The Emperor's Playground

In about 4 weeks time, my brother will be visiting us in Nanjing, closely followed by my Mum and Dad and then Alasdair's sister and her family. So, looking for ideas to fill their time in Nanjing, we have decided to do a few touristy things ourselves over the next few weeks and suss out the best places to take our visitors. This weekend we took a trip to Purple Mountain to visit the Ming Tombs.

With 2 small children in tow, we were a bit wary of what appeal it might have for them but we really needn't have worried as they had a great time! In fact, they had so much fun, it made me wonder if the Emperor may have had 2 small children himself and therefore given some thought to the amusement of younger tourists 700 years later... With the stone animals and the ruins as you enter, the complex was like a historical playground for the kids!

Here are a few pictures from our afternoon out:


Olivia practises her statue pose on what seems to be an old, empty plinth!



Angus is a less serious statue!

The Spirit Path is lined with stone animals and leads to the tomb



The tomb itself

Hazy view of Nanjing from the top



Ticket to Ride, Shop, Swim...

Our swimming pool has changed its rules for getting in. Last week, we paid the man who sat by the door and walked through to the open-air pool. Now, we have to go into the same building, up 2 flights of stairs to an office to buy tickets (torn carefully from a book of impressive looking printed tickets), go back downstairs to give the tickets to the same man  by the door who piles them neatly with the others he has taken that day. Predictably, this prompted Olivia to ask "why?" and her question, in turn, made me ponder on the simple tasks that are sometimes made so complicated in China.

China is unashamedly bureaucratic and we encountered numerous examples of this when we first arrived and had to register for residency permits, etc. The police station where we registered had five numbered desks. The man at desk one checked our photos were acceptable, the man at desk 2 stamped one form, the man at desk 3 stamped a different form, the man at desk 4.... well, you get the picture! But that's almost to be expected of a government office and I had come across similar set-ups in Europe too; it's when it comes to shopping that it's more difficult to comprehend...

So, a couple of weeks ago, we ventured into town and found ourselves, for the first time, in a department store. We had visited many, many shopping malls but never a Debenhams-esque department store. We soon happened upon the children's floor and let Olivia choose something to buy with some of her birthday money. She eventually chose a Barbie handbag and we took it to the lady in the children's department with purse in hand, ready to pay. But the lady didn't take our money, she wrote us out a ticket. She handed the ticket to us and pointed to a dark corner of the store. We wandered over, rather bewildered, where we found a long desk with about 6 people sitting in a long line. We approached the first lady who smiled nicely but pointed to the end of the desk where we noticed that only one of these ladies had a cash register (begging the question what the other 5 did) so we walked over and handed over our ticket. She kept one part of the ticket, gave the carbon copy back to us and we paid our money. We then went back to the original lady in the children's department and handed over our carbon copy of the ticket and our receipt. She then took the Barbie bag back off the shelf and put it in a bag for us. Phew! This department store had 8 floors and I can only assume that each of them has a desk of 6 people and one cash register!

When I think back to shopping in UK supermarkets (and even Boots and WHSmiths),"self check-outs" were the norm. On the absolute opposite side of the coin, there are real people working every check-out in the supermarket, approximately 3 people working on every aisle, not necessarily stacking the shelves but seemingly just to advise of this week's special offers and which laundry detergent smells best, and not to forget the man who stands at the exit to stamp your receipt. Why? We have no idea but I can guarantee that his role would never be filled by a machine!

My own musings on this are that because every employer is encouraged by the government to employ as many people as possible, there is just no incentive for simplifying processes. I imagine that the man at the swimming pool was reprimanded for taking our money in that first week as it was denying his colleague upstairs a job!

The Heat is on...

Before we came to China, I read that Nanjing was one of China's "summer furnaces". Well, we are well and truly cooking in it at the moment! We've had 2 weeks of temperatures hovering around 40 degrees Centigrade (that's 100+ in old money); add to that high humidity and two children who believe that they should be outside all the time "because it's sunny" and I'm feeling pretty hot!

If it were up to me, we would stay inside  but this is not an option so we go out and about in an attempt to keep the kids occupied. This weekend, we ventured into the city but as you can see, the streets are pretty deserted as the sensible Chinese stay in and stay cool (and those who are out tut at our lack of umbrella to keep the sun off!):

What is it that they say about mad dogs and the English....
Not many other people are daft enough to be out in the midday heat today!

