So today Becka and I started our little holiday. We caught a taxi to the airport ("Er, isn't the airport the other way?""I think he's taking us the scenic route. You know, the expensive one") and managed to locate our check in desk and check in satisfactorily. We had been a little apprehensive beforehand as we had not been issued with tickets and we handn't specified hold luggage like you do in the UK. Interestingly the normal flying experience in China seems more akin to what it must have been like in Britain before Ryanair arrived to the sound of a recorded trumpet fanfare: namely, no penny-pinching. You automatically get hold luggage, a free newspaper, and a free meal that really didn't taste that bad. It was actually very nice not to be forever worrying about the cost of everything! And you just show your passport to check in- no need to print bits of paper out.
We landed safely and I managed to avoid the splitting headache I sometimes get when we start to descend. I could feel it coming on but I started breathing really heavily and it went away. Phewf- cos when I say splitting it really is!
We then caught a bus from the airport to Hangzhou train station. I suddenly felt very drowsy on the bus and fell asleep which was a shame as the area around Hangzhou is not like Qingdao at all. I'll write a bit more on this comparison later.
Then we spent a few minutes trying to find an available taxi, which we did, and then several more minutes explaining to the driver where we wanted to go. He didn't know at first where 杭州大酒店, Hangzhou Da Jiudian, Hangzhou Big Hotel was but then he remembered and off we went. We got dropped off outside a humongous skyscraper with 杭州大酒店 scribbled all over it. Becka was a bit dubious that we were staying there as it looked very shiny but it matched the picture I had seen. And then we decided to go in.
In the UK there would be an entrance and in you would go. But this is China. We spent several minutes wandering around some sort of delivery area and trying various entrances that invariably led to shops whilst above us loomed the taunting sign 杭州大酒店. We asked a few people where the entrance was, they pointed to what appeared to be a jade shop/gallery. Then we spotted another door and finally we arrived at the Promised Land. We took the lift up to the 8th floor for reception and I sorted out checking in with my shiny new Chinese. It all went well until we got to the price. 2 nights here were costing us 1500元 which was 400元 more than I had anticipated. Like good British citizens Becka and I paid meekly and then complained the minute we were in the lift. However we went down later, after we had plucked up the courage, and I confronted the receptionist about it. Turns out the extra 400元 was a 押金- deposit. I was very happy that I understood this in Chinese :D
Our room is very snazzy and is on the 23rd floor so we have a magnificent view over Hangzhou and the famous West Lake- which is huge. It's only costing us the equivalent of 30quid a night each and it really is very nice and luxurious- either that or I've been in student accomadation too long...
With our room key we got a little advertisement for some exhibition of Chinese art on the 11th floor- and with your room key you got a free painting... so like good British citizens we went to see what we could get. It was just a room filled with Chinese paintings but they were all very beautiful. There were mountain landscapes, potraits and representations of bamboo and blossom. Becka and I ended up buying two small ones for 50元 each of mountain landscapes in the snow. I made the mistake of asking if there was one with horses on and the woman brought out a huge landscape scene of 8 hourses running in a field. I promptly bought it for 300元. This year abroad really is turning into a game of "I Went to China and I bought a..."
Then we headed off out to 武林广场 Wulin Square which we had hoped would be worth it but really wasn't. They are building a subway right now and appear to be building it mostly in 武林广场... However there was a fountain with nice statues- although the water was incredibly disgusting and full of rust. The main topic of conversation at this point was listing all the reasons why Qingdao was defo better than Hangzhou and we totally made the right decision to go there and not Hangzhou. We pretended to be convinced. Then we walked down 中山路, Zhongshan Lu, which was a lovely narrow street. We tried to find shoes but encountered the problems of the cheap ones being too small and the big ones being too expensive. We passed a couple of churches and I was a bit sniffy about them- Western ideas have buggered China up enough without adding all that into the mix. Then we found somewhere for dinner. I had several fail moments where I asked for what I thought was mango and turned out to be pumpkin and then spilt my cup of sprite over my tray, the cashier and myself. Becka's fail turned out to be also picking pumpkin and then getting intestine. Of some indeterminate animal. Normally we play a little bit of Animal or Vegetable with the food but we also played Animal, Vegetable or Mineral with Becka's fried egg. It had been cooked so long it appeared to have become some sort of plastic. I tried to take a bit to try but ended up shattering the yolk.
Then we headed back. We remembered that there was an English Mass on at the Church at 6:30, the time at that point was 6:15, and Becka got all nostalgic at the masses of her childhood. Then it started to rain so we detoured to the church and planted ourselves on a pew. We had a bit of musical chairs at the start as we weren't sure if we wanted to be where we could see the words of the songs or where we could see the priest. In the end we went for the priest. We had a bit of singing and then some random bit of the bible was read out- all in excruciating English. The congregation was mostly Chinese although there were a few Africans and about 2 whites. I tried not to burst out laughing. Then the priest read out a long piece of the bible very slowly, mostly because he couldn't read English, about Hanukabab or Hanukkahbab or someone. Then we sang the Lord's Prayer which I thought was a bit strange. Becka steadfastly refused to sing that and just recited it- I was too busy trying to remember the extra Protestant lines at the end. And lolling at the don't lead us into temptation bit. The priest said a bit about asking god to stop abortion which I though was a bit political. Then we all pootled up for our wafer. I'd never done this before- and apparently you're not supposed to do it if you haven't been confirmed oops burn in hell- so probably did something wrong. Crossed myself in the wrong direction or something. The wafer didn't taste very nice and we didn't get any wine. Apparently this is wrong also-maybe it's a law of China that you aren't allowed to give out wine.
And thus ended our spiritual journey for the day. We're tempted to go back tomorrow for a Chinese service.
Odd Moment of the Day: an advert for a post-natal clinic featured what looked like a very pert, mostly nude female on a bed of roses. It seemed a bit divorced from what I imagine a post-natal clinic to look like.
