Leanne

November 24, 2010

I’d spotted her through the corner of my eye. A page of English in carriage full of Chinese. She surely needed help with her English and in any case I’d been on the educate 11 hours at that stage and finally found someone who spoke English to talk to so we were going to talk and that was that. “Do you need some help with your English?”

I don’t know how she answered, not because I don’t remember but because I didn’t hear. I in no way seem pay attention at the start of conversations. Trivial solutions to stupid queries are sincerely given but usually ignored, what’s your name, where can you come from, where are you going. I’m normally forgetting people’s names, they are just not important. I liked her voice though. it absolutely was soft and clear, her key phrases fell on my ears like soft rain. She said she was going to Shanghai to get a visa to study in Australia so I sat opposite her and the small talk ebbed and flowed, such as the tides normally new, normally exactly the same just different waves on different beaches and no, I didn’t ask if she was going for the surf.

Continued…

Categories: Travel around China.

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AN ANCIENT CITY WITH MODERN CONNECTIONS

November 17, 2010

A little background history

The May holiday 2005 was fast approaching and I had planned to holiday with 1 of my young and adventurous Chinese buddies but we still didn’t know where we would go – somewhere not too crowded, I hoped. I asked her where she desired to go and her reply was the ‘ancient town of Langzhong, have you heard of it’. No, I thought. ‘Ok’ I stated I would have a start searching around the ’net and see if I could find something of interest about this ‘unheard’ of place.

Now allow me back up a many years to the time i had been preparing to appear to perform in China. Back home I have a good friend whose parents worked in China for a good deal of years. She herself was born in a Japanese POW camp in Shandong Province in 1943 whilst her family was interred during the war. After liberation the family moved to Sichuan where her father worked in the Mission Hospital in Baoning around the Jialing River. The only way to get there was by boat up the Yangtze river to Chongqing and then the Jialing to Baoning also known today as Langzhong. My good friend was 5 years aged at that time and they remained in Baoning until all foreigners were asked to leave China in 1951.

Continued…

Categories: Travel around China.

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Glimpses of Guizhou

November 11, 2010

I emerged in the train station in the grey early morning light. Apart in the usual crowd that usually hangs near to the majority of the larger stations, really little was moving in this dull half-light as I wandered along the wide, Zunyi Lu heading for downtown. Street cleaners were busy clearing aside the mounds of rubbish left in the activities of the night before. I would invest the up coming two several hours watching a resting city slowly come to life. Guiyang, my destination, is a compact city completely surrounded by mountains and boasts lots of large parks. Despite being the money of certainly one of the poorest provinces in China, it is relatively prosperous and modern looking today. The Central federal government provides good incentives for new business and clean industry to move here.

Guiyang generally has a mild climate but its identify is translated – valuable Sun- suggesting that it rarely shines here. However, I experienced three out or four fine times on this visit in early November, which is better than normal odds. Public transport is easy and convenient and a fast circuit of town will help however you oriented. You can do this by taking certainly one of two special sightseeing buses departing from near the train and lengthy distance bus stations that loop the city in opposite directions and give you entry to the majority of the sights, eateries, bars, stores and hotels.

Continued…

Categories: Travel around China.

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An Unconventional Route Part Two – Stopping in Hefei

November 4, 2010

On my trip from Dalian to Changsha to visit my old friend Lao Hei, I had decided to avoid crowds and overbooked trains by taking a side route through Shandong. Missing a direct train link from Qingdao, I had needed to resort to an overnight bus stopping halfway at Hefei city, capital of Anhui province.

A stop in Anhui was unexpected, and I hadn’t really prepared or read up anything about where I was headed. I knew that the city of Hefei was an instrumental locale in the Three Kingdoms war, and that Anhui province is exceptionally poor; apart from that, I had little idea of what I might see there. There’s good reason: Hefei is seldom visited by foreign travellers and little information in English is available for the casual China reader. Most China enthusiasts will be rather more familiar with the star attraction of Anhui’s south – Huang Shan, one of the most famous and scenic mountains in the whole of China.

Continued…

Categories: Travel around China.

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Yesterday in Yibin

November 3, 2010

From my hotel room I looked across the round about surrounding the freshly painted Grand Viewing Pavilion, once the geographical middle of Shuifu. Modern music from numerous boutiques and shops below competed for my attention and mingled with the ringing bells of pedi cabs as they passed otherwise silently beneath my third floor window. an extremely modern Yibin now surrounds the once Grand Viewing Pavilion but a short walk in any direction will quickly fill your senses with pictures of the past. Neat tree lined streets radiate from here to factors of the compass.

Strolling north from your Grand Viewing Pavilion along the walking street with it is modern shops and small eateries on your way to the Min Jiang you will also find, a Protestant Church and one of two remaining Catholic churches in the city. Walking a few blocks east you will find out the other ‘mosaic tile’ clad Catholic Church on Xianxi Jie just a block from your only remaining city gate. The East Gate overlooks a small harbour on the Min Jiang and today serves as a teahouse/restaurant. As although challenging time to stand still a plethora of teahouses, both outdated and new collection the streets and banks enticing residents and visitors to stop and chat and drink a leisurely cup of tea.

Continued…

Categories: Travel around China.

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