Blogs from Zhabei, Shanghai, China, Asia

19/11 We left Chengdu after a quick breakfast in the hotel. We got a taxi to the airport- there was one waiting outside the hotel, they initially wanted ¥70 for the trip so we walked off, to which they agreed to use the meter. The journey actually only cost ¥50! Cheeky buggers, and we think the hotel was in on it, getting a cut of the expensive prices! Checked in at the airport and wandered around..we were quite early and there wasn't much to look at, so we decided to sit in pizza hut and figured that 10.30am was a good a time as any for a pizza...! Flight to Shanghai was fine and we got more food...didn't eat much of it though, more beef and rice! Got a taxi from the taxi rank at the ... read more

is an English phrase that must have come directly from the Chinese, because it is probably the only Chinese sentence that translates directly and literally into English. Also four words, "好久不见 (hao jiu bu jian)" is a fairly common phrase in this language, and is commonly used as a greeting for old friends. In the two months since I've last written a post, I got and subsequently lost a tan, saw the Three Gorges Dam, enrolled in school (again), moved in with my girlfriend, looked for and then stopped looking for an apartment, etc. Too much to fit in this post, so most of it will probably never be recorded for posterity. A shame for those of you who follow my travails, but for me a proud and romantic reclamation of the privacy of my memories. ... read more