The Last Post...?

It’s funny to think that after however many weeks of writing, people still haven’t got the hang of writing comments on my posts. If a comment is from “Anonymous”, you should leave a name at the end of the message! Just joking – I do appreciate your comments, both named and anonymous.

So it seems that my time in China is drawing to a close. After numerous blogs, it seems as if this might be the last time that I write to you guys like this and that the next time that I see you will be in person.

I’ve been putting off writing this entry for a few days and in retrospect, it’s a good thing I did – the mood would have been quite different if I had written this three days earlier. Now I hate to leave you guys in suspense, but I will go into more details later.

So the last time I left you, we were on the way to Xian.

Xian. This city was amazing, Completely different to Beijing or Shanghai – what made it even more special was that we were staying in a youth hostel, with people who were willing to make our time as easy as possible.

The main sight in Xian is obviously the Terracotta Army, and we visited this on our first day there. The background behind the Terracotta Army is basically that the early Qin emperors believed that whatever was buried with them was taken into the afterlife. As a result, the first emperor created an army of 8000 full sized soldiers out of clay to be buried with him. This was done over 2300 years ago, and it was only discovered about 30 years ago that this even existed (the army had been buried underground).
As a result, only a fraction of the Terracotta army have been reformed and put back together. Excavation is still continuing today.

That evening, we went to a dumpling banquet. Being a vegetarian, I expected about 3 or 4 different types of dumplings that I could eat. Being a vegetarian with nut allergies, I expected even less for me to eat. So picture my surprise when I was brought plate upon plate of different types of Chinese dumplings. There must have been around 20 different kinds of dumplings to eat. It was incredible; for those of you who think the “gyoza” at Wagamama are good, you ain’t seen nothing yet!!

The following day, we went to see some giant pandas at an animal sanctuary about an hour away from the hostel. For those of you who don’t know, there are only 1600 of these giant pandas left in the world – so see them while you have a chance. Anyway, the pandas are just like you see on the TV or in books, very cute and very lazy – nothing remarkable there. The sanctuary itself was run down, and seemingly in need of funding – there were 7 workers caring for over 100 animals (not just giant pandas).

That afternoon, we had spare time, so we walked around the city. Xian is special because it houses a Muslim district within the city centre. This district was amazing – street sellers, people cooking food outdoors on huge grills, painters, small shops etc.

As a city, Xian was much smaller than Beijing or Shanghai and this gave it some character – it was quite modern, with the compulsory KFCs, McDonalds and Starbucks but it had some traditional features such as the city wall, the Muslim district, and the Bell and Drum Towers. When visiting China, Xian definitely deserves a look in.

From Xian we flew to Hangzhou. Hangzhou is about an hour’s drive from both Ningbo and Shanghai, and there is really nothing remarkable about the city. The main reason we went there, was due to the fact that two of my Chinese friends lived there and I had promised to visit them.

Anyway, Hangzhou involved a lot of walking around, eating, drinking and shopping. Despite my earlier comment, the West Lake in Hangzhou is a very beautiful sight and attracts many hundreds of thousands of visitors each year.
In short, we had a nice time in Hangzhou, mainly due to the willingness of my friends to show us around.

Hangzhou really signalled the end of our travels as such. My last week in China was intended to consist of a week on Hainan Island. This island had been labelled by the travel brochures as China’s Hawaii and was one of the few places that I could wind down after my four months in China.

So we arrived in Hainan with expectations of a beach paradise, with white sands, crystal blue waters and palm trees. And this is exactly what we got. What we had not expected though, were the torrential rainstorms and gale force winds that grounded us for the first two days. These storms were so bad that they made national news in China.
This is the reason for my earlier comment (“…the mood would have been quite different…”).

So after two days in Hainan, I was thoroughly fed up and wanting to return back to the UK, or at least Shanghai.
Miraculously, though, the weather did clear up by the third day, and we were able to spend entire days by the sea.

Being a sea resort, there was not much vegetarian food, but an abundance of fresh fruit (pineapple, mango and lime smoothies every morning), chocolate ice cream, real chips with garlic and coriander, and cold beer got us through the culinary difficulties!

