastern European countries on the way back which would satisfy my travelling bug! Much more exciting than flying...
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