Little Emperor Moment of the Day: kid in the lift had a gigantic lollipop the size of a football. Becka wanted to ask where he'd got it but he left the lift before we could ask.
Qingdao and Hangzhou seem very different. Qingdao gives off the air of having been built before the population has arrived. Everything old has been pulled down and a skyscraper slapped on top. All the roads are very wide and there is no feeling of intimacy with the place. You very much feel like an ant scurrying around. Here in Hangzhou there are lots of little streets lined with trees and by brick buildings smaller than 3 storeys. There are more trees in general which is nice. There are little lanes and courtyards and dishevelled houses that nevertheless feel lived in. The great big empty towers of Qingdao are far less inviting. Here you feel like you are part of the hustle and bustle. Not to denigrate Qingdao, but the good intention to modernise everything and maximise living space has destroyed something worth keeping- even if it was old and worn and dilapidated. I'm not one of those Westerners who want China to be forever in a time warp- just pretty, utterly backwards communities perfect for our facebook pictures- but China shouldn't be so quick to gloss over its less shiny parts.
2010-10-02
2010-10-01
In Which We Nearly Plunge To Our Deaths
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...
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...
2010-09-29
Italy! Australia!
Just when you think everything is going according to plan...you remember you're in China :P After all the kerfuffle with Becka's passport, which she is getting back tomorrow, we thought that our trip to Suzhou was definitely going ahead. However, it turns out that Ruth, the girl who is buying the wedding dress and the raison d'etre for the trip, hasn't got her passport back. Even though she was supposed to get it days ago... and because of the holiday, tomorrow is her last chance...
So we are all holding our breath to see if she gets it back tomorrow!
As my flipflops and flat shoes have pretty much both died by now, and my other flat shoes insist on carving grooves into my feet, Becka and I had a little browze among the stalls by the street for some new ones. However we have big, Westerm, clodhopper feet and as Chinese women have dainty feet we had several Ugly Sister moments where no matter how hard we tried, the shoes were just not big enough... This means we will have to make a trip to a more upmarket shop, and more expensive, for something large enough for our flippers.
In other news I received a phone call today from Kit, a friend from Edinburgh Uni who studied Chinese last year. He has now graduated and got himself rather a nice little job working in a bilingual magazine in Nanjing. It was lovely to hear from him and there is a slight possibility we might see him next week. He was coming to Qingdao for National Week, which was annoying as I won't be here, but he might instead cancel that and come meet us in Suzhou or somewhere.
We got told a joke in Chinese today. Translated in English it goes thus:
Two ants are walking along. One sees a big pear in the way and goes "oh a big pear!". The second one is at first confused, and then realises before going "ohhh a big pear I see!".
It loses a bit in translation :P Basically a big pear in Chinese is 大梨, dali. "Oh a big pear" is 矣大梨!, yidali! 矣 being an exclamation of surprise. "Ohh a big pear I see" is 奥大梨呀!, aodaliya. 奥 and 呀 are exclamations implying you understand. The crux of the joke is that 矣大梨 and 奥大梨呀 sound like 意大利 and 澳大利亚, yidali and aodaliya, which mean Italy and Australia... so it sounds like the ants have gone Italy! Australia!
...geddit? On second thoughts, it doesn't really gain much in translation...
So we are all holding our breath to see if she gets it back tomorrow!
As my flipflops and flat shoes have pretty much both died by now, and my other flat shoes insist on carving grooves into my feet, Becka and I had a little browze among the stalls by the street for some new ones. However we have big, Westerm, clodhopper feet and as Chinese women have dainty feet we had several Ugly Sister moments where no matter how hard we tried, the shoes were just not big enough... This means we will have to make a trip to a more upmarket shop, and more expensive, for something large enough for our flippers.
In other news I received a phone call today from Kit, a friend from Edinburgh Uni who studied Chinese last year. He has now graduated and got himself rather a nice little job working in a bilingual magazine in Nanjing. It was lovely to hear from him and there is a slight possibility we might see him next week. He was coming to Qingdao for National Week, which was annoying as I won't be here, but he might instead cancel that and come meet us in Suzhou or somewhere.
We got told a joke in Chinese today. Translated in English it goes thus:
Two ants are walking along. One sees a big pear in the way and goes "oh a big pear!". The second one is at first confused, and then realises before going "ohhh a big pear I see!".
It loses a bit in translation :P Basically a big pear in Chinese is 大梨, dali. "Oh a big pear" is 矣大梨!, yidali! 矣 being an exclamation of surprise. "Ohh a big pear I see" is 奥大梨呀!, aodaliya. 奥 and 呀 are exclamations implying you understand. The crux of the joke is that 矣大梨 and 奥大梨呀 sound like 意大利 and 澳大利亚, yidali and aodaliya, which mean Italy and Australia... so it sounds like the ants have gone Italy! Australia!
...geddit? On second thoughts, it doesn't really gain much in translation...
2010-09-28
Legally Blonde
So today was a rather momentous one- I finally got my residence permit! I seem to have spent half my life here pursuing this elusive piece of paper...This now means I can stay, enter and leave China as much as I like until the 31st July next year. I went back to the Entry/Exit bureau after lunch and caught the bus there. I think the bus driver though I was a dumb blonde when I asked if the bus stopped at 逍遥路, the bus stop I wanted,- at least he gave me the kind of look one gives someone when they ask if the Pope is Catholic... which I thought was unfair as I was only checking! Intriguingly 逍遥 means "carefree". There is nothing carefree about the Bureau I can tell you now...
It makes me happy that I don't have to go back there for the forseeable future :D Although I have thought of the best way to explain Chinese bureacrocracy- the sketch from Little Britain with the secretary who spends ages furiously typing into her computer before informing the customers that the "computer says no".
One of our teachers was a bit sneaky today and threw a surprise test. She said it wasn't set for homework and then said we should be studying new vocab off our own iniative... I thought that this was terribly unfair- whoever heard of students studying! We have far more important things to do...
It makes me happy that I don't have to go back there for the forseeable future :D Although I have thought of the best way to explain Chinese bureacrocracy- the sketch from Little Britain with the secretary who spends ages furiously typing into her computer before informing the customers that the "computer says no".
One of our teachers was a bit sneaky today and threw a surprise test. She said it wasn't set for homework and then said we should be studying new vocab off our own iniative... I thought that this was terribly unfair- whoever heard of students studying! We have far more important things to do...
2010-09-27
Testing Times
Yesterday carried on the great tradition of Western Day. Becka and I, shortly joined by Daisy, spent the day in Starbucks drinking tea and studying. We managed to get quite a good deal done and then it was off to "Lisa's" for dinner. Chinese food and I are getting along fine these days- so long as I have a plentiful supply of these really tasty roll things- but my tastebuds started drooling with gratitude at the mere sight of a western menu. In the end I picked lamb chops and apple pie. The lamb chops were cooked perfectly and seasoned with rosemary and the fries were perfect and the salad was heaven- Chinese food is not big on vegetables. And the apple pie was one of the best I've ever had-although it was not as warm as it might have been...
I think I loved that meal a little too much...
We had a test in class today that I think I did pretty well in. I spelt the character for chopsticks wrong (I put 块 instead of 筷. They are pronounced the same, kuai, but unfortunately that doesn't matter. I'm hoping that 块子 doesn't mean anything rude lol...). Becka finally conceded defeat and changed classes to mine from the harder C class. She does not regret it. Although she wishes she hadn't done it just before we had a test but anyway!
Unfortunately today was a bit of a downer. A feature of life here is that there are not many English-speaking students here and as a consequence we are pushed very close together. You also eat out for every meal and it is natural when you eat out to all go out together. Thus there is no room to avoid someone if there is a clash of personalities. And there has been such a clash. Basically one friend ended up shouting at another which has led to a slightly awkward situation, especially as I completely agree with one side. The other has become very difficult to spend time with as they will happily talk constantly about themselves, themselves and then themselves. And this subject is only so interesting. So we have had a horrible situation in which, in order to save our sanity, we have had to hurt someone's feelings.
So tomorrow I am going to have to go into diplomatic mode and sort it out. It's annoying as this is not the kind of problem I had anticipated in China... And really not what I need right now. I just want to enjoy my time here and not worry about silly spats! *Sigh*
I think I loved that meal a little too much...
We had a test in class today that I think I did pretty well in. I spelt the character for chopsticks wrong (I put 块 instead of 筷. They are pronounced the same, kuai, but unfortunately that doesn't matter. I'm hoping that 块子 doesn't mean anything rude lol...). Becka finally conceded defeat and changed classes to mine from the harder C class. She does not regret it. Although she wishes she hadn't done it just before we had a test but anyway!
Unfortunately today was a bit of a downer. A feature of life here is that there are not many English-speaking students here and as a consequence we are pushed very close together. You also eat out for every meal and it is natural when you eat out to all go out together. Thus there is no room to avoid someone if there is a clash of personalities. And there has been such a clash. Basically one friend ended up shouting at another which has led to a slightly awkward situation, especially as I completely agree with one side. The other has become very difficult to spend time with as they will happily talk constantly about themselves, themselves and then themselves. And this subject is only so interesting. So we have had a horrible situation in which, in order to save our sanity, we have had to hurt someone's feelings.
So tomorrow I am going to have to go into diplomatic mode and sort it out. It's annoying as this is not the kind of problem I had anticipated in China... And really not what I need right now. I just want to enjoy my time here and not worry about silly spats! *Sigh*
2010-09-26
Sand, Sea and Swords
Sorry I did not post yesterday but I did not have any time between getting back from the Expedition and heading out into the night so here is the roundup of yesterday. Warning: it seems to have turned into a novel...
So after comprehensive planning ("er this bus looks ok") Becka and I agreed to rendez-vous with Daisy at the Ferry terminal in Old Town at 10am. We were heading out in search of 金沙滩 (Jin Sha Tan, Golden Sands Beach) which is located in 黄岛 (Huangdao- Yellow Island, I wonder if there is any contrast being made here with 青岛, Greeny-blue Island). 黄岛 and 青岛 face each other across the mouth of the 胶州湾 (Jiaozhou Wan, Jiaozhou Bay. As far as I can make out it means Rubber Prefecture Bay but I'm not sure...) so we had to get a ferry across.
Needless to say we were all hopelessly late, having seriously underestimated the average speed of a Chinese bus through a Chinese city, but luckily we arrived at roughly the same time as Daisy. The bus stop for the ferry terminal is in a fairly run down area, basically a building site. The road surface was filled with pot holes and there was a lot of construction detritus littered about. Becka and I got off with some trepidation that we had ended up somewhere dodgy but after a short walk we arrived at the terminal. We had to go through a security scanner which I suspect wasn't on-which was confirmed by a later event, of which more in a bit. We bought tickets at 10元 each (1 pound) and joined the very long queue. We are British, we saw the queue, our natural instincts urged us to join, so we joined. After a couple of minutes Daisy, who grew up in Malaysia so perhaps the instinct is not as ingrained, went and asked and we realised we were queueing for the wrong ferry. There were two ferries we could get and while there was a ferry to 黄岛 we actually wanted the ferry to 薛家岛 (Xuejia Dao, Xue (a surname) Family Island. Again not actually an island. Whether a piece of land is an island or not does not seem to bother the Chinese when they call somewhere an island). So we hurried there and ended up having to leg it down the gangway. Three foreigners moving at speed attracted even more stares but we made it on to the ferry.