It wouldn’t be China, though, without something to ruin this paradise, and this inevitably came in the form of Chinese people having no qualms about spitting or peeing on the beach. On our last day, we were also subjected to needlessly loud and awful Chinese karaoke.
But this all detracts from the positives – because I did have a very nice time in Hainan. Aside from the beach, there is nothing more to say about the island but we had a good time.

And this all leads me to the present moment in time – I am sitting in Hainan airport, writing this blog, ready to spend one final night partying in Shanghai before the return to my beloved British Isles.

Due to popular request, I will be writing a summary/post mortem to my time in China. If you’re lucky, you may even get a blog about my time as a hot shot investment banker at Bear Stearns.


But goodbye for now,


Hope to see you all in person soon,



Nihal

So this month signalled the end of my adventures in Ningbo. I finally finished my exams and promptly left the university campus two days later. It was quite sad, saying goodbye to some people who you realise you might never see again.

So last Sunday I headed to Shanghai with another friend who was then going on to Vietnam. This was the third time I had visited that city and I love that place more and more every time I go. For anyone that hasn’t read any of my earlier blogs, Shanghai is one of the most metropolitan cities in the world, with some amazing buildings, restaurants and markets.

My friend was with me for one night and I spent a night by myself before Khilna, Millie and Janki arrived.

I took the high speed magnetic train to the airport to go and pick the girls up. This train reached speeds of about 450km/h and was another testament to Shanghai's modernity.

I’ll sum up the rest of the Shanghai visit in a few lines. Most of the time was spent shopping (which was driving me mad after 3 days in markets with girls), eating, going out as well as a visit to an arcade and the Jade Buddha Temple. The Jade Temple was not as crowded as last time, and we were privileged to see a live ceremony by the Buddhist monks and some people painting Chinese paintings.

The highlight of my visit was going to a club there and seeing the self titled “Chinese-American rapper, Jin the Emcee. It was even funnier finding out that he didn’t know how to speak Chinese. Anyway, I got to have a chat to him which was quite cool. I also managed to find a California Pizza Kitchen in China which I love, and we went back up the Grand Hyatt to see the views of the city.

From Shanghai, we took the overnight train to Beijing. Those of you who read about my last experience on a Chinese train will recall that it was a pretty bad experience. So I had low expectations for the sleeper train – however, I was pleasantly surprised. The journey lasted for around 13 hours and we were assigned bunks of three. I was on the top bunk, and despite hitting my head on the ceiling countless times, I managed to sleep well.

As much as I love the girls, I was glad to finally have some male company when we met up with three of my mates (two from UNNC, one from Notts) in Beijing. I had already been to Beijing once before with Mum and Dad, but again, this proved to be a different experience.

We went to the Summer Palace on the first day, and this time, we hired pedaloes which was quite fun. The following day, we went to the Great Wall, in spite of the 35 degree heat.This excursion to the Great Wall was not so good, because we had chosen to visit on a Sunday, when you couldn't move for Chinese tourists.

The following day, we visited the Forbidden City (again my second time visiting). I had said that the first time I visited the Forbidden City, I got frustrated by the number of tourists there, and this overshadowed my experience. This time, however, our visit fell on a Monday, and having hired a guide, I was able to actually appreciate the Forbidden City. I still question its authenticity, but the symbolism and history behind the buildings is incredible.

Seeing buildings like this makes you realise that there many countries have a rich history and culture outside of the Roman/Tudors and Stuarts/ World War 2/ American history that we learn. Whilst most of my learning about China has been with regards to its more recent history, seeing buildings like this has increased my fascination for Chinese philosophy and mythology.

Needless to say, Beijing wasn't completely a culturally enriching experience, and we did find the time to go to a couple of clubs, watch some Sopranos (even more amazing than ever in its sixth season) and do some shopping.

This afternoon, we arrived in Xi'an. I will keep you posted with what's going on in a while.


