Not so Chinese but well worth sharing ...

Airport Arrest
> A public school teacher was arrested today at Manchester Airport as he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, a protractor, a set square, a slide rule, and a calculator.
> At a morning press conference, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said she believes the man is a member of the notorious Al-gebra movement. She did not identify the man, who has been charged by the Police with carrying weapons of maths instruction.
> "Al-gebra is a problem for us," Smith said.
> "They desire solutions by means and extremes, and sometimes go off on tangents in a search of absolute values. They use secret code names like 'x' and 'y' and refer to themselves as 'unknowns' but we have determined they belong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with co-ordinates in every country. As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, "There are 3 sides to every triangle".
> When asked to comment on the arrest, Prime Minister Gordon Brown, speaking from his holiday resort before the planes stopped flying, said, "If God had wanted us to have better Weapons of Maths Instruction, He would have given us more fingers and toes."

May Day.... Da Yu up close and impressive

Hi, the time is going so quickly and just when I think I have caught up on the blog there is so much more to add. May Day(labour day) as you would expect is a very important day here. We had May 1st , a Thursday holiday plus the Friday thru to Sunday off work. Except that I couldn't organise it to go anywhere exciting ... so I stayed here. Bit of a waste really but had been to Shanghai just before and my wallet was still bleeding from that.

Anyway, on May Day I lined up to go to the top of the DaYu mountain across from college. You can see the huge "statue" from college (most days) but I did not expect it to be as impressive up close.

Here are some pics of DaYu from the college and up close with Shaoxing in the background. The statue is huge. He is a very famous local from many years ago(like thousands) who tamed the flood waters in and around the city by designing and constructing most of the canals here to control the floods. Shaoxing is still famous for it's canals today. Although Suzhou is more widely known as the canal city of the east. There are actually more canals and bridges here than in Suzhou.

I went up the mountain with a couple of volunteers, who said they knew what to expect. ie climbing steps. In this case there was not all that many and it was quite an easy climb. Not sure the girls thought so, and it was quite warm that day. Anyway we managed all three of us and got back safe and well.

Hope you like the pics.
1 Looking from the college across to DaYu
2 At the entrance looking up to DaYu
3 DaYu up close and impressive. See Shaoxing in distance and size of people there.
4 My friend WuHong who came on the walk. Also her friend who is not in this pic.

zai jian

a weekend in Shanghai ...

Hi ya
Seems like an eternity ago now but I spent a three day weekend in Shanghai just before the May day weekend. Shanghai is such a huge and amazing place. But whats more amazing is that it is only 2.5 hrs from here by coach. And it costs me the princely sum of 80 yuan to get there. To save you scrambling for your calculator, that is about $14.
In the past the hardest part has been buying the tickets. But we are getting better at that. There are many sites like Wotif that operate here and other people here that have made the trip many times so there is no shortage of suggestions on where to stay and what to go see. So I organised it all from here and all went ok.

There is some stuff that I think is worth mentioning for the unwary traveller though. And it is about China generally. This is a country where there are many many places where English counts for nothing. In Europe and many other countries around the world you can usually rely on someone speaking or understanding your English. Not so here in China. A lot of times you cannot get your message across in English. A lot of gesturing and finger pointing is required but English does not work.

Shanghai is a big very modern city but there is still plenty of it that just doesn't understand English. So be prepared. Bring a phrase book, keep the hotel room key handy, anything that has in Chinese what you want to do or where you want to go might work.... This is not Hong Kong. So a lot of things take a lot longer to get done just because of the language issue.... Be patient. In a place like Shanghai especially in a hotel there will be someone to help translate for you.

So the weekend was excellent. I selected a hotel that was a little way from The Bund. The closer to The Bund usually the more expensive the hotels are. But is worth it in travelling especially if you can walk there. Maybe next time closer would be better, at least on the Metro line. The Metro in Shanghai is awesome. Cheap and very easy to use the ticket machines. They are in English and it is quick.

Sorry keep getting sidetracked. Our hotel was a good business type hotel and the reception and concierge were great. The only downside was it rained a bit so we spent some time indoors. But a walk around the streets at night is always interesting. Lots of places to eat and get a foot massage. That is one of the really best things about China ... the foot massage for just 30 yuan for an hour. Best there is.

Not a lot of photos of this trip but here is what I can show you of Shanghai ...

zaijian

Shaoxing earthquake update ... I am alive and well

Hi all
I thank you all for your messages as to my well being. So just to let you all know I am alive and well (kinda) here. No earthquake here at Shaoxing. I must admit I was a bit surprised to get messages in the middle of the night saying "are you ok?". very puzzling at first, especially since I dont watch the news.
And by the way there is just one english speaking channel here. Sometimes it works on my TV and sometimes not.

