Advertisement
Published: April 1st 2007
Edit Blog Post
Well I guess I should start with an April Fool's joke but I can't be bothered! I don't think it's 'celebrated' here, so when in Rome...
Summer is officially here in Sichuan. If you live in China or happen to be here when the season changes, you'll notice they change within a blink of an eye, literally within a week. A week ago I was wearing a cardigan, the occasional scarf and wasn't even considering exposing my toes to the air! However since then it has jumped several degrees to the mid 20'Cs, the sun has been out (very unusual for Chengdu as we are on a plain and what with that and the pollution, we rarely see blue sky) and the air-con has become a necessity! I have been moaning about being cold for months but now the heat has arrived so suddenly I am quite unprepared and am a wee bit disgruntled at going back to constantly perspiring (we ladies don't sweat of course, we gently perspire)! Added to that is my bafflement that the Chinese don't seem to feel the temperature. At all. Or sweat. At all. In winter, they were wearing coats. In summer, they
wear jumpers, fleeces and coats. What's their secret!?
Anyhow, to take advantage of the fab weather some friends and I planned to take the train to Chongqing after school finished on Friday to visit some other friends there. I hadn't been to Chongqing before and apparently it is the complete opposite to Chengdu geographically anyway - we are completely flat whereas Chongqing is hilly and mountaineous, not to mention it is a city of 31 million, more than Iraq, Peru or Malaysia and immense compared to our paltry 10 million.
However we turned up at the train station, and after standing in two queues, having people staring at us (3 laowei, what a treat!) and being told that we were in the wrong line and couldn't buy tickets, we were finally told that there were no tickets left that day. So, our plans for Chongqing have been put on hold...so it was back to a weekend in Chengdu! I was just glad to quit the train station. After nearly 8 months here I suppose I am used to the staring but it doesn't mean I have to like it. When I stare at a painting, or a person
with funky clothes, or someone playing music on the street, I stare with interest or curiosity. Here, people stare at us 'laowei', just a blank stare, not a curious or interested one, just point-blank which is extremely irritating and rude, but there's no escaping it I guess. It just gets a little tiring being stared at several times each day, every day.
So this weekend we've just been enjoying the sunshine in Chengdu and visiting spots we haven't been to yet. I feel that once you've seen a couple of monasteries or temples here, you've seen them all, but in any case with nowt better to do we ventured to Wenshu Temple area on Friday for a cup of cha (tea), perusal of the over-priced shops and a Western meal. Yesterday it was the hottest day so far but we managed to wander around town and visit the River-Viewing Pavilion which was very pretty with all the flowers and little pagodas. Pity the river wasn't especially picturesque, but hey, I know it's not exactly the Ponte Vecchio! Today we went back to Wenshu Temple but it wasn't all that impressive, quite small really, but very green compared to the
usual concrete streets of Chengdu, and we had some 5 kwai (30p) tea in the teahouse. I love those bamboo chairs they have, wish I could take one to my next destination...maybe I will!
Here in China we (obviously) don't celebrate Easter, so while most people in the UK and elsewhere are enjoying their Easter eggs and going to church, we have no such luck (I would loooooooooove a creme egg right now)...but we have the National Holiday in May to look forward...only 4 weeks away! We only have 4 working days off but it's better than nothing. Sichuan Province where I am is bigger than the UK so I think I will stay here and investigate some more local sights. Teaching is getting a little tiring and de-motivating, I don't know why but this time of year I and some other teachers (if we can call ourselves that!) are feeling a bit stuck when it comes to lesson ideas and actual motivation to get up and do it all every day. It's not like sitting by a computer all day or going to meetings, you can't really have an off day, you have to perform, as it were,
every day in front of your kids.
Anyway til next time...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.114s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 62; dbt: 0.0591s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Samuel
non-member comment
The charactors on the bamboo,means "someone paid a visit here", which to show his arrival. It's bad ,right?! But why Chinese people like to do so? there was a stoy. Do u know that monkey, magic,all-round monkey. He used to write such words on Buhda's fingers. I couldn't say every Chinese but most, want to be that monkey fiied with magic. So... hehe!