Shanghai and home

This will have to be a quick post.
I'm writing this during the break of my weekly three hour English class or job number two.
I don't necessarily think teaching English is my strong point, but it is a good opportunity to speak to another bunch of Chinese students and understand their thoughts about China, their expectations of life in the UK and their ambitions for the future, etc.
More than that, these guys are going to come and study in Newcastle, so I think there's loads of useful advice and preparation I can give them.
I'm also keen to give ideas back to former colleagues at Newcastle Council and the two universities about how they can improve the experience for their Chinese students.

In the wider sense, Chinese students to the UK is such a major business with so many policy implications for both countries that I find it extremely interesting. If on the off chance I was ever to do futher study in the future, this and other ideas about migration would definitely be my focus. With birth rates falling across the west, dealing with young people moving to our cities is something we're going to have to get increasingly used to - and people have problems with it today...

Anyway, enough of that.
I recently read an article in one of the ex-pat magazines here which gave gentle amusing criticism to writers of blogs in China. I was proud to see that I'd achieved all of their cliches. However, this blog is written for friends and family back home and to help me remember when we eventually leave China. So I make no apologies.

Had a great time in Shanghai last weekend. Went expecting to think less of the place now we live in Beijing. I enjoyed our visit in 2006 but thought it felt very much like a world city without much feeling of being in China. However, many, many would also say that of Beijing. Anyway, to cut a long story short we had a great time. Ate at a cracking French (contemporary European...) restaurant with brilliant views of the bund on Friday night. Stayed at a lovely hotel. Had a great time wandering round the city in the sunshine on Saturday visiting parks, shops and the French Concession and then met up with Michael and Shelley (Suzhuo isn't far away) for a meal on Saturday night.
On Sunday Caroline had to work - which in reality was the reason for the trip.
As you may have seen if you watched the F1, it rained - damn heavily.
A point on that, you know you're in a big city (20M) when they can host an event like a Grand Prix without you really noticing an increase in visitors.
Me and Michael met up and he gave me pearls of wisdom about marriage...

It was an enjoyable and quite relaxing weekend, which we both need given our heavy work schedules at the moment. My 3 jobs don't take up as much time as Caroline's ridiculous 2, but more importantly we're both enjoying it and trying to carve out interesting experience and opportunities for the future.

So one more busy day with a load of tasks today and then tomorrow morning we've got a flight home to catch.
Can't wait to see friends and family.
Speak to you all soon in person.
Will no doubt get the chance to update this with some recent photographs in the next 2 weeks too.

Return to Yangshuo

Back in August 2006, Kerry, Ben, Mark and I came to China for Mike and Shelley's wedding. When we were planning our post-wedding two-week route around China we asked Michael where we could not possibly miss and he said a little place in Southern China called Yangshuo.

So after the wedding in Suzhou and trips to the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an and the Great Wall and Beijing, we went for about three days rest and relaxation in Guangxi Province.

There's a good chance that in the intervening period I have bored you with photographs or regaled you with tales about how wonderful this place is. (Assuming we know each other of course). The surrounding landscape of the town is just so beautiful that it's easy to get carried away.

Happily, this weekend just gone, I was able to stop talking about it and go back there. A group of 7 friends from Caroline and my work planned a trip for a long weekend and to celebrate Steven's birthday.

On Friday Carol and Erik, Steven and Sunnia and me and Caroline assembled at Beijing airport for a 09:25 flight. There were brief hold ups as Caroline realised she didn't have one of her many official passports, specifically the one with the visa allowing her entry into China. Happily we weren't leaving the country, so it didn't prove to be a problem.

We arrived at the small airport at Guilin. It's a nice enough town, from the two brief trips I've taken through it and very popular with Chinese tourist. But for a break from Beijing we wanted to get away from cities of any size and so after stopping to collect another friend, Daphne, who had travelled by train, we went through the streets, only stopping for fruits and beers. Arriving at the banks of the river Li with a small woman in tow (she only wanted us to take a look at her boat!) we then began the process of bargaining for the 2-3 hour trip to Yangshuo. We agreed on a price about 65% of her original suggestion, but had the sneaky feeling we could have got more discount.