The earthquake centre was at ... (but you know all that, you watch the news). Wenchuan in Sichuan Province is about 1600 klms from here. So as big as it was we are quite safe thank you. Only earthquake has been in my stomach this week. I dunno what I ate or drank but I have been not well these last few days.
Oh and if anyone is interested to check the map where Shaoxing is .... if you find Shanghai. there is a large bay just south of Shanghai. Shaoxing is at the western end of the bay almost at the end. nearby cities are Hangzhou to the west and Ningbo to the east. good luck finding that on the map kiddies. Let uncle Mike know if you find it or not.

zai jian

some people I have met recently ...

here you go here is a few bits of info on some of the students and others I have got to know a little.

Pic4 is a pic of the workers at a foot massage place I found one afternoon. The tiny one(whire cardigan) had just done my feet for an hour for 3o yuan($5). Her name is Wu Hong and she is about 4ft tall(pic5). There are some wild girls amongst the others. Interesting place. They speak no english and me very little chinese. So we used the translation book and electronic translator I have (thanks Zoe). We managed to understand each other .. .at least enough.

Pic1 is one of a transport device (and I use that loosely) and the girl is of Samantha(pic2), a student,not of mine but at the college. We went for a bus ride one afternoon and I suggested we go >>> this way. Which turned out to be the wrong way. We finished up way past all the factories and into somewhere, we didn't know where. But it was the end of the route for the bus we were on so we had to get off. So we decided to go further up the road, there had to something interesting in that part of the world. .. and Sam cued up this guy in his "transport vehicle" I call i that because I don't what else to call it. But it shook us up a lot sitting in the back, and very noisy. i think it had like a 50cc motor, trying to pull the vehicle and 3 people. very interesting.
We finished up saying to him ... dao le ( stop,we have arrived, stop) in the middle of nowhere. We were actually looking across some tea plantations and down the lake to a resort(pic1). Of course we couldnt get to it, but dam it looked good to me standing on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere(pic3)

And pic6 is of a BBQ at Lanting Forest park two sundays ago. I go sometimes to this Cafe on friday nights. They make it into an English only speaking cafe on Friday night. I go sometimes. There are people mostly chinese who want to improve their english. So they go there as a chance to speak english only for the night. All sorts of people from Shaoxing business, international foreign trade people, some students and some foreign teachers like me. So anyway, they decided to have a BBQ on this other Sunday and I went along. Very good day but man, was the Lanting Forest a long way. All day BBQ by the end. I left home at 7.30 to get to the meeting point and home at 4pm. So I was plum tuckered. The longest standing up bus trip I have ever had .... but no option if we wanted to get back.

that's it for today ... back on deck with computer so watch this space.

Visiting nearby Ningbo ...

not far from Shaoxing is Ningbo. Maybe 1 hr by bus. It is one of China's biggest ports (apparently). Anyway we went there a little while ago for a weekend.
What a great place. I really liked it. At least the area where we stayed and spent time. Which was mainly in the city centre. The weather was good and because we had a chinese with us we were able to go to a few genuine chinese restaurants. Usually we can't because the menus are only in chinese and we cant read them.
So this was good and we ate some great food. I luv the chinese food.
We had some Sichuan food. which is known for being spicy. Not that I like spicy but it was awesome. My stomach was not happy for a day but it tasted soooooo goood.
Anyway, they have a great square there and we spend time there. And went to the Tian Yi Pavillion Library. Built like a residence and a library at same time more than 500+ years ago. Great place, see the pics

We also spent some time in more conventional eateries. And I like to sit in the window at the street if there is one. you know watch the world go by. Well they certainly watch us as well. Only place(China) I have ever been where they just stare in amazement straight at you. there is no subtlety, they just dont conceal it. So sitting in the window is funny. People just come up to the window and stare, especially the old people with grand kids, even pointing. crazy!!!.

Anyway there is a lake with peddle boats and park etc and a great bar/restaurant overlooking it. Spent some time in there to relax and have a drink, but was expensive so didnt drink much. But good to relax there.

very impressed with Ningbo. I could easy live there on what I saw. Apparently there is an amusement park close by, we ran out of time for (Harborland). Much like dreamworld. I like to go back to that sometime soon.

ok thats it for this edition.

Interesting instructions from college at home ...

I was just looking thru some of the info from home and found this. very interesting stuff re China customs and manners, general instruction!! see what you think

... this took my interest. Keep in mind that we do get asked what is the thing/s you most dislike about the country. My usual reply is the spitting.

Most of the rest you can deal with or get used to.

But this really made me laugh ...

This is in a section called Survival Tips .. .more tips

• Do expect to see people spitting and blowing their noses onto the ground (without a handkerchief) in the street. These are accepted practices in China.
• Don’t pick your teeth or chew your fingernails: Placing hands in or near your mouth is considered extremely bad manners.

Now, lets just say you had to choose one to endure .... you tell me which you would prefer?? I know my answer.

Also here are a few pics I haven't been able to put up before ... samhe e pic of the same place (out my kitchen window). One on a horrible cold foggy day and one when the sun was shining. Was a while ago. Mostly nowadays the weather is much better, even hot.
You can see the canal at the back of the college. The place is full of canals. they use them to fish and do "all sorts of things".

Oh, I know I have said this before but, I really think my internet is fixed now so I will do more blogging... watch this space.
zai jian