Alice and the Rabbit Hole!

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My first few days in China have been so overwhelming the scale size and noise of everything make me feel like Alice and I have just tumbled down the rabbit hole.


I want to describe Hangzhou (pronounced Hanjoe) to you all but I dont think there are the words to do it. When I arrived at the airport I was met by Wintohou, who took me by bus to downtown Hangzhou. The bus trip was possibly the strangest I've taken in a very long time. The buildings we past were beautiful, 8/9 storey multi-coloured palaces; purples, greens, pinks, red and golden hues. They remind me of dolls houses, fairy castles!
The city is constantly shrouded in fog, it lies on the lake and surrounds the tower blocks rise up out of it like mountains! The city is a buzz of noise, I thought Liverpool was loud but Hangzhou has this constant hum of cars and vans buses and trams; and the beeping everyone who owns a car beeps, motorcyclists beep, cyclists ring their bells. The noise is unbelievable and yet strangely comforting. At the moment there are festivals of some kind nobody has told us what but I'm guessing it's Spring Festival/New Year type stuff, firecrackers and fireworks punctuate the hum of traffic and horns.

The pace of life here is bizzare! Stop, wait, hurry up, hurry up, follow me, stop wait, hurry, wait! That has been my life for the past couple of days, with alot of waiting! I don't mind though, it's nice to just take this settling in bit slowly so the waiting suits me, even though I don't know what I'm doing or where I'm going! At least I know I'm well looked after!
Especially by Wintohou, who has been wonderful, he invited a group of us to his home for lunch, where he prepared some 'real chinese people food' (his words not mine)! Again we were invited to supper with him and his wife Janet, they were both so welcoming and so kind that I don't know how I could have coped the first day without their genourosity!

I'm off for lunch with some english speaking friends now so don't have long to type much else. Will publish something again very soon!

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Comments

[rachel]

Glad you are settled
Im so glad that youve settled in Con :-D. Hangzhou sounds lovely and busy all together. If you care to inform us more about the food i will be most grateful lol!! Have you made any friends? look forward to reading your next entry :). Love you xxxxx