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Published: September 13th 2009
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We're still here... so the blogging continues....
After having been away from the UK for over ten months we thought that we'd want to go home in early September in time for graduate recruitment and university intake time of year. But instead we've accepted a great job offer where we will remain based in Zibo but will do bits of work in lots of cities around China. We couldn't miss the opportunity to travel more whilst still getting home in time for Christmas, avoiding rainiy recession autumn in England.
We finished at school a few weeks ago following final exam week and parent meeting week. Leaving the classes that we've taught for 24 weekends felt funny but we soon realised that children are fickle so we shouldn't get too emotional. We took all the staff out for a Xinjiang dinner (mutton kebabs and naan bread). They see foreigners come and go all the time but we were really sad to leave.
Summer in Zibo was fantastic. It was long and incredibly hot. Finding that critical speed on a bike where you're going fast enough to create breeze but not so fast that you're getting sweaty
was very important. We've doggy sat for our friend's puppy, watched a football match at the Zibo stadium, set off fireworks in honour of Tristan's 23rd birthday, had two lots of visitors- my friends Faye and Laura and my mum and dad, had a hair cut that took an hour and a quarter (Tristan, not me), drunk san bian jiu (three penis wine- the penises having belonged to deer, 'sea dog' and regular dog apparently) and watched a nearly total solar eclipse that was ignored by everyone elso in Zibo.
After finishing school we moved into our new apartment and headed off on holiday. The first stop was Tunxi in beautiful rural Anhui province due west of Shanghai. Controversially we didn't go there to climb Huangshan, China's most beautiful mountain, becasue we knew it would be swarming with people and we wanted to be somwhere quiet. Instead we climbed another fantastic mountain nearby and visited the ancient villages of Hongcun and Xidi, apparently where some of the scenes from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon were shot. They are gorgeous white-with-black-tiled-roof ancient villages but a bit too manicured for us and the countryside was a bit tame. Thus we were
glad to move on to Wuyuan in Jiangxi province where the villages are more living and the countrside more hardcore.
Wuyuan town may be one of the most mangey places in China. We were excited to find a YHA hostel there but then we discovered that it wasn't fully built, we were the only guests, there was not a word of English spoken and no travel info. We ended up having dinner with the owners and the work men on the floor of the restaurant they were building.
Rural Wuyuan ('The most Beautiful country in China', according to its official slogun) is fantastic. We travelled around the countryside on the back of a local IT teacher's motorbike taking in the sights and spent two nights actually in the villages sleeping in farm households, eating great food, drinking mejiu (local sweet rice wine) and doing some cool walks in the hills. It's all bout the bamboo and tea down there so the landscape's a lot different to the dry brownness of Shaanxi, Henan and Shandong that we're used to.
After that lovely dose of quietness and clean air we took a long bus ride to
Shanghai which is now our favourite city in China. It's such a balmy place when you think about the speed of change there in the last few decades. Pudong felt a bit like Gotham City when we first saw it in the dark- the Jinmao Tower and World Financial Centre are incredible. But there's also the lovely French Concession area (the Chinese don't call it that)- the Europeanness makes it feel much more homey than big feng shui checkerboard Beijing. We met my dad who was working in Shanghai and were completely spoilt. Being around loads of foreigners and to eat international food after so many months in Zibo was overwhelming.
So we're hoping to be travelling all over the country with our new job. But that won't really get going till after the national holiday preiod at the start of October. This year is the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China so we'll have a week long holiday. For once though we've decided to stay put in Zibo and focus on trying to learn some more Chinese. Anyway, we haven't yet exhausted all the experiences that life in Zibo has to offer...
Better City Better Life
Me, my Dad and the Shanghai Expo 2010 mascot
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tristanandcharlie
journey to the east
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