Life in China

Hello again guys,

Before I start this week's account of my time in Ningbo, I want to apologise for some grammatical and spelling mistakes that people (i.e. Mum and Hugo) have pointed out to me. Hugo, you are right - mafiosi is plural and mafioso is singular; I will remember this for future reference. And apologise is spelt with an "s" and not a "z" - I'm not American and don't ever intend to be so this is quite inexcusable.

Looking back over my past four blogs, I realise that I have told you a lot about my day to day events, but less so about actual China. Before my arrival in this country, I didn't really have a clue of what to expect. People had described these huge metropolis's to me but I suppose that this had not really sunk in and it was not until I reached Ningbo that I saw how true this was. It is very clear that most of this development has occurred over perhaps the last decade and you can see new skyscrapers being built all the time. Even as you marvel at the modernity of such a city, at the same time, it has almost a tackiness to it, with cheap, flashing neon lights over all of these buildings. The fact that I had first travelled to Hong Kong, before Ningbo and had then travelled to Shanghai a couple of weekends ago, makes Ningbo seem almost like a poor imitation of the two.

I had expected poverty to be widespread, because even though Ningbo is the largest city in the Zhejian province, I didn't think it would be as developed as it is. However, this was just first impressions...

The areas that we had visited had been quite international (Pizza Huts, McDonalds, Western advertising everywhere, posters of Shaquille O'Neill etc) and as a result, we had been quite sheltered. This week, however, following a few wrong turns in town, I was shown a different side to the city. Dirty streets, and everywhere, beggars ranging from infants to the very elderly. Whilst it was not as bad as say, parts of India or Africa, the scenes were quite eye opening. I was shown that behind our international comfort zone, poverty was not far away.

In my earlier blogs too, I have not really put much emphasis on the cultural differences between China and the Western world. Whilst some of these differences can be quite amusing, others are a much bigger shock to the system.

For example, everywhere you go, you will hear Chinese people spitting. Be it on the street, in a hotel or in a restaurant, you can hear that disgusting sound of the Chinese people getting the saliva from the back of their throat, ready to spit!

The supermarkets are also an experience. The concept of queueing does not seem to have reached the Far East, and I have found myself waiting for almost 10 minutes to have my fruit weighed, only for local people to completely ignore me and cut in front of me. It is not unusual for supermarkets to sell live turtles, shrimp and fish to customers and it is hard for me as a vegetarian, to walk past hundreds of live turtles, stacked on top of one another in a very small tank, waiting to be bought, taken home and cooked.

The driving here is some of the most atrocious I have ever experienced too. I am still shocked as to how we have not had an accident yet, considering that many of the taxi drivers don't even know the fundamental rules, such as driving on the correct side of the road! And whilst zebra crossings exist in image, every driver in China seems to be oblivious to them - I have been told that the key is, to look straight ahead when crossing the road, and ignore the vehicles coming from either side. I am not convinced of this argument, and for me, crossing a simple road can take ages!

Those of you reading this blog over lunch should avert your eyes now! Chinese people will grow one fingernail extra long, so that they can use this nail to clean out the wax from their ears. These same Chinese people are our shop assistants and waiters - I guess food hygeine laws don't exist here!

Enough of my ranting and let me tell you about my week.

We all went for a group meal to a Lebanese restaurant early on Monday night. The food was very good, and I got my falafel, tabouleh, humous, babaganoush etc.

Thankfully, after watching the first England match on Saturday, I was wise enough to forget about the second one - which I heard was so poor, that McClaren got booed during the first half.

About 30 other Nottingham students arrived in China this week for the "China Field School". This is a three week trip to China, where students are required to travel around China and keep a diary. This Field School arrived in Ningbo on Friday night, and because many of the people on the trip were friends and former classmates, it was good to see them.

We had our first Poker Night on Thursday. I'm pleased to say that I finished the evening up - taking home 60 kuai (£4) from my initial 50 kuai stake!

The weather for most of last week had been incredible (above 30 degrees every day) and on Friday, we decided to have an impromptu barbecue. This was a huge success, and is definitely going to be repeated.

On Saturday night, I was DJing at a bar called Le Cargo (Ningbo's European bar). Because the Field School had arrived the night before, about 40 Nottingham students invaded this tiny bar - making it seem like a night in Ocean!! The night was a huge success and I was introduced to the world of MP3 DJing! I took a little external hard drive to the bar, filled with my music, connected it to the computer there, which was connected to two vinyl turntables. Then, whatever song was put on the computer, I could manipulate it, using the turntables, like vinyl records. It was an incredible experience, and I think that slowly but surely, my love for lugging my 20kg bag of records around is waning!

And I think that that's about everything for this week. Mum and Dad arrive in China on Thursday, and I will be joining them in Shanghai on Friday - I'm really excited to see them.

Aside from that, life is pretty normal, or as normal as it can be in China.

Hope everyone is well,

Lots of Love,

Nihal