My Life in China

I was out walking yesterday in a suburb of Guangzhou when I walked by a large sport shop, nothing extraordinary in itself but I recognized the guy that was on one of the large poster on the front of the shop.



More close up:


Yes indeed, it is Jan-Ove Waldner, a legend in table tennis. As table tennis is one of the most popular sports in China this Swede is greatly admired, in the nineties when Waldner was at the peak of his career he is said to be more widely recognized in China than Bill Clinton, president of the US at that time. He has many nicknames in China, such as 老瓦 Lao Wa - "Old Wa(ldner)" or 常青树 Chang Qing Shu - The Evergreen tree. These names refer to the fact that Waldner is still a great table tennis player even though he now faces opponents that weren't even born when he won his first Swedish Championship. That's unusual as table tennis is a sport that require extraordinary hand-eye coordination and quick reactions, something that becomes harder the older one gets.

Well, it's good to know that at least one Swede is famous in China!

I'm now in the company of people who buy XXXL clothes. I just bought a windbreaker sport jacket to do some jogging in, I tried a few ones on in the store and found one that fit me OK. I was then surprised to see the label:


Guess I have put on a few pounds here in China..



I also bought two sweaters today, but I must have lost some weight in between the because these were "only" XL. Oh, and for the record I am (was?) a size M in Sweden. I'm a giant in Asia but I suppose I would be a XS in the US.. ;)

Today I followed Rebecka to the airport, and then I just hid inside and tried to keep warm in my cold apartment. I think the weather realