So here I am, a week and a half in, and I felt it was time to use this website that I rushed to finish before I left. It’s been an eventful time of limited sightseeing, boozing, catching up, wandering and generally just taking in some Chinese culture.

The flight over was pretty uneventful, apart from a slight moment of confusion when the British couple next to me asked me to join them for a “pit stop”. I hesitated and hoped they just meant go to the toilet. The lady went in first, and then the man said to me “you’re next” and pushed me infront of him in the queue. Luckily it transpired that they were both just a bit socially inept, and actually just wanted to make sure that I didn’t wake them by getting up (I had the window seat).

I tackled the Beijing subway system, using my bag as a weapon (there is no tube etiquette here like us polite Londoners), and found Jon with 2 hours to spare. So I took pictures of people fishing through ice. Then we had an emotional reunion over some Chinese street food (and a swig of whiskey courtesy of Alan!) and got the bus back to the campus he lives and teaches on in Changping.

Changping is a small town, generally described as “shit” by all the British and American teachers I met who live there (who are a real sound bunch, part of the reason I can see why Jon is getting on so well here – particularly those who have taken the effort to learn Chinese, a real achievement that has left my very jealous). My highlight of Changping was a night out in “the village” (I can’t remember it’s name) , where we had a traditional Chinese meal at “Chairbacks” (the only restaurant in the village with backs to it’s chairs) for a bargain ￥12 （1 pound 20ish) including a beer. And then headed to the local pub – a freezing cold shack with a small heater in the corner, and beers for 25p. It was a real insight into China in the sticks!

New years was spent in Beijing. I managed to come to Beijing in the coldest winter for 15 or 50 years (I can’t remember what the Spanish guy, Fernando, told me but I can confirm it is fucking freezing).  It wasn’t snowing for new years eve itself, which started off with a traditional Chinese Mexican meal (I’ve also had traditional Chinese Korean, Indian, McDonalds and KFC – which the Chinese love), before headin to “dirty street”, a small row of cheap bars in the Sanlitun district of Beijing.

There seemed to be a good mix of locals and foreigners (or Laowai as we’re known as to the Chinese) there. Anyway, it turned into a rather heavy night, I lost Jon earlyish as he was practicing his Chinese with the locals, so carried on with his fellow teachers to another bar, where an Aussie girl told me I’d be her perfect partner for a foursome she was going to be having. Naturally I turned the offer down graciously.

After a couple more boozy nights (including one where we hung out with some locals which was cool), the guys went back to Changping, and I was on my lonesome. This is where I decided I should start doing some touristy things! I am going back to Beijing in a week and a half, so I have plenty more to do. This coincided with by far the coldest day yet. A particular moment that strikes me was when I was wondering around the Olympic complex (The Bird’s Nest Stadium is very impressive indeed), a vast wide open area where those Siberian winds really pick up, and a poor little Chinese girl was blown over and dragged across the snow. I wanted to take a picture as it looked hilarious, but I felt that would have been cruel, so I stuck to laughing.

Which leads me onto the Chinese. What a friendly, pleasant and independant bunch of people they are. Whenever I look a little lost there is always someone there to help, and the rest of the time they keep themselves to themselves. I feel incredibly ignorant for not knowing the language, although I have tried to rectify this with the basics since I left Jon. Most of the time communication is through hand gestures and pointing. For instance, I needed some lip balm for my very dry lips, and the lady in the shop led me to their finest Max Factor section. I was also involved in a minor car crash, where a woman (just stating the facts, not insinuating anything) pulled out at completely the wrong time, my taxi driver slammed on the breaks and skidded on the snow straight into her, and she was jammed in between us and a bus. I was expecting all hell to break out, but instead the taxi driver (who 2 minutes previously was chuckling to himself about another crash we had passed) had a polite conversation with her, a laugh with me and then gave me directions to walk back to my hostel. It summed up the Chinese for me. Crossing the road is near impossible though, the best trick I’ve found is to follow a local and stick to them, and don’t leave them. That said, the snow made crossing the road a lot easier!

They also love their bikes! Bikes of all sorts.

They do have a particularly bad taste in music though. Yesterday I had my first rendition of Crazy Frog sung to me(!) by a local. And as I type, a lady on the remix tape that’s on says “give me some of the good shit, I don’t know, something like this…” and proceeds to play a horrendous remix of Puff Daddy/Police. And previously there was some cheese rock track with the lyrics “my darling you were wonderful tonight” repeated constantly to a porno guitar solo.

I have been in Shanghai for 2 days now, after an 11 hour train journey (although the station and plane made it seem more like a flight I was going on!). It is so much warmer here, about 0 degrees I believe. Yesterday I wandered around the city all day, and despite it’s height and busyness (is that a word?) it is such a chilled out city. I went to Fuxing Park, where I took up my favourite past-time of people watching, and learnt my new favourite past-time of people photographing. There were people doing Tai Chi, flying kites, dancing and just generally sitting around loving life. I was feeling very happy with myself for wandering the streets and finding various land marks without a map, until I got remarkably lost after taking a detour through some interesting back street areas. An hour and a half later I found a tube station, and found myself somewhere in the far South of the city. It’s the best way to take in another culture though!

And finally, to complete this essay, last night I  realised what a small world it is. I joined in a mammoth pool session (those Chinese are damn good pool players) with some guys who are teachers out here, in the hostel. Coincidentally, one of them was from Sussex (Horsham), and had played football in Eastbourne (and had an ex girlfriend from there). Then we were chatting more, and it turned out he went to school with my old housemate, Alex. And that meant that he also went to school with my girlfriend, Catherine. Small world indeed!

Anyhow, now I’m off to climb some very tall buildings.

Posted on Thursday January 7th 2010 at 6:25 am