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Category Archives: China

Lane indiscipline

03 Aug

[Some time after the previous post…]

Getting away from Newcastle took a little longer than I expected: Air France “lost” a plane somewhere (or that’s what seemed to have happened), and we ended up leaving Newcastle about an hour and 40 minutes later than scheduled. All credit to the Air France pilot though: he didn’t skimp on the Jet A, and got us in to Paris Charles de Gaulle just 30 minutes later than scheduled. I think he must have taken a shortcut somewhere.

This left just about the right amount of time in Paris for a leisurely beer (0.5l of Affligem for €7.10; it was worth it at the time) and a triangular ciabatta-type thing before boarding was announced. As I got to the front of the queue, I discovered that for the first time ever I’d got an upgrade; woo-hoo! Only to “Voyageur” class, but that’s a lot better than sitting in cattle class in the back.

The seat-back entertainment system didn’t work properly, but with it being a night flight (notionally, at least), I wasn’t that bothered. Between my Kindle, a couple of meals, and trying to get some sleep, there wasn’t that much spare time to occupy.

We arrived at Beijing airport almost precisely on schedule, and I quickly found my way to passport control. I expected this to be quite scary, like getting in to the USA just with shorter security guards, but it was all very smooth and pleasant and over quite quickly. Of course, having got through security quickly, my bag seemed to be the last one off, but that’s just typical.

I’d been warned to expect crowds of people when exiting the Arrivals area, and thought it might be hard to spot the driver who’d been sent for me, but it wasn’t busy at all, and I spotted him quite easily… and quickly discovered that we had a mutual lack of comprehension of each other’s native language. There wasn’t going to be much conversation on the 3 hour drive, especially as my head hadn’t quite caught up with my body.

The first fifteen minutes lulled me into a false sense of security. Everybody seemed to be driving quite sensibly, sticking to their lanes; perhaps not indicating as often as they should, but definitely and clearly avoiding each other. Then we found a traffic jam, apparently caused by a truck and a car having stopped in the middle of the road after hitting each other…

Any notion of a “3 lane carriageway” disappeared completely. If there was a gap wide enough to fit half a car in, somebody would squeeze their car into it, and everybody would shuffle over to make room. And although the cars were about eight-abreast, they weren’t all moving in the same direction; most were moving diagonally, towards what they thought was the quickest way through, but it all seemed to work quite efficiently. Certainly better than the very British idea of getting into a single file queue as soon as possible!

There wasn’t really much scenery to see on the journey, which was broken only by a quick stop to use the “facilities” at a service area. Most of the road had trees along the side, with big advertising boards (mostly for rice wine) on posts rising above them. There was a little bit more to see as we passed Tang Shan, some industrial areas and hilly terrain, but it was starting to get dark and misty by then.

As we turned off the main road and into Qinhuangdao, we went through some kind of junction that seemed more like the road had been started from each end and hadn’t quite met properly in the middle, with sand bags and temporary barriers to guide you the right way. Apparently it’s been like that for over a year.

I got to the hotel just as the bus was leaving to take all the teachers (apart from Clare) to KTV for the evening, where we joined them after I’d had a quick shower and we’d grabbed a quick-but-expensive (£11!) meal in the hotel restaurant. By the time we got there, some of them seemed to be ever-so-slightly tipsy… can’t have been the beer, which was only about 3%, but judging by the waving and shouting as they were getting on the bus, I think a few had been getting a bit of a head-start on the drinking before leaving the hotel…

 
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Posted by on Friday 3 August 2012 in China

 

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My turn now

01 Aug

It’s a weekday afternoon, and I’m sat in Newcastle Airport with a beer (well, Guinness, but it’ll do). I feel like I should be on my way to Copenhagen for a business trip, as that’s the only reason I’ve ever been here for the last few years, but not this time…

This time, I’m on my way to China to find out more about the beer that’s 27p a pint meet my beloved wife (ahem) so she can show me all the sights, sounds, and smells that she’s been talking about for the previous two summers.

