Looking in the airside shops and found this tea set for 100gbp, the exact same tea set in the same box the same everything was 8gbp in jingdezhen a few days ago, and across china not much more, talk about a foreigner tax!
Monday 18 June 2012
Stupid adverts!
I found a nice quiet place, WiFi, a charging point, lovely and got settled and plugged in and was happy until about half an hour late UPS turned on their advert booth nearby, motion activated, everytime a person walked along the busy thoroughfare a stupid loud advert advertising the stupid company came on, I held out as long as I could but after 15 times in 10 minutes I had to leave and find a new hiding place! Haha.
Boarding soon, again sad to leave, but at least the flight is direct, see you soon English friends! See you soon (but not as soon) Chinese friends!!
530
Boarding soon, again sad to leave, but at least the flight is direct, see you soon English friends! See you soon (but not as soon) Chinese friends!!
530
Rush hour to airport
Realising I would need to go across shanghai in rush hour with all my bags I left a bit early, and thank god I did!
The train was packed and only the fact I got on at 8 instead of half past and got on early allowed me to make it. Unfortunately on the metro I got an email from virgin saying my flight would be leaving an hour late! I spent this time at the airport relaxing and still have an hour to go before boarding, at least shanghai has comfy chairs and WiFi!
The maglev was fun as always and much quicker than the subway, how can 400kmph ever be boring!
The train was packed and only the fact I got on at 8 instead of half past and got on early allowed me to make it. Unfortunately on the metro I got an email from virgin saying my flight would be leaving an hour late! I spent this time at the airport relaxing and still have an hour to go before boarding, at least shanghai has comfy chairs and WiFi!
The maglev was fun as always and much quicker than the subway, how can 400kmph ever be boring!
Leaving lingxi round 2
After Chris has left a few days later it was my turn, sad to leave but will be nice to see friends and family back home!
I booked a train to shanghai (6 hours!) and then had one night in shanghai to see Paul, an Englishman living in shanghai i met in fenghuang, before flying out the next morning.
The train was fine and 6 hours was ok and after arriving i checked into my hotel in the rain and went to see my friend.
I had a lovely meal in his house with his Chinese family speaking Chinese and eating jellyfish before a few evening gin and tonics and a chat about England and china etc. He also misses bacon the most!
I booked a train to shanghai (6 hours!) and then had one night in shanghai to see Paul, an Englishman living in shanghai i met in fenghuang, before flying out the next morning.
The train was fine and 6 hours was ok and after arriving i checked into my hotel in the rain and went to see my friend.
I had a lovely meal in his house with his Chinese family speaking Chinese and eating jellyfish before a few evening gin and tonics and a chat about England and china etc. He also misses bacon the most!
Leaving lingxi
Chris had to sneak off first back home and so we planned for this, unfortunately we gave the school leaders some goodbye gifts which then enthused them to take us for a goodbye meal on the same day as Chris was planning to leave! We changed chris's ticket to an overnight bus and went to the meal, it turned out they planned it, unknowingly, at the same place as the first night we arrived in lingxi! The only two times we have been to this place! Pretty cool!
We had a good meal, talking Chinese, cheersing everybody, and generally saying thank you to the principals of both school, etc etc, they have not given a meal with the principals for any other foreign teachers so we really made an impression!
After the meal and a little tipsy Chris and I rushed across to the bus station on the other side of town and packed him off home!
We had a good meal, talking Chinese, cheersing everybody, and generally saying thank you to the principals of both school, etc etc, they have not given a meal with the principals for any other foreign teachers so we really made an impression!
After the meal and a little tipsy Chris and I rushed across to the bus station on the other side of town and packed him off home!
second april
Last year we saw the dragon boat festival in may before we left and this year expected the same but unfortunately this year is the year of two Aprils and so we would miss it! Also this year has been much cooler, not the intense heat we had last year just before we left, apparently also due to the second April, cool indeed! And very welcome!
