The sorry, the Chinese New Year is pleased

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.....everything is a little out of sequence with YYW editorial, administration & photography staff all over the place, literally & metaphorically, for the past month of the so called spring break. Spring hardly seems the right word when you are in sunny Harbin & it's -15ºC. The New Year itself was lost in the middle of all the travelling around China.....

…..a couple of days in the almost deserted school to recover from the trip to the frozen north. I am now in the frozen centre, with the school covered in a thin layer of snow. Only a few trails of footprints indicate anyone else is around. A good time to make use of the new benchtop cooker in addition to eating out cheaply as there is no food provided on site at this time. Washing in stages using water from the kettle is a good alternative to a cold shower as there is no hot water either.....

…..I have been invited to Jiangyan by Miss Piggy & her family. It will be good to see the Chinese New Year from the inside & know what's happening. Of course things here never turn out as expected.....

…..it's only a little over an hour to Jiangyan, that “small city” of around one million, virtually a suburb of Taizhou.....

…..as honorary uncle I am welcomed to the family home in the warren of alleys near the centre of Jiangyan. It's cold, snow is on the ground &, without heating, doors often left open & no proper functioning bathroom it is a spartan existence. Even in better off middle class households it is common not to have heating & to wear outdoor clothing inside, other than slippers to replace outdoor shoes. There is a great spread of food on the table, all manner of meats & vegetable dishes but so cold! It's hard to pick up small items with chopsticks when your hands are shaking.....

…..learning the terms for Chinese family relationships is difficult. “Mum” (mama) & “dad” (baba) are pretty straightforward. After that it depends on relative age & paternal or maternal relationship. An older sister is “jiejie”, a younger sister “meimei”. Older & younger brothers are “gege” & “didi”. Uncles can be, on the father's side “bobo” (older than the father) or “shushu” (younger). On the mother's side, I think “jiujiu” covers older & younger but I'm already out of my depth. Just call me Shushu.....

…..Mr. Sha hopes I will be able to attend Miss Piggy's wedding. I look a little surprised. When I ask her who the lucky man is it is explained there is no time for boyfriends until after all the studying is done & a career established. I tentatively pencil in 2018.....

…..it turns out that Sha Xiansheng (Mr. Sha) is a security guard at a local club. Both he & Sha Tai Tai (Mrs. Sha) work shifts & consequently are in & out at different times. I have the use of a bike, Miss Piggy has an e-bike, pink of course, but most trips are to the supermarket to get provisions. At least it's a little warmer in there.....

…..I deliver the presents I brought. Mr. Sha is very intrigued by the bottle of Baileys but doesn't open it straightaway. Mrs. Sha says something about the packages of exotic teas & chocolates that seem to reflect that universal polite reaction, “you shouldn't have...”.....

…..it turns out that the Chinese spend the New Year with family rather than friends or even family & friends. Many (most?) watch one of those cheesy variety shows on TV, punctuated in some cases by trips outside to let off firecrackers, rockets & larger ordnance, shock waves from which set off car alarms, adding to the aural chaos. Similar to New Year's Eve in Sarajevo during the siege I imagine.....

…..sitting in front of a TV dressed in multiple layers of clothing, beanie & padded coat watching presumably hilarious but to me incomprehensible comedy sketches, fair to middling singers & snatches of Peking opera isn't the best way to experience Chinese culture. The sunflower seeds are very tasty. These & peanuts are always consumed while watching TV or movies. The highlight of the evening is the electric blanket which has warmed the bed in which I can finally lie & be warm for the next six or seven hours, & I've NEVER used an electric blanket before.....

…..New Year's Day itself is a little more lively, the shopping precinct given over to old fashioned fairground activities, hoop-la, throwing balls into buckets, firing pellets to burst balloons etc in order to win cheap trinkets & goldfish in plastic bags. Ah, it takes me back to my childhood. One fairground ride, a swinging boat in the shape of a dragon. Of course there is street food everywhere.....

