From Oz to China

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…..I arrive in Sydney after an uneventful flight from Adelaide sandwiched between a possible ex-army colonel & a Kyle Sandilands lookalike who wears headphones for the whole trip.....

…..into the International Departure Lounge, a sea of people rummaging frantically through bags, pockets, purses, etc to unearth the nail-clippers or miniscule quantities of any liquid that might lead to a mid-air disaster.....

…..an hour or more waiting for the flight, trying to find creative ways to take pictures using all those reflections in the glass that are unavoidable at airports. A beaut, mild, sunny Sydney day.....

.....Gate 25 opens, all aboard. Aisle seat, I can just see blue sky through the window beyond the wing. Looks like a nice day to be sitting ON the wing.....

…..finally make conversation with the young (30s..!) Chinese man next to me. Educated in Beijing & en route to Shenzhen on business. My video screen was showing the flight details, airspeed, outside temperature, distance to destination etc. in international & American units so I asked him about the Chinese character for “Miles”. He said his name was Daniel but further conversation reveals it is actually Degang. I get a really good lesson in Chinese characters (I'm still nowhere near making sense of them yet) & some useful hints about Chinese food. It is also very encouraging that he can understand my basic Mandarin & doesn't think my accent will cause too many problems.....

…..aeroplane food - it's as though a very well equipped laboratory somewhere has had a go at making a meal out of synthetic ingredients & come remarkably close to emulating the taste of real food. The final step is always just beyond the available technology.....

….I think I'll eat my aircraft food with the chopsticks provided rather than the plastic knife & fork in an effort to practice & later avoid the unmentionable loss of face in having to ask, “Wo bu hui yong kuazi, qing gei wo chadzi”, (I can't use chopsticks, please get me a fork”). Only a little lands on the jacket that is foolishly placed on my lap.. ...

…..I didn't realise years ago that my mum's constant imprecations not to put my elbows on the table & tuck my arms in were preparation for a life where air transit means economy class & eating there requires the skills necessary to join a circus acrobatic squad.....
….. later, the real test.....Rules for eating noodles with chopsticks on an economy class seat (this is a Qantas flight by the way):
1. ensure passengers nearby are sleeping soundly or wearing headphones,
2. remove all loose clothing, books & electrical equipment from the area.
3. pretend you are actually on a desert island & no one can really see you.
4. if possible undertake the exercise in the presence of Chinese people - you may not be as proficient with the kuaidzi but you won't look any worse than your companions as a dripping clump of noodles refuses to separate into manageable portions.....

…..Hong Kong looks amazing, topographically, from the airport window. They also have free internet terminals to send messages, look up e-mail etc......

…...HK to Shanghai, Dragon Air (a branch of Cathay Pacific). The air stewardess compliments my Chinese accent & the fact I'm able to make rudimentary conversation after 6 months. I try to get some sleep in case I end up wandering around Shanghai with my baggage (no, please, NO!) until the next morning. Some conversation with the girl next to me travelling home to Shanghai with her parents. More realistic, she has trouble understanding some of my Chinese & I can't understand her replies.....

…..Shanghai, Pu Dong airport, huge, ultra-modern but not the sea of humanity I had expected. By 9.30pm when my flight arrivs there are not that many people around.....

…..the worst feeling is watching a baggage conveyor going round & round until everyone else has gone & your luggage ain't there! It may be revenge by the officious bi... sorry, lady, at Adelaide airport who heard my muttered comments after she directed me to the desk then, when everyone had lined up at another spot told me to go to the back of the line. I'd also printed out the page from their website indicating that a musical instrument could be carried on board as an EXTRA piece of hand luggage. They eventually agreed to put it in the hold without charging excess baggage.....

