Private teaching

I did some private teaching at a small school near Ningbo, in a different town nearby technically, and as I arrived I noticed a welcome sign with my name in lights, very funny and deserving of a picture! 
The lesson went well and hopefully I can get some extra work to bump up my salary a few notches through them in the future! 

(the sign just says welcome visiting foreign expert nathan, haha!)

Crazy bus

I was on the bus back from town and it was FULL, and I mean FULL, not a single person could be squeezed in, it was definitely overloaded, but the thing that amazed me was people got on at the back door and then passed money or travel cards person to person to pay the fee at the front door, and people just passed it along, such a normal thing that the instances of card theft (which could have quite a bit of money in it) must be very low! Crazy! but cool though...

Shanghai Kangqiao holiday inn pool

A few photos of the wonderful pool!

Shanghai Kangqiao Holiday Inn

Finally found a taxi driver willing to drive the half hour out to this hotel I had heard about and found it eventually and when we got there it was really nice, a huge new built hotel out in the suburbs.

I have booked online a room and I remembered ticking the checkbox for join the rewards program too, it was free so I thought why not! 
When I came to check in they told me that they had given me an upgrade from the room I had booked to a suite, on the 22nd floor of the 24 floor hotel! 

When I got to the room I had a good sized living room with a huge sofa and TV, office area, and a small bathroom, with a door through to a huge kingsized bedroom with a huge seperate ensuite with a shower, a bath with another shower, two sinks, a walk in closet, and all with huge windows giving a panoramic view out over Shanghai, and in the distance, the bund! it was breathtaking! and very reasonably priced. 

Once I had checked in a explored the room for a bit I got ready for the main attraction, the reason I booked this hotel, the swimming pool! 

I missed swimming a lot, in China the pools are few and often dirty or crowded so I had heard this place had a very nice pool so I got changed and went to check it out.

I got the lift to the 24th floor and after a quick look got changed, the pool was got sized, 15m or so, and on the top level with a glass roof, but the best bit was that it jutted out from the 24th floor over the side of the building with huge glass windows giving view over shanghai on three sides, it was also deep for a chinese pool so you could really swim out over the edge of the building and see the bund in the distance and when you got 5-10 meters out over the edge, you could swim along and then look down through 6 large glass windows in the floor and see the 24 story drop down to the ground below!

I had a great time swimming in the pool in the late afternoon and had it basically to myself for most of the time with only one or two other chinese swimmers at most, one of whom lent me his goggles for a better look down! 

After the swim we went for a walk out around the area and looked up at the pool from below, very cool! 

Included in the price was access to the club lounge on the 21st floor so I headed there and they provided unlimited free drinks, juice, soft drinks, wine, beer and spirits along with some food and a comfy place to relax, and when I told them my room number we were let in and made to feel very comfortable. 

After relaxing there for a while we went back to my room, ordered room service and watched a film on the sofa before getting some sleep.

The next morning I got up, had a huge breakfast at the included buffet, with unlimited bacon and eggs! cereal etc etc, (although it wasn't quite as extensive as the Hangzhou hotel from before) and then took advantage of the free late checkout to get another swim! 

I checked out on monday at 3pm very relaxed and very happy from my luxury hotel stay, I got over to the bus station and got the bus back to Ningbo ready to start class on the tuesday at 10am! 

It was a very nice holiday and if I get the the chance I will definitely go back again! 

Breakfast in Shanghai

Got up a bit late at 10 but had booked a breakfast at a restaurant recommended by James, M on the Bund, so we got a taxi over to the bund in Shanghai and after a short walk along the bund to build up an appetite I met up with Mina and headed in. 

We had booked online and got a table looking out over the bund, when we sat down they started with a champagne cocktail and to start  I had frogs legs which was amazing, and then a huge mixed grill of meat to make up for my low protein diet over here in China, and it was very tasty as well, the atmosphere and the service was great, well worth the price as an occasional treat! 

The only problem was the messed up the main order a bit, and brought the wrong meal for Mina, but because of this gave us a huge free pavlova, which was tasty too!

After breakfast I got my things from the hotel and jumped on the metro out to the maglev station in Shanghai from which I had to find a taxi to the holiday inn hotel I had booked for the night. 

The only problem was that it was the car expo at the expo centre, right next to the maglev station! so it took 30 minutes of walking around and asking taxi drivers before one was willing to take the meter price of 30rmb and not try to rip off the foreigner for 100rmb, as taxis in china are prone to doing! 

Coventry reunion pictures

Pictures of the view from the 52nd floor of the pearl tv tower, and then after sunset, and a picture across the table at the meal!

Coventry alumni meetup!

Chris was on the alumni news letter and received an invite to the Coventry university alumni event in shanghai, and signed us both up! 

We finished teaching on Friday with chris shooting off to meet a girl Friday evening in shanghai, and me following on later on Sunday. The original invitation said 3pm but this was changed to 7pm, which made getting to shanghai much easier!

I got the train at 10.30 without a hitch (I booked online and ningbo has a fast pickup line for online booked tickets), the only problem being the fast route to the station goes through a tunnel and the tunnel is down for maintenance, for four months, meaning you add a 10km detour to the next bridge down and back!

