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Published: October 7th 2012
Panorama, Yangzhou
From the Living Mall, West YangzhouNew photos on:
http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/draftwrite/ …..”This week big horiday. Mid Autumn Festiwal an' then Nationa' Day. What we can do make life difficur' for eweryone?”
“Well for starters you can crank up Internet blocking to ensure that proxies don't work & access to the 'Net in general is slow or impossible”
“We done already. Only affect foreigner people an' a few ours who like look English website”.
“How about removing the tolls, among the highest in the world, from the highways, allowing the masses to travel, well, en masse, for the week?”
“Such good idea, people wir' be ve'y happy, think government ve'y generous”.
I'm sure not all the people caught in the colossal traffic jams created by this policy were as happy as expected. As some waited for hours at the toll gates later arrivals were met with queues hours long just to get through. Even then the 300km trip from Shanghai to Nanjing on the first day of the holiday apparently took over 10 hours & people in other places are reported to be playing tennis or doing push-ups next to, or dozing in, their cars, parked on the gridlocked highways.....
…..Chinese weddings
Martha and Family
My English teacher colleague with her daughter and husband at the wedding are now not such an exotic experience. Having been to a few I am prepared for my Tong shi de, (Colleague's), wedding. I have been asked to sing a couple of songs. No big deal but first I need to get there. Martha, one of the English teachers in my office, offers to meet me at the Century Mart, not far from Gloria Jean's coffee bar, to show me where to go as I can only interpret part of the address from the invitation. Why do I assume it's not far from there?.....
…..after I call her she arrives on an e-bike & tells me to get on the back. Not with my guitar, It can't be far, I'll walk. She asks one of the rickshaw driver how much? ¥30. Way too much! Reluctantly I hop on the back, clutching my guitar, for a hair-raising trip to a very large restaurant on the other side of the Football stadium.....
…..the wedding is as expected. Packs of expensive cigarettes are personally delivered to every table. I quickly dispose of them under the table but the woman delivering them assumes she somehow forgot & replaces them. The MC, who recognises
Canal Trip
Teachers on Yangzhou's Canal me from a previous wedding, is over-amplified & would be even if he were not bellowing into the microphone at the top of his voice. The sound is deafening. Food starts to arrive in unmanageable quantities to the, (literally), dozens of tables. There is a variety of drinks to choose from, Drinking yoghurt, orange juice or baijiu, (which you will remember is the disgusting, lighter-fluid which is used to celebrate special occasions & destroy brain cells at most Chinese functions). I wish cold beer were available but opt for orange juice......
…..having heard the song on an online radio station & liked it enough to add it to my repertoire I now know that “Apologise”, by the band One Republic, is also well known in China. It goes down so well that they want me to do another one. I know “Hey Jude” is also popular, (great song but why, in China, in 2012.....?). I can't remember all the words so I play, “With a little help from my friends”, which I find Chinese people also like. Tumultuous applause. They even had a microphone stand this time. Hey, the wedding's not SO bad.....
…..it's that time around the
Brad, Artist
New Canadian teacher changing of seasons, warm but not hot days, usually around 25C, with cool evenings, that people start catching cold, including the dreaded man-cold. It's probably what I have but it's hard to shake off, especially when there are several occasions in the week when I need to be in good voice. No, no expressions of sympathy please, I'll struggle on.....
…..Steve & I play at the opening of the new Lavazza coffee bar, owned by Jim Zhang, manager of Gloria Jeans. He has us set up in a big open area on the third floor of the Living Mall in West Yangzhou, playing a relaxed set to invited guests drinking coffee & eating cakes brought in by a woman who has made some pretty amazing confections. Our friend Elaine, who has been Steve's Chinese teacher for the last few weeks, shows a talent for singing with a song that I sometimes play with Sunshine.....
…..I almost forgot, a Grade 4 kid run over at school by a visiting mum in an SUV. Not critically hurt but still taken to hospital & traumatic for him, his parents, the witnesses & the driver. I still don't know why the mother
Emmy, Wuxi
Our friend from the hostel, at a hotpot restaurant was allowed to drive right into the elementary school area....