Quzhou to lingxi
In quzhou we slept in a bit before finding some breakfast over the road in the baking sun, we had local food of noodles for brekafast before getting in the car, I drove with Chris navigating (reading the gps) and we joined the expressway, after a 50km bridge again through the valleys we left the expressway system 350km late right at our town, amazing, the toll was a reasonable 7gbp for a 350km trip, very fair I thought!
We dropped molly off and Chris and I got home and started packing!
We dropped molly off and Chris and I got home and started packing!
Sanqingshan to quzhou
after a late night playing cards we slept in until 8, much to chris's pleasure! When we looked out the window we saw two things, the beautiful surrounding mountains shrouded in clouds and the heavy rain! After taking lots of pictures and looking at the mountains from the hotel we chilled out for an hour to see if it would die down a bit, alas it didn't and the rain came and went so we decided that although we came to the foot of a famous mountain we would leave actually climbing it (and paying 30gbp per person entrance fee) for another day!
We drove out of the park and on to quzhou, dropping all the drive out in the gaps between heavy rain to take a few last pictures!
We drove for about an hour and ended up in the city of quzhou. A medium size city without any major tourist attractions. It does however have an easily findable coffee shop, the most important thing!
Outside we saw a big sign in Chinese and molly translated it, it said that they were bothering, if you were attractive, a man over 1.6m and a woman over 1.5m, 18-25 and unmarried then you could apply for a job in the coffeeshop and maybe make 160-200gbp a month! Crazy!
After dinner we couldn't decide what to do and in the end we made a snap decision to go to a nearby mountain, despite the rain!
When we arrived at the mountain in the late afternoon we were stopped by the ticket sellers, 50rmb each! We argued for a while and in the end just walked past until we met the security guards, there's we argued again and after pointing out that nobody was there they let us all in for 100rmb, a nice discount for 4! No ticket though, the 100 went straight to the guards beer fund!
When we got in we found a beautiful stream and as we climbed up into the mountains we got beautiful views and more cloud covered peaks, beautiful!
We wandered slowly and went up past bridges, pools, rapids, a monkey reserve (with an amusingly worded sign warning of being arrested by monkeys) and eventually found a 100m waterfall nestled away, normally I imagine relatively tame with all the rain it was huge with a huge spray, very beautiful! The rain stopped as we climbed and we were bathed in sun and I took some beautiful pictures!
After getting soaked in the spray we made our way back down and went to find a hotel.
We found a nice little hotel with the Chinese style of a class wall in the bathroom facing into the room for some random reason, luckily with a curtain this time, and also a computer and speakers which was cool.
We went walked around for a bit before finding a place to eat and then getting and early bed with a nice walk out for water for bed.
We drove out of the park and on to quzhou, dropping all the drive out in the gaps between heavy rain to take a few last pictures!
We drove for about an hour and ended up in the city of quzhou. A medium size city without any major tourist attractions. It does however have an easily findable coffee shop, the most important thing!
Outside we saw a big sign in Chinese and molly translated it, it said that they were bothering, if you were attractive, a man over 1.6m and a woman over 1.5m, 18-25 and unmarried then you could apply for a job in the coffeeshop and maybe make 160-200gbp a month! Crazy!
After dinner we couldn't decide what to do and in the end we made a snap decision to go to a nearby mountain, despite the rain!
When we arrived at the mountain in the late afternoon we were stopped by the ticket sellers, 50rmb each! We argued for a while and in the end just walked past until we met the security guards, there's we argued again and after pointing out that nobody was there they let us all in for 100rmb, a nice discount for 4! No ticket though, the 100 went straight to the guards beer fund!
When we got in we found a beautiful stream and as we climbed up into the mountains we got beautiful views and more cloud covered peaks, beautiful!
