Greetings from the East

Its been about a week since I’ve been away from my beloved England so I feel that its about the right time to give you an update from the East.

So the first thing to say to you all is Ni Hao all

Its quite unfortunate that Mum and Dad decided to call me Nihal and that I decided to do Chinese. The reason for this is that every person asking my name so far has been very confused!

Ni Hao is also quite significant because this is about the extent of the spoken Chinese that I know! Its quite shocking that after 3 semesters of Chinese, the most that any of us can muster out here is an akward hybrid of pointing and gesticulation, English and the random Mandarin word thrown in for good measure. We are told though that this Chinese will improve with time and it better had because English is an unknown quantity here!

I suppose I better start at the start then. I spent the first two days in Hong Kong. After a 12 hour flight (where I didn’t sleep), I arrived in Hong Kong, very tired and unsure of what to expect. Hong Kong is an amazing city. Thanks to Nayan Mama and Hansa Mami for showing me around and making me feel welcome in their home.
It is a very cosmopolitan city and an example to London and other cities of how a major world city should be run. For those who have not been there, Hong Kong consists of two islands (Hong Kong Island and Lantao Island) and then Kowloon (which is connected to Chinese mainland). All are linked to one another via road, train and ferry.
During my time in Hong Kong, I landed at Lantao (where the airport was), stayed in Hong Kong Island and took the train and ferry to and from Lantao Island.
I saw all these amazing skyscrapers there but by far the most amazing thing I saw was the escalators that led from the shore of Hong Kong island all the way up the island. It was an amazing form of transportation, used to reduce congestion and pollution. Its hard to explain if you haven’t seen it though.
Another highlight was receiving free money (!) at the bank. It is a Chinese tradition at Chinese New Year to give out small packets of money called Lai See packets. Getting free money from HSBC was something that greatly endeared me to Hong Kong!!

After my flying visit to Hong Kong, I arrived in Ningbo on Wednesday. It was very bizarre, because I arrived in Ningbo with two other people and for a few hours, it seemed like we were the only people on the campus at all.

The campus itself is quite amazing. Less than two years old, they have tried to replicate some of our main buildings at Nottingham Uni. The official name of it is The University of Nottingham Ningbo Campus. They have tried to create a British education with Chinese values.
Our halls are so so. We have a TV and air conditioning in every room and each room is also “en suite”. The reason that I emphasise the en suite is because its quite strange. It consists of a sink, shower head and toilet within the space of about half a metre squared. There is no shower curtain which means that when you have a shower, the water not only covers half the bathroom but also half your room as well.
Complaining over. The weather is average at the moment, its jumper weather but not as cold as the UK. The people I’m living with seem to be a lot of fun and I can tell that we’re going to have a good semester.
Food has been difficult so far but that has been because I haven’t been willing to try authentic Chinese food yet. The kitchen is almost non existent (a hot plate and a microwave) so I have been eating mainly in the Western restaurant. We went to a Japanese all you can eat (and drink) on Friday night and the food there was very good; needless to say, the beers were flowing! I did find a Pizza Hut in town so that was cool.

Apart from that, there is not much more to say. We have ventured into Ningbo city centre numerous times but the problem is that this is about a half an hour drive from our campus. I’m trying to include some pictures from the city centre in the blog but the city is very impressive. Oh yeah, and I had my first massage here (for about £6), it was pretty good actually and loosened a lot of knots. And I watched the Spurs match on the internet and that was the best performance of the season!

Hope I haven’t bored you too much, and I guess all that’s left to say is Zaijian (goodbye).


Lots of Love and miss you all lots

Nihal

ps please leave comments etc

The uni campus (the Trent building)