Take care all,


See you in two weeks,


Nihal


P.S. Millie (and Khilna) wants to write a short message:

just thought we would answer the question everyone's been dying to know...
Nihal does infact now smell and look like a chinese man..
Ni-hao and Zaijian

A Long Awaited Blog

Hi Guys,

Its been ages and ages and ages since I last wrote to you guys. Since then, I've started exams and am now over half way through.
Last week was hectic with four exams in four days. As you can imagine, I was moody, stressed and not sleeping properly. Thankfully, those exams went well, and I've now got just two more modules to look forward to.

I finish exams on Friday and this basically signals the end of my time at UNNC (University of Nottingham, Ningbo Campus). As my various friends have finished their exams, they have started leaving the campus so a very strange atmosphere looms over the place. Some of the people I have gotten to know come from places as far away as Thailand, Australia and Hong Kong. There's a good chance that I won't see many of these people ever again.

Funny how quickly four months can pass, eh?



Now, I have told you lots about my travels and exploits during these four months, and given you a little bit of background about Ningbo and China, but I have rarely been personal with you.

I don't know if its just the sombre atmosphere of the place hitting me but I want to make this blog a little different. I know that most of the readers of this blog happen to be my good friends and family (despite the fact that many of my so-called "good friends" barely find the time to read it), therefore, I feel comfortable writing like this.

I had previously spoken to you of the visible poverty in China with the beggars and whatnot. However, I watched Hotel Rwanda last week (great film by the way) and one line struck me. The Western camera man said that poverty and warfare in the Third World will make people stop for a couple of seconds, say "what a shame", and then just carry on with their dinner.

I suppose the same can be said about when we see beggars on the street - we stop for a minute, and then its forgotten about a minute later.

Anyway, I realised that many of the Chinese students at this university were quite well off - their parents had probably been recent beneficiaries of China's economic growth.
These kids are much like us in the UK except maybe a bit more naive, and some of them go a bit more wild when let off the leash from their parents. They will go out, drink too much and fail their first year exams, soon coming to the realisation that they need to work.


Back to the original topic - contrast this to the staff at the University:-
Every day, I eat in one of the three campus restaurants, and inevitably, I've gotten to know some of the staff here very well - well enough to call them friends.

And this is where the sadness comes from. These staff are the same age as the students (19-23) and many of them can speak English as well as, or even better than these students.
However, the Chinese students won't give them the time of day.
Being a waiter or waitress is one of the worst regarded jobs in China and their wages come to around £60 per month. Here we are, supposedly the friends of these staff, spending £1-£2 a time on Western beers and Western foods, while these guys are looking at us and thinking "what are they doing spending money like this?"

You can say that this is a sad inevitability of life, that it should teach us the value of money, that we can't do anything about it and this is all true.
On the other hand, I compare China to a place like England and unlike back home, there is very little opportunity for advancement for these staff.
I've had many chats with these people (people my age), asking them that now their English has improved, do they not want to look for another job. They assure me that it is not that simple.

China may have advanced economically, but a meritocratric system is still not fully in play.

One waitress I met, a twenty year old girl, speaks nearly perfect English. She has moved away from her family to come and work at the university, and she is using her wages to put her sister through university. This undoubtedly clever girl has sacrificed her own education to pay for that of her sister's.

I can see people reading this and saying "that's a sad story, but there's millions more stories like it". This is true. But the point I'm making is that Nottingham University as a brand is worth millions of dollars. Instead of providing a rich Chinese kid's playground, why not offer a few scholarships to children with less resources. In this way, I can say that we're lucky to live in a society like England, where, despite there not being a totally level playing field, children from any background have some chance to advance themselves.
I wonder how long it will take before this happens in the developing world.


For now, I'd love to keep in touch with the staff that I've met here and find out how their lives develop. The main thing that they have, that a lot of my friends don't have, is a degree of happiness and willingness to accept anyone. It hurts me deeply to hear how the Chinese students won't give them the time of day - it just shows how money changes people.

Much of these sentiments were brought out by like-minded idealistic people around me. Back in Nottingham, I think that I'm going to go back into my routine of going out once a week, doing a bit of work, and playing Pro-Evolution Soccer on the PS2. I hope that I can fit some time in for something more meaningful and hope that I can involve reading for pleasure in my life once again.


I never read my blogs again once I've written them (that's the reason for my many mistakes) and I don't intend to read this one again either but I can't picture whether my slant is positive or negative.