We wandered slowly and went up past bridges, pools, rapids, a monkey reserve (with an amusingly worded sign warning of being arrested by monkeys) and eventually found a 100m waterfall nestled away, normally I imagine relatively tame with all the rain it was huge with a huge spray, very beautiful! The rain stopped as we climbed and we were bathed in sun and I took some beautiful pictures!
After getting soaked in the spray we made our way back down and went to find a hotel.
We found a nice little hotel with the Chinese style of a class wall in the bathroom facing into the room for some random reason, luckily with a curtain this time, and also a computer and speakers which was cool.
We went walked around for a bit before finding a place to eat and then getting and early bed with a nice walk out for water for bed.
Sunday 17 June 2012
Jingdezhen to sanqingshan
Morning in jingdezhen and Chris and I have not bought anything yet, we asked in the hotel and they said nearby are many many show, they were not joking!
We went out and walked along and before walking too far had found some cheaper places, all of us ended up buying at least something, and considering how heavy I was very happy that we came by car!
We walked along and saw small china rabbits, china chairman mao statues and more pots and pottery than I thought existed! Market after shop after market after shop often selling the same thing, or the same pattern on a different style of pot, or some other minute difference, often the price will vary hugely too!
We all bought lots but Chris decided he must buy two painted plates for the teachers at school, the woman started at 200rmb (20gbp) each but by the smile on her face we knew she was in foreigner selling mode, we bargained down from that to 120, and eventually as we started to walk away for 80 each, but the seller was still suspiciously happy, ah well at least Chris was too!
After spending the morning shopping I decided that although I didn't find a beautiful ming vase that i wanted i had decided i never wanted to see any pottery ever again! We went together to a nearby restaurant and grabbed a spicy lunch and decided to drive to quzhou, a city about 2 hours back towards home.
We jumped in the car and after a brief travel sickness break we made good time on the nearly empty dual carriageway, including an amazing 30km long bridge. When the Chinese had to build roads through this mountainous area they used the rivers as roads by building huge elevated motorways along the side of the river with the pylons in the river itself, an amazon sight!
After a few hours of driving we were suddenly pointed off the motorway at a random exit for a mountain as the highway, as we could see, abruptly ended in pylons after that!
As we came off we saw a sign for a semi famous mountain in china, sanqingshan, and so after a brief think we decided to take a look!
I drove an hour or so into the mountain national park on some very twisty roads with amazing views of the cloud shrouded mountains, and eventually were dropped into a village made entirely of tourist hotels! Yay!
We arrived and parked up to think and a guy came over offering us deals on hotels, elaine in the passenger seat spoke for a while before muttering in English for me to drive off, i drove to the other side of the carpark but the guy walked over again to talk! So after asking in a hotel and getting told 40gbp a room (way overpriced) we decided to drive on and see, after a short while i saw the same guy behind us on a motorbike, i pulled over and drove the other way and the guy turned around again following us, i tried again and again he turned around and followed me driving in the car.
I sped off up the road and he sped up to keep his place behind us and as i slowed so did he, elaine explained he would follow us and demand a commission from whatever hotel we chose as if he was the agent that found it!
This really annoyed me so i pulled into the entrance of a swanky hotel and waited, sure enough soon he crept round the corner looking for us so i shouted in Chinese asking if he was looking for me, he mumbled than he only wanted to help, so i told him firmly we didn't need it and he still didn't leave asked him if he was staying for any other reason, after some more 'talking' he eventually slunk off to find easier to bully people to annoy!
We found a nice hotel, clean and despite showing rates of 60gbp a night for the cheapest room they offered it to us for 20gbp, not bad!
After we checked in and took some pictures of the pretty surrounding hills we walked into town to get dinner before coming back to the hotel with some beers and spending the night teaching the girls how to play hearts! They got it reasonably quickly and we had a good fun night playing together before a pretty late bed!
We went out and walked along and before walking too far had found some cheaper places, all of us ended up buying at least something, and considering how heavy I was very happy that we came by car!