I hope nobody looks too closely at my hold luggage, as they might wonder what I’m planning on doing when I get over there: chocolate, Marmite, cereal, Vitamin C tablets, coffee filters, and… umm… pipe cleaners! All by special request of the various teachers who are there already, who have been my offered my services (strictly for purchasing of requisites, I understand).

Nearly time to go for my first flight, and hope that the online check-in has left me with the seat I wanted. Not too much problem or the first leg, but I don’t fancy being stuck in a bad seat for the 10 hours or so of the final flight to Beijing.

I should stop wasting my battery now, and get myself ready for boarding. On my way to China, but first I have to survive… Paris!

 
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Posted by on Wednesday 1 August 2012 in China

 

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A Girls’ Night Out

27 Jul

I make it sound like it’s just another holiday: the girls going out, night after night, for drinks and food. I promise that really isn’t the case. (Well, maybe my fingers are ‘slightly’ crossed…)

After a couple of hours preparing for tomorrow’s lessons and after-school activities (forensics and finger-printing with 47 kids in STEM club!), we went to our favourite corner bar for well-deserved refreshments. It was a far more civilised affair tonight; I think the locals have already grown blasé about their English invasion. Still, the sight of seven girls out drinking on their own is an unusual sight here, regardless of the nationality.

We really have got the knack of this pointing and ordering lark, receiving exactly what we thought we had ordered: “meat on sticks” (lamb, we think), toasted bread buns and vegetables. We gave what looked like chicken’s heads a miss, along with the kebabs made just from fat. Perhaps another night. Washed down with a couple of pints of local brew from the roadside bar, we had a delightful evening for £2.50 each.

 
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Posted by on Friday 27 July 2012 in China

 

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A Girl Called Arthur

27 Jul

I love the first day of Summer School: as hard work as it is, I am suddenly reminded why I have come back.

We arrived in Qinhuangdao yesterday. It is a coastal city, a little over 4hrs coach ride from Beijing. The route along the way starts to give way to the ‘real’ China, right down to the wrinkly old farmers in coolie hats. Qinhuangdao has little exposure to Westerners, and so wherever we go, we are met by bemusement. A group of 30+ of us sitting at a roadside bar last night became a local attraction. Traffic slowed and beeped at us as they passed, groups of giggling girls came over to practise their English and take photos with us, whilst the ‘cooler’ boys used us as a background whist their mates took their photo. Countless people stood nearby talking on their phones as if to say “you’ll never guess what I’m standing next to!”.

A small group of us headed off for food afterwards, returning to a table-top BBQ restaurant which was a previous favourite. Once again we caused such a stir that no one seemed to think we were being rude as we walked around, pointing at tables asking for “nage” (“that” – unfortunately their menu contains no pictures!). We ended up with a leg of lamb, corn on the cob, courgette salad, fried dumplings and sesame bread. And beer, though somehow we know how to order that ourselves! The lamb comes cooked ‘pink’, and is finished on a spit over hot coals in the middle of the table. Diners receive what can only be described as a knife and fork on stilts, to hack away at the meat from a ‘safe’ distance. A top notch dinner, assuming you are neither a vegetarian or Health and Safety Officer!

Alas, we are here for another purpose other than drinking, eating and entertaining the locals, and so off we went to school this morning to do our thing. As it is an English language summer school (and as correct pronunciation of Chinese names is so difficult), the children use English names in camp. We’ve had some crackers in the past: who can forget Bumble Bee (a boy), Harry Potter, Shark or Kate (also a boy, though he was gently encouraged to change his name last year). Today I met Arthur, a 13 year old girl. To be fair, she had already sussed it was a boy’s name and asked if I could pick a new one for her. I tried to match it to the sound of her Chinese name as often happens (though not always: see above), but she thought both Joanne and Jane sounded too boyish and she wanted “something prettier” (her words – my apologies!) . After several more suggestions from me and her class mates, she settled on……yup, Arthur. Oh well.

 
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Posted by on Friday 27 July 2012 in China

 

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A Slight Change of Plan

25 Jul

It was inevitable really, it had to happen sooner or later. Sure enough we didn’t have to wait long before we were met with the first “slight change of plan”. Change of plans I can accept, indeed have come to expect. The use of the word ‘slight’ however is, from my point of view, a little questionable.

