The Inception Effect

The interesting thing about China was how un-like the China we'd expected it actually was. Most people in the western world still have the picture of the rice farmers being transported around in busfulls of chickens etc. Instead you're generally presented with ultra-modern cities with super-efficient metros and in a way, it feels a lot more 21st century than the likes of the UK. We were certainly loving it as it was a huge (positive) contrast to our impressions of SE Asia and felt much more like Japan than say, Vietnam.

Our next destination was Guangzhou where we met Deirdre, a friend of ours from Scotland. There was a bit of a moment where it looked like the immigration lady was going to make a fuss about Charlotte's passport photo but thankfully the production of her driving license solved the problem (despite the two different names...). Deirdre left Scotland not long after we did to do a year's teaching music in China. She'd been there for a few months before this time and had had a hideous experience with a deeply unpleasant, scammy (UK-based before you go accusing China!) employment agency. She'd ended up flying back to the UK in that "emergency" way that we all dread but had had the balls to come back to China (I wouldn't have done!) a few months later and thankfully, all was going swimmingly. She was living in a gorgeous new apartment complex with all mod cons, gymn, swimming pool, shop and Maria, her crazy flatmate (in an entirely wonderful way). She'd donated us the use of her room and was bunking down with Maria - another example of the crazy kindness people have shown us.

Guangzhou is a good example of the super-modern Chinese city and on our first day of wandering we took in the big skyscrapers and the river. we started to notice what we later dubbed the "Inception Effect". We'd seen the movie "Inception" first in Brazil. It's about Leo De Caprio invading people's dreams and manipulating them to his own ends. Whenever he tries to change something in the dream, the people in the dream start to notice him, first by staring and later by attacking him. This is what walking through a Chinese street can feel like. People stare without the Western "it's rude to stare" attitude that we usually have and as a result your paranoia can start to kick in. You have to try and rise above it as to them, it's just them being interested in you and what you're up to in their country. In fact, it's frequently that they're impressed that you're there and surviving at all! That evening Deirdre took us to a restaurant that she had tried a couple of weeks before. We did the Chinese thing of ordering a few dishes to share not knowing exactly how much food would be coming. The portions were enourmous, particularly of a kind of fish-in-broth which seemed to have come in something resembling a bucket. There were also green things with bits of meat, gyoza (like we'd had in Japan) and some kind of chicken dish. Also unlimited flower tea poured by a guy with a huge, er, spout. It was all stunning but we left tonnes as our bellies started to bulge. We saw another example of making-friends by speaking the language when Deirdre seemed to be chatted up by the waiter. She restrained herself from getting his 'phone number but I reckon she could have done! Everyone was so impressed and surprised by any foreign grasp of Mandarin.

We went out for beers afterwards which involved our first encounter with Chinese taxis. First of all, the drivers are mental and all drive like Nigel Mansel and secondly their temperament is extremely variable. Actually it's a bit like the Chinese way of queuing. Ie they don't queue, they shove you out of the way (in this case with their car). The first guy was a total horror and spent most of the journey huffing and and puffing at Deirdre and talking on his mobile. The guy on the way back on the other hand was a total gemstone and spent the journey chatting Deirdre up and teaching her how to speak.

Day 2 in Guangzhou was spent wandering round the colonial area. Although China was never a colony, there are a number of "concession" areas in its cities (e.g. the "French Concession" in Shanghai) which were areas carved up amongst various countries for trading purposes. The Guangzhou area had loads of bronze statues all over it including some rather fine fiddle players! It was apparently THE place to have your wedding photos done. There were so many white clad couples there (yes, the men too) we thought it could be a magazine shoot. That evening Deirdre got very excited about the prospect of having instruments kicking around the place, not having had access to any for a year so she spent a bit of time playing around with the fiddles and working out some tunes. All too soon the next morning it came time for us to leave so we bid our fond farewells and headed north on the sleeper train. This one was the so called "hard sleeper" which is a long corridor with berths of six bunks in it - a bit like a hostel dorm. It was a pleasant way to travel which was just as well as the journey to Shanghai was to be 20 hours! China is a really big place. We were in a berth with a couple of Thai and Chinese guys who were veyr pleasant and spoke a little English. It was interesting to see the lack of adherance to China's recently introduced smoking ban with loads of folk puffing away between the carriages. China as a whole really reeks of fag smoke. Oh well, it's the Chinese way!