The trip over was nice as we could see Qingdao from afar. Annoyingly, as today and the day before had been clear blue skies, it was cloudy and a bit smoggy but we could still see fairly well. It took rather a long time to make the crossing as for some reason we stopped a way away from the docks for a while. We were definitely arriving into an industrial port as there were several huge steel ships around as well as great big machines for repairing and loading. It was not exactly aesthetic but impressive in its own way. Eventually we landed and then we hurried to the buses. Thus followed a slightly odd period of time. I had had the bus No. 4 in my mind (or 8... I confess I couldn't remember and I'd lost a slip of paper with it on) but we ended up with the options of a 2 and a 19. And a random guy with a van saying he could take us there. We have a rule- if it's not a taxi we are not getting in it. And it was a van not a taxi! As it turned out we needed a No.19 bus. Which posed a problem because while there was a plethora, indeed a veritable smorgasbord, of No. 2 buses with waiting, willing drivers, there was one No. 19 sitting forlornly in the corner. And driverless. We stared at it for a bit. Eventually a man got in, and we got all excited, but then he reversed it into a space. And then he got out. Our excitement died down. Then he got back in and drove it forwards. Hopes rose. He got out again. Dashed.
There weren't any taxis available, at least proper ones, so we dithered for a bit. But then the wind must have changed direction or something because the driver decided he did fancy taking a trip so finally opened his bus up and we hopped on, comandeered the back seat, and headed off.
We drove through a bit of 黄岛, which I shall describe later, to the beach. Now before going I had repeatedly seen 金沙滩 called the "best beach in Asia". I will quibble with this award but the beach itself was indeed very nice. The sand was a lovely honey golden colour and very fine and soft. It stretched away on both directions, with only a few people (as mentioned before, today was a work day despite being a Saturday) and there was a collection of rocks and rock pools on one side. The sea was clear and warm, with perfectly sized waves. We all had a little paddle for a while before wandering over to check out the rocks. There were some Chinese there hunting for cockles or something. There were a few curious rectangular, man-made pools in the rocks but we did not understand the sign so I'm not really sure what they were for. There was a small hill here with some little buildings on. All in all, it was a lovely beach. If you faced towards the sea. Immediately behind the beach was a western style funfair which, like all western style funfairs I have seen here, was nearly completely empty. There were some stalls selling buckets and spades, shells and other tourist tat (er, of which more later...) and some restaurants. In the distance, though, were row after row of skeletons of skyscrapers. Finished skyscrapers can look alright but the skeletons, being all concrete, are very ugly. It was odd because a beach like this in the west would already have had a town on its shore with shops and houses but everything here was new and rather characterless.
At this point we went hunting for lunch. The use of the word "hunting" here is rather apt as lunch tended to still be alive. Each restaurant had a row of buckets with fish and god knows what else in. I swear I have seen aquariums that don't have exhibits as broad as this. Some buckets had the most foul looking wormy things in. They looked like what a rectum must look like. All rubbery, tubular sacs. *Shudder* When walking past I caught movement in the periphery of my eye and there was a huge splash and I leapt a mile and screamed, thinking something was coming at me. It turned out to only be a fish making a sudden movement. I looked a bit of a twat... One of the women pulled a sea slug out and offered it to me telling me how delicious it was. Instead we ordered fried noodles, fried rice and cucumber cooked in gravy or something. It was expensive too!
Afterwards we headed back to the beach, via the stalls. One had a variety of sizes of turtles and tortoises for sale. There were some really tiny ones and some huge ones. I think they were for pets, as opposed to eating because you never know..., as they were in "fun" glass bowls with plasticky adornoments. They looked utterly desperate and Becka wanted to buy them all and then release them in the sea. We carried on browsing and I didn't really want a shell covered model of a dog, or a shell bracelet, or a piece of coral. No wonder the reefs are dying- the Chinese have got it all on their mantelpieces! However we came across one that was selling something slightly different- big, heavy, metal swords. Having wanted to live in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for several years now I *had* to have one. He had some huge cleaver swords in lacquer scabbards, but I deemed those too heavy, and some samurai type ones (plain and strong) which I deemed too plain although they were nice and elegant. In the end I settled on a blade that was quite flexible, like the one in CTHD :P, in a reddy-brown scabbard with decorations. The sword has a red tassle on the end :D He was asking 220元 for it but it soon transpired that between the three of us we only had 130元... In the end we went to an atm and withdrew a bit more and settled on 170. Daisy reckoned I could have got lower but I reckon he must have paid around 130 for it in the first place, because he wouldn't take 130 when we offered and walked away, and I wasn't going to quibble over 10元- which is only a pound.
So now I am the owner of a sword that ,whilst I wouldn't call it authentic, is still a few grades above tat. Plus I got it for around 17 quid when in a shop here it would be 50 and in the UK, 100. I'm tempted to get another one and sell it on ebay :P. It is lying beside me as I type, just in case of attack...
I keep unsheathing it and giving it a swish :D
Becka bought a toy wooden crossbow and three bolts and promptly lost one bolt within 5 minutes. The other two she happily spent the afternoon firing. Although she was a little disappointed at the range. Daisy bought nothing, except an ice cream.
Then we went and sat on the beach, ignoring the offer of paying 20元 to use a plastic chair... It was really nice being sat on the lovely golden sand, sometimes chatting, sometimes just looking at the sea. We did get bothered for a photo (they like taking photos with foreigners- we're not quite so sure) but we declined. We got stared at a bit but then a man with only one leg came to swim so we stared at him for a while. He swam really quite far out while his friends stayed on the beach holding his other leg. One of them was a rather rotund man, wearing a tight white shirt (not a good choice) and, bizarrely, a string of pearls.
There is a little story about why 金沙滩 has such golden sand. Apparently there was a phoenix flying to a bird party in Heaven but as she passed the beach she fell so in love with it that she landed and never left. If it didn't have the backdrop that it now has, I could see why she did not want to leave.
