A few months have passed since I sat down to write another part of the blog.
Apologies to those who are avid readers, but not a lot happened in between, in part as I was not in China for some of the time, and the rest just head down grinding out what they paid me to do.
Brief overview
April – went home to see my family, which was too short a trip and too long in coming. Saw my daughter perform at Sadlers Wells which was a real treat. Saw Scunthorpe lose and were effectively relegated. Saw some of the people at the Bridge cricket team.
Arrived back in China before the Wedding. It is then you realise how important the Royal family are to the UK profile. The Chinese people I spoke with, in the office, at the golf club, and elsewhere were fascinated by it. The ladies talked about the dress and how beautiful the princess was. They were glued to it. It was also prime time here, straight after work. Then I had further conversations with my American colleagues who were also transfixed by the whole event, getting up in the early hours to watch it. In the UK indifference, thanks for the extra day holiday.
Had a week in Dubai, and on arriving at the airport you realise how relaxing the environment is there, even though I was working. With many of my colleagues from a number of the disaffected countries it was refreshing to hear and see their positivity. Their view is that the turmoil will resolve and that life will be better afterwards. Traumatic now but temporary.
Minor in the scheme of things but Emirates now fly the double-decker Airbus planes from Dubai to Shanghai. I can now fly from Manchester to Shanghai via Dubai on these super planes. The hub in Dubai is becoming a real centre for traffic connecting Europe and the East, and some parts of the US.
The golf course has seen fantastic transformation, the green has returned and the spring blossom followed by the purple azaleas make wandering round looking for your ball at the weekend a pleasant experience. Just need to try and keep it more on the fairway.
This weekend went to Hangzhou, a beautiful city an hour by train from Shanghai. When I say an hour, it is an hour at 348km/h (for those in UK/US - > 200mph) Left on time, no one in my seat, arrived on time, smooth ride. This isn’t the high speed train either! Hangzhou is supposed to be the richest per capita city in China which given the massive construction work going on is difficult to see. They are building a metro so it looks like the Big Dig in Boston a few years back. Mind you there were many of the top brand shops Armani, Zara, Cerutti, and car dealerships such as Bentley, Lamborghini. Stayed at the Hyatt Regency West Lake. Great hotel, with great service. We had dinner in the luxury Chinese restaurant there and some of the food was fantastic. We were told the restaurant was one of the top 15 in China. They provided us with three house specialities. The first was a pork and mushroom dish, in the shape of an Aztec pyramid. It came with small (pitta bread like) chestnut bread. You open the bread (like pitta) and then peel off the pork from the pyramid, drop into the bread, add some mushrooms, and close. Eat like a bacon roll. Exquisite. One of the best bacon butties ever. The second dish was a crispy chicken which had a distinct flavour but not that remarkable. The third special dish was a beef dish, with local spices. This was also mouth-watering – salivating here again just writing about it. The small pieces were tender beef, succulent that after enjoying the full flavour (almost melting in your mouth) there was a little kick from the spices. Fantastic. We finished the meal with a fruit salad. The fruit of which there were three types of melon, grapes, lychee, mango, pawpaw, was just perfect, not hard but not over ripe soft, exactly in between. Definitely one for the list if you visit there.
Hangzhou is an old town, modernised and is around a huge lake. For those in the UK, basically Keswick but all the way round Derwentwater. From the foreshore you look across the lake and see hills. There are boat trips etc, as you would expect. (see pictures)
On the Saturday evening we traipsed halfway round the lake to see a theatre show, on the lake. The performers walked on water. Brilliant, and not just the lights. The theatre was a small part of the lake which was connected by a small inlet. So the mini lake was surrounded by trees and the foreshore and stands for the audience. The trees were illuminated individually by different colour lights as a back drop and the colours changed with the mood of the performances. The story was a Chinese traditional theatre love story. Where a local girl is courted by a regal male. He wins her affection but then has to go off to war and is killed in battle. The two hearts transform into white cranes and they meet in a distant world. In real world his spirit pursues her until something happens and they get to meet. Something like that. Still haven’t grasped all the subtleties of Chinese theatre yet. The actors and performers were all ON the water, the whole thing was illuminated by bright spotlights. Scenery and props were changed with the boats. The stage lifted out of the water at times. Music was on loud speakers. Only an hour but riveting. About 5000 people watched.
Zhongwen lessons progressing, and sometimes it is more frustrating as I know more words but get the sentences wrong and bring about more confusion than if I just stuck to shouting English to make people understand.
Starting to understand Chinese football. In the Asian Champions League the Chinese teams are very weak and lethargic. In the local Chinese premier league they run round furiously and kick lumps out of each other. Bit like League two on steroids. One of the local players broke both his radius and ulna whilst playing this weekend. On the TV they showed the fall, and then his treatment! Followed him into the treatment room in the stadium. There after the X-ray two medics one at either end of his forearm, pulled the bones back into alignment. The player was sweating a bit. They attached a brace and sent him off to hospital in a taxi. On arrival at the hospital he was taken through the crowds in the hospital waiting room, to theatre. He looked comfortable on the operating table as they put him to sleep. The following day they showed his X-rays and the plates that had been fitted. He looked surprised in his hospital bed. Fascinating to me just to work out which product it was, however can you imagine Vidic, Cahill, or Dawson allowing the arm to be pulled into place without anaesthetic and on TV.
Well time to stop writing again. Hopefully the work will lessen and I can enjoy more experiences to share with you all.
Zai Jian