At 4.00am the next morning the lights flashed on and we started drawing into Shanghai. A couple of metros later (super efficient as-per!) and we met up with Daisy. She is the fiancee of Tom, a schoolfriend of Charlotte's who she used to lift-share with back in the halcyon days of her youth. Daisy was the first Chinese person we'd really had the chance to grill so we asked all our questions about the history and culture of China and she was able to fill in the roles of such famous names as Chairman Mao and Deng Xiaoping. China is obstensibly a communist country but realistically, it's probably the most capitalist country we've been in and suffers from a lack of free education or healthcare - odd for socialism.

After much chat it was food time again so Daisy took us to try some Shanghainese food. One of their specialities is Dumplings filled with soup which you suck out before munching the dumpling - great fun! She also took us on a wander round the bund and East Nanjing road - two of Shanghai's famous areas. The Bund is part of its colonial past but the real highlight is the view across the Huangpu River to the crazy skyscrapers on the other side. We did see Tom that evening but all-too briefly as he was off to his regular gig at the Hilton.

Shanghai was and still is a major international trading and financial post and as a result has a bustling ex-pat scene which we got a taste of the next day. We joined Tom, Daisy and their friend Oliver at an Irish bar which did a great Sunday buffet brunch. A very British feeling lazy Sunday was had as a result with many beers drunk (including some Kilkenny - brown ale at last!) and many musings pontificated over. Throughout our lazings various other friends of Tom and Daisy came and went and a generally chilled time was had by all. It was a grand day.

Tom and Daisy were moving flats at the time we were in Shanghai and had a "spare flat" as a result which they leant to us. It was such a pleasure to have a place to be where we could cook some food, come and go as we please and spend some time chilling out and watching telly. They even had a coo-el DVD player with a USB slot that could play all the episodes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" we'd downloaded. I'd been reading the follow up to "Eat, Pray, Love" which is called "Commited" and is mainly about the authors musings on marriage as she drifts around SE Asia with her Brazillian boyfriend. At one point he displays truly Paul-esque bout of travel fatigue stating that all he wants is a "coffee pot". In short, he craves exactly what I crave, a place to exist with a kettle, cooker, shop nearby, TV and (for me) decent internet connection. Here, in Shanghai we finally had it and it was a real pleasure.

Not that we didn't explore Shanghai. We made sure that we took in the Bund at night (stunning), explored some of the big crazy shopping centres and went out for some more keen means with Tom and Daisy (including some seriously impressive spicy Szechuan food laced with frog no less!). A particular highlight for us was having the ability to have "dinner guests" in the form of Tom and Daisy and a large pot of my special spag-bol. I hadn't made it for ages and I totally relished the opportunity. We also got the chance to see Tom play at a local jam night and even did a little playing and singing ourselves.

Our last day in Shanghai was spent mostly in two museums. The first was the "Shanghai Urban Planning Centre" which sounds like it should be as dull as ditchwater but was actually really good. It took us through the history of Shanghai with a bunch of old photos and then to the present and future. There was a certain amoint of "oh look at us aren't we jolly clever" style propeganda but it was impressive nevertheless. It even had a small-scale model of Shanghai which was pretty nice. Afterwards we delved into the past at the museum of propaganda posters. It took us through the time before, during and after the Cultural Revolution and was truly fascinating. The owner was particularly enthusiastic and would occasionally come through to point out some of the characters in the posters including Mao (of course) but also Truman, Churchill and Stalin. It even went through to the mid 70s when the famous "one child per family" policy was instigated with a smiling nurse holding a leaflet and a bottle of pills...