…..waiting for my bags to arrive on the next flight, according to the lady at the desk. I buy a can of local Tsingtao beer (8RMB as opposed to 28RMB for a 300ml bottle of Starbucks iced coffee). The guy in the shop, with very little English, offers to help me to find an elusive internet connection to communicate that I've arrived. The phones only take cards & instructions in Chinese are not encouraging. He starts lifting the little aluminium inspection covers in the floor to reveal some dodgy looking wiring & places I can plug my laptop into. I have a quick look at a secluded group of covers behind the phones but decide against it. Anyway, I have no network cable.....

…..by this time it's down to sleeping on the airport seats & waiting until the buses to Shanghai start again in the morning. A few others, mainly Chinese, doing the same. I wrap the straps of my camera & laptop around my arm & doze. After a day of power naps on the plane it shouldn't be too bad.....

…..I wake up around 5am & start wandering around with my trolley of luggage, figuring out which stop to go to (on what level) to catch the right bus to Shanghai station. I see 2 police chasing 2 guys (who get away). Lots of shouting & haranguing a woman who may have been with the 2 escaped criminals. She gives as good as she gets & they disperse. I don't know enough to make sense of the conversation unfortunately.....

…..After wandering up & down it still isn't clear where correct bus stop is. I end up on the airport shuttle bus & my broken Chinese finally lands me my first friend in Shanghai, Xiao Mao Hang. He is an interpreter for Japanese visitors but also knows some English so we are able to make sense of each other (mostly). He confirms what I thought but didn't want to ask outright. His name, xiao mao actually does mean “little cat”. (By the way Mao, as in Mao Zedong, the great Helmsman, is pronounced differently & means “fur”). OK Chinese lesson over). Xiao Mao is keen to improve his English (& maybe even learn the guitar). He gets me on the right bus, walks with me to the train station & even helps me buy the ticket. A very good start - Shanghai station is pretty crowded & with all that baggage it is tough going, especially in the humid heat, in the mid-30s & pretty sticky.....

…..Shanghai, on my cursory glances from the bus window, is BIG, GARGANTUAN, GIGANTIC, HUMUNGOUS. Huge freeway overpasses & flyover junctions, 100s if not, 1000s of huge multi-storey apartment blocks, in clusters. Smog haze, quite hot (mid 30's & humid - still). The station looks a little tired & in need of a facelift but it did have air-con & free bottled water (I went back for about 3 bottles). Announcement board in Chinese & English. 1-3/4 hours to wait for the train.....

…..20kg suitcase + mandolin & violin strapped to it, laptop, backpack with shoes & Hard Disc Drive plus camera. 4 to 5 hour train trip to Yangzhou coming up... Zzzzzzzzzzzz

…..after lying on a deserted beach on the Eyre Peninsula covered in blood with a number of broken bones, & a punctured lung from 3pm to 8am the next day has left me much better able to cope with long, boring waits. The fact that there's no pain is enough. Train delayed 15 minutes... zzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

…..of course the train goes the “pretty” way. The old lady in the seat next to me manages to convey that she is going to Wuxi but, apart from G'day, that is as much as my accent & vocabulary will allow.....

…..still hot & humid but the train is very comfortable, air conditioned & spacious, nicely upholstered seats. A real relief after dragging my luggage around Shanghai.....

…..instead of heading for Zhenjiang then straight across to the neighbouring city of Yangzhou it heads off for Nanjing then doubles back. Still, after a few stops, Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, there are very few people left on the train. A staggering amount of construction everywhere. Either new concrete freeways or endless rows of concrete pylons 10m to 20m high ready for the concrete to be poured for the road, Tower block units 6 or 10 storeys high being built on the outskirts, 20 & 30 storeys high in clusters of 10, 20 & more nearer the centres. Some of the older units, between 2 & 6 storey, look ready to fall down but now & then a string of washing on a crumbling balcony is evidence that people still live there. This is real high density living.....

…..by contrast the approach to Yangzhou is beautiful, despite the continuing, but lessening, smog haze. Hectare after hectare of green paddocks, rice paddys, waterways & ponds, large & small, farmers, water buffalo & white wading birds much like Australian egrets. Even the poorer houses have a definite rustic charm.....

