My trip to China is getting close.

I am going to China for a holiday. Peter and I lived there for some time, teaching English, and absolutely loved it. We have been house sitting since I got back from China, finding it a bit hard to settle down after having a full-on really interesting life over there. And now, I am going back for six weeks holiday.

Peter will be staying here in Aussie, keeping the home fires burning, and staying on at this house sit. One of the down sides of house sitting long term is that you can't just pack up and take off whenever you feel like it, and especially if you have animals to care for, you can take day trips but need to be there every day for feeding and caring for the animals.

However, in this case, the trip is just for me. I am going especially for a wedding. At our first teaching job in China we met a couple of young men who had graduated and came to English Corner every Wednesday night to keep their English language skills up to date. One, Alex, we got to know very well, and over the past six years, we have become great friends. He is getting married, and offered to help me out with the cost of going over for his wedding. Isn't that lovely? When we were living in Longyan, Alex's mother died, and over the past years, I have become his Aussie mother.

Alex used to visit Peter and I regularly. His English was pretty good. He was working, so would come up in the evenings. He was 23 yeas old here, but he is 30 now. We would play cards. The Chinese are terrific card players, and Alex could remember every card that had been played and what was still to come. He won most of the games. I got a bit fed up with that, so taught him Scrabble.  Haha, I won most of those games. I did have an unfair language advantage, but all's fair in love and war...lol..

Alex now lives in a 'small' city called Putian. Population is about 3 million. If you click on the Putian link you will see a map of where it is, on the Chinese mainland about level with Taiwan.

The Chinese, generally, haven't figured out yet about advanced planning. Everything is left to the last minute, so although I knew the wedding would be on, and have known for over a year, they have only just sorted out the dates etc. Chinese weddings are different from western weddings, the whole system is different, but I will update this blog each day when I am there.

So I have my ticket, and now have my visa. Getting a visa for China is a funny thing. They have very strict rules about these things. I have never applied for a visa for any other country, so I guess they are all the same, but at the Chinese Consulate, (I went to the Brisbane one)  they specify exactly what paperwork is needed, and then when you get it, sometimes it is not needed at all...lol.

The visa office in Brisbane has moved, it is now closer to the train station which is handy. When I was checking online for flights I found several that suited, then went into the Flight Centre to make my booking.  I have found the Flight Centre to be excellent and have used them for almost all my overseas bookings. They have offices everywhere and in my experience, the service has always been very good.

Anyway, I was in the flight centre, making my booking when they told me a visa could only be got for 30 days. I was really worried then, because had booked and paid for a ticket for six weeks. So Peter and I went personally into town to put in the visa application, and I got a 60 day visa without any trouble.

So now, it is time to pack and sort out what to take. It will be winter time there, and I will visit some friends in Suzhou, where it can be 5 to 10 degrees below zero in the winter.

 One of the schools I taught at had some beautiful little Chinese gardens and in the winter the ponds were covered with six inches of ice. I'll tell you about this school tomorrow.

Putian won't be so cold, but even so, everyone wears woollen long johns, so it will be a huge change from the hot summer here in Brisbane.

Beautiful Dalian by the sea.

Beautiful Dalian by the sea.

Dalian city. Not really all that beautiful.

I will indulge myself in one more nostalgic trip down memory lane from my time in China. Dalian is a city in northern China and has a top-notch reputation as a tourist destination. I decided a trip there before I came back to Aussie for good was a good plan. This is the story I just pounded out on my computer on my return, but not edited.

 

 

Well, three days in Dalian sounded lovely.  My apartment is invaded every morning about 6 am by the neighbors redecorating their place…..noise noise noise, and I had had some busy weeks so a rest was looked forward to.

 The first hiccough was missing the plane.  It took far longer than anticipated to get to Pudong, I went via another train station and missed the plane….oh….had to rebook and it cost me another 500 rmb.  Got to Dalian about 5 pm, At the airport I asked about day trips, and yes there was a place to book day trips.  The girl there talked for quite some time and booked trips for the Wednesday, Wednesday night and Thursday and they would bring people back to the airport in time for my flight home.  Good planning.  The taxi to the hotel was only 38 rmb, that was good.  The hotel is old, but room is nice, on the 9^th floor overlooking the beach. Very peaceful.  Went up the road for a lovely dinner of fish and shrimps etc.

