First Cinema Trip in China

Some of my students invited us to go to the cinema with them to see a film, they wanted to see the Avengers, and wanted to invite Chris and I to go with them. We had not been to the cinema yet so we of course accepted, and they met us last Saturday night and took us into town, 4 students and us two, first we went for hot pot for dinner but the meal ran on a little long and by the time we had finished eating we were a little late. Three of the students and Chris grabbed the first taxi and the final student and I waited for a second. When we got into the new taxi I asked the price and as soon as he said £1.50 and not £1 I started arguing in Chinese with him until he gave us the proper price, much to my students surprise! In front of them I generally avoid speaking any Chinese, leaving it up to them to speak English, as best they can! 

We arrived at the cinema a bit early and the students went off to confirm the language of the film, they said if enough people requested it then they would consider showing it in English! As we had predicted of course only one person requested it and so the cinema decided to play it in Chinese, the students were very embarrassed but we weren't worried, we picked up our 3D glasses and took our seats!

As we waited for the movie to start at 7.20 we watched more and more of both mine and Chris's students walk in! all very surprised to see us! We got some snacks and a drink and chatted, and took some silly pictures, waiting for the movie to start.

At exactly 7.20 the movie began, no adverts, no trailers, just bam, projector on, movie starts. It was very strange disorientating, especially considering I was used to a good half an hour of random adverts before any real movie. At first I thought that this was just a trailer and it couldn't possibly be the actual movie! 

As the movie started we realised it was completely in Chinese, with some useful Chinese subtitles, and it was great practise, and it being an action movie you can get the plot of, man in black is bad, man in white is good, bad man has box, good man wants box, and any Chinese you understand is a bonus. I was happy to find out I could understand a surprising amount, not enough to understand every nuance, but enough!

The students were really happy to take their only time of for the week and spend it with us, and they were really into it, we even found that our students had brought a small leaflet they had made, explaining each characters back story!

The style of movie watching in China is very different, all Chinese people are willing to chat, laugh, cry, explain plot developments at length at the top of their voice to someone 5 seats away, answer their phones and chat away and many other things. The amazing thing is that nobody else in cinema seemed to care! I guess if everyone does it....

Watching a film in China was just like watching it with friends and their house really, its kind of on, sort of in the background, and chatting and calls etc are all pretty much accepted, a bit surreal, but fun, and worth it just to avoid the damn adverts!

When the film finished every Chinese person except our group was up and out the door before the credits had even started! let alone finished! as soon as the main plot was over they were out of there, no heart warming roundup. We waited with our students for the 'bonus end feature' but we were alone in the whole cinema, amazing. 

After the film we jumped into a taxi and escorted them back to school, unfortunately they live in the school and their curfew was 10pm, and the film didn't end until nearly 10, luckily we came back with them and escorted them past the gate guard, making their excuses for them, although one student took advantage of our offer and took Chris for a burger before bed! When we arrived back at the boys dorm the door was already locked, and the windows are all barred, and so we thought he might have to stay at ours, but luckily the guard came and opened it one last time to let him in! 

A day in Xiamen to relax

Had a lovely good morning Starbucks and the walk down to starbucks showed that the summer really is coming, its getting warmer and warmer! Nearly shorts weather!
I bought the train ticket for the next day from a lovely woman who was very interested in the foreigners and asking lots of questions, and we then went to catch up on western groceries as we were near a huge walmart and one of the few Tesco in China! 

After picking up a few bits and bobs, (curry powder!!) we paid and then wandered over into a tea shop near the checkouts.
I soon got chatting with the girl selling tea and used it as a chance to practise my chinese really! She was very friendly and we spent over an hour chatting about all sorts of things, we bought some tea from her as a gift for the teachers back home and considered a beautiful red tea set, but at £120 it was a bit much! 
As we were walking back to the hostel we saw another cheaper looking tea shop and looking in saw exactly the same tea set as Chris had lost the day before! But instead of wanting 150rmb they only wanted 50! Chris pretended not to hear and I dared not tell him so we left it and walked on. We walked past an empty shop filled with China products, bowls, cups, etc all at discount prices, a bit of haggling later chris had a vase and I had a nice little tea set, happy! The whole shop were listening as we haggled and he asked 400, i offered 300 all in, he said higher, i said 301 which had the whole shop laughing and he gave in, i don't know if I insulted him, but it worked!

After this we headed back to the Hotel again and while Chris got some sleep I chilled out down in the bar meeting a new friend Lisa. She was in her early 30s I would guess and we chatted, it turns out she taught a foreigner chinese in the past, and is also a teacher! So she was interested in how I was doing, and we had lots to talk about! 

Chris came down later and we played a great game, a bit confusing, but very funny. With 5 or more people every draws a card, there is one King, One Jack, and 3 others (for 5, over 5 more kings and jacks are used) the King is the Killer, the Jack is the policeman and the others are civilians. There is also a judge, they control the game.

Everyone then closes their eyes except the judge, the killer opens his when asked by the judge and chooses a person to kill, everyone closes their eyes again and then the policeman opens his eyes, he guesses at who the killer is and the judge will say yes or no. The policeman will close his eyes and then everyone will open their eyes. The judge will say who was killed in the night, and then the killed person can make a statement to everyone else about who he thinks did it (but he doesn't KNOW for sure, he never saw it happen remember) then everyone in the circle is allowed to make a statement, including the undetected killer and policeman, and everyone can choose a person they think it is (but don't have to) then it is put to a vote and everybody gets one vote. The person with the most votes is put in prison, and the play continues, the dead person and if voted for, the person put in prison are out, everyone closes their eyes (people out can look but must be quiet) the killers again kill, the policeman again guesses, everyone opens and makes a statement and it goes round again, with a big group and multiple killers it can get very hectic but very fun!

This game was harder as we had to play in Chinese, and in the end I was asked to be the judge, giving all the instructions in Chinese, unfortunately I concentrated so hard to the chinese I forgot who the murder had killed, ruining the game a little as I kept having to go back! But they all played along good humouredly. lisa was great at getting people to play so Chris and I, Lisa herself, 2 bar tenders, 2 random girls Lisa had met that day from another hotel, another hotel guest and his visiting girlfriend all player with much laughter and a few beers. excellent! 

The next day we had a relaxed morning followed by an afternoon train back to Lingxi, a lovely relaxing holiday before back into the madness of teaching again!