Some time ago, myself and two other teachers had been asked to deliver a Maths and Science programme during the summer school. This was a new addition to the original programme, which up to now had been solely for English language. The three of us had met up in the UK on several occasions before the trip, to discuss what we would teach, make lists of what we would need, decide how we would split the groups etc, and had obviously spent a lot of time preparing resources (not to mention the baggage space taken up bringing these resources over!).

You can probably see where this is heading….

“Slight Change of Plan No. 1” (From herein referred to as SCoP1) occurred just before breakfast on Day 2, not 24hrs after arrival. The Maths and Science programme had been cancelled. The reasons are purely political and for this reason I won’t go into them here. Nevertheless, the decision has put a bit of a downer on the first few days as we are now rather in the lurch and unprepared for what is to come. OK, so I’ve done the English programme before, but of course I didn’t bring copies of previous work with me, did I?! So much for the relaxing evenings I was aiming for this year. Last minute lesson planning it is then!

Summary:
SCoP1: ongoing
SCoP2: pending (any day now…)

 
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Posted by on Wednesday 25 July 2012 in China

 

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Day 1 – Is it better to travel or arrive?

25 Jul

It must be those rose-tinted glasses in duty free that make me forget on the flight home about all the irritations and annoyances of the preceding few weeks of Chinese summer camp. Instead, by the time I land, I seem only to remember the amazing time I have had and the fantastic experience I have been a part of. And so when January comes around and we are asked to apply for the next year’s programme, I can’t resist. The result? Here I am again in Beijing, about to embark on another English Language summer school.

How quickly it all came flooding back to me.

To be fair, my troubles started before I even got through security at Newcastle, where I found myself in an altercation at security about contact lens solution: he won, I lost my (less than half full) bottle of solution. The 9 hour flight from Paris was a particularly hot and sweaty affair and I managed only about 15 minutes sleep. My mood was not helped by being penned in by two strangers who slept the entire journey, meaning I couldn’t even get up to wander. Note to self: why insist on a window seat on a night flight?

Arrival was typically chaotic. Not the airport – that as you can imagine runs very efficiently – but the chaos of collecting 40 people from two flights coming into two different terminals, and transporting them and approximately 80 pieces of luggage (we need lots of resources…) to the hotel. Entertainment was provided watching our cases being squeezed into the “luggage bus” (essentially a people carrier without the seats). We waved goodbye to our luggage, wondering if we would ever see it again. Thankfully we were all reunited at the hotel: current condition of luggage bus unknown, but the prognosis can’t be good.

Transfer time between landing and check in to hotel: three and a half hours. Oh, it’s good to be back!

 
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Posted by on Wednesday 25 July 2012 in China

 

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Aside
20 Jul

Desperate for an adventure or a glutton for punishment, I’m not sure which. Either way, I’m off to China for the third summer in a row. Despite the heat, humidity and the fact that I have to work to earn my keep, I seem to enjoy my ‘holidays’ in the Middle Kingdom, though after trip number two, felt I needed a year off to enjoy a ‘proper’ holiday.

This year however there is a twist. A little difference that made me want to go again. I will be joined part way through by hubby who, despite enjoying three weeks of freedom during the past two summers, has finally decided to see for himself what all the fuss is about. Between you and me I think it’s the idea of bottle of beer for 27p that was the real draw, though I will continue to flatter myself with the idea that he actually wants to experience all this with his beloved wife.

The other difference this year is that instead of teaching English, I will be teaching Maths, preparing Chinese students about to embark on British GCSE courses. This of course means less singing, dancing and role play, and more functional tasks, investigations and exam practice. Hmm, starting to sound much more like hard work than I was intending it to be…

So, after months of planning, reading travel guides, making lists, buying ridiculous amounts of toiletries, learning to speak Mandarin and collecting resources, I am almost ready to go.

See you in a little over 4 weeks! xx

An Oriental Summer

 
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Posted by on Friday 20 July 2012 in China

 
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