…..man-cold nonwithstanding, (no, please, I really don't need your sympathy...), Steve & I go to Wuxi together on Wednesday for our gig at the Red Lion. We need to get to the West bus station before 8.50am. I don't think that's early but Steve does. I tell him we should leave by 7.30am just in case, with holiday traffic, there's a hold up. He doesn't have big plans for Tuesday night & he appears to be awake when I call him at 7am to ensure he's up. 7.30am I'm at his door.
“Yeah, er, OK, I just need to pack...”. You what?!!!
There follows a hurried rush grabbing clothes, laptop, guitar, from the floor, backs of chairs etc. & 10 minutes later we appear ready to leave. Then he takes a detour to the laundry.
“Er, just need to get my clothes out of the dryer...” The what?!!!!!!
Some are not quite dry but selected clothes are removed from the backpack, thrown to the ground & replaced by still damp clothes from the laundry room. Finally the excess is hurled into his room & we're off. Luckily the traffic
On the bus, Hangzhou
...for an hour and a half isn't bad & we're still on time.....
…..our friend Emmy, from Yunnan, is working at the hostel again. Some of Steve's friends from his previous school in Yangzhou arrive for the day & for the evening's gig. They don't get the same holidays as regular schools & have to return the following day to teach. It all goes quite well once we've got the PA system sussed out with some help from ex-Yangzhou musician Danny, who runs an open-mike session at the Red Lion. Les, the manager, is a little despondent when Steve's friends arrive, talk vaguely about Indian food then turn en masse to eat elsewhere.
“I just told them it's curry night & we've got a Bangladeshi cook”.
He shows us the kitchen upstairs & we meet Mohan, the chef. He still gives us dinner as part of the deal. The curry is really good too.....
…..after a fairly late night I sleep in. 10am is usually too late for me to think about breakfast & I have to catch a train to Hangzhou at 12.30. I run into Emmy in the reception area. She suggests breakfast & knows a place. Well, OK. The place she
Aussies in China
Peter and Dave in Lin'an has in mind has predominantly pork dishes so I have to decline. She then locates another restaurant. Hot-pot...for breakfast...OK, why not?. Of course with a Chinese person to help, choosing the various accompanying sauces & knowing how long things need to be in the pot, it's an adventure &, while not everyone's choice of breakfast it's a really good meal. Oops, I realise I'm cutting it a bit short to catch my train....
…..off to Hangzhou on the fast train. Cuts the trip from about 5 & a half hours to less than 2 & a half. Comfortable, clean & smooth running. I read recently Amtrack in the USA is just planning to upgrade some of its trains to 200kph, the speed of the slower D trains here. The Gaotie, (Bullet train), travels at 300kph. Already the world's largest high speed rail network, there are 13,000km of track in operation now & they're planning to roll out 20,000km of track between all the major cities by the end of the decade. This accounts for the thousands of concrete pylons all over the country carrying the special track & overhead wires up to 20m above ground level. It's a staggering
Lake, Lin'an
Near Peter's new home bit of infrastructure development.....
…..I am told at Hangzhou station to take the K49 bus to Lin'an, the outlying town where Peter lives. Only 30km, shouldn't take long. Wrong again! I ask the two lesbians next to me in the huge queue for the bus if it's the right one. “Yes, it is”. “But it's a 49, not a K49”. It's OK, we help you”. We get on the bus & the bigger girl gets a seat, the other sits on her lap & gets her neck stroked as I stand with my small suitcase & 2 instrument cases with around 100 passengers, most of us standing. Extensive use of the horn fails to aid our progress through an almost gridlocked Hangzhou on a public holiday week.....
…..”How many stops to the station?”, I ask, after over an hour packed solid, (the driver stopped for more passengers on the way). “3 more stops to the west bus station”, says the smaller girl. Lin'an can't be that big! “You mean there are 2 stations?”. “Yes”.
I call Peter to ask which station he's waiting at. Puzzled pause. “There's only one”.....
