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Published: August 15th 2019
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Barbecue items, still not really sure how it works So our idling about came to an abrupt halt as we had to go to work. We were collected by taxi, which was just as well as the addresses are not easy to find and are usually part of a huge building. Finding the right entrance is a challenge. We got there early and were taken for a coffee in Starbucks, which was a nice start. We walked in like members of the Royal family, the staff all clapped. Oh dear! But the little children were the cutest ever and so polite. Lunch was a takeaway, Chinese food, but not as WE know it. Really interesting although we weren’t too hungry and declined dinner at the end of the day due to exhaustion and needing some down time. The worst part of the experience is the shared toilets which are part of the whole building. 3 squatties (I don’t mind them except that the smell was awful and the lack of privacy noisewise was very, very offputting. Leslie was not at all keen. Needs must! Maybe the Chinese people don’t care about hearing everything that goes on! Someone was in one of the cubicles for ages, clearly PLAYING A GAME ON
THEIR PHONE! How could they? The second day when this happened and I was queuing I banged on the door but to no avail, they still didn’t come out.
We got put in a taxi to come back and after a bit of chill time, still not hungry, we went out for a walk around. Forget finding a bar. There aren’t any that are obvious. There is a huge intersection near the hotel with little rows of shops all round and entrances to a metro station. We crossed to the other side over the longest ever zebra crossing with no green man. A Chinese lady was strolling over and there was an angry looking line of cars ready to go. Leslie said to give it a go so we started across and immediately the cars started moving. We panicked a bit so half jogged over and the cars let us through. It was very dangerous as it was dark, and on the way back we went down into the metro and came out at the entrance on the other side. This was a much more relaxing plan!
We didn’t find any place to eat or drink that looked
easy, and mostly we had no clue what the places even were, so we came back to the hotel and went to the restaurant. We said restaurant and Leslie mimed eating. They looked alarmed. I played the word beer from google translate and they looked happier. We went outside onto the terrace on the 5th floor and there was a huge bottle of Budweiser on a sign so we pointed to it and mimed 2. I played the word menu and they brought one all in Chinese and no pictures. Google camera translate made a right meal of it, excuse the pun. I offered to stroll around the people eating and point to things but a waiter took us over to the barbecue area, which had an assortment of items, pigs’ trotters, kidneys, slices of ear, vegetable, skewers with chicken and meat. We smiled a lot at the guys cooking as they looked at us nervously. Leslie ordered chickens’s feet, I ordered pork skewers and neither of us fancied the tripe, which appears at most meals. I asked for edamame/soya beans, I’m not sure which, and they came with boiled peanuts, both delicious. The food and beer was great and
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Drinks menu. One beer item cost 140RMB, what on earth could that be? so cheap at 55RMB/£6.50 for 2. We thought it was a mistake but it wasn’t. And we got free pigs’ ear on a stick from the manager, just for identifying it. 50% cartilage, not a fan, personally.
There was a table of about 8 young Chinese guys who‘d been drinking for a while judging by the number of bottles on the table and floor. They were very red-faced but not rowdy, kept doing toasts until they called it a night and staggered off. They were a bit loud but nothing objectionable and such a contrast to how that would pan out in the UK.
Today was more work, then home to pack and order a taxi to go to the Eastern Railway Station tomorrow where Leslie and I part company for a few days, me for the high speed train to Shanghai, he to his next destination via Nanjing. Then we meet at the train station again on Monday and go on to Hefei.
I’m really enjoying it so far but not looking forward to having to get a taxi for a 70 minute journey in Shanghai tomorrow. I thought about the metro but the stop is
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Drunk Chinese dudes having a lovely time quite far from my first hotel, it’s hot and I’ve got too much luggage, so a taxi it is!
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