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Map of China showing Zhejiang Province in red
Zhejiang Province showing Quzhou at left of centre

This blog contains observations & experiences over six months spent living and teaching in Quzhou (Choo-joh), Zhejiang Province, China, a trip to Yunnan and a few days in Shanghai.

The posts are in chronological order. Use the links below to go to particular sections:

Tuesday 22 January

Billboard for the Bund Sightseeing
Tunnel
Terminal for the tunnel crossing cars
I found a small dumpling place this morning to get some genuine Shanghai dumplings (the ones with a little soup inside) for breakfast. I planned to continue with the sightseeing bus which was supposed to start at 9am, but which I found now started at 9:40.

So being a bit early, I decided to check out the Bund Sightseeing tunnel. Essentially a tourist attraction, it is a tunnel under the Huangpu River "with the double functions of sightseeing and transport as well". You travel in small ‘unmanned trail cars’ while enjoying "sound, light, cartoons and videos, as if going through the earth and enjoying an amazing experience" for 5 minutes.  It was actually a series of light shows with Mandarin & English voice-overs.  Didn’t do it for me.

Part of the old town district
The disjuncture between the old and
the new
Anyway, I was back at the Bund in plenty of time to catch the first sightseeing bus. First stop was the old town, which although geared towards tourists and filled with shops selling tourist trash and trinkets, was nonetheless very interesting historically and architecturally. Also with the area is the YuYuan garden and City God Temple.

Inside the YuYuan gardens
The YuYuan garden is fashioned in the classical style of Southern China featuring designs from the Ming and Qing dynasties. It’s a maze of rocks, vegetation, pavilions and ponds that seem to fold in on themselves so that, although quite large, it seem even larger. A very strong feature of the YuYuang gardens are the limestone rock constructions.

Quite cold in winter, but the gardens are probably very refreshing and relaxing in warmer weather. It’s been quite  interesting experiencing the seasons more dramatically than when living in Sydney.

The central courtyard of the City God
temple
Lighting incense before
prayers
The City God temple is quite different to others I’ve seen. It is primarily Taoist and it features a central courtyard with the various shrines around the perimeter. The three city gods are former officials and a general and one is especially designated as being the one to pray to for wealth.

It was also interesting seeing young people coming in by themselves to pray and make offerings. Religion is very strong here and the religious festivals are the major ones in China, especially Spring (or New Year) Festival when everyone visits their families. Apparently traffic and transport at that time is horrendous.

Stone lions outside the museum
The museum atrium - there
were people there but I
disappeared them
My next stop was the Shanghai Museum, featuring mainly archaeology and cultural history. Briefly it’s an impressive museum, with replica sculptures of lions and mythical beasts mainly from the Wei period in white marble.

The inside provided an impressive view of the very long history of China and the Chinese people and their achievements in very good displays of material culture – stone, bronze, pottery, glazing, carving, etc. The sheer quantity and variety was a little overwhelming. The accompanying English text was of good quality and quite readable.

Shanghai Urban Planning
Exhibition Hall
I wanted to see the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall with a rooftop ‘inspired by the magnolia flower’, but it was closed. Not sure why because it is supposed to showcase the future direction of building in Shanghai. Almost completely invisible from the street, there was a vast shopping complex underneath the building that even had street names so that you could find your way around. 

Because of the extremes of weather and shortage of inner-city space in much of China, underground shopping complexes are quite common - as they are in Korea and Japan..

It was not far from the People’s Park which housed the Modern Art Museum so I decided to walk there and have a look. On the way I saw my first group of men dancing – well they were actually rehearsing steps to the Gundam Style video by the Korean singer PSY, but doing it publicly in the park – very Chinese.

Qui Jie's pencil works upstairs and
Tian Wei's works on the stairwell
and downstairs
Detail of one of Qiu Jie s drawings
By now it was the afternoon and getting pretty cold (have I mentioned the cold too much?) and when I arrived it looked like the gallery was closed.

It has a black glass exterior that makes it difficult to see inside, but an attendant opened a panel in the wall so that I could enter – unusual.

On exhibition was work by two Chinese artists, Tian Wei (painting and ink works that represent western characters in caligraphy) and Qiu Jie (huge works in pencil and paper drawing on icons in recent and past Chinese culture). Both have worked for some years outside the country.

Xinjian salad, bread and
kebabs
Having had such a warm experience at the Xinjian restaurant last night, I thought I go there again tonight. I was a little more careful though and this time just ordered a vinegared salad, some lamb kebabs and bread (love the bread). Delicious.

