Half way through the China leg of our journey now and it feels like we've crossed the globe. We've hardly stopped moving, rarely had anything but a bulging stomach, and been pampered in every city we’ve visited. I didn't have much doubt that the trip would run smoothly from the moment that we said the tough goodbyes at Tullamarine, walked through the doors of no return and straight into Qantas Club for free booze and nibblies with all round good guy Sam Armstrong.
Hong Kong was brilliant. So busy. So tasty. Sooooo many fake things - which could now be the way in which we judge a city, the more fake the better, obviously. Our trip up towards my old stomping ground of Zhejiang Province was just as good but completely different. We passed through industrial cities such as Shenzhen, spectacular mountains like Lushan, funky small villages of 2 million people like Jingdazhen, and we even saw one of the world’s largest rivers, the Yangzi.
This brings me to our time in Zhejiang, which has been the highlight for me. Quzhou was great. We divided most of our time there between eating hot pots, getting massaged on almost every part of our body and driving on the wrong side of the road into on-coming traffic. Morto mentioned in his last article that we had heard legendary tales of the fastest taxi driver in all of Quzhou, who went only by the name of #0437. We were desperate to get the chance to ride with him and amazingly, one morning while in need of a taxi we saw #0437 screeching around the corner on two wheels and managed to get him to pull the handbrake and let us in. We fulfilled our dream and sat in with the master.
After Quzhou we made our way to the site of the famous West Lake in Hangzhou, or as the Chinese refer to it,‘heaven’. I'd be surprised if heaven consisted of thousands of Chinese wearing the same baseball cap, piling out of coaches and following someone with a flag and a megaphone, but the lake is actually quite spectacular. Given that there are Chinese restaurants scattered around the lake and that you can hire bicycles for a small fee, I would not be at all displeased if I died and had to live in Hangzhou.
A highlight of our time in Hangzhou was playing dice based drinking games in a pub next to the lake with a group of my old students. When I come home, we will all be busting out our old sets of Yahzee and taking them to the pub with us. I think it’s worth it.
We're currently in Ningbo feeling a little marooned. We had planned to be on an island called Putoshan today but our attempts to get there yesterday did not bring us there. We have found ourselves attempting to travel through one of China's busiest holiday periods which began yesterday, and yesterday’s bus to the ferry terminal came to a shuddering one hour halt in some really sticky traffic jam on the way. After waiting the first hour out, bailing on the Putoshan trip went from being "not the worst idea ever", to "a taxi to Ningbo please". Things could certainly be worse though. We're staying with one of my students brothers and we have plenty of fake DVD’s to get through, as well as mini lobbies to get through down at the local restaurant. That's right, Ningbo is lobster central and we and we feel as though we deserve the best to accompany our rest. Our self composed "ode to the lobbie" is available on request.
We will brave the holiday traffic and attempt to head to Shanghai tomorrow. A few days there and then it's on to Beijing and the world.
Miss all of you plenty.
Liam
Top 5 Chinglish Signs
1. "Show mercy to the green lives under your foot" – Keep off the grass;
2. "Of Clouse we spoke England!" – Of course we speak English.......Oh, but of clouse;
3. "Please take care of your packages" – This sign was found in the male restrooms;
4. "Away from Paris' uproar, chasing European's fashion, Here is BULEIMA"
5. "No fight and scrap, no rabble. No feudal fetish or sexy service permitted in the park"
Unfortunate to miss out: "Don't forget to carry your thing"
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