Sorry for depressing/boring you all,


See you in a couple of weeks,


Nihal

The positives...and the negatives

Hi Guys, me again. First off, I want to say thanks for all the comments. I really appreciate all of them and its great to hear from you guys. Its now just under a month until I finish at the Uni and my time has just flown by. Hard to believe where its all gone.

I've got exams in 3 weeks time, and you'll be pleased to know that I've been spending most of my waking hours in the library (apart from my daily hours of Sopranos of course).

I took part in a fashion show on Sunday night, which was part of the Uni's arts show. The whole thing was a comedy of errors!! To give you guys an idea, there were loads of badly choreographed dances, and Chinese people singing English songs very poorly. As for the fashion show, there were missed cues - inevitable I suppose, seeing as we had been briefed only about half an hour beforehand. The finale was everyone singing We Are the World - a very amusing/cringeworthy night from a spectator's point of view!!


As you would expect with exam time, everything is quietening down... However, I do have two anecdotes to tell you.


I went to the bank on Friday (Bank of China). For those of you who don't know the background, I lost my wallet a couple of months back. Since then, I haven't had a debit card, and hence I opened a Bank of China account. Now transferring funds should be a simple process, with the introduction of internet banking and all. However, there is one rule for the rest of the world and another for China.
The process involves phoning HSBC, giving a Swift Code number for my Chinese account (China doesn't believe in Sort Codes and Account Numbers). Anyway, the money takes 6 days to transfer but once it has transferred, I have to go to the bank to convert the money (which arrives in dollars) to RMB.

Now unlike most Chinese institutions, the banks have quite a sensible system. They require you to take a numbered ticket and wait until your number is called.
Being a Friday, there were about 200 people in the queue in front of us. So we took a ticket and went for a nice leisurely lunch, anticipating that there would be only about 30 people in front of us when we returned.

We got back about 2 hours later and were shocked to see that there was still 150 people in front of us.
At this point we kicked up a fuss, and the Chinese worker (in typical style) nodded, raised his hands and talked nonsensical English. I was worried that we were going to be at the bank until the next week.
So I was shocked to see this worker return two minutes later, and demand to see our passports.
We showed them to him, and were promptly taken to a "VIP window".
So simply by having a British passport, we were able to pull rank on over 150 Chinese people waiting in the queue.
Fair? Hardly.. but it shows the power of having a British passport, and I wasn't complaining.






This time last week, I told you about hayfever being my arch-enemy. I retract that statement because I have discovered a more formidable foe........ mosquitoes!
These little pests have descended on Ningbo in the past week in their millions.
Its not so much the biting that I mind, because us Asians don't tend to get bitten that much.
They do, however, have the most annoying habit of buzzing right in your ear.

And they don't do it at regular intervals: they wait just until you're falling asleep and then come and make that really sinister buzzing sound. Some nights I haven't got to sleep until 5am because of this irritating tendency of theirs.

This was driving me insane, and on several occassions, I was contemplating giving up my non-violent principles and taking a flip-flop to these mosquitoes.

However, I stayed true to my principles and yesterday, I bought some incense and decided to smoke them out of my roome instead!!

So far, this tactic has worked and hopefully it will continue.


Anyways, time to sign off now. Just want to wish everyone lots of luck for the exams.


Take care,

and I'll be home sooner than you think,



Nihal

Back with a Vengeance

First of all, I have to apologise profusely for the absence of my blog over the past three weeks. There is no excuse for it whatsoever, other than that my exams are coming up in a few weeks, and also that Summer has started in Ningbo, and I have better things to do than stay cooped up over a computer screen (and yes, I do know that these two statements contradict each other).





Along with the arrival of Summer and the 30+ degree heat, my arch-enemy has also returned - Hayfever! Today, I recorded 7 sneezes in a row, and I have a feeling its only going to get worse!





I'm sure that you've heard enough about my health issues! Anyway these past two weeks have been pretty uneventful, but I'll give you a brief synopsis of what I've done.

• We've had one barbecue, when we were moved twice by security, and then it poured with rain. An unadultarated success!