We have, however, found ways of keeping cool on these ridiculously hot days. The first is the swimming pool in the compound where we live. I have been taking the kids most days and it means that we can spend an hour or so without sweating. Our regular visits have also had the positive side-effect that Olivia can now swim totally unaided (for a few metres anyway!) and Angus has also rediscovered his confidence in the water although this is sometimes heart-stoppingly scary as he now thinks nothing of jumping in from the side, his only warning as he counts 1, 2, wheeeeee! (And the 1, 2 are in Chinese! Show off!)

The pool in our compound looks like it belongs in a 1950s English holiday camp but it's wet and it's cool and that's all that matters to us!

On the days when we stay at home, Olivia likes to ride her bike up and down the street as I push Angus on his bike (in 40 degree heat! By rights, I should be 2 dress sizes slimmer by the end of the summer...) After the hard work, we cool off under the sprinklers in the garden:

Angus patiently waits his turn as Olivia cools off!

I discovered a new favourite way to cool down on Saturday when I left Alasdair and the kids at home and walked the mile or so to the shopping centre to buy birthday presents for Olivia. That was thirsty work so after a very complicated purchasing process (that's one for another blog post!), I stumbled into Costa Coffee. I ordered an ice-cold double chocolate something or other, sat down with my Kindle and spent half an hour in quiet, air-conditioned bliss!

The Golden Eagle

Some people back home have asked what we actually do every day, especially in the summer holidays when there aren't many people around. In some ways, it's not so different to how we fill our time in the UK, but in others it's totally different....

Running around in temperatures of 30+ degrees is not my idea of fun but try telling Olivia and Angus that! They want to be outside all the time so on Wednesday, I relented to Olivia's nagging and took them to the Golden Eagle Outlet Mall, one of the only places nearby which has an outdoor playground (I use the term playground loosely as it consists of just 3 slides and a climbing thing but they like it....) As well as the play area, there are trampolines and a carousel for the kids and a small supermarket which sells some imported food, a Costa Coffee, a Dairy Queen, a bakery, a toy shop and many, many clothes and shoes shops which don't sell anything that would ever fit me. This all means that we can easily while away an hour or two here and we have become regulars over the last couple of months. However, it still doesn't stop Olivia and Angus being the centre of all attention when we're there though... 

On this particular day, Olivia was followed around the play area by a Chinese boy of around 9 years old for about 10 minutes as his Mum tried to get a photo of them together. Olivia was totally oblivious to him and the poor boy clearly didn't even want to be photographed with her but his mother was insistent and after she finally got a picture she was happy with, she made him sit down and look through them all on her mobile phone! Then, as we ate our lunch on a bench outside (purchased from the bakery), we were surrounded by 5 older ladies out on a shopping trip who stopped and watched us until the children finished eating. It was uncannily like being an animal at the zoo as they oooh-ed and ahhh-ed at every mouthful that Angus took. Not at all normal in my eyes but my kids are now completely unfazed by such behaviour so we must be getting used to it!!

Olivia enjoys playing despite the heat!

On a different note, the current "theme" at the Golden Eagle is the Olympics and there are hundreds of Union Flags around the place. I know it's a cheap shot but I couldn't help but giggle at the inscription that has been incorrectly spelt on each and every one of them:


The Story so Far (part 2)

So, we returned from our trip to Guilin & Yangshou happy that we had seen more of China, and also feeling that we understood the Chinese a little better.

Just a couple of weeks after we returned from the south, we decided to take a day trip to Shanghai. Alasdair had spent a lot of time in Shanghai during his many trips to China last year and had been desperate to introduce the rest of us to the city since we had arrived. Shanghai is about 200 miles from Nanjing but takes just an hour and a half on the fast train. We had a great day and managed to see so much, especially considering that we had 2 kids in tow! We visited Pudong (with all the skyscrapers), enjoyed lunch with a good but slightly hazy view of the Bund, strolled around Tianzifang (touristy but some lovely little shops and an authentic feel if nothing else) and visited the Yu Yuan area where Angus polished off a huge portion of pork dumplings. Just as well as Alasdair had to queue for 20 minutes at the "famous" stall! Here are a couple of pictures showing just some of the contrasts in Shanghai - we'll definitely be back again, after all we still have the "Fake Markets" to explore!

The Yu Yuan area. It looks so peaceful but don't be fooled!
There were hundreds of people hanging off the bridge trying to get a photo of the man in the boat!