 The bed was actually good, a soft rock, and my back was ok.  Got up early on Wednesday, turned on the shower, no hot water.  Found out later I had to leave it running for 20 minutes before it warmed up!   Went to the restaurant for breakfast, which was included in the room cost.  Ghastly breakfast, very Chinese, all cold and I had two hard boiled eggs and some hot water out of a bowl.  That was it!

This beach would be full of people in the summer, but this was a very cold spring day. The windows needed cleaning too.

 The tour bus picked everyone up at 8 am and we picked up several other people and then met up with the main bus.  All hop on board and we set out for a big day out.  First place to visit is a fort.  This is a ‘history’ day.  Bah!  Who needs the history of Dalian?  Anyway we were getting it.  The Japanese were all over the place here in the past.  We were taken to a canon on a little hill overlooking the sea.  This place was free to visit.  Big deal!  Then I needed the loo!  I always need a loo, its part of my life.  I found it, but decided not to indulge.  Picture if you will, an old little outhouse, and as you walk in you are faced with three little cubicles the walls between the toilets about 3 feet high, no doors and everyone lined up and watching as you squat over a tiled area with a hole in the middle.

Back on the bus and on to the next thing, a trip in a boat.  BUT, the boat trip is not included in the price.  110 rmb to do this, but we get to see the Japanese headquarters etc, a good place to visit we are told.  The price also includes a cable car gondola thing to a look out up the top of a high hill.  Ok everyone pays up.  Muggins us.  Anyway, the boat has a long queue so we go to the cable car first.  This is a scary thing, it’s a garden slatted seat on a little pole attached to a wire that takes you up the steep hill.  I was wavering thinking “I don’t think I can do this!” when the seat came up behind, hit me in the knees and I was sitting swinging in this garden seat on a wire!  The only good thing was that it wasn’t that far off the ground, if I fell, I would break some bones, but probably live.

This was the view over part of the harbour. This was at the top of the cable car (slatted garden seat) ride. You can see the road at the very bottom of the picture and one of the chairs coming up the cable.
I got to the top and looked around, and what do you know…other buses drive up…free of course!!!  The scene is quite pretty, need the loo again, down lots of steps to a similar one as before but only me, so I indulge myself.

From the top, the swinging garden seat brings everyone back down to the bus and then we go to the boat trip.  We are lined up like little ducks, and given the obligatory life jackets.  Well, they were two slabs of polystyrene incased in bright orange material with long long tapes to tie up around our waists.  If the boat did actually have the audacity to tip, we would be trapped inside, all of us, floating against the ceiling like little dead ducks.  We get going, it is a little ferry like I used to use in Xiamen to go to school, quite safe, and the water is so calm, it makes me realize I do miss the sea.  We get part way out and the boat stops.  From here we can take a photo of the headquarters.  That’s all folks! A photo and turn back.  We don’t even get to touch land….hahah…this is China.

 From there we get taken to a shop, well we don’t know it is a shop it is a ‘place to show us local food!!’ well it is a huge place that sells dried fish and jewelry and everything in between.  Usually at these places the guides get a cut if we buy, they get a percentage.  We hang around for over an hour for the guide to come out and let us in the bus. I am not happy Jan!

 By this time everyone is starving.  Only one more thing to see, we are told, then lunch.  We are taken to a snake museum.  Snakes!!  Snakes alive, I can’t be bothered with snakes.  In Aussie we can out-snake China any day.  So I sit in the bus with my poor stomach having thoroughly digested breakfast’s two boiled eggs. 

 Lunch is eaten about 2 pm, this is not included in the price of the day trip either.  The restaurant is very ordinary, and the fish is not nice, and the mushroom and chicken is ok, but that’s all. On the tour  I met up with a young guy from America, Jeff, who is Chinese but lived in USA for quite a few years, so talked to him a bit.  