After a while we had to leave as we wanted to get back so Becka could do Taekwondo. My toe has still not recovered after I hurt it last time but is getting better. We set off at 4:30, Taekwondo being at 7. As we left I noticed a man in flurorescent yellow trousers (which I've just realised are like a pair mum keeps trying to make me wear) who had been hanging around and Not Looking At Us in a way that meant he most definitely was, also happened to be leaving. I mentioned this to Daisy. We did a diversion to the toilets but when we came out he was waiting some way away. We went to the bus stop and got on a bus. This one was going to the ferry terminal at 黄岛 not 薛家岛 but we didn't mind the change. As we sat down we realised, he had got on too... Thus followed a hurried conference.
Suspense.
He got off several stops later and walked away. Anti-climax. Although he had been acting rather suspiciously...
It turned out that 黄岛 ferry terminal was a long way away from the beach so we ended up having a rather long trip through 黄岛. 黄岛 is interesting as it lacks the money and gloss of 青岛. Plans here have been drawn up, pored over and then put into action... but never completed. There were hundreds of bilboards showing the artists' impression of a building or an area so we could tell that the intention was for great buildings surrounded by wide avenues lined with gardens. Or the odd Bavarian country cottage. What you ended up with was big, wide, empty, dusty roads surrounded by sparse grass and shrubs with big, ugly concrete skyscrapers that were mostly unfinished. The finished ones gave the impression of being mostly empty too. It seems here that they have built a city for people who don't yet exist... As we drove further into town gradually we began to see people and shops and some sort of hustle and bustle. But it still gave off this slightly eery feeling that we pondered over on the bus exactly how to describe. It was definitely the feel of a small town in a big country. The kind that, if you grow up in it, you aim to get out of.
We not only got the old laowai stare we also got pointing :P
Eventually we arrived at the terminal. We went through the security terminal and my sword did not set off the machine- hence why I think they were only there for show. I was worried they wouldn't like the sword but as it was in a box no-one really noticed it. We ended up, again, having to leg it to the ferry. They had taken up the passenger gangway so we ran down to where the cars were still driving on and got on that way. We dashed over the bridge, expecting it to be drawn up and we'd have to leap, huffed and puffed up the stairs and sat down in our seats. Made it.
And then waited for 10 minutes while they finished loading. No rush after all :P
By this point it was 6pm and it was fairly obvious Taekwondo wasn't happening so after a bit of night-out planning we went and leant against the sides to watch as we crossed. It was twilight now so the sky was all stormy grey and brown from the smog. If you looked back all you could see were the huge cranes, machines and factories of the port, all black but lit up with work lights and the occasional sparks from some welder. It looked very post-apocalyptic. And we were on this rusting, metal ferry with the smell off the fumes and the slow clank-clank of the engine. It really was very otherworldly-like the human race had destroyed everything green and all that was left were just factories and machines...
Then we decided we were letting out imagination run away with us :P Still, it was quite eery.
We could see in the distance what looked like a bridge. I remember when I flew in that I saw a bridge marching off into the distance and hadn't been able to see where it ended because of the smog. It turns out that they are building a bridge across the bay. It will be 35.4km long. Amazingly, this will not be the longest bridge in the world as there is one near Shanghai at 35.6km and one in the US at 38km. (There are longer ones, but these do not go over only water). What mighty feats a race of glorified monkeys can achieve eh!
Eventually we landed and hopped on a bus home. As I have mentioned, the roads near the terminal are not good and going over one pothole caused the entire bus to collectively bounce up from their seats and back down again with a collective "ooo".
After a brief recharge of batteries we headed out to dinner at 麦凯乐, some department store. On the 7th floor they have a restaurant which has a dazzling array of dishes all helpfully replicated in plastic form which makes it so much easier to see what you want. We went for sweet and sour pork and rice (taste of home!). It was a bit of a disappointment though as I got slightly too many pieces of gristle in mine and the flavour was quite weak. However it was then off to L.P.G. This is definitely an expat watering hole. I had a gin and tonic along with Daisy and we both think that there was something wrong with the gin or the tonic as I felt ill afterwards and she is feeling a bit funny today too. As I did not feel so good we sat outside and were joined by a Canadian and a Chinese. The Canadian extolled the virtues of being free "to you know, walk down the street drinking a bottle of beer and noone cares". Daisy, I think, made an excellent point by asking how he knew they didn't care. They could quite easily be offended by some big laowai walking down the street drinking but just would never dare say so. The Chinese man had just broken up with his girlfriend and was very boring to listen to. When we had finally got rid of them (the Canadian was driving home and Daisy asked if this was wise and he slurred that wazh ok- he only lived jusht down the shtreet), an old man sat near us said that I looked like a runner. We went and sat with him and it turns out he was a member of the infamous Hash House Harriers. This a running group founded by expats in Malaysia 80 years ago and involves light running and heavy drinking. Chinese girls go to find a white husband. I always think white men must like it here. They get a far better league of girl, can treat her far worse but be treated by her far better than any white woman in the west. Anyway I digress, this old man, whose name we never got round to asking, was an Australian engineer. While I have been here I have been expecting to find the old Aussie propping up a bar telling stories and here he was. He'd worked all over Asia and was quite happy to trawl through his life story for us. I found it charming although I was worried the others would be like oh no we're stuck but they quite liked him too. After a while we said goodbye and, as I felt better, we headed off to Le Bang. Le Bang is some bar/club place. We found some of Daisy's Cambridge friends who were visiting from Beijing and had a little boogie. Eventually Becka felt hungry and I lost a contact lens so we called it a night and had a pleasant walk back- although I think Becka was a bit bored by my topic of conversation :P
The End. Congratulations if you made it this far!
So after comprehensive planning ("er this bus looks ok") Becka and I agreed to rendez-vous with Daisy at the Ferry terminal in Old Town at 10am. We were heading out in search of 金沙滩 (Jin Sha Tan, Golden Sands Beach) which is located in 黄岛 (Huangdao- Yellow Island, I wonder if there is any contrast being made here with 青岛, Greeny-blue Island). 黄岛 and 青岛 face each other across the mouth of the 胶州湾 (Jiaozhou Wan, Jiaozhou Bay. As far as I can make out it means Rubber Prefecture Bay but I'm not sure...) so we had to get a ferry across.