Again, the time to leave had come so it was off on the train to Nanjing, after thanking Tom and Daisy profusely for more extreme kindness.

One confusing thing that happened in Shanghai (before we move on to other things) was this - space jellyfish. We just can't understand them. In the sky were what looked like the underneath of aeroplanes, but on second glance weren't really moving and were actually multiciloured lights. Getting closer it looked like they had tails behind them which made us think they were lit-up kites. But they were too high up, even compared to the tops of the appartment blocks, for that. Only conclusion - space jellyfish!

Our China leg was starting to feel a lot like our US leg as we were bouncing from friend to friend. Nanjing is the home of Zhijun, one of Alan (my dad's) colleagues who had recently moved back to China after a spell in the UK. He met us at the train station with another of his colleagues and whisked us off (in a car he'd hired specially no less) for some Korean BBQ. It was a bit like the Cambodian BBQ we'd had before but the quality of the meat was far higher. We were able to quiz Zhijun about his impressions of living in the UK compared to living in China. we took in some of Nanjing's central area that evening which had loads of crazy pet shops with some rather sorry looking furry creatures packed into far-too-small cages. There was also the Confucian temple - which had been turned into a shopping area and lit up with multi-coloured lights all along the traditional roofs.

Zhijun toured us round the lake and a really lovely mountain green space with several temples and pagodas. In the evening we headed to Yangzhou (not to be confused with Yangshou) which is the town where Zhijun grew up. He took us for some typical Yangzhou food which was a lot lighter and fresher than much of the Chinese food we'd had (which can be pretty oily) where the waitresses giggled and tried to see if our eyes were blue like they'd heard Western peoples' were. He'd booked us into a flashy hotel for the night as he was staying down the road with his parents - what a man!

In fact, Zhijun's parents and brother came for a "Yangzhou Breakfast" with us the next morning where piles and piles of dumplings, tofu noodles, mushrooms and various other delicious bits-and pieces were consumed. Zhujun's family told us a bit about their impressions of the UK when they'd visited and Zhijun's mum (in true Chinese hospitality style) encouraged us to eat as much a possible. It was a fantastic meal and a super-authentic Chinese experience. Zhijun's brother gave me a gift of the shirt of his favourite football team - generosity really knows no bounds in this part of the world.

Yangzhou is known around China as "the Garden City" and this is really no exaggeration as we spent the whole day touring the stunning, colourful gardens and beautiful old houses of the city. It was interesting to see how the houses and temples were much more like the wooden-style we'd seen in Japan as opposed to the crazy gaudiness we'd seen in Chinese buildings in other countries (e.g. Malaysia, Singapore). The gardens were extremely well kept and full of colourful flowers which (again in ture Chinese style) I took loads of photos of. We had the usual moment of someone wanting their photo taken with Charlotte (rarely me mind) and it was really interesting watching the hordes of Chinese tourists. I was trying to compare their attitudes towards tourism compared with our's. It seems very much the culture that you hire a guide for every tourism occasion. These are usually well-dressed young ladies with a microphone and a little belt-mounted speaker being tailed by a whole load of tourists in hats clutching cameras. It seems that Asian tourists are far more into "touring" than we tend to be as western tourists. Our attitude is usually that we want to be left alone in a place to enjoy it on our own terms but in a sense we do lose out a bit as a result and no doubt miss some important stuff.

Back in Nanjing that evening we went for some spicy food (including some more frog and some amazing mushrooms - and I'm not usually into mushrooms) before catching another overnight train to Taishan. Zhijun drove us there (at midnight would you believe) without a hint of complaint and made sure to buy us water to see us through the journey. He had been an incredibly generous host, paying for absolutely everything including our hotel and train ticket. I just hope that sometime in the future we have the opportunity to repay the compliment but it's very much the Chinese way to treat guests like royalty without any thought of yourself. On we go!