Shanghai with cousin Jacky

During the mid-autumn festival many Chinese people have at least 1 day off but because of my schedule I actually had 4 days off - Tuesday to Friday. I was really chuffed as it meant I could meet my cousin Jacky in Shanghai and spend 6 days there with her. She had flown there to see me and discover China as it was her first visit to the homeland. She had arrived on the Sunday in Shanghai so after teaching my morning classes on the Monday morning I  jumped on the bullet train at Nanjing train station to Shanghai. This new train journey started up in July  and is one of the fastest trains in the world reaching over 300kph and only taking 75mins in total between Nanjing and Shanghai. Amazing stuff...a feat unimaginable in the UK. And what's more, the trains run like clockwork in China - usually no delays or cancellations. How refreshing!

So I met cousin Jacky - who I proudly introduced to everyone  as "Wo de jiejie"  i.e. my big sister and together we had a 6 day blast in Shanghai. I was not sure I was going to like it as much as Beijing but I was more than pleasantly surprised and by the end of our stay I didn't want to go back to Nanjing. Shanghai is very much like London - fast-paced, dynamic, dripping with opportunties and wealth. Its not really a place for sightseeing, though there is stuff to see, but rather city where you can hang out in the different neighbourhoods experiencing the delicious food, culture, shopping and busy nightlife.

Lucy and Jacky in Pudong....the iconic Oriental Pearl Tower is behind us

Being a born and bred London girl, I absolutely loved Shanghai and could see myself living there. It is the most costly place in China to live, given all the foreign restaurants, expensive designer shops, glamourous bars and the countless number of activites to choose from. However from what I have gathered, the Shanghainese like to work and play hard and this is why the expats have been flocking in their hundreds. Furthermore, what I did like about Shanghai, is that whenever I spoke a little bit of Mandarin or my Beijinghua, I would be understood by the various taxi drivers, waitresses, passers by. This is not the case in Nanjing where their accent is crude and gruff - you almost have to speak Mandarin like you're barking like a dog.

5 weeks in Beijing

This photo is of a food stall in the Wanfujin market in Beijing. If you look closely at the sticks, you will find that it isn't meat on the sticks - they are insects! And they were actually alive, wriggling about, probably trying to get free, before they are deep fried and eaten by some hungry Chinese man. I did have a nibble on a scorpion, it did not much flavour after being frazzled by the hot oil. But the texture was comparable to potato chips. I also had a try of a starfish - that was a bit weird, it had the texture of a biscuit and tasted really salty and fishy, a bit like whitebait. If you click the picture you can see more pictures of my 5 weeks in Beijing.

Lost in Translation?

China is certainly one of the most difficult places I have travelled. The language barrier is definitely the biggest barrier and even taking a year's Mandarin course at Kings College London did not prepare me for the troubles I was to face in ordering food, travelling by train, or just asking directions to the toilet. Not many people speak English, if you go to a restaurant, a shop, train station - I would be surprised if anyone does. Even when I stayed at a 5-star hotel in Shanghai - to my amazement and frustration, no one spoke English. And nobody understood the little Chinese I did know. The thing is with China is that if you get the tones wrong - they will not know what you are saying and they won't even try to make head-or-tail of what you are trying to get across to them. They just refuse point-blank not to comprehend anything you say causing a lot of frustration.

Mandarin class - Spanish, French, Canadian, Korean, Kazakstan, Swiss, Japanese, Russian, and me

So as I did not want to starve, be lost any longer or be without a toilet, I signed up to study Mandarin at the Beijing Culture and Language University in Wudaokou a district of Beijing for 5 weeks. Classes were taught Monday to Friday, 8am - noon, so afternoons and evenings were left for siesta, practising the language with the natives or other students, eating the local cuising and visiting the city. I really enjoyed my time in Beijing, I met so many interesting people from around the world wanting to improve their Chinese skills. I was in awe of all these "laowai" (foreigners) speaking fluent Mandarin and ashamed that I myself (of Chinese origin) could not. However, my Mandarin skills improved in leaps and bounds during my time there and by the end of the course I felt I could order in restaurants and give directions to taxi drivers. Of course I didn't actually know what they were saying back to me but I will persist with learning the language and hopefully I will one day be able to understand them. The trouble with the language is that there are many ways of saying the same thing and people will tell you that you are saying it wrong when it is actually right. Ah the joys of learning Mandarin!

Diving, Music and Food in SE Asia

Here are some photos from my two weeks in Kuching (Borneo), Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. My good friend Farrah was studying in Borneo as part of her PhD at St George's Hospital in Tooting, London, so I went to visit her.

We did quite a lot in the short time that I was there, such as going to the World Music Rainforest Festival for three days - listening to great music from around the world, visiting the gorgeous Orangutans and completing our PADI Diving ceritficate.

Laksa - Typical Malaysian breakfast

I absolutely loved the food in Malaysian - its certainly one of my favourite cuisines. For breakfast, Laksa is very typical - it is a very spicy rice noodle soup cooked in a delicious fishy broth and a bit of coconut milk. I wish I could eat it everyday for breakfast.

Beautiful Borneo sunset

More Borneo photos....

My travels so far....

OK here's a map of Asia for your reference. I'm just going to briefly outline my travels this Summer so you get an idea of where I've been to in the past 2.5 months.

• 21st June - London to Shanghai - Airplane
• 27th June - Shanghai to Nanjing - Train (nightmare journey - I had 60kg of luggage with me!)
• 30th June - Nanjing to Shanghai - Train
• 4th July - Shanghai to Hangzhou - Train
• 6th July - Hangzhou to Kuala Lumpur - Plane
• 7th July - Kuala Lumpur to Kuching - Plane
• 15th July - Kuching to Singapore - Plane
• 18th July - Singapore to KL - Bus
• 19th July - KL to Tianjin - Plane
• 19th July - Tianjin to Bejing - Coach, Bullet Train, Subway
• 6th August - Beijing to Inner Mongolia - Coach
• 7th August - Inner Mongolia to Shanxi province - Coach
• 8th August - Shanxi province to Beijing - Coach
• 20th August - Beijing to Shenzhen to Hong Kong - Plane and coach
• 26th August - HK to Shenzhen to Nanjing - Coach and Plane