• In the one of the campus restaurants, I discovered an aubergine dish that I actually like. For those of you who don't know, aubergine is one of my most detested dishes but this Chinese aubergine was divine.

• There has been another couple of visits to the Chinese whisky bar - always good for a laugh.

• Another visit to both the Lebanese and Indian restaurants, the former being very satisfying, the latter less so.

• I witnessed Arsenal give Man Utd the Premier League title in a distinctly average match against Chelsea.

• Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov shared the Player of the Month trophy!!

• Sopranos continues to improve and improve - just when I thought it couldn't get any better!

• I have been roped into doing a fashion show this Sunday, dressed in Chinese clothes. If you bribe me with enough money, I may upload some photos!!

• Basketball and football have both come to a grinding halt - due to the iminent arrival of exams and essay deadlines.

• This Saturday, I will be making an excursion to Siming mountain - should be fun!

Sorry about the tedium of this blog, but I have a treat for you. I recently wrote an article for one of Nottingham Uni's many student magazines. Bear in mind that this is one of the Uni's more low-brow publications, so my piece was short, and sweet.

“You’re studying Management and What??” was normally the response that I received, when telling people that I had chosen to study a language spoken by over 1 billion people. Anyway, that was almost two years ago now; and this semester, I have enjoyed the quirks of studying Chinese by being able to come and study at Nottingham’s new Ningbo Campus.

The first thing I realised, upon entering the country, was how little Mandarin I actually knew. My numerous absences from my 9am Mandarin class in the First Year had meant that I now lacked the ability to tell the taxi drivers left or right. China is a country where English has not yet had a major influence, and the result is that a “Hello” and a grin is all you will get from most Chinese people.

Ningbo is a city in the south of China, about 3 hours from Shanghai, and it is supposedly one of the country’s smaller cities, despite having around 40 KFCs and a population of several million people. I am staying in the International Halls of the University of Nottingham’s Ningbo Campus, with around 10 other students that have come out from our uni, and other people from around the world.

Despite sharing a name, the University of Nottingham Ningbo is a far cry from the Campus in the UK. At present, this campus has less than 1500 students, is only 18 months old and only offers a handful of courses. A normally quiet campus turns into a ghost town at 11 pm, when the curfew for Chinese students comes into play.

Being international students though, we take full advantage of the lack of curfew, and one of our favourite clubs is the local Chinese whisky bar. Here, you buy bottles of whisky and green tea, and then play a strange drinking game with dice, all the while surrounded by green lasers, Chinese techno music and drunken Chinese business men, trying to practise their English. It’s a unique place.

Aside from this, I have experienced some culture shocks, such as the fact that the Chinese have no aversion to staring at you – even when you know they’re doing so; Chinese people also have no inhibitions about spitting anywhere, be it on the street, in a shop or a restaurant.

All in all, I think that despite all its differences, China is a country that I have fallen in love with, and that I would definitely love to come back to. I can also say that my grasp of the Chinese language has improved greatly and that I am now as good as the Karate Kid with my chopsticks (although I haven’t tried catching a fly yet).

I know that this article barely scratches the surface of such a major country, but staying in China is an experience that I would recommend to anyone.

Revision is calling, so I'd better sign off now. But look forward to images of me dressed in Chinese clothing, and on my excursion to the mountain.

Miss you all lots, not long until I'm home now.

Nihal

Beijing

Hi Guys,

Sorry about the lateness of this post, but I've been very, very lazy with my blog this week.

I just want to congratulate Mr Steene on picking up a grammatical error that Hugo had somehow missed - that's quite an achievement. You also shattered my dreams of having a post without any mistakes, thanks.

Last time I wrote to you, I had spent the weekend in Shanghai. This past weekend was spent in China's capital, which was an altogether different experience.

I had chosen to resist the temptation of taking a 14-16hour train to Beijing and instead, flew into Beijing airport on Thursday morning. I had to wait for three hours for Mum and Dad to arrive, but I occupied myself by walking round and round the airport. It was not the most interesting experience.

That afternoon, we had no excursions planned, instead, we went to another market. Here, I was further able to enhance my bargaining ability in Chinese.