Also, I may now have to revise my view that Chinese people are unusually loud – sometimes I’m wrong, true. This is the first time I’ve stayed in a hostel for many, many years. Spending time in the common room (writing this blog) with English backpackers who think that everyone is interested in hearing what they have to say on anything and everything. Having the volume turned right up on their laptop while they share what they believe are the most absolutely interesting video clips has made me realise that I may just be overly-sensitive to loud self-absorbed people.

This may be the Last Post. Tomorrow I fly out to return to Australia, signaling the end of my Chinese experience – and the beginning of a new Australian experience.

Sunday 20 January

On the fast train to Shanghai with
Marzena
Left Quzhou today for Shanghai via the fast train (200kph). I had company for part of the way with Marzena (Polish English teacher) as she was going to Hangzhou to catch a flight to Thailand for the holidays. Most of the teachers are either heading home or taking a holiday during the 5 week semester break.

I don’t know how it happened but somehow I’ve managed  to acquire more stuff – some are presents from students that I couldn’t leave behind. The luggage allowance for the flight back is 45kg and I reckon I’m almost at the limit. I’d forgotten how much of a hassle it is lumping suitcases around and up and down railway stations, and the wheels on the small suitcase have given up as well, so it’s literally a drag.

Mega Hotel on entering Shanghai
The station is about 45 minutes from the city but the taxi rank was relatively close and soon was on my way into town. The drive in was pretty uninteresting – grey hazy sky, flat land, grey houses and apartments lining the road. In China they don’t just build an apartment block, they build sets of them in groups of 4 to 10.

View of the city with Oriental Pearl
Tower from near the hostel
As we entered the city huge office buildings and hotels began to appear. The architectural style is pretty much ‘build what you like’, I guess like most large cities in the world new buildings are a ‘statement’ or ‘expression’ and meant to impress. The result here is impressive buildings but in competition rather than harmony. Personal view of course.

Shanghai Dock Bund Hostel
I arrived at my hostel, the Shanghai Dock Bund Hostel – it was cheap and seemed to be close to the river. The people are nice and speak some English.

Flower wall on part of the Bund and
the skyscrapers across the river in the
late afternoon
It turned out to be an ideal location, only one street from the river and a short walk to the Bund.

The Bund (Wai Tung) has a very similar feel to Circular Quay in Sydney in terms of the water traffic, historic colonial buildings, tall modern buildings, grand views and long promenade, like the walk from the Quay to the Opera House. It features many grand buildings in gothic, baroque and colonial architecture which now all house the major Chinese banks.

Close-up of the flower wall
The new multi-storey towers are across the river and they pierce the sky competing with each other for attention. Individually impressive, but soulless. One had a gigantic screen on its side but about 10% of the lights were not working so it just looked tacky. I walked along the Bund with hundreds of other people (nearly all Chinese with a few scattered westerners) taking photos with the skyline as a backdrop. Winter is probably not the best time to visit - cold, grey skies, poor visibility, spring, summer, autumn could be a different story.

City view at night
On the spur of the moment I caught a sightseeing bus similar to what we had used in London. They are good for an initial survey of a city but soon remembered how slow it is to get anywhere. It provided a convenient way to check out the old city (good) and upmarket shopping area (bad). 

All the big fashion brand names are here, including Marks & Spencer’s, the cars; Rolls Royce, Ferrari, Maserati and Lamborghini. I remembered that the second biggest market for Porsche after the USA is China, and it probably applies to all of the other prestige brands – there are people with real money here. Nevertheless it was a good introduction to the night lights of Shanghai.

Traditional Xinjiang lamb and potatoes
 - Shanghai version
For dinner I decided to go to a local restaurant (rather than one of the western ones) and found a Xinjian (far western China) restaurant not far away, just across the river in a fairly downmarket area. I had the traditional lamb with potatoes. The flavour was great with a spicy tomato-based sauce strongly flavoured with star anise.

It looked innocuous, except it was so hot I had to have some delicious freshly baked bread (like Turkish) and a large beer to tone it down. On the way back I also had to have an ice block which also helped to take the edge off the burning sensation and return some feeling to my mouth.

Saturday 19 January

Books with messages from students
Message from Xu Liang who organised
the book for the 3rd years
Today is the last day of the semester and I have had many good wishes and positive feedback from the students.

Some students have presented me with books with the classes’ comments and given me some gifts which has been very touching.