We walked along and saw small china rabbits, china chairman mao statues and more pots and pottery than I thought existed! Market after shop after market after shop often selling the same thing, or the same pattern on a different style of pot, or some other minute difference, often the price will vary hugely too!
We all bought lots but Chris decided he must buy two painted plates for the teachers at school, the woman started at 200rmb (20gbp) each but by the smile on her face we knew she was in foreigner selling mode, we bargained down from that to 120, and eventually as we started to walk away for 80 each, but the seller was still suspiciously happy, ah well at least Chris was too!
After spending the morning shopping I decided that although I didn't find a beautiful ming vase that i wanted i had decided i never wanted to see any pottery ever again! We went together to a nearby restaurant and grabbed a spicy lunch and decided to drive to quzhou, a city about 2 hours back towards home.
We jumped in the car and after a brief travel sickness break we made good time on the nearly empty dual carriageway, including an amazing 30km long bridge. When the Chinese had to build roads through this mountainous area they used the rivers as roads by building huge elevated motorways along the side of the river with the pylons in the river itself, an amazon sight!
After a few hours of driving we were suddenly pointed off the motorway at a random exit for a mountain as the highway, as we could see, abruptly ended in pylons after that!
As we came off we saw a sign for a semi famous mountain in china, sanqingshan, and so after a brief think we decided to take a look!
I drove an hour or so into the mountain national park on some very twisty roads with amazing views of the cloud shrouded mountains, and eventually were dropped into a village made entirely of tourist hotels! Yay!
We arrived and parked up to think and a guy came over offering us deals on hotels, elaine in the passenger seat spoke for a while before muttering in English for me to drive off, i drove to the other side of the carpark but the guy walked over again to talk! So after asking in a hotel and getting told 40gbp a room (way overpriced) we decided to drive on and see, after a short while i saw the same guy behind us on a motorbike, i pulled over and drove the other way and the guy turned around again following us, i tried again and again he turned around and followed me driving in the car.
I sped off up the road and he sped up to keep his place behind us and as i slowed so did he, elaine explained he would follow us and demand a commission from whatever hotel we chose as if he was the agent that found it!
This really annoyed me so i pulled into the entrance of a swanky hotel and waited, sure enough soon he crept round the corner looking for us so i shouted in Chinese asking if he was looking for me, he mumbled than he only wanted to help, so i told him firmly we didn't need it and he still didn't leave asked him if he was staying for any other reason, after some more 'talking' he eventually slunk off to find easier to bully people to annoy!
We found a nice hotel, clean and despite showing rates of 60gbp a night for the cheapest room they offered it to us for 20gbp, not bad!
After we checked in and took some pictures of the pretty surrounding hills we walked into town to get dinner before coming back to the hotel with some beers and spending the night teaching the girls how to play hearts! They got it reasonably quickly and we had a good fun night playing together before a pretty late bed!
Local languages aren't so local
We were coming into our hotel in jingdezhen in the evening and there were two older guys sitting in reception smoking, they started talking as we came in and I thought it sounded familiar, they were speaking minan! The local language in my town, completely different from mandarin, the national language. Elaine spoke it however and explained they were saying some pretty mean things about us, safe in the knowledge we couldn't understand as we were foreigners and they spoke a local language.
Luckily for me Elaine had taught me a few words, not a lot but I know foreigner, the name of the language, and I understand (learnt as part of I don't understand minan)
As we were getting into the lift I shouted over to them that I was amazed they spoke minan, told them I understood what they were saying and I didn't like it and then got in the lift before they could actually ask me any questions in minan, which of course I couldn't answer.
The two guys were mortified, and Elaine was pretty embarrassed too, but I felt vindicated and im sure they won't do that again! Haha!