The next day, we visited the Great Wall. I can't describe the scale of the whole thing without you seeing it for yourself. We climbed up the Mutianyu section, which is over 3km in length and very high. For those of you who don't know, the wall was built by the various dynasties in China, originally to protect China from the Mongolians and parts of it are over 2000 years old. Whilst much of the wall is ruins, there are still some parts that can be climbed. I won't say any more, I'm just going to post some of the photographs that I took from various stages on the wall.


I've decided that I no longer like this narrative style of writing and am just going to describe the rest of Beijing as the thoughts come to me.

Over the next two days, we visited Beijing's other sights: Tiananmen Square, the Summer Palace, the Temple of the Heavenly Emperor, the Forbidden City.

Tiananmen Square was one of the most impressive sights I had ever seen. It is in effect, just a huge city square (apparently the largest in the world), but surrounding it are monuments famous in China's history (both imperial and communist). The square was also crowded with what must have been hundreds of thousands of tourists - it was amazing, seeing all these people coming to see Beijing; I can only imagine what it will be like during the Olympics. These tourists would soon become tedious, as we visited Beijing's other attractions. Seeing Mao's portrait in front of the Forbidden City was a very powerful, poignant image.

I have to say, though, that I was a little disappointed with the other attractions. I appreciate the history behind them, and I was shocked by the sheer scale of everything but there was other factors that ruined the experience. The tourists that I mentioned were even more numerous in these places - most of these tourists were Chinese people, coming from other parts of the country. I understand that this was perhaps a once in a lifetime experience, visiting China's capital, but at the same time, these are possibly some of the rudest people you will ever encounter. They go around in huge tour groups, all wearing comical caps of one colour, but they are very noisy, and have no qualms about pushing people out of the way to get a better view for themselves. Whilst we were bemused at first, after a while, it just got tedious, and made us want to leave as quickly as possible. I don't want to put anyone off going to Beijing, but just be warned about the number of tourists. Also, I'm not sure how authentic a lot of the places were, a lot of it looked relatively new, for buildings that had been built hundreds and hundreds of years ago. In preparation for the Olympics next year, a lot of the buildings were covered with scaffolding.

Below are a couple of pictures of the Forbidden City just to show you the sheer scale of the number of people.

I'm sorry about only writing a paragraph about three of China's most famous landmarks but the experience was not very enjoyable.

We also visited a small region called Hutong. This was originally a region where some Chinese officials had lived. I think it had been made up to resemble an old-style Chinese city but I'm not sure how convinced I am, seeing as there was several Western bars and dozens of English speaking shops. We were taken to an "authentic" Chinese house, which was quite nice, but had obviously been redone as well.

After reading this, I suppose that Beijing sounds like a place that wouldn't be worth visiting. This isn't true at all, just be prepared for a different experience to what you were expecting. Beijing is an akward marriage of Imperialism, Mao and now capitalism. In some ways, it tries to replicate Shanghai with its skyscrapers and businesses, but fails in doing so. In other aspects, it is trying to preserve its history. Its definitely an interesting city.

Other than that, not much has happened this week. We had another basketball match, and lost - now we're eliminated from the tournament. We did make some awesome yellow T-shirts though

Let me know the goings-on in the UK.

Hope all is well.

Miss you lots,

Nihal

Shanghai again - but a very different experience

Hi guys. Its another week, another blog - this must be getting quite routine for everyone! Before I start, I want to say Happy 21st to Shamil and I want to wish everyone a Happy Easter. I hope that everyone's eaten their Easter eggs and hot cross buns, and been to church for Sunday service, watched the weekend's football (or not, as the case may be), etc etc etc.

I am writing after a second, marathon weekend in Shanghai, although this one was of quite a different nature to the first. If you recall, the first weekend in Shanghai consisted of clubbing for three nights in a row, not waking up before midday and getting my wallet stolen. Whilst I have to say that a weekend of clubbing with Mum and Dad was tempting (not!), we had a very busy and interesting weekend!


Just in case you're wondering, there wasn't much of note that took place during the week. There was one 21st birthday on Wednesday night but aside from that it was quite ordinary. Oh, and I watched Ray - which was an incredible film, and gave me a new love and respect for both Ray Charles and Jamie Foxx. I strongly recommend the film to anyone who hasn't yet seen it (Mum and Dad have bought a pirate copy, so borrow it off them when you get back!!!).