 After lunch, the highlight, a visit to the tiger park!  Well, we get there and drive around in the bus to see the animals.  Haha I should have known better!  A few mangy lions and tigers in small metal cages and two black bears, great big things that they feed lots of Coca-Cola to, and then into the next enclosure to see two tigers on the loose.  A truck comes in and they chuck two live chickens out and each tiger gets one chicken to kill, pluck the best way they can and eat, and then we go out again.  Not fabulous watching really.  Then we go to another place nearby and get out and go into this house shaped building.  Wow, three transvestites, really tacky at that, entertain us with a song and dance each, and in front of them is a green carpeted area with a long pond in it. I walk out, but it’s so cold outside, so go back in. It’s mid April, but spring forgot to come here, its still on the way, so most of the trees are naked and the wind is lazy.   In the pond are two croclodiles, one longish and one smallish.  After the tacky transvestites serenade us, two guys in special gear come out and pray to their gods for protection and one gets out the small alligator and swings him round by the tail. And then the next guy grabs the big one by the tail and hauls him onto the red carpet.  He pokes and prods to get the poor alligator to blink an eyelid, must be doped up to the eyeballs with sedatives, and he poses leaning against this poor half dead animal and then puts his hand in his mouth…ohhhh and ahhhhh comes from the innocents around, and then we come out.  What a blast!

One of the 'ladies' that had sung to us. The two crocodiles where asleep in the pool in front of him/her.

The final thing is a visit to Xinghai Plaza, the biggest one in Asia.  On reflection I don't know if I have got this name right, because according to the internet Xinghai Plaza is in the middle of town, and we drove around it, a completely different place. We never did get to see it, or the Polar place that was on our itinerary either. It was closed for the day...haha... Actually it is a very large piece of flat green grass with some trees and roads etc.  We just drive round here.  Then, thankfully its home time.  The news is on, there’s been a big earthquake in Qinghai, not far from Tibet, it’s a whopper, 7.1 but flattened the whole place.

There’s time for a rest before everyone gets picked up for the night tour.  The brochure promises two and a half hours to see the sights at night.  We get in the bus and go to the Russian area of town, just a few buildings with lots of tacky shops selling tacky souvenirs.  Back in to the bus, and round the town, which is okay but nothing like Shanghai or Xiamen at night!  In fact, Birdsville could outdo it I reckon!   Then to the Xianghai Plaza again. I need a loo, of course, so have to walk for ages to a fabulous restaurant, where I nonchalantly wander in, find the loo, go, and nonchalantly wander out again!!  Mmmm, I do this a bit here, being in a bus all day, loos rather preoccupy my mind, or the lack of, or the decency of.  I got onto the bus to be told that no one wanted to pay the extra 50 rmb to actually see the lights from the top of somewhere so the tour was over.  8pm!!!  So we are taken further down the road for a late dinner, and taxi back to the hotel to run the water again for about 20 minutes in time to get a hot shower.  Ahh…what a day….This is China.

The beaches around the edges of Dalian are quite nice, but the city itself, well its oldish looking and dirtyish looking and boringish looking and certainly unbeautiful and somewhat disappointing.

I won’t bore you with the next day tour, suffice it to say that the three holes of golf turned out to be hit three balls at a driving range.  The hunting adventure turned out to be fire two bullets at a firing range.  The beach turned out to be beautiful, well it will be when it’s finished its construction, although it’s all stones, no sand, the convention center will probably be nice too when its finished and there is a whole new city out there, one hour from town and it will probably be really lovely when the shops open and they actually get people living out there.  In the meantime it’s a ghost town.

Oh by the way, I really enjoyed the bit when the bus left some of us behind at the rock garden because we didn’t pay the 170 rmb extra to do whatever it was the others paid to do.  I still don’t know what they did, but I sure gave the tour guide the length on my tongue about leaving us in the freezing cold, nothing to do, no shelter, and no loo (Oh, such an important thing) for an hour and a half!!!  Pity she didn’t understand a word of my English, but she got the point!!  Umm, another hours visit to a shopping centre, that turns out to be another version of yesterdays dried fish and jewelry.  To help my flight home, a phone call comes to say my flight has been cancelled back to Shanghai, and I need to change it for another flight, so decide to leave a bit earlier than planned.

To finish off, I think Dianna and Margaret Thatcher would be mortified to see the waxworks of themselves, neither of them recognizable, and Dianna would be terribly miffed at the straw hair wig she was wearing, it was just dreadful, but that was free, along with a visit to a museum next door about rocks and we got to go to the toilet on the edge of some newly developing fabulous resort area.  At least this was a lovely western loo, and clean.  It was worth the whole 150 rmb on its own!!!  Ahhhh….. This is China.