I have a rather short and unexciting video of this boat trip, or rather the one we took in 2006. However, for reasons best known to others, access to Youtube remains blocked here, so you are saved from that link. It actually does little to show what an enjoyable ride it is, so you're not missing out on too much. The reason I appreciate the boat ride is because it allows you to break up the travel day, first by plane, then bus to Guilin, then boat. It also provides a great first glimpse of the limestone karsts.

After the boat ride, stopping along the way to check out the view on the back of the 20 yuan note, we arrived and walked through the town. We found a couple of taxis and got underway to the Outside Inn where we were staying.
The place was fantastic as only the photographs can give you any impression.
And even better there was an in-house sausage dog called Lily who I had the opportunity to play with.

After unpacking, we headed back into Yangshuo for dinner and a few drinks. We enjoyed some great beer fish (which may or may not be a local speciality). But not before we had ordered and then had to inspect the live fish before it's head was bounced on the curb. After dinner and a wander along the main shopping street - West Street - we headed up to the rooftop bar above Monkey Jane's guesthouse. This was a place we had visited in 2006 and I was pretty happy to see that Jane still recognised me. Then after the first visit to the bathroom, we discovered why my face had been recognisable:
This poster was on the inside of the bathroom door and had been for the last two years. A smaller version was stuck on the bar too!

It was Steven's birthday and so he cut loose and enjoyed himself in a liquid fashion. I could give more details, but it would seem a little unkind - so I'll keep that particular ammunition for the future, just in case it becomes necessary...

After a cracking night of beer pong, cocktails and general merriment, we managed to find a 7 seat tuktuk to take us back to the guesthouse. Via some chuan'r, from a person I have now named a chuarista. Funny isn't it...

On the Saturday, following a delicious breakfast we headed off with Lily for a walk around the karsts. After an unfortunate, but ultimately unremarkable, interaction with an angry farmer and his rabid-looking dogs, we ended up finding a beautiful plateau. We lounged around in the warm weather and then wandered back to the guesthouse. We made the most of the outdoor seats and hammocks and chatted to the managers of the guesthouse and their kids. We ate lunch and dinner in the restaurant joined to the guesthouse which was delicious. We then headed back into Yangshuo for some gift shopping and a few drinks at Monkey Jane's.

On Sunday we rented mountain bikes and headed off for a cycle round the breathtaking scenery, ultimately aiming for Dragon Bridge. It was a fantastic day, probably the most enjoyable, even though it started off with a warm shower which made some of the tracks a bit muddy. We ate lunch on a floating bamboo raft next to an attractive little village. Four or five hours later we got back to the guesthouse to meet Carol and Erik, who hadn't made it out on the bikes as they had a few tasks to complete.
Not wanting to mess with an enjoyable and established routine, we headed back into town for dinner and drinks.

We woke up on Monday a bit disappointed to see our last day, but decided to get up and make the most of the best weather of the weekend. We spent a few hours lounging around in the sun relaxing, before we had to take a van back to the airport. Daphne stayed at the guesthouse, as she was taking the train on to Hong Kong on a visa mission. We were all pretty jealous of her being able to keep on travelling and could easily have stayed in Yangshuo for another week. We definitely plan to go back again soon, at least for another long weekend.

Caroline will be posting some photographs over the next few days. Anyone that thinks this place looks unmissable, you'll easily be able to twist our arms for another visit if you fancy heading over to China.

A quick post on music

Music is difficult to avoid here.
Whether it's blasting out of a hairdressers, a car window, a mobile phones additional speakers, some speakers spread all over campus, the yoga room of the gym, you get the idea.