Needless to say we were all hopelessly late, having seriously underestimated the average speed of a Chinese bus through a Chinese city, but luckily we arrived at roughly the same time as Daisy. The bus stop for the ferry terminal is in a fairly run down area, basically a building site. The road surface was filled with pot holes and there was a lot of construction detritus littered about. Becka and I got off with some trepidation that we had ended up somewhere dodgy but after a short walk we arrived at the terminal. We had to go through a security scanner which I suspect wasn't on-which was confirmed by a later event, of which more in a bit. We bought tickets at 10元 each (1 pound) and joined the very long queue. We are British, we saw the queue, our natural instincts urged us to join, so we joined. After a couple of minutes Daisy, who grew up in Malaysia so perhaps the instinct is not as ingrained, went and asked and we realised we were queueing for the wrong ferry. There were two ferries we could get and while there was a ferry to 黄岛 we actually wanted the ferry to 薛家岛 (Xuejia Dao, Xue (a surname) Family Island. Again not actually an island. Whether a piece of land is an island or not does not seem to bother the Chinese when they call somewhere an island). So we hurried there and ended up having to leg it down the gangway. Three foreigners moving at speed attracted even more stares but we made it on to the ferry.
The trip over was nice as we could see Qingdao from afar. Annoyingly, as today and the day before had been clear blue skies, it was cloudy and a bit smoggy but we could still see fairly well. It took rather a long time to make the crossing as for some reason we stopped a way away from the docks for a while. We were definitely arriving into an industrial port as there were several huge steel ships around as well as great big machines for repairing and loading. It was not exactly aesthetic but impressive in its own way. Eventually we landed and then we hurried to the buses. Thus followed a slightly odd period of time. I had had the bus No. 4 in my mind (or 8... I confess I couldn't remember and I'd lost a slip of paper with it on) but we ended up with the options of a 2 and a 19. And a random guy with a van saying he could take us there. We have a rule- if it's not a taxi we are not getting in it. And it was a van not a taxi! As it turned out we needed a No.19 bus. Which posed a problem because while there was a plethora, indeed a veritable smorgasbord, of No. 2 buses with waiting, willing drivers, there was one No. 19 sitting forlornly in the corner. And driverless. We stared at it for a bit. Eventually a man got in, and we got all excited, but then he reversed it into a space. And then he got out. Our excitement died down. Then he got back in and drove it forwards. Hopes rose. He got out again. Dashed.
There weren't any taxis available, at least proper ones, so we dithered for a bit. But then the wind must have changed direction or something because the driver decided he did fancy taking a trip so finally opened his bus up and we hopped on, comandeered the back seat, and headed off.
We drove through a bit of 黄岛, which I shall describe later, to the beach. Now before going I had repeatedly seen 金沙滩 called the "best beach in Asia". I will quibble with this award but the beach itself was indeed very nice. The sand was a lovely honey golden colour and very fine and soft. It stretched away on both directions, with only a few people (as mentioned before, today was a work day despite being a Saturday) and there was a collection of rocks and rock pools on one side. The sea was clear and warm, with perfectly sized waves. We all had a little paddle for a while before wandering over to check out the rocks. There were some Chinese there hunting for cockles or something. There were a few curious rectangular, man-made pools in the rocks but we did not understand the sign so I'm not really sure what they were for. There was a small hill here with some little buildings on. All in all, it was a lovely beach. If you faced towards the sea. Immediately behind the beach was a western style funfair which, like all western style funfairs I have seen here, was nearly completely empty. There were some stalls selling buckets and spades, shells and other tourist tat (er, of which more later...) and some restaurants. In the distance, though, were row after row of skeletons of skyscrapers. Finished skyscrapers can look alright but the skeletons, being all concrete, are very ugly. It was odd because a beach like this in the west would already have had a town on its shore with shops and houses but everything here was new and rather characterless.
At this point we went hunting for lunch. The use of the word "hunting" here is rather apt as lunch tended to still be alive. Each restaurant had a row of buckets with fish and god knows what else in. I swear I have seen aquariums that don't have exhibits as broad as this. Some buckets had the most foul looking wormy things in. They looked like what a rectum must look like. All rubbery, tubular sacs. *Shudder* When walking past I caught movement in the periphery of my eye and there was a huge splash and I leapt a mile and screamed, thinking something was coming at me. It turned out to only be a fish making a sudden movement. I looked a bit of a twat... One of the women pulled a sea slug out and offered it to me telling me how delicious it was. Instead we ordered fried noodles, fried rice and cucumber cooked in gravy or something. It was expensive too!
Afterwards we headed back to the beach, via the stalls. One had a variety of sizes of turtles and tortoises for sale. There were some really tiny ones and some huge ones. I think they were for pets, as opposed to eating because you never know..., as they were in "fun" glass bowls with plasticky adornoments. They looked utterly desperate and Becka wanted to buy them all and then release them in the sea. We carried on browsing and I didn't really want a shell covered model of a dog, or a shell bracelet, or a piece of coral. No wonder the reefs are dying- the Chinese have got it all on their mantelpieces! However we came across one that was selling something slightly different- big, heavy, metal swords. Having wanted to live in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for several years now I *had* to have one. He had some huge cleaver swords in lacquer scabbards, but I deemed those too heavy, and some samurai type ones (plain and strong) which I deemed too plain although they were nice and elegant. In the end I settled on a blade that was quite flexible, like the one in CTHD :P, in a reddy-brown scabbard with decorations. The sword has a red tassle on the end :D He was asking 220元 for it but it soon transpired that between the three of us we only had 130元... In the end we went to an atm and withdrew a bit more and settled on 170. Daisy reckoned I could have got lower but I reckon he must have paid around 130 for it in the first place, because he wouldn't take 130 when we offered and walked away, and I wasn't going to quibble over 10元- which is only a pound.
