Blogs from Xiangfan, Hubei, China, Asia

It feels like quite some time since I actually talked in any great detail about Xiangyang, the city I lived in until very recently, so let's do that. Given where it's situated - 10 hours from Xi'an, 18 hours from Beijing in, truth be told, a fairly nondescript province in the middle of China - it's never likely to be any kind of foreign tourist Mecca, particularly given the competition there is for tourism amongst Chinese cities. This competition is, of course, one of the problems for any country where the development has been so rapid and vast, because villages that become towns and towns that become cities in such a short space of time can't do anything other than build a city-by-numbers. This is convenient in a Milton Keynes sort of way but it does ... read more

As you'd expect, one of the most challenging things to get used to when you move to China - aside from the spitting, the urinating and defecating in the street, the language, the noise, the fireworks, the haphazard approach to building, the traffic, the smog and the fact that everywhere is busy all the time - is the food. This probably applies to most countries, I remember after two months in Costa Rica I was literally dreaming about eating cheese on toast, but China is undoubtedly on the extreme end of that particular spectrum. As you'll know, the staple is either rice or noodles, which are fine and I think I have eaten at least one of these every day since I arrived here five months ago. The slightly peculiar thing is that some restaurants serve ... read more

KTV, or Karaoke to you and me, is massive here. I know the stereotype is of drunk Japanese businessmen singing along with Shakira songs until the early hours but that image applies just as accurately to China as it does to Japan or anywhere else. The KTV bars themselves are quite literally on every street, in this city at least. There aren't a huge amount of normal bars or clubs here and so often on work nights out, birthdays, or other general celebrations, KTV seems to be the go-to-place. The ones I have seen have entrances and reception desks that have a very real feel of a fancy hotel about them. Once you have booked your room, you go to the shop and buy whatever you think you will need to help you sing infront of ... read more

As I write this, I'm in a cafe listening to a Pan-Pipe cover of 'I wanna know what love is' by Foreigner. I wasn't sure what to expect with the music here, but it is, perhaps unsurprisingly, largely pop or dance stuff. Most of it is Chinese, obviously, but if you are only half paying attention or you don't listen to the words, musically it could pass for generic Western pop music. That's not to say American and European music hasn't infiltrated these shores to some extent. On occasion I will be walking down the street and hear something familiar being played in a shop or on the radio of a passing car. Shakira, Coldplay and Lady Gaga all seem to be fairly popular - and last week I heard Chelsea Dagger by The Fratellis in ... read more

Last Tuesday was Tomb-Sweeping day here in China. This is a festival where the graves of relatives are tended and visited in much the same way as we might do on the anniversary of a death. As well as being a day for this, it is also, in this part of the country at least, a day when people who have moved away from their home towns or their families, return to see them. Despite all of this, for me it just meant I had a few days off work. This all fitted in quite nicely as it came just as I was getting over my dependence on the toilet, as delicately described and documented last time, and it meant there was a chance to have a day or two exploring the city. So, day one ... read more