The teaching experience has been interesting in many ways. It has challenged some of my preconceptions about both teaching English and what the requirements are for speakers of other languages in speaking English (communication over accuracy) and in writing English (much harder).

Hamming it up with the Year 3 boys
I’ve already written about some of my observations in the 1st December post. Initially I found teaching English more difficult than expected, and  the students were not terribly interested in following the set workbooks. I moved to using a combination of the workbooks for basic content and I borrowed ideas from many online resources, modifying the content to be more appropriate and, where possible, to be entertaining.

There is no distance -
Year 1 Dior 's comment
With class sizes from 32 to 48 it was difficult to give too much individual attention, and with oral classes, very difficult give each student an opportunity to practice speaking.

It is with some regret that I leave the college and China, but I am very grateful for the opportunity the college provided me to teach English, and wish all the students well in their futures.

Tomorrow I catch a train to Shanghai for a couple of days sightseeing before heading back to Australia.





Friday 18 January

The College forecourt and Quzhou suburbs across the river
Almost time to return to Australia, and it’s a bit sad. It has been a most interesting 5 months here in China.

I now have a much better appreciation of Chinese society and culture through the contact with teachers, students, tai chi groups and just living and working here. The Chinese are not a homogeneous people, but there are many commonalities and sense of a shared history that permeates the country (don’t mention the Japanese). They are intensely proud of their culture and country and appear to embrace the diversity of internal cultures more than I think they did in past years.

Children and Chinese scholars in
Fushan Park, Quzhou
Public parks and spaces are well used by everyone and there are more than I would have expected. Not in every suburb like Australia, but enough for people to gather and socialise. There is a tension though between development and pollution that has to be resolved, but the awareness is there, especially amongst young people of the need for a healthy environment. I can’t really comment on the political structure or planning controls but local governments seem to have quite a lot of power and seem unafraid to use it – and support from the national or regional government seems to make things happen.

The very popular 'Jinyun
Shao Bing' (缙云烧饼)  stall.
It is a local flat bread with
various ingredients and
baked in a charcoal oven
A big surprise is that the food has been much better than I expected. I’ve really enjoyed eating here as you have probably realised already if you’ve been reading the blog. Interesting, because Chinese food in Australia is one of my least favourites,

I think Chinese food in Australia is based mainly Guandong or Cantonese style which has been modified over many years to suit the Australian palate, or at least what passes for a theoretical Australian palate and our style of eating. Eating here is a social activity and most often done with a group of friends or as part of business negotiations.

There is a very broad range of food with a strong emphasis on vegetables – umpteen types of leafy greens, root vegetables and pickles. Meals often consist of many small dishes with a range of flavours, and rice is generally eaten at the end, as a filler.

Often a meal (especially banquets) may not even include rice or noodles. The theory that the Chinese will eat almost anything seems to be pretty true and there are still quite a few things I have resisted the temptation to taste.

The traffic system is completely different, as are most in Asia. Tooting, of which there is quite a bit, serves mainly to inform other road users of your presence rather than to show annoyance as we do, but it is also used for that purpose. Blinkers are almost never used, cars slowly head in the desired direction and unwaveringly continue until they are there. The level of patience seems quite high and no-one seems to get annoyed at another vehicle cutting in or holding up the traffic as it does some unexpected maneuver. The overall city traffic sped is around 40-50 kph so that sudden stops are possible – and frequent.

Who has right of way?
Drivers generally only obey traffic lights at major intersections, but scooters and pedestrians generally always ignore them. The rate of minor accidents though seems quite high, and I would see at least one accident every time was out in the city. 

On the highways there seems to be no convention about which lane to be in, so constantly weaving between lanes is the norm, tooting as you come up behind someone to let them know you are there – they may or may not then decide to move over and let you through, eventually. It’s not unusual for a small electric scooter travelling at 40-45 kph to hold up a line of trucks on the inside lane while a car tootles along at a leisurely pace in the outside lane well under the speed limit.

Chinese people are LOUD. They talk loudly anywhere and are not afraid of holding conversations through anyone standing in between. No problem about mobile phones either – apparently you have to shout to be heard at the other end. Outside shops and inside shops, no problem to have blaring music at almost ear damaging levels. Fireworks explode anywhere, any time of day, for people moving into a new house/apartment, a new business opening or just to ward off bad spirits for a  particular occasion.

