loobsloobs

This weekend I went on my first long distance trip within China to the ancient city of Xi'an. I took a two hour flight out on the Friday evening and arrived at my hostel around midnight. Resisting the lively bar, I popped off to bed pretty much straight away so that I could get up early to join one of the tours of the local sites, arranged by the hostel. This turned out to be a pointless plan, as staying in the dorm room next to me were a group of Chinese who were either deaf and unaware of their own volume, or completely ignorant to anyone else actually existing around them. Argh. The next morning there were about 10 of us in total on the tour, all squeezed into a mini van to head to ... read more

This weekend I went on a trip to Hangzhou, which is about 1 or 2 hours south of Shanghai by train, depending on which train you get. What was originally meant to be a group of four turned into a group of 11 teenagers all coming along too. On arrival we split into groups of four to taxi it to the hostel (invitingly call 'Mingtown') that we had booked. Naturally, we couldn't find it and ended up arriving an hour later. By the time everyone was organized it was already half way through the afternoon. Now came the next major hurdle - trying to find somewhere to eat. I have noticed something that teenagers do which is definitely an age thing - they pack together and get very anxious at the idea of not being part ... read more

At the beginning of the week, after the weekend during which Alex and Anna arrived, I started my internship. The media/publishing company I am working for is called Sinomedia, whose main publications are China Economic Review - ' a premier English language business magazine', Eurobiz - 'the official journal of the European Chamber of Commerce in China' and Spa Magazine (I’m sure you can figure that one out yourselves). If you have nothing better to do (get a hobby), they all have websites you can Google. I arrived at the office on a raining Monday morning feeling surprisingly calm and really did not have any nerves. Being thrown in at the deep end in a completely different culture, where you don't speak the language, certainly forces you to get face a lot of fears and challenge ... read more

During last week I found myself with a lot of time to spare, having not yet started work and only doing a two hour mandarin course on most afternoons. I decided to join the masses and get myself a bike. This may sound a bit extravagant but in China you can pick one up for next to nothing. After a trip to the Carrefour next to my apartment, I set off to find Jing'an temple on my newly purchased ten-quid bike called "Classic". A very large chunk of the population cycles in China and most roads have cycle lanes down the side to accommodate them. The social pecking order goes cars, motor bikes, bikes then people and so the traffic flows along to this. Being somewhat aware of what is coming up behind you always helps ... read more

Greetings! So I am now living in an apartment right in the middle of one of the busiest streets for 'night life'. On first impressions I almost died (no really) upon setting foot into my new accommodation, mainly as it had not been cleaned at all so was covered in clutter belonging to the previous guest (including one tube of Vagisil, nice). I am glad to say I have now got over this and am trying to see 'the funny side'. My first day was spent shopping for a few essentials. Armed with my Mandarin phrase book I headed to what could be described as a super giant Dixons, to get myself a Chinese phone charger. I was so proud of myself on leaving the shop charger in hand. Of course when I got back to ... read more