However, it seems a little different.
I remember when we visited Beijing in 2006 after Michael and Shelley's wedding.
We'd spent the day at the Great Wall and arrived back in Beijing around 23:00.
Now back then we didn't know the city and if you don't, it can be difficult to find food outside the regimented hours that Chinese people eat.
(Now of course I know where a hundred 24 hour eateries are).
Anyway, one of the things we saw as we sheepishly trudged into a McDo's was a gang of punks. Resplendent in leathers, chains, piercings and sporting the kind of day-glo mohawks I vaguely remember from the 80s.
So they were clearly an identifiable sub-culture, partially defined by the music they listen to.

And that's the usual way at home.
Young or old, rich or poor, you pick your friends and clothes partially according to the music you and they like. Some of my best memories of school are of gigs with friends at Newcastle University, buying beers for a guy with a beard 'cause I had fake ID and he had none.
Your demographic is linked to the music you listen to.

But here that link is not so clear cut. Apart from the punks and a few students who told me they like Britpop there's not an easily discernable link between music, fashion and lifestyle. (This isn't strictly true, there are plenty of places I could go to find people that disprove this theory, but stick with it and I'll get to the point).

So because this link is not as all pervasive as it is elsewhere, many people have no idea they 'shouldn't' be listening to certain music 'cause they're too old, poor, straight, whatever.

Consequently, I frequently find myself in taxis listening to happy hardcore, gay disco, trance, etc. With a 50-year old taxi driver. The surprise comes when you find that it's not the radio, but his cd or mp3 player and he has downloaded it (no-one buys music - see Google have just announced free, legal music downloads - but only in China).

On family, long weekends and a criticism

Those of you that have read my previous post will have noticed a general theme.
I love life here in Beijing and am very positive about most things.
Partially it's because I am, by nature an optimist.
I try and minimise the problems and focus on the good things.

It is also however because life here genunely is great.
Interesting and challenging, with a healthy dose of fantastic food and good friends thrown in. And a low cost of living.
But to avoid accusations of smuggery I thought I'd throw you all in credit crunch Britain and elsewhere a fact to focus on. (Point of note, although the news may try and tell you otherwise, away from the export centres, the 'global' financial crisis is not hitting hard here in China - not as I can see with my limited vision anyway).

So here it is, the thing the irritates me about China the most and makes me swear every other day:
The driving is crap.
It's not dangerous particularly.
I'm certainly happy riding my bike all over the city and do so about 3 days a week, when I don't have to scoot between 2 jobs by taxi anyway.
But it is infuriating.
The main sentiment is "might is right".
And this makes for soem irritating incidences, when people see you but happily pull in front of you, because your person/bike/car can do their taxi/swv/bus no harm.
It might be technically true but it simply means that if they are driving a bigger car, all rules including etiquette (non-existent in this context) go out of the window.
Also drivers tend to rush unecessarily, they'll speed up to a red light, to wait in traffic, even if it means threatening you with impact.
And the right turn is sacrosanct and will happen at all times, no matter red light, pedestrian, or anything else.
Oh and people converse by way of their horn, but curiously I seem to be getting used to that - except when it's directed at me.
So because my dad (and his dad before him) is such a purist when it comes to driving, he's passed on a sensitivity to me that means all this stupidity on the roads quite gets my goat.

Anyway, enough of that - quite cathartic in it's own way, I've been crafting that post in my head for weeks.

This weekend is Qingming also known as Tomb Sweeping Day. So it's a time for Chinese folks to remember their ancestors and more recently departed and also to get out and enjoy the Spring. A good aspect of this is that we have a 3-day weekend, which we have decided to turn into a 4 day weekend and head south to Guilin and Yangshuo to catch some sun and relaxation before Beijing warms up.
It's beautiful down there and I have photos on Flickr to prove it.
You can expect a lot more when we get back.

A recent class saw a few of my students talking about the importance of family and their plans to return home when older to look after ageing parents.
This made me think about different attitudes to old people in different countries.
And made me happy to look forward to my Grandmother's 90th birthday when I'll be back in the UK at the end of April to see friends and family.