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Published: January 31st 2008
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Yesterday we went to the beautiful town/city of Suzhou (sue Joe) which, though it is only 75Km from Shanghai, was unfortunately separated from it by the mother of all traffic jams. Tranglam trachta sron le toin (no fadas out here) (That's Irish, by the way) doesn't even begin to describe it! I kid you not we were in the car for 10 hours yesterday...5 there and 5 back, for a journey that typically takes 1 and a half hours max each way. It seems that Shanghai exists in a cosy little microclimate where snow is kept to a minimum by the heat generated by 17 million people. Just a few miles outside the city we hit the real thing. Snow ho ho. Not lorryloads of it, exactly, but loads of lorries which were on the expressway during the day because it had been closed the previous night. At one stage the 12 lanes of traffic queueueing up to pay to get out of Shanghai were trying to merge into the 2 unsnowcovered lanes of the Nanjing Highway. I can't believe I'm writing so much about such a boring topic as traffic but it is just bizarre to sit in a car
on a highway without actually moving an inch for long periods, then suddenly it's all fine and everything moves on as normal. I suspect someone up in Beijing finally took out a big corkscrew to ease up the bottleneck. It was fine at the time, we were in great spirits throughout and laughing heartily at ourselves, but God Almighty you'd be dying for someone to come on the radio and explain..even 'talk to Joe on 1850 715...' which of course will never happen because the news here is that the govt is happy to announce that the traffic situation is improving hugely, immensely and massively on all routes throughout the whole country as a result of swift govt action, so it is. So there. I felt very sorry for the people in the even worse traffic 'heading' the other direction...buses, trucks, cars, and you can be damn sure lots of them spent the whole night on the road, freezing, maybe without moving a centimetre. Grr.
Ok, enough about traffic. I never in all my life had such a bee in my bonnet about it. Mind you the bees would have been very comfortable yesterday - the bonnet hardly moved
the whole day.
So - the town of Suzhou is gorgeous, a real nugget of Chinicity just a stone's throw from Shanghai - if only I were a stone. I won't bother describing it much as photos are provided free of charge with this great-value blog. Most buildings are 1, 2 or 3 stories high, so a bit closer to home! We took a trip in the new-style Chinese rickshaw - a glorified tractor lawnmower with a few windbreakers attached to the back. Byewful imperial gardens to be seen, everything topped with snow. Also pagodas, canals, lights by night, and of course the ubiquitous KFC and McDonalds. The town actually was worth the trip. Oh - did I tell you about the trip...?!
Staggering back into Shanghai around 2am also brought a few new sights...the wheelbarrow-wielding vegetable sellers queueueueing up to buy their stock from the on-street wholesalers...a noisy business with that lovely basket of oranges going to the highest bidder. Not an easy life, I'd say. Also I was struck (again, not literally) by the imaginatively stacked lorries sneaking through the city night, wearing nothing but revealing netting, or nothing at all in the case of those
carrying ..I don't actually know the word for this..dead pigs, or bits of them anyway, to the butchers, or wherever. Sorry Claire, and sorry to the person who has to clean up after Claire if she spews. I suppose it's all the same at home but those covers with which lorries preserve their modesty probably hide all sorts.
Luckily, we didn't have to go to the conducting course as planned at 9am, as Hailing and her great friend Jenny are effectively interchangeable and mutually obliging and the lovely Jenny - she of the Maria Doyle Kennedy appearance - got up this morning instead. So we went to work at 2, where a bleary-eyed Hailing provided all the necessary musical and linguistic services and I read a few English words, for example 'brim-filled'. Sure I'm indispensible.
Readers of my first, action-packed blog entry might be interested to know that I bought a new suitcase, a genuine imitation Samsonite, for the much-haggled-to price of 15 euro. Of course I was rubbish at haggling, but my local expert was a bit better and knew all the tricks such as when to walk away and let them shout at you to come
back. One guy, from whom we did not buy, was raging with Hailing for taking the side of the stupid foreigner instead of doing her bit for the country's economy. I must try this haggling lark myself, bring out the ruthless streak, the Duignan business sense.
Mr. Mao is on the telly here as I write. He's also on all the banknotes. The largest banknote is 100 Yuan = 10 euro. Bertie would need a big safe for that. I am still spending, or rather doing my best to spend, my salary, but it is bloody difficult when no one will let you pay for anything. Even threats of violence don't work. I'm hoping to have the pleasure of using an ATM some week soon. I don't seem to know anyone here except stubborn mules who won't budge.
Photos on the way - tomorrow. The pressure is killing me now that Grace Maxwell is reading my blog...and she the original and best blogster. It' ll be high-level literature from here on, with footnotes, roysh!
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Filo Lara
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At last I could see the pictures
I´m glad that you had a good time in Shangai. We have finished our pig year and you have started in China the next one.