The train was fine and took 3 hours, and then I changed onto the subway to get to the hotel, i booked a priceyish hotel in pudong, near the conference, for 350rmb, but thought to save on taxi fees and work out about the same.

I checked in and borrowed an iron to iron my shirt, I wore a shirt, tie, trousers formal shoes but no suit jacket, my excuse for no jacket was the weather but in reality it's because I don't have one! 

As I was lying on the bed resting an email came through at 3.15pm changing the start time to...3! By the time i looked at myphone at 4.30 it had already started! 

I got up, showered, changed and got to the event for 5.30, I found the shanghai pudong ritz Carlton and as I walked in saw lots of people wearing badges walking past, I grabbed one and asked where to go and Richard, a nice guy from the engineering department, helped me find the checkin, got checked in ok and got my badge etc and realized I had missed all the speeches but arrived in time for the buffet dinner! 

Richard and I went and took the lift to the 52nd floor where the dinner was being held. We arrived to evening light and panoramic views out across the bund, and so I found a place and sat down with a good helping of food, they had wonderful roast beef, a full selection of lovely western food and free drinks including imported wine! I started chatting with the woman next to me and it turns out she is an officer in charge of helping Coventry graduates find chinese jobs! Amazing! I exchanged one of my business cards (that I hastily printed and cut out myself the night before on the dining room table) and we chatted for the whole meal about how we both ended up here, apparently for an english born and raised guy to up and head out of England is pretty rare, but I was the exception! 

Chris at this point still hadn't arrived and he had got caught up with the girl and missed most of the meal, there was a raffle (I won nothing) and then it dissolved into trying to drain the free bar as the sun set over the pudong pearl tower right next door and the lights across the shanghai bund all came on, beautiful.

Chris eventually arrived and made a late start on the buffet, making a decent dent, but unfortunately got bitten by the 9pm wine cut off. I had a good chat with several people about jobs and possibilities in china related to the university with some very interesting results! I also chatted more with the woman from dinner and found out that she knows Ben, my best friend from university, as he was from her department, which was pretty cool!

After dinner chris and me and the girls all headed to a bar in shanghai for a couple of gin and tonics and a couple of shots of tequila before leaving chris to a night out and getting the taxi back to the hotel, eventually getting to sleep after 2 but having had a very fun and productive time, and really loving the shanghai ritz Carlton! 

Trip to Hangzhou for the hundredth time!

I had a weekend off and was getting a bit stir crazy in Ningbo so I decided to go to Hangzhou for a break!

I booked a nice Chinese style hotel in the centre of the city and got the train up, and used the new metro to get to the hotel, it was a nice hotel and not too expensive, a lovely private room, right near the main shopping area in the city, I arrived and walked down to the lake and walked along the lake which which was beautiful in the evening, I wanted to talk back to the hotel but it turned out to be quite a lot further than I thought, I made it back though, taxis in Hangzhou on the weekend are murder!

 

The next morning I went to the nearby mall for food, On the way to breakfast I saw some chinese guys cleaning a skyscaper, they must of had a real head for heights dangling on the end of the rope! 

For breakfast I went to a really good chinese place I know, in the basement of the 3rd hangzhou tower, unfortunately they were out of pigs feet, their speciality! I did have some really nice prawn dumplings, something i've really gotten to like recently! 

And after on the way out tried some rather expensive Macaroons, 20rmb each! but so delicious! 

I decided to enjoy the weather and go to the island in Hangzhou, I used my zoom lens and took a picture of the lake's lanterns that are far enough from the shore and you can't see much normally! 

In the afternoon I switched hotels to the rather swanky and rather expensive wyndham hotel, it was a bit expensive but it was really nice, it had a swimming pool that I took full advantage of, a really great location near the lake and really great service.

The next morning I went for an all you can eat buffet breakfast which was amazing, It had all you can Cereal, fresh made juice, an omelet station, Chinese food, bread, croissants  muffins, etc etc etc. After eating way too much I went to check out, and was told it also included a lunch buffet! so an hour after breakfast I was escorted back to try again! The food had completely changed! it was now sushi, noodles, roast meat, italian and a few others, all as much as you can eat! 

After eating 9 portions of salmon in the sushi bar and 5 lovely banana leaf wrapped thai chicken, I actually checked out and had an afternoon to spend in Hangzhou. I went to a huge field of flowers near the west lake and took some wonderful pictures, there were so many people there however it was pretty crazy! Getting back however was impossible, the buses had a huge queue, the taxis were full, so I just walked the half hour back to a famous pavillion, took a break to look around, and then walked another half hour to the edge of the centre and then got on a random bus that looked like it was going the right way, and I ended up in the right place! 

After that I picked up my bags and got the metro to the station and got the train back to Ningbo, a good relaxing weekend away! 

Leaving Shanghai

Had a nice cocktail in a new restaurant street I found in Shanghai and then some tasty sushi, before escpaing the weather back to Ningbo! 
My first day back to Ningbo they welcomed me back with Shorts weather!! lovely!