tenpintolan

I’m sitting at Amsterdam airport right now waiting for my flight back to Scotland. So I thought it would be a good idea to write my little conclusion if you like about my year in China. I will start by saying this year has been the best year of my life by far. I’ve got to meet some amazing people, travelled throughout this beautiful country and ate just the most delicious food. But having said that, I would also say that this year has been far from plain sailing. It has been an emotional rollercoaster from start to finish. I still remember how difficult the first couple of months were. This was my first time leaving the UK, and as soon as I set foot over here I was just so overwhelmed. I was ridiculously home ... read more

Wuxi is the next City over from Changzhou and is a mere 40km away. It is pretty amazing to think that the bullet train can cover that distance in 12 minutes. The bullet train can reach a top speed of almost 400km an hour. And moreover the Chinese government is working on a new bullet train that can top 500km an hour. My boss, who is very much anti-government over here, told me that the main reason they are working on this isn’t actually for faster journeys; but to show off to the rest of the world. They are saying ‘look what we can do’. Like I said, Wuxi is extremely close to where I am now, but it has taken me a year to actually visit the city. The reason for this is just what ... read more

I paid a visit to Nanjing this past week, and stayed there for a couple of days. I stayed at the Fuzimiao International hostel and I very much enjoyed my stay there. The hostel was full of foreign travelers, which isn’t something that can be said for a lot of the hostels I have stayed at in China. Most are full of Chinese travelers. So it was a nice wee change to meet some native speakers. I arrived quite late on the Sunday so I just crabbed something to eat and relaxed in the lounge. I ended up chatting to a German girl, an English girl, and a Dutch guy. The two girls happened to be English teachers as well so it was nice to have a wee bitch about all the foolish things the Chinese ... read more

This past week, I spent a couple of days in Suzhou. I plan on going to a different city every month up until October, when I go home. This month it’s Suzhou, next month Hangzhou, then Nanjing, and finally Beijing. Suzhou is only 40 minutes on the train from where I am now, and I believe it’s regarded as one of the most beautiful cities in the whole of china. I had heard a number of different quotes describing the natural beauty of the city. My favorite goes something like this, ‘above there is heaven, below there is Hangzhou and Suzhou.’ So you can see why I was so eager to visit this city. I stayed at a hostel named ‘The Waterfront’. The last couple of hostels I stayed at were proper phenomenal, with modern restaurants ... read more

I spent a couple of days in Shanghai at the start of the month for my birthday and I had a great time. Before I left Changzhou I made this ridiculously long plan of all the things I was going to do, and it would have taken at least a week to do all the things on the list. But hey, it’s better to be overly prepared than under prepared. I even had directions to all the places I was planning on going to just so I didn’t get lost. I would have hated it if I had gotten on the wrong subway and ended up trapped in some wee village. I stayed in the Phoenix hostel and it is really is a great place for expats to stay at. The dorm rooms are a decent ... read more