So now I am the owner of a sword that ,whilst I wouldn't call it authentic, is still a few grades above tat. Plus I got it for around 17 quid when in a shop here it would be 50 and in the UK, 100. I'm tempted to get another one and sell it on ebay :P. It is lying beside me as I type, just in case of attack...
I keep unsheathing it and giving it a swish :D
Becka bought a toy wooden crossbow and three bolts and promptly lost one bolt within 5 minutes. The other two she happily spent the afternoon firing. Although she was a little disappointed at the range. Daisy bought nothing, except an ice cream.
Then we went and sat on the beach, ignoring the offer of paying 20元 to use a plastic chair... It was really nice being sat on the lovely golden sand, sometimes chatting, sometimes just looking at the sea. We did get bothered for a photo (they like taking photos with foreigners- we're not quite so sure) but we declined. We got stared at a bit but then a man with only one leg came to swim so we stared at him for a while. He swam really quite far out while his friends stayed on the beach holding his other leg. One of them was a rather rotund man, wearing a tight white shirt (not a good choice) and, bizarrely, a string of pearls.
There is a little story about why 金沙滩 has such golden sand. Apparently there was a phoenix flying to a bird party in Heaven but as she passed the beach she fell so in love with it that she landed and never left. If it didn't have the backdrop that it now has, I could see why she did not want to leave.
After a while we had to leave as we wanted to get back so Becka could do Taekwondo. My toe has still not recovered after I hurt it last time but is getting better. We set off at 4:30, Taekwondo being at 7. As we left I noticed a man in flurorescent yellow trousers (which I've just realised are like a pair mum keeps trying to make me wear) who had been hanging around and Not Looking At Us in a way that meant he most definitely was, also happened to be leaving. I mentioned this to Daisy. We did a diversion to the toilets but when we came out he was waiting some way away. We went to the bus stop and got on a bus. This one was going to the ferry terminal at 黄岛 not 薛家岛 but we didn't mind the change. As we sat down we realised, he had got on too... Thus followed a hurried conference.
Suspense.
He got off several stops later and walked away. Anti-climax. Although he had been acting rather suspiciously...
It turned out that 黄岛 ferry terminal was a long way away from the beach so we ended up having a rather long trip through 黄岛. 黄岛 is interesting as it lacks the money and gloss of 青岛. Plans here have been drawn up, pored over and then put into action... but never completed. There were hundreds of bilboards showing the artists' impression of a building or an area so we could tell that the intention was for great buildings surrounded by wide avenues lined with gardens. Or the odd Bavarian country cottage. What you ended up with was big, wide, empty, dusty roads surrounded by sparse grass and shrubs with big, ugly concrete skyscrapers that were mostly unfinished. The finished ones gave the impression of being mostly empty too. It seems here that they have built a city for people who don't yet exist... As we drove further into town gradually we began to see people and shops and some sort of hustle and bustle. But it still gave off this slightly eery feeling that we pondered over on the bus exactly how to describe. It was definitely the feel of a small town in a big country. The kind that, if you grow up in it, you aim to get out of.
We not only got the old laowai stare we also got pointing :P
Eventually we arrived at the terminal. We went through the security terminal and my sword did not set off the machine- hence why I think they were only there for show. I was worried they wouldn't like the sword but as it was in a box no-one really noticed it. We ended up, again, having to leg it to the ferry. They had taken up the passenger gangway so we ran down to where the cars were still driving on and got on that way. We dashed over the bridge, expecting it to be drawn up and we'd have to leap, huffed and puffed up the stairs and sat down in our seats. Made it.
And then waited for 10 minutes while they finished loading. No rush after all :P
By this point it was 6pm and it was fairly obvious Taekwondo wasn't happening so after a bit of night-out planning we went and leant against the sides to watch as we crossed. It was twilight now so the sky was all stormy grey and brown from the smog. If you looked back all you could see were the huge cranes, machines and factories of the port, all black but lit up with work lights and the occasional sparks from some welder. It looked very post-apocalyptic. And we were on this rusting, metal ferry with the smell off the fumes and the slow clank-clank of the engine. It really was very otherworldly-like the human race had destroyed everything green and all that was left were just factories and machines...
Then we decided we were letting out imagination run away with us :P Still, it was quite eery.
We could see in the distance what looked like a bridge. I remember when I flew in that I saw a bridge marching off into the distance and hadn't been able to see where it ended because of the smog. It turns out that they are building a bridge across the bay. It will be 35.4km long. Amazingly, this will not be the longest bridge in the world as there is one near Shanghai at 35.6km and one in the US at 38km. (There are longer ones, but these do not go over only water). What mighty feats a race of glorified monkeys can achieve eh!
Eventually we landed and hopped on a bus home. As I have mentioned, the roads near the terminal are not good and going over one pothole caused the entire bus to collectively bounce up from their seats and back down again with a collective "ooo".
After a brief recharge of batteries we headed out to dinner at 麦凯乐, some department store. On the 7th floor they have a restaurant which has a dazzling array of dishes all helpfully replicated in plastic form which makes it so much easier to see what you want. We went for sweet and sour pork and rice (taste of home!). It was a bit of a disappointment though as I got slightly too many pieces of gristle in mine and the flavour was quite weak. However it was then off to L.P.G. This is definitely an expat watering hole. I had a gin and tonic along with Daisy and we both think that there was something wrong with the gin or the tonic as I felt ill afterwards and she is feeling a bit funny today too. As I did not feel so good we sat outside and were joined by a Canadian and a Chinese. The Canadian extolled the virtues of being free "to you know, walk down the street drinking a bottle of beer and noone cares". Daisy, I think, made an excellent point by asking how he knew they didn't care. They could quite easily be offended by some big laowai walking down the street drinking but just would never dare say so. The Chinese man had just broken up with his girlfriend and was very boring to listen to. When we had finally got rid of them (the Canadian was driving home and Daisy asked if this was wise and he slurred that wazh ok- he only lived jusht down the shtreet), an old man sat near us said that I looked like a runner. We went and sat with him and it turns out he was a member of the infamous Hash House Harriers. This a running group founded by expats in Malaysia 80 years ago and involves light running and heavy drinking. Chinese girls go to find a white husband. I always think white men must like it here. They get a far better league of girl, can treat her far worse but be treated by her far better than any white woman in the west. Anyway I digress, this old man, whose name we never got round to asking, was an Australian engineer. While I have been here I have been expecting to find the old Aussie propping up a bar telling stories and here he was. He'd worked all over Asia and was quite happy to trawl through his life story for us. I found it charming although I was worried the others would be like oh no we're stuck but they quite liked him too. After a while we said goodbye and, as I felt better, we headed off to Le Bang. Le Bang is some bar/club place. We found some of Daisy's Cambridge friends who were visiting from Beijing and had a little boogie. Eventually Becka felt hungry and I lost a contact lens so we called it a night and had a pleasant walk back- although I think Becka was a bit bored by my topic of conversation :P
The End. Congratulations if you made it this far!