This picture shows some the diversity of what s happening in
China today - hand carts to businesspeople, pedal power
rickshaws and electric scooters
As a developing country, the disparity between rich and poor is quite apparent. There are people scraping by selling fruit or other goods in the street, living in homes/shops  which look almost like refugee camps meanwhile the sparkling BMWs, Audis and Mercedes seen driving around are housed overnight in secure car-wash-come-lockup garages. There is a also large migration from the country to the cities in search of jobs and a higher standard of living and there are many apartment buildings are going up everywhere to house them.

I’ve found the people to be warm, genuine, friendly and hospitable (with the exception of drivers of various vehicles hanging around railway and bus stations touting for business – but that’s pretty normal). Everywhere I’ve gone I’ve generally managed to do what I needed to do even though the amount of spoken English is almost nil – as is my Mandarin. People have been helpful and generally seem pleased to welcome foreigners to their country.

Thursday 17 January

It looks like a shopping mall, but
all the shops are specialists wholesalers
The next day Rocky and I drove to Yiwu, about an hour and a half north of Yongkang. Rocky’s family has a shop there in China Commodity City (often shorted as CCC). Rocky’s family company, Zhejiang Jinlixin Hotel Suppliers, produces cast-iron plates and bases, and also wholesales kitchenware to the hotel and restaurant trade.

CCC is a huge wholesale market in Yiwu and claims to be the largest in the world – and it could well be true. It’s positively massive and is separated into 5 different buildings (Districts) which house major product categories, and each of the 5 floors within them is dedicated to sub-categories of manufactured goods. Their shop is in the kitchen and bathroom hardware market in District 2. The range of goods is absolutely mind-boggling with shops so specialised that making choices is nigh impossible.

Singing traditional songs
Lakeside in Yiwu
After a quick lunch we headed into the city centre that surrounds a small lake that had many older people using it for many different activities. 

These features in China are real attractions for social interaction and an outlet for the usually three generations of people living in apartments in a way that’s quite different to Australia. Activities range from playing cards and Chinese chess to singing traditional songs (with  musicians and portable amplifiers) to exercising, dancing and tai chi.

A tableware shop -
note the Arabic writing
Cities like Yongkang and Yiwu which are geared towards manufacturing and the export trade are quite different to Quzhou. They are wealthier, busier and the pollution levels are higher. For the few days Yongkang and Yiwu I had a persistent cough and visibility was quite low. I can understand more now when my students write about differences between hometowns and cities in their assignments – the impact that manufacturing has on the economic, social and atmospheric environments. See Beijing air pollution off the charts.

New apartments in the same colour
scheme as the (burned-out) pagoda
in the park
Yiwu also has more restaurants with different cuisines, particularly middle-eastern as they are a large proportion of the buyers there. I have also seen and met representatives from Italy, France, Poland and Germany while in Yongkang and Yiwu who are either buying or supervising  the manufacture of goods to their designs.

The bus trip back to Quzhou this morning was also interesting. We all watched the first part of the the in-bus movie three times as the player kept rebooting itself at the same point – Unfortunately I’ll never know how "Brilliance of a Withered Flower" ends.

Also I was feeling a bit uncomfortable because the heating on the bus was off (or not working), the temperature felt about 10-15C and my feet were getting quite cold. However, in comparison it felt like an oven when I got out at a toilet stop. I was almost chilled to the bone in minutes from the freezing wind blowing across the service station forecourt AND through the very naturally ventilated toilet block! Forecast today, -2 to 9C.

Mind you it’s probably no different to a toilet stop at Blackheath in winter on the way to Lithgow.

Tuesday 15 January

Fruit barrows and shoe-shines
This is the last week of college and after finishing all the marking on the weekend I took a bus yesterday (Monday) for the 3 -hour trip to visit Rocky and her family in Yongkang.

The Pearl Hotel
Every bus ride is different in its own unique way and this was no exception, with the driver tooting loudly all the way at anything that moved, or didn’t move, plus the usual loud mobile calls during the trip.

The bus station had the usual fruit sellers and shoe-shine people who eke out a living in most of China. The barrows were different here though, with a large single central wheel that made them very easy to maneuver in tight places.

Coffee and cakes in the French cafe with
Rocky. A custard tart, doughnut with
pork floss and egg custard...in an eggshell
Rocky and I had coffee in the afternoon in a new French style cafe, which had a selection of French style pastries, including crisp baguettes – a big change from the soft sweet bread that is the norm in China. 

Later we had dinner at home with her family (parents, older brother and his expectant wife). Rocky’s dad had just had some major denial work so it was difficult for him to eat and speak. They very generously put me up at the Pearl Hotel which has quite an interesting architectural design. Also all of the odd numbered rooms are on one side of the building, and the even numbered ones are on the other side. Totally confusing when I went to find my room on the wrong side.