Luckily for me Elaine had taught me a few words, not a lot but I know foreigner, the name of the language, and I understand (learnt as part of I don't understand minan)
As we were getting into the lift I shouted over to them that I was amazed they spoke minan, told them I understood what they were saying and I didn't like it and then got in the lift before they could actually ask me any questions in minan, which of course I couldn't answer.
The two guys were mortified, and Elaine was pretty embarrassed too, but I felt vindicated and im sure they won't do that again! Haha!
Friday 15 June 2012
Wuyuan to jingdezhen
We were told that the hotel room had a free breakfast so we went to the dining room, but it was closed, they directed us to reception where we handed a milk carton, an apple, a 'cake' and some bread, and pointed to reception as the place where we could eat it.
We all made the best of the awful breakfast and took some lovely pictures of the various food items before heading off for the day.
The weather was awful, as soon as we got outside it was raining and the rain didn't let up all the drive to our first stop. I got out with my umbrella and my trousers very quickly became wet and my shoes soaked.
After paying our way into the Ancient village we had come to see we didn't get the car and walked through the fields in the wet and the mud to a temple.
Outside the temple i got chatting to a girl who gave us free incense to go and pray so we wandered in and chris and i got separated from the others by these crazy monks, the monks were clever splitting us all off and then managing to help me through some praying, incese lighting and then reading my future, i should marry a girl born in the year of the dog and should do many things to ensure my happiness, i then had to write my parents names and a wish for them in a little book and then.... The sting! he would stamp it and write next to it how much money i donated, 3gb was good, 5better but 10gbp was recommended for some reason...
I went outside to 'get my wallet' and another kind monk presumed i had paid and sent me on my way! Result! I managed to get a blessing and reading without the fee, cheeky monks, they were just happy to meet a foreigner i think!
After the crazy monks we walked through the rice paddies to the ancient village itself and there the sun managed to come out and dry us off a bit.
After a wander around and some present buying and some lunch we headed back to the car in the blazing humid summer heat.
Unfortunately the last few days i had been having a slowly worse and worse cold and this really was the final push, when i got to the car Elaine drove and i slept in the back!
When i woke up we had arrived in jingdezhen, a place Chris and i were both anxious to visit as its the home of Chinese pottery and has been for thousands of years!
Being the home of pottery there were so many places and so we parked up and started wandering. We saw expensive places, cheap places, pottery jewellery, pottery paintings and of course pottery pots!
after an hour or so of walking we got pretty tired and so I drove to find a hotel, it was a crazy city to drive in, cars everywhere, but good fun!
we found a hotel, it seemed nice online but in person had a serious communist vibe, a bit dirty and old but hey, it was only for one night and it was very centrally located so we went for it.
After checking in and putting out stuff away i wanted to buy some shoes so went to the popular chinese brand polo villae. Despite the almost big brand name the Chinese version is reasonably priced and after that went to eat in a place that from the outside looks like a Childs activity centre but inside was actually an adult restaurant!
Needed to get a good sleep after a long day, and tomorrow looking at more pottery! Dear god save me!
We all made the best of the awful breakfast and took some lovely pictures of the various food items before heading off for the day.
The weather was awful, as soon as we got outside it was raining and the rain didn't let up all the drive to our first stop. I got out with my umbrella and my trousers very quickly became wet and my shoes soaked.
After paying our way into the Ancient village we had come to see we didn't get the car and walked through the fields in the wet and the mud to a temple.
Outside the temple i got chatting to a girl who gave us free incense to go and pray so we wandered in and chris and i got separated from the others by these crazy monks, the monks were clever splitting us all off and then managing to help me through some praying, incese lighting and then reading my future, i should marry a girl born in the year of the dog and should do many things to ensure my happiness, i then had to write my parents names and a wish for them in a little book and then.... The sting! he would stamp it and write next to it how much money i donated, 3gb was good, 5better but 10gbp was recommended for some reason...
I went outside to 'get my wallet' and another kind monk presumed i had paid and sent me on my way! Result! I managed to get a blessing and reading without the fee, cheeky monks, they were just happy to meet a foreigner i think!