2010-09-24
达西先生啊！
Today pottered along quite comfortably in what is becoming suspiciously like a Routine. Up at 7 (well, 7:05...), stumble neanderthalithically (totally a real word) around room, get dressed, eat jam sandwiches, gather books and dictionaries and whatever random Korean biscuit is the snack for today, finally arrive at homo Sapiens stage, and then off to collect Becka and class. We had a rather nasty bombshell dropped on us today. We have a Big Test on Everything next Monday. I'm going to revise very hard this weekend and do very well, yessir I am!
We got told some Chinese gift giving customs today and amongst some fairly obvious ones (it's rude to gift knives apparently...oh really?!) were a few gems such as when you give money, you can only give certain amounts. Odd numbers are rude as are numbers with 4 in (they dislike the number 4 as it sounds like the word for death). 6 is a no-goer too, although I didn't get why. They like 8 though. 8 is a very good number in Chinese- they love having phone numbers with 8s in. This is rather infectious as I find myself sneakily pleased that my English number has about four 8s in. But then also worried that having four of them somehow negates it. Also you're not allowed to give umbrellas as the word for that sounds like the word for cut.
We tried out a new restaurant for lunch. It was 陕西* style food so I was overjoyed to spot on the biblically long menu 糖醋里脊, tanculiji, sweet and sour pork, just like they have at home :D It wasn't the best I've ever had, not very crispy, but was still a nice find. Bit by bit we are learning to read the menus and avoid what we don't like and pick out things that won't have any nasty surprises in them! Although yesterday's rice noodles in a broth still had the Now What Is This? game. We did find some quails eggs which were rather nice. However there was also what looked like shredded flip-flop soles (complete with grip marks). Daisy said it was tofu but it certainly tasted like shredded flip-flop so I'm not sure.
Spent this afternoon planning tomorrow's trip to Phoenix Island. Although, like Qingdao, it is not actually an island, rather a spit of land. Qingdao and Phoenix Island face each other across the mouth of a large bay so we are getting a boat across. Exciting! We are going to Golden Sands Beach which is supposed to be "the best beach in Asia".
Apparently it's really cold in Britain :P
Chinese of the day: the opening line of Pride and Prejudice:
有钱的单身汉必定想娶亲，这条真理无人不晓。
Literally: a single man having money must want a wife, this truth nobody does not know.
达西先生 Daxi Xiansheng, Mr Darcy
贝内特伊丽莎白 Beineite Yilishabai, Elizabeth Bennet
*陕西 is written in pinyin (romanisation system used here) as shanxi and is a province in the centre of China. Ordinarily in English it is written as Shaanxi to distinguish it from 山西, Shanxi "West of the Mountains". 山西 being to the west of the mountains that my province, 山东, is to the east of.
We got told some Chinese gift giving customs today and amongst some fairly obvious ones (it's rude to gift knives apparently...oh really?!) were a few gems such as when you give money, you can only give certain amounts. Odd numbers are rude as are numbers with 4 in (they dislike the number 4 as it sounds like the word for death). 6 is a no-goer too, although I didn't get why. They like 8 though. 8 is a very good number in Chinese- they love having phone numbers with 8s in. This is rather infectious as I find myself sneakily pleased that my English number has about four 8s in. But then also worried that having four of them somehow negates it. Also you're not allowed to give umbrellas as the word for that sounds like the word for cut.
We tried out a new restaurant for lunch. It was 陕西* style food so I was overjoyed to spot on the biblically long menu 糖醋里脊, tanculiji, sweet and sour pork, just like they have at home :D It wasn't the best I've ever had, not very crispy, but was still a nice find. Bit by bit we are learning to read the menus and avoid what we don't like and pick out things that won't have any nasty surprises in them! Although yesterday's rice noodles in a broth still had the Now What Is This? game. We did find some quails eggs which were rather nice. However there was also what looked like shredded flip-flop soles (complete with grip marks). Daisy said it was tofu but it certainly tasted like shredded flip-flop so I'm not sure.
Spent this afternoon planning tomorrow's trip to Phoenix Island. Although, like Qingdao, it is not actually an island, rather a spit of land. Qingdao and Phoenix Island face each other across the mouth of a large bay so we are getting a boat across. Exciting! We are going to Golden Sands Beach which is supposed to be "the best beach in Asia".
Apparently it's really cold in Britain :P
Chinese of the day: the opening line of Pride and Prejudice:
有钱的单身汉必定想娶亲，这条真理无人不晓。
Literally: a single man having money must want a wife, this truth nobody does not know.
达西先生 Daxi Xiansheng, Mr Darcy
贝内特伊丽莎白 Beineite Yilishabai, Elizabeth Bennet
*陕西 is written in pinyin (romanisation system used here) as shanxi and is a province in the centre of China. Ordinarily in English it is written as Shaanxi to distinguish it from 山西, Shanxi "West of the Mountains". 山西 being to the west of the mountains that my province, 山东, is to the east of.
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