I arrived in Shanghai, mid afternoon on Friday and it seemed like the sun was shining in honour of my arrival. Nothing was planned for that day, so we decided to start work on the 20 page shopping list that Mihir had given us. We headed to the local market, where I was able to practise (notice the 's', not the 'c'!) my bargaining skills and wow Mum and Dad with my Chinese at the same time. Mission complete! I had shown the parents that my stay here was not just an extended holiday, and that I had actually learnt some Mandarin.

In the evening, we went for a pizza and I then left Mum and Dad to recover from their jetlag.

The next morning, we set out early for the Jade Buddhist Temple. This temple was so-called because it housed two, four-metre high statues of the Buddha, made completely from jade. The temple and the statues were very impressive but the serenity was somewhat ruined by the thousands of tourists, pushing and shouting and walking in the way of photos!

Then we visited a pearl factory, which was basically a front to sell pearls to poor, unsuspecting tourists from which the tour guides would take a nice commission.

The tour guide had happened to let slip that there was a Confucian temple, hidden away, and Dad took the opportunity to pounce, and got him to take us there. This temple really was hidden away, and in perhaps the most eye-opening part of the weekend, we were able to see the "authentic Shanghai". Anyone who knows Shanghai, knows that its a huge metropolis, similar to any other major world city, with skyscrapers, and a river, and dozens of McDonalds' and Starbucks' (sorry, I don't know the plurals of these words). This part of Shanghai, showed a place not influenced by foreigners, with street vendors selling everything imaginable, and local people shopping, eating and chatting. It's a place left out by the guidebooks.

The temple itself was very pretty, amazing grounds, and unspoilt by tourists. It had also served as a university during the Qing dynasty.

We also visited a tea house, where we were told how to brew the different types of tea, and were offered a taste of these types. I think that Mum and Dad might come back and give up Indian tea and English coffee completely, drinking only wulong, ginseng and lychee tea!

In the evening, we went to see a Chinese acrobat show. Despite Mum falling asleep numerous times, the show was incredible. People were doing stuff with their bodies that I never thought possible - I thought that there would be at least one serious accident but miraculously, no fatalities!

After that, we went to the Grand Hyatt which is the tallest hotel in Shanghai. It was a once in a lifetime experience - sitting in a piano bar, having a pint, overlooking Shanghai at night time.

We took an excursion to Suzhou on Sunday and we were told by the tour guide that this was one of the most beautiful places in China. It was actually very nice, and a welcome change from the hustle and bustle of Shanghai but again, there were way too many tourists. Chinese tourists are even worse than Western tourists in that they are always smoking, they tend to shout at each other, even when they are only a few centimetres away, and they have no concept of queuing.

We visited three major places of interest. Some imperial gardens, which were very nice, but overcrowded. A silk embroidery, which I was sceptical about at first, but then was very impressed by it. And Tiger Hill, which is another set of gardens, with a Buddhist Pagoda, and a temple on top.

That was it, that was my weekend in Shanghai over.

For the journey back, I had decided that I was fed up with the cramped seats on the coach and had chosen to take the train. Shanghai station was incredible - it was an example to any country of how to build a train station. The journey itself was a completely different story. I had been given a first class ticket by the hotel so I had high expectations. How shocked I was, then, to be greeted by a carriage that stank of urine, with curtains and seats that had questionable brown stains on them. The passenger sitting next to me seemed to need to clear his throat precisely every 30 seconds as well. I look at it as a learning experience.

Aside from that, I've been in Ningbo for the past three days. We had our first competitive 3 on 3 basketball match, and whilst we ended up losing by a big margin, we played very well.

I'm off to Beijing tomorrow morning to meet Mum and Dad again, so will be updating you on that trip.

Hope that everyone's well.

Congratulations to all Man Utd and Chelsea fans (if you're confused about the discrepencies in the blog, I started it on Monday, and finished it on Wednesday). Hopefully Tottenham can replicate their performances.

Same time, same place next week.

Lots of Love,

Nihal