Last week in China

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Well, I'll tell you about my last week in China. It's a bit late, but as they say; better late than never. Actually I'm already back in Paris for more than a week and I'm happy to tell you that I found a new home! It's not as nice as my current one but it's ok and it's in a good neighbourhood.

Ok, so my last week. The day after the typhoon Heidi and Jessy took me to a place where they sold electronics; a huge building with a lot of little sellers selling all kinds of electronic devices. On the second floor they sold phones; and we went there to look for a fake iphone, or as they call it; a 'mountain village version'. Designed in the US, assembled in China. There was a lot of choice; big iphones, normal iphones, really thin iphones and mini-iphones. I decided to buy a mini iphone; i think it's about 1/8 of the price of a real iphone... Well, I can tell now that the battery is not so good, but for the rest it's pretty nice. Although I can't get the internet working in France. But the nice thing is that all these fake phones in China can have two simcards, so I can put my French and my Dutch simcard 😊 Anyway. It was interesting to see this place also. Oh, and on the way there we could see the effect of the typhoon; some streets were flooded. But that's all, there didn't seem to be a lot of serious damage luckily. After the market I made a 'western dinner' for Heidi and her parents. Or at least I made an attempt, as it was hard to find some ingredients. I invited also Jessy and her parents and in the end there were I think 12 people haha.

Next morning I had to say goodbye to Heidi and her parents and to Jessy and her dad. I took the bus to Hangzhou (3 hrs) and then about 16 hrs in the train to Guilin. So quite a long journey. But the view was amazing. I like the south of China better than the north actually. It's really green and pretty and I think there are less factories. When I arrived in Guilin the next day, Su Linjie (another Chinese girl from my study in Paris) was waiting for me. First we bought a ticket for me to Beijing, and I was lucky to buy the last one! It was a first class (soft sleeper) ticket, cause it was the only one left. Then we went for dinner; ricenoodles (specialty of Guilin) and dim sum. Then I took the bus to Yangshuo to go to the languageschool. When I arrived there it was already dark, but the city seemed really nice. Walter from the languageschool brought me to my dorm where I slept with an American woman. She was quite a caracter and started shouting at Walter a bit that the room was dirty and that I didn't have a sheet. In the end she was nice, but Walter didn't seem to arrange everything really good and she was more than happy to tell him I think. In the dorm I met some other people from the languageschool and went with them to 'West street' (because of all the Westerners...), where all the bars are. And there were many bars. I think we've seen all of them, because every time we went in, but then someone didn't like it and so we went out again. We ended up in 'Kaya bar', which apparently was like the local bar where everyone always went. It was run by a flamish guy 😊

Next morning I wanted to go to the language school to see what I would have to do there. But offcourse I couldn't find the way back (as the night before it was dark) and I got totally lost. Then I took a motorcycle taxi and finally I arrived. Walter told me that friday saturday and sunday was weekend so that I would only help a bit with the 'toastmaster evening' that evening. I had to evaluate some people on their English. But before that there was the whole afternoon. Later another girl asked me if I also wanted to help with the 'English corner' in the afternoon. I first went for lunch in the cafetaria and there I met someone who also had nothing to do, so we walked around in Yangshuo a bit.
Yangshuo is very nice. But very touristy. All the buildings look very nice and 'ancient Chinese' (but offcourse they are far from ancient), and seem to be built especially for the (western) tourists. In Yangshuo almost everyone speaks English and there are also many language schools. It's not the place to be to find real Chinese culture, but it's really relaxed and a good place to chill.
Then it started to rain really hard. Apparently it had been really warm and sunny before, so I think it was me who took the rain from Taizhou... Anyway, we had to wait for a while and decided to have a drink. Then the guy helped me a bit with bargaining on some souvenirs and then it was time for the 'English corner'. Turned out they just put me in front of the classroom with about 10 really shy Chinese guys and then I had to talk in English with them. I think they put me in the class with the lowest level of English. So I had quite a hard time to keep a conversation as they weren't really enthousiastic to speak in English... After an hour the bell rang and they ran out of the classroom to the cafetaria. So I followed them and there I found my fellow volunteers again. After the dinner there was the toastmaster evening. This was a very official meeting, where some Chinese had to keep a little presentation. Some prepared and some unprepared. I had the pleasure to evaluate the unprepared people. It was impossible, as some of them spoke for not even 1 minute, then didn't know what to say anymore or were simply too shy and then the next one came. In this time I had to note about 30 marks about this 1 min. presentation. Nice. The people giving the presentations were really nervous, and I think they didn't make it much easier on them by awarding the 'best speaker' a trophy. It was all a really big deal and really competitive. I think this competitiveness is a typical Chinese thing; in hostels you can often evaluate the service of the staff, and in the airport you can even evaluate the service of the person checking your passport. I'm affraid that if someone receives any negative reviews, they will fire him. There are enough people standing in line to take his job anyway. It's a hard life in China... Anyway. After the toastmaster thing I went with some other volunteers and some Chinese girls to the bar again.

