Thoughts on China five days after gettting back home

My apologies for the long delay in blog posts. I've been getting over jet lag and stuff, but you better get a cup of tea because this is a long one. I'm going to do a walk through of my two weeks in China and say what things struck me most while I was there. I've put in a few photos of things that relate to each place I went to.

For those who don't know the background, I've been travelling back and forth to China quite a lot over the last 25 years, first with work, and then with Cro on holidays. We both took some Chinese lessons, but practice is much more important. I can get by with buying things and asking basic questions, (and sometimes understanding the reply!) but I need more time here to get better and more comfortable. But I can manage on my own here, which does help a lot, as you can go where you want, which I did!

I flew into Beijing and spent two days there, walking around lots in the sharp winter cold (it was down to minus 12 some nights!), and I did the thing I love best, which is just wandering, through the parks, through the hutongs, watching daily life and finding where best to have the next bowl of noodles. And trying to get my ears attuned a bit. And I also had a really nice meet up with an old work colleague I hadn't seen for years. 

(in the Beijing 'hutongs')

I then took a practically one-day trip to a big city called Linyi, 400 miles south of Beijing, in Shandong Province, because there was a museum I wanted to see which had original Han dynasty versions of Sun Tzu's 'The Art of War' and a similar work by Sun Bin. It was something that always fell off our target lists in previous China trips so I wanted revenge against fate! And I got to return on the lovely 'hard sleeper' train, and chatted with the train staff in the canteen as usual.

(The high-speed train to Linyi)

(My guide at the Bamboo slips museum in Linyi)

I then went back to Beijing specifically to play in an Irish music session with Chinese and Western friends and  acquaintances. It was very enjoyable.

The next day I flew down to Chongqing, my favourite city in China (but not everyone's!) as that was where Cro and I got engaged and we had promised each other that some of our ashes had to go back into the 'Confluence of the Yangtze'. So the first of them are now heading down towards the China sea. It was emotional, as Vinny Jones says in 'Lock Stock and two Smoking Barrels' (and which Cro was fond of).

And Chongqing is also an amazing place visually, as it is a packed metropolis like something out of Blade Runner. Here is a video (I hope)

Also in Chongqing I went to a cracking Irish pub which is so different from the usual 'plastic Paddy' places that I almost don't want to call it one. And had a session there too, to christen it.

After Chongqing I had two days in Hong Kong, which was a full 30 degrees warmer than Beijing, and also stayed in the worst hotel I have ever seen (perhaps another post on that later). And I had another lovely meet up with an old colleague and a leisurely dim sum breakfast in a mountain village restaurant. Here we are all sated after the meal:

Finally, I came back for two final days in Beijing before flying home (plus one more sneaky session).

And my thoughts? Well, the main one was that I enjoyed every hour of it ( sometimes only in retrospect), and can't wait to come back here in the summer. Chinese people were just as nice and helpful ( and not at all inscrutable) as they had been on every other trip. The number of times I forgot something in a place and someone rushed out to alert me and look after me! 

The other thing that's really noticeable is how much China is benefitting from coming later to the table with infrastructure. All the transport systems and communication systems just work really well. But as I pointed out to my Hong Kong colleague when he said how much of a shock it was to find that mobile phones don't work on the London underground "we started building the tube in about 1847!". And the contrast in infrastructure is immense.

The other thing which really stands out for me is how much healthier I feel after two weeks eating Chinese food, most of which is freshly cooked from fresh ingredients. I will have trouble adapting to UK food and my wok may get a lot of use. I think the other health factor is that Chinese cities are so big that you always get a lot of walking. I've definitely done over six miles every day, and sometimes over ten. Which is maybe a lesson for what to do back in Woodbridge.

So I return happy and stimulated in lots of good ways by the Middle Kingdom. And I will be back, as soon as I can. I would urge you to go and visit it if you are able to. China, like Japan is quite Marmite-ish for British visitors, you may hate it or you may love it, but if you don't try you won't know, and personally, I cannot think of ever getting bored with such a culturally-rich, friendly and beautiful country. I will leave you with another little taster. This is a video I shot from the high-speed train plunging Southwards from Chongqing to Hong Kong. It is going through the bizarre coconut-haystack-like landscape of the 'karst' mountains in Guizhou, and it is doing to at 190mph. Enjoy.