China: Some surprises

Given all the kerfuffle surrounding my sister's work permit & China visa, I have to admit I had pretty much zero expectations of our trip. Until about a week and a half before we left Indonesia it was doubtful whether or not we would get to go (either that or I would go by myself, which is not as much fun!), so I guess I didn't let myself get too excited. It took landing in Shanghai, and giving my friends a hug for me to really believe I was actually going to spend a week in China!

I don't have a huge number of pictures (I haven't gotten around to downloading the rest from everyone else's facebook), and Erin has the list of the places we visited, so I'm going to focus on moments that were unexpected or interesting to me, interspersed with some nice pics :-) I will update the captions when Erin, Jenny or Phil tell me the names of the places!

1. They drive on the right. Crossing the road for the first time was a huge reminder of how lacking my knowledge of China is!! The traffic wasn't as bad as I had anticipated, perhaps because it was still holiday time, and because it was so hot (nearly 40 degrees celsius every day!!!!!!!), but the intersections took a bit of getting used to. At most of them, traffic can turn right at any time, even when cars are turning from another part of the intersection. Also, most of the bikes are electric - silent and deadly ;-) I definitely had to remember to check carefully before stepping out!

(There were lots of LED - I think - screens turning the sides of buildings into huge billboards. This one is a thermometer, with the indicator nearly all the way to the top!!)

(? Gardens in Shanghai)

2. There's not much English around in everyday life, not like in Indonesia. It makes sense now, why most of the Chinese teachers at my school have so little English - they just don't have any exposure/chance to practice. There were translations on signs for major transport (train stations, airport etc.) but that was about it.

 (Hip, happening laneway district with shops, food and lots of unexpected things to see)

3. Both Shanghai and Nanjing were not like I thought they might be. Shanghai is enormous, almost beyond imagining. Jenny said they love explaining to the students (Jenny works for an Australian school that sends groups of its Year 9 students to China for five weeks at a time - it's an amazing program!) that if all the inhabitants of Shanghai left tomorrow, the entire population of Australia could quite happily move in. I'm simplifying, but I think both cities were cleaner and more organised than I thought they would be. I think I might have been expecting it to be more like Indonesia. The laneways near Jenny's school in Nanjing (where we had fantastic breakfasts - see below) were not as nice as the main streets (live poultry, food stalls etc.) but they were still reasonably clean and free of rubbish. In both Indonesia and China it's easy to spot people whose job it is to clean up public areas, so I'm not really sure why China does it better. Anyone have any insights/ideas?

 (Part of the model version of Shanghai at the ?Urban Planning Centre)

(The yummiest thing I ate for breakfast in Nanjing - a savoury pancake type thing)

 (The building under construction is colloquially known as the corkscrew, and it dwarfs Shanghai's previous tallest building - the bottle opener, which is hiding to the left/behind the corkscrew.)

(A lighthearted moment nearly 500m up, on the 100th floor of the bottle opener.)

4. My brain has a lot of trouble holding on to such different sounding words. I can't even make some of the required sounds!! Erin was doing really well with the characters - she was noticing patterns and guessing at meanings, with some success. I am proud to say I can now say (but not write, unfortunately) hello, thank you, and the numbers from zero to five. I am using this to great advantage with my Sec1 class. When I want their attention I usually count down from five, and when I tried it on Monday in Chinese they thought it was fantastic!

5. In Indonesia, when a shop or business opens, other businesses, companies or individuals have a flower board displayed at the front - it will have a message of congratulations, and real (ok, sometimes fake, but not in Bandung) flowers making a border and/or decorations. Watching two go past, strapped either side of a guy on a motorbike, is quite an experience! In China, flowers decorate the entrance to the new shop. This particularly impressive display was for a hairdresser in Nanjing :-)

Despite the limitations of the weather (Reminder: China in August is ridiculously hot! Try to go at another time if you can) I'm really glad I took advantage of the opportunity to see a place that really wasn't on my radar. Seeing it with friends (one who has learnt Chinese since school, and one who is doing a pretty impressive job of picking up a difficult language remarkable quickly!!) made all the fuss and bother totally worthwhile. Thanks Jenny & Phil :-)