Next day, when I woke up my roommate was preparing to go to the river and do her Tai Chi exercises. I decided to join her and to take a wake up dive. It was great! The Li river is about the cleanest river in China, and the view is just stunning (see photos). It was a good morning exercise cause the streaming was quite strong. After this swimming session I went to explore the countryside with Yoyo, a Chinese girl. We rented bikes and cycled to the countryside. Here the view was even better! In the evening we went with some people to a 'donkey hotpot' restaurant to try some donkey meat. Donkey tastes a bit like lamb... We also had goat meet, which I actuallly liked better. When we finished the dinner we decided to try some of the Chinese liquer that was advertised on the wall. We all took a shot (except for the Chinese girls), it tasted a bit like whiskey I think. But then one of the Chinese girls told that on the bottle it says that it's made of dog and rooster penis. Interesting...

The next morning we went rafting. When I walked towards the school there was a lot of noice; there was a manifestation on the street of cars. From the first one they threw fireworks (strikers) and papers, then there were a lot of people and then a car with a lot of ornaments. I thought it was a kind of protest, but it turned out to be a funeral from a local ethnical group. The firework was to scare away the evil spirits and the paper was 'money' for in the afterlife.
The rafting was a bit different from the rafting we know in Europe (or Australia or anywhere I think). It was more like a huge attraction from an attraction park. It was cool however. And it took very long, about two hours. You don't get that in Disneyland 😉
When we got back I packed my things and went back to Guilin to spend my last evening and day with Su Linjie. When I got there we dropped my heavy backpack at the station and then went for dinner; spicy sticks with all kinds of things, really good. Then we walked around Guiling by night and we went to the nightmarket where I bought a lot of souvenirs. Guilin is really nice by night! Then Su Linjie took me to the hotel of her uncle where I could stay! Really nice.

And then my last day in China (minus traintrip) had arrived! When I woke up I couldn't really open my eyes because a musquito decided that it was funny to sting me on the eye... :S But anyway. Su Linjie and her mum took me to a party of her uncle; his son was accepted to a university. They reserved 5 tables in a restaurant to have lunch. Actually Su Linjie told me that she didn't know these people very well... In the other side of the restaurant there was a wedding. And also the actual ceremony was held there, while everyone was enjoying the lunch. This is very different, since they are not christian anyway. Su Linjie told me that normally after the lunch they go to the married couples house to play some games.
We went to see the famous 'elephant hill' after the lunch. One of the guys from our table joined us. He was funny, because he was a great fan of monarchies and he knew everything about the Dutch queen! He was able to learn me a lot about her too haha. About her sisters etc. The three of us took a tourist boat on the Li River to see this famous hill that resembles an elephant (see picture). After this we walked around a bit in the centre of Guilin and through a really nice parc, and then we had to go to the station to catch my train to Beijing.

The soft sleeper was really nice; I was in a closed cabin with two Chinese mothers with both a child and a french guy that was professeur de langue et culture chinois 😊 Next to our cabin was the rest of his family plus a couple of a Norwegian girl and a Dutch guy! So this 27 hrs trainride was as comfortable as could be!
The next evening I arrived in Beijing, took a taxi to my hostel, slept and then next morning I took the plane back to Paris! And now I'm back for more than a week already. Away from the smog, squad toilets and staring people, but also from the amazing scenery, great food and the Chinese hospitality!

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Photos

Taizhou
Flooded streets after the typhoon

Heidi and her parents
Heidi and her parents in their house

Yangshuo
Mists after a big rain. This is the view from Yangshuo over the Li River...

Yangshuo
This is where I went swiming!

Yangshuo
Doesn't it look nice?

Yangshuo countryside
The countryside around yangshuo

Yangshuo countryside
Woman with a buffalo

The donkey restaurant
In the pan the donkey meat

Guilin
With Su Linjie and the monarchie-loving guy in the restaurant

Guilin
Fisherman. From the tourist boat.

Guilin
The sun and moon tower

Comments

[Carolien]

herkenbaar!
Hee Renate! Ik ben nu ook net terug uit China, maar ik ben wel alleen in Beijing geweest. Je verhalen zijn erg herkenbaar, vooral het deel van de smog, hurkwc's en de starende blikken. Maar de mensen zijn superaardig, en het is een prachtig land. En ik vond de chinezen ook erg gelukkig en tevreden, meer dan ik verwacht had. Dus nu ben je terug in Paris en moet je aan de franstalige opleiding. Gaat het lukken denk je? X Carolien

[dian]

i'm happy not to have encountered the donkey restaurant :-) (i don't eat that) but the rest sounds really cool ! Looks like you've seen traditional china and a traditional typhoon... :-P