After the crazy monks we walked through the rice paddies to the ancient village itself and there the sun managed to come out and dry us off a bit.
After a wander around and some present buying and some lunch we headed back to the car in the blazing humid summer heat.
Unfortunately the last few days i had been having a slowly worse and worse cold and this really was the final push, when i got to the car Elaine drove and i slept in the back!
When i woke up we had arrived in jingdezhen, a place Chris and i were both anxious to visit as its the home of Chinese pottery and has been for thousands of years!
Being the home of pottery there were so many places and so we parked up and started wandering. We saw expensive places, cheap places, pottery jewellery, pottery paintings and of course pottery pots!
after an hour or so of walking we got pretty tired and so I drove to find a hotel, it was a crazy city to drive in, cars everywhere, but good fun!
we found a hotel, it seemed nice online but in person had a serious communist vibe, a bit dirty and old but hey, it was only for one night and it was very centrally located so we went for it.
After checking in and putting out stuff away i wanted to buy some shoes so went to the popular chinese brand polo villae. Despite the almost big brand name the Chinese version is reasonably priced and after that went to eat in a place that from the outside looks like a Childs activity centre but inside was actually an adult restaurant!
Needed to get a good sleep after a long day, and tomorrow looking at more pottery! Dear god save me!
Tuesday 12 June 2012
Lingxi to wuyuan
Finally a chance to get out and see somewhere new!
I woke up at 10.30 to a phone call and heard that Elaine and her friend would be there at 12.30 to pick us up and together with chris we would all go exploring!
A bit late we set off together at around 1.30. It was my first proper Chinese roadtrip, the GPS said 540km, we had a full tank of gas and we had our umbrellas, we were sorted! so in heavy rain we set off, elaine drove the first hour and a half, and then I drove for 3-4 until we arrived at wuyuan a semi famous town northeast of wenzhou.
We arrived at around 7pm and it was already pretty dark, we parked up and checked out a few local hotels before settling on a reasonable 120rmb (12gbp) for each twin room.
We went for a walk to try and find some food and ended up walking right across town before settling on a small noodle shop. After walking back home it was pretty late so we went back to the room.
In the twin room I shared with Chris we found the bathroom had a glass door! A little... Interesting, perhaps a bit more couply than we would have liked! Even worse whilst you can't see in from the room it is stationed next to the front door, so if you open the door whilst someone is in the shower.... Haha!
I woke up at 10.30 to a phone call and heard that Elaine and her friend would be there at 12.30 to pick us up and together with chris we would all go exploring!
A bit late we set off together at around 1.30. It was my first proper Chinese roadtrip, the GPS said 540km, we had a full tank of gas and we had our umbrellas, we were sorted! so in heavy rain we set off, elaine drove the first hour and a half, and then I drove for 3-4 until we arrived at wuyuan a semi famous town northeast of wenzhou.
We arrived at around 7pm and it was already pretty dark, we parked up and checked out a few local hotels before settling on a reasonable 120rmb (12gbp) for each twin room.
We went for a walk to try and find some food and ended up walking right across town before settling on a small noodle shop. After walking back home it was pretty late so we went back to the room.
In the twin room I shared with Chris we found the bathroom had a glass door! A little... Interesting, perhaps a bit more couply than we would have liked! Even worse whilst you can't see in from the room it is stationed next to the front door, so if you open the door whilst someone is in the shower.... Haha!
Friday 1 June 2012
Last day!
Today is our last teaching day, it has been a whirlwind week of pictures, last lessons, sad students, last minute flight changing, school and agency negotiating, and crazy crazy lessons, along with some wonderful gifts from students. I will miss them very much.
I hope that they have a great time.
I have to go and teach my last two lessons now, friday afternoon, and finish on one of my favorite classes.
More blog posts and lots to catch up when I have a minute to sit down....
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