…..the following day brings a visit to the paternal grandpa & grandma, let me see, that's yeye & nainai. Everyone not working gets up late. I am in no hurry to get out of this warm bed. There is hot food to cook for breakfast, the cold food left on the table being picked at in between. Miss Piggy goes to the hairdressers in the local supermarket, which she appears to do on a daily basis as the girls fix her hair for a few yuan in minutes. Then there is a long wait for a forty minute bus trip to Taizhou.....

…..grandma doesn't appear to be happy. It's because we are three hours late. We are taken to a private room in a nice restaurant with two tables full of aunts, uncles & cousins, plus Shushu. I am treated like a lord of course & try my best to make conversation, with some help. Apart from a twelve year old cousin Miss Piggy is the only one who speaks any English & that is not always too reliable......

…..Grandma sits next to me & keeps loading my plate then a young aunt joins in. Any misgivings carried over from our fussy culture about having strangers picking out food with their chopsticks to helpfully put in my dish disappeared months ago.....

…..after wandering around another small fairground buying sticks of fairy floss bigger than the children's heads it's off to the grandparents flat.....

…..with Xiao Xin Yu, or Xiao Yu (Small Yu), the cousin, & I manage to discuss the distance by plane to various locations from China, while the rest finish their game of cards. This girl will go far. Another extensive meal, prepared by grandma this time. I think I've eaten too much.....

….. Small Yu's mother offers us a lift back at around 9pm in a very new car. Making mobile phone calls & choosing songs from the large screen mp3 selection on the dashboard leaves a deficit of attention for less compelling tasks, such as looking out for traffic approaching head on as we wander across the lanes or from the side as we enter a 6 lane main road. When I open my eyes again I am surprised to see that we have arrived not at the Pearly Gates but at the alleyways that lead to chez Sha.....

…..I return to Yangzhou after three days despite being pressed upon to stay longer. There is still time to organise a few days at Huangshan, south of Yangzhou. I hope it will be warmer there.....

…..back in Yangzhou foreign teachers are starting to filter back from their travels. Peter is there with his dad, visiting from New South Wales. He's travelled extensively & so is coping quite well with China.....

…..having remembered the name Pu'er, the name of a southern town & one of China's most sought after varieties of tea, from a conversation with Dr. Wei I managed to catch up & deliver some Pu'er tea I'd bought in Beijing.....

…..I have a session tutoring my student in Yangzhou followed by a lunch including, among many other things, donkey, a dark meat that looks a little like beef & is quite rich. I am not so impressed with the terrapin, too chewy.....

…..the Huangshan trip is easy. A train to Nanjing at 7.30pm then a hard sleeper from 10pm arriving at Huangshan at 5am the next morning. It takes a while to find the Lao Jie (Old street) hostel in a tourist area of old streets & alleys in the almost deserted city. The room is clean, spacious & I have my own bathroom, all for ¥140 (Au$23) a night.....

…..Huangshan, or Yellow Mountain, is a cluster of granite peaks dotted with uniquely curvaceous pine trees, in a huge area about an hour's bus trip from Huangshan city. It's confusing as there are Huangshan (city), Huangshan (mountain) plus a town at the foot of the mountain, also referred to as Huangshan, pronounced (sorry my Chinese readers) Hwung-shun. The mountain has been an inspiration artists & poets for centuries.....

…..I find the right bus & spend the rest of the day wandering around the base of the peaks. It's a beautiful, clear, mild day, just what I need. No other foreign tourists but many Chinese.....

…..on the way out a woman wearing a bus conductor's pouch points me to a small bus. “Ni qu Huangshan chengshi ma? Tunxi?” I clarify that they are going to the city & district I need. She replies, “Dui” (“correct”. There is no word for “yes” or “no” in Mandarin). The only unoccupied seat is a tiny wooden bench not actually attached to anything. I smile at the gawking passengers & sit on it. A man at the back moves over & beckons me to the tiny seat space in the corner.....

…..we end up making conversation. A cool guy on the back seat with slicked back hair is a middle aged Chinese Fonz. He's really friendly & also prevents me from getting off the bus one town too early for which I'm eternally grateful.....