…..out of Yangzhou station thanking the pretty girl in railway uniform who had been cheerfully making sure the carriage was spick & span throughout the trip, I manage to say, in Mandarin, “Your house must be very tidy”. She looks utterly blank but another lady in the seat opposite gets it & laughs. I think she is trying to explain the inscrutable Australian sense of humour as I struggle off the train.....

…..Yangzhou is a different city to the others I've seen, much better kept & looking very prosperous. A hair-raising taxi ride to the school, no seat belts & a Mad Max feel to the cab, with a makeshift thick plastic screen around the driver bolted haphazardly to the seat. White paint by the megalitre totally wasted on lane markings & pedestrian crossings. Bikes, electric & pedalled, scooters, motorbikes, trikes, helmetless riders & passengers of all ages & pedestrians versus taxis, cars, trucks & buses travelling in all directions at once.....

…..after amused looks at my volume of luggage & more conversation in my broken Chinese in the school gatekeeper's office I am met by Rainy, the administrator's assistant. The first impression of the school, a private foreign language school, is sheer size. It is a campus with not only classrooms, gym, tennis courts, running track etc, etc but accommodation for students & teachers, nearly all of whom live on campus. Between 3000 & 4000 students & around 600 teachers, Chinese & expatriate. It is the size of a small Australian town. The campus is modern & nicely landscaped with ponds & even its own little waterfall but on close inspection the buildings, although only 6 or 7 years old, are definitely showing their age.....

…..I meet my new colleagues, new teachers from the US, UK, Canada & Australia (one other Aussie, from Newcastle, NSW. They all appear very friendly & keen to help out. They are largely in their 20s, & 30s. I haven't laid down any ground rules yet but any references to me as “uncle”, “old master” etc. will be vigorously resisted.....

…..dinner in the “Western” kitchen, a small, homely room on the second floor of the main refectory building & dwarfed by the Chinese dining rooms. We apparently get a choice of where we eat later. The food is presented in a row of very Chinese, serve yourself stainless steel containers. It's quite bland & apparently doesn't vary all that much. There is bottled water available around the campus, (don't drink the tapwater!), tea & coffee etc.....

…..my accommodation, on the second floor of a 3 storey block, is a living room, about 4m square, bedroom, about the same, a small but adequate bathroom & a small balcony that would be accessible from the bedroom if the lock worked on the door. The foreign teachers are on this side of the block, on the other side it appears to be mostly Chinese teachers, with their families, living in the same sized units. The construction as mentioned before is starting to look tired & worn, very impressive from a distance but the lines & wrinkles all too evident close up. There's an odd smell, faint & almost like pencil shavings, but not quite. I don't notice it now after a couple of nights. Basic furniture is provided & there's a TV & a DVD player & internet connection via the school's server. I have been busy settling in, finding out how to connect to the net, sending e-mails so I can't tell yet whether the TV/DVD work. Note, must get a kettle......

…...the new teachers are treated to a Chinese banquet by Dr. Wang, the founder of the school. After another hair-raising taxi ride we arrive at the most palatial Chinese restaurant most of us have ever seen. It is a serve yourself (again!) with dishes of all manner of stuff dotted all around the magnificent interior. The consensus is that the food, staggering in its variety, really isn't outstanding. I try a chocolate beer ! It looks like Coke, doesn't taste like chocolate or beer & I go to get something else. Still the meal is a good opportunity to meet some of the teachers I haven't met before. Then there is the taxi ride back. Yangzhou (a “medium sized city of 4-1/2 million”) is a big place by Aussie standards & it takes the best part of half an hour to get back despite saving time by ignoring lane discipline, oncoming traffic doing the same, scooters, other cars, bikes etc. When China starts entering F1 or rally teams in big events the world will have to watch out!.....

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