Just a few of the tall buildings in Pudong.
The one in the middle is the tallest building in China, until they finish the next one!

The day was capped off nicely by the great compartment we had on the train we had on the way home, a bit like business class on rails (although I think the actual businessman who had to share with us may have sacked his secretary as soon as he got back!)

Just a week or so after our trip to Shanghai, I would be flying home with the kids so we made the most of our last weekend in Nanjing with another day of tourism, this time to the Confucius Temple. A very peaceful place in the middle of one of the most commercial areas of the city, it was an interesting day out.

Inside the temple area

After (very briefly) contemplating the teachings of Confucius, we left the temple and entered Nanjing's biggest pedestrianised area which is teeming with shops, stalls and McDonalds! If you can't buy it here, you probably don't need it! Olivia came away with a delightful set of fairy wings....and she wonders why she gets so much attention when we go out anywhere!

Olivia being a fairy!

So, that's basically what we have done and seen since we've been here in China. We have lots more planned and lots more stories to tell so watch this space!

The story so far (part one)

So, since the first post, it has become clear that some people didn't even know we were in China, never mind how we got here or what we've been up to since we arrived so here's a few highlights of the last few months to bring you up-to-date....

April 2012 - the big move! Before we flew to China, I couldn't think past the 12 hours on an aeroplane with our kids. All I hoped for was a decent house in a decent area and, as it happens, Alasdair didn't let us down on this front... (Oh, and the flight was surprisingly uneventful, thank goodness!)

Our house in Evian Valley, about 7 miles from the city centre but handily close to Olivia's school!

What followed was a crash course in both life in China and life as an expat. I'll spare the detail of this for now, as daily posts in the future will hopefully give an insight into the differences between life here and life at home.

May 2012 - Labour Day. After a couple of weeks settling in, we had a long weekend for 1st May and took advantage of it to visit one of Nanjing's most popular attractions, Purple Mountain. Half the population of Nanjing seemed to have the same idea:

As well as visiting the Mausoleum of Dr Sun Yat-sen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yat-sen_Mausoleum), we climbed a pagoda and did other touristy things. We also learnt that our children are a tourist attraction in themselves...  We had already received a lot of attention on our trips to the supermarket and on the Metro but that was nothing compared to what we experienced that day. At one point, I made the mistake of standing still with Olivia and we were surrounded by camera-wielding Chinese people within seconds! It gave me a brief insight into what it must be like to be the Beckhams, albeit a much less glamorous version!

Throughout May, we continued our exploration of Nanjing and we also had our first weekend away to Guilin and Yangshou in southern China, a beautiful area well worth a visit. We went as part of a company trip from Alasdair's work with around 60 of his Chinese colleagues, the first time since we had arrived in China that we had been really immersed in Chinese life and it was fascinating! We stayed in Chinese hotels which weren't accustomed to western guests. In itself this wasn't a problem until it came to breakfast time when there wasn't a cereal or slice of toast in sight. I'm ashamed to say that my children were happy to eat the rice, noodles and various unidentifiable items whilst I made Alasdair rush to the fruit stall across the road to stock up on bananas to keep me going. It only got worse at dinner time when our travelling companions looked in pity at the poor English vegetarian (me!) who ate a bowl of rice as they feasted on all kinds of meats, fish and snails... I'm even more ashamed to admit that we went to the German bar that night so I could have some pizza and chips!

With our travelling companions on the Li River boat trip. Lunch consisted on whatever they could catch from the river, including crabs, snails, shrimps and various fish. Needless to say, I had a bowl of rice!

That's all for now, more tomorrow after I get my beauty sleep!

The First Post

Before we came to China, I talked about starting a blog but never quite got around to it. During my trip back to the UK last week, I was reminded of this fact many, many times and was asked so many times "where's the blog you promised?" so here we are! I just hope that all those people who asked about it will actually read it!

Just this morning, as I thought about starting the blog , I wondered what I would actually write about. Is our everyday life in China really so interesting to anyone else? Is it so different to life back home? Does anything unusual ever happen anyway? My worries were alleviated when, as we ate our pizza at the shopping centre today, we were treated to Christmas songs over the sound system. Singing along to Jingle Bells in July when it's touching 30 degrees outside kind of sums up China for us so far - unexpected, sometimes a little inappropriate but often leaving a smile on our faces...