…..we finally arrive at the bus station. Nearly
A walk in the Park
West Lake, Hangzhou, a quiet evening stroll an hour and a half. No sign of Peter. One of the girls beckons me to follow. “But I have to find my friend”. They direct me to another bus. “This bus to Lin'an”. “Danshi...danshi...wo juede...(But...but...I thought...)”.
I ask again which bus station this is. Ah! It's
Hangzhou West bus station. Another 40 minutes & I'm in Lin'an, a very small town of about half a million. Peter has sent his address in Chinese which I show to a taxi driver &, another ¥5 poorer, (about 80c Australian!), he meets me & we walk up to his palatial, (compared to my 2 room pad at the school), 6th floor apartment. Nice.....
…..we go to a restaurant he knows for dinner then take an extended walk round the town before going back to watch a DVD. We try to watch Coriolanus, with Ralph Fiennes but modern adaptations of Shakespeare take more concentration than we can muster tonight. When a modern soldier in combat gear says to his blood-spattered CO, “Thou bleedst”, well, it requires a suspension of belief as great as that required to watch Bruce Willis walking around on broken glass with bare feet & still managing to fight
Lamborghinis, Hangzhou
Driving round the crowded streets in first gear off unlimited numbers of heavily armed assailants. We try a less demanding movie.....
…..a bit smoggy the next morning. I pass up on the idea of a KFC breakfast but insist if Peter wants to I could probably stretch to a coffee there. I've done it before when travelling companions have insisted on MacDonalds. There's usually food within easy reach in China. He wants to be an accommodating host though & we walk a bit further & have a breakfast of hot noodles in a tasty soup which sets us up for a walk around the park, up to the small temple at the top. It has some really impressive carved columns & ceiling details.....
…..Peter needs to go to work in the afternoon. Training centres work on a different schedule to the schools as I mentioned earlier. I leave around midday, pleased I've finally caught up with Peter, found him in good health & spirits & with a great idea, (which I'm not going to mention yet, for fear of a jinx). Damn it, I still have to stand on the bus again, from Hangzhou West to the centre of town, after which three taxi drivers can't
Street trader, Hanghzhou
In a loud altercation with the police be bothered to take the fare to my reasonably close hotel & another joker offers to take me on the ¥11 trip for ¥100. Luckily I don't know the word for what I really want to say in Chinese so I just say it in English & rely on body language to transfer the meaning. I hear him reducing it to ¥80 as I storm off. I have to walk about half a km with my little suitcase & instruments before I can get a ride. Hangzhou, I hate you already.....
…..Hangzhou is known as a go-getting, thriving business centre, a city of pretentious noveau riche, awash with BMWs & Mercedes & huge Wankerwagens, those big SUVs that will never, ever be taken out of the already congested city streets. On my walk to the vast West Lake, the jewel in Hangzhou's tourist crown, I spot 2 separate Lamborghinis, in addition to a street trader screaming her lungs out & attracting a huge crowd as police & security men apparently try to confiscate her trike & goods. I think the crowd gets so big they let her go. I hope so.....
…..it's a murky day & soon turns
to evening. Everyone's at the Lake, many of them trundling round in their cars in first gear. Even the man with the red flag in front of the first motor vehicles would have been in town having a pint by the time most of these cars have finished sightseeing. Stone bridges with NO parapet or handrails completely covered with walking visitors & I didn't see a single one fall into the lake. China is truly amazing.....
…..I've just about had enough of Hangzhou by the next day. I have a ticket to Nanjing. It's MUCH quicker to take the fast train there then a one hour bus trip to Yangzhou than take a train from Hangzhou directly, (7 & a half hours!). In the end the fast train stops at Zhenjiang, just across the Yangtse river, so I hop off early & get the bus to Yangzhou. The sky is clear & sunny & it feels nice to be home.....
…..I've included a few photos from the mobile phone on this (Travelblog) site. Other new photos, as usual, are on Photobucket..... The man-cold is getting slowly better, (thanks for all the goodwill vibes I've been getting). Now, I
Statues at the Temple
You don't want to meet these guys in a dark alley need a rest.....
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Peter
non-member comment
Nice
Thank you, it was great of you to make it.