Some local delicacies
Today Rocky and I spent some time in the morning just looking around the city centre and shopping to buy ingredients for spaghetti bolognaise I had been coerced into cooking. We even found nutmeg at some large produce markets.

I can’t really describe all the local foods found in the different towns here – each town having it own specialties, or variations on a regional theme.  It’s just not possible to taste everything – we did try some slightly cinnamon flavoured steamed cake.

The Italian restaurant
For lunch we went to the "Italy Restaurant" which Rocky wanted to show me and also see if it was authentic. It was – or at least as much as it could be in China. For entree we had tuna veal and minestrone soup which were both surprisingly good. The bread was not authentic, but ok. Then we both had pizzas which were also good but a little simple – not enough vegetables for us.

While there, I was again reminded of the similarities between Chinese an Italian people – loudness and love of food. Two groups of Italian business people arrived and immediately began talking loudly about food and tucking into large plates of pasta.

On the path to the temple and pagoda
View of the pagoda through the
ever-present haze
In the afternoon we went to Fang Yan to visit a temple on a hill…where else. It was good to do some walking and climbing again – it was fairly high and the steps were steep. It was fairly similar to temples I had visited before.

The views from the top were good ,except that the ever-present haze which meant that visibility was low. Beijing has just had dangerous levels of atmospheric pollution which seems to have extended down the east coast as far as Zhejiang province. This, combined with the dry, cold air hasn't helped a persistent cough that I've developed over the last 3 weeks.

Close-up with the teacher in the red top
The double-fan form on the hilltop
What for me was special here was on a large open area near the top, where a group of women were practicing dancing. Initially it was just dancing but then they also started a twin fan form. Not tai chi fan style which has origins in martial arts, but more feminine and musical. It was just the most fantastic place to practice Even though it was pretty damn cold.

Soon it was time to return as making the pasta sauce for dinner would take an hour. Well it actually took more than an hour because something tripped the main power fuse. It was just on nightfall and we (rocky, their nanny (housekeeper) and me) were plunged in semi darkness. Undeterred, the nanny and I continued cooking our separate dishes on the gas rings while Rocky reset the main switch. After a few minutes the power was back, but when we switched the on hot plate on the stove (it also had twin gas rings) the power went off again but this time it wouldn’t reset! After some mild panicking (up to 10 were expected for dinner) rocky called an electrician friend while we continued cooking. After spending some time searching for the power switch for the hot plate, I found it and unplugged it. But then when we reset the main fuse power still did not return. Eventually I discovered another reset button which brought the power back on again – only about 10 mins before people stared arriving for dinner.

The pot of spaghetti surrounded by
plates of Chinese food with lots of vegetables
So we all sat down for dinner, a huge pot of spaghetti bolognaise in the middle if the lazy Susan surrounded by Chinese food cooked by the nanny – talk about cross-cultural. Fortunately the sauce turned out pretty well and in a few minutes there was only a tiny bit left. Then everyone (parents, older brother & wife, family friend plus Rocky and me) proceeded to get stuck into the rest of the food.

After dinner, Rocky, her mum and visited the main local government building (very large) and adjacent plaza. Although it felt bitterly cold, there was a large group of people practicing tai chi. 

Rocky’s mum had joined this group a while ago and immediately joined in, then Rocky and I did too. This was a formal class rather than just practicing and in Chen style – more physical than the Yang style I mainly practice and designed more for self-defence than exercise. I realise now  that it probably would have improved my technique more if I had found a local teacher in Quzhou rather than just practiced with local people, but the social aspect was also important.



Friday 04 January

It’s finally started snowing after a few days of overnight temperatures dropping below zero. 

It was exciting to wake up and see snow just starting to cover the ground. It was a little less exciting to almost fall over on the icy path as I headed off at 7:45 to my first class. 

It was pretty cold and snowing but at the same time exhilarating.

View from my balcony - today
View from my balcony - in summer


Students enjoying the snow
The classroom was bitterly cold when I arrived, but slowly warmed as the students filed in, and by the time the room was full and the door closed, the temperature became bearable. 

The weather today
The mood was good, because although it was cold, the students were excited that the snow had finally arrived.

This is the last week of teaching before the exams and there is definitely a different feeling in the air – and not just the cold. 

I have arranged to conduct the oral exams in a slightly heated office area so it should be bearable for both the students and me.

Unfortunately the snow is not expected to last – although the cold is. Well, it was almost a white Christmas.

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