…..the American girl who took the little cook's fancy at Harbin's Shi Hua Hotel, with her Icelandic friend & now her brother, are staying at the same hostel. I swap travel notes before they go off to stay at a hotel on the mountain for the night.....

…..when I get back to Huangshan (city) a mannish woman with an Eton crop & her son, in his late teens, invite me into their small restaurant near the hostel. There is a live menu in cages & tanks at the front containing rabbits, chickens, pheasants, terrapins, frogs etc.. I can tell them what I like to eat but not how to order a particular dish. They persevere. I order rabbit, some fish, doufu & various vegetables & let the woman prepare them. “Sui bian” (“Whatever you think”).....

…..the meal turns out a) to be far more than I can possibly eat. b) one of the tastiest meals I have ever eaten. I didn't have to look at an empty rabbit cage at the front as they obviously had some prepared. It only took about 15 minutes.....

…..I forgot to ask what it would cost. “Duo shao qian?” I ask as they pack half the meal into take away containers for tomorrow. “¥200”. “WHAT!!” Au$31. I manage to beat her down a bit but she sticks to her guns & I write it down to experience. It was a memorable meal. Maybe I wasn't ripped off after all.....

….next morning 6.45am the bus from the hostel goes to Yellow Mountain. Summer (her English name) is getting on the bus. She takes me under her wing & speaks reasonable English. She gets tickets for the shuttle bus & the cable car & she's a great photographic model. She's aiming to stay on the mountain overnight, a more expensive option but with the possibility of seeing the clouds between the peaks from above in the morning....

…..just before we part company she bumps into a couple she met earlier, Wan & Lu. They are aiming to walk to the return shuttle bus. Five hours walking up & down the many thousands of steps built on or cut into the granite rocks. They are happy for me to join them.....

…..Wan in particular is very keen to learn as much English as he can. The steps are uneven, precipitous in places, close to some incredible sheer drops & crammed with, mostly Chinese, tourists. The views are out of this world. Just look at the photos. I'm keen to go back, even though my legs will be sore for the next two days.....

…..the bus trip back this time takes two hours as the driver takes an obscure backroad under construction through some interesting villages, stopping en route to clear some rocks from a landslip & using the horn, around the same volume as an ACDC concert, at every bend.....

…..I am fascinated by the great little breakfast cafe where it only costs ¥10 regardless of how much you eat (even a couple of extra items to take away), by some of the craft items on offer near the hostel, the owl in a cage, yes, sadly, in front of one of the little restaurants with a live menu, the outdoor barber I snap from the bridge over the river where many people are doing their washing by hand, including one young woman who managed to look pretty elegant even in rubber boots. There are the street traders in traditional costume wearing more jewellery than they are selling, the fruit seller sculpting pineapples, & the remarkable teeth of Dental Dawg, It's all in the photos.....

…..as a small city of only two & a quarter million in Anhui province not many outside China will know it. I only saw the sad, dilapidated apartments by the railway line on the way home but the city's name sounds cheerful enough to an English speaker - Wuhu.....

…..back to Yangzhou to prepare for teaching next week. I help Rainy by volunteering with a few other teachers for a trip to a media circus to celebrate Lantern Festival, the final celebration of the New Year period on Sunday. We are dressed in Chinese costume & instructed in making tangyuan, a type of rice flour dumplings, with various savoury or sweet fillings, while being interviewed, filmed & photographed for the Yangzhou TV news & newspaper. Apart from that it's a quiet time. Oh, there is the trip to & from the venue in the minibus of death, an 8 seater wreck with seats not attached to anything which, though full when we leave the school, still stops to pick up a mother & her son on the way. Almost not worth a mention now after six months in China.....

Great photo, audio or video opportunities missed:

…..the big firework display going off in the bike lane between Yangzhou hospital & the Grand Canal. An old woman emerged from the bushes by the canal to clear the debris afterwards.....

…..Miss Piggy's ten year old cousin, Li Tian Zhi, having grabbed a lighter, letting off a loud firecracker under a seat in the crowded waiting room of Jiangyan railway station.....

…..the middle aged man at a Huangshan bus stop with a comb-over which, from the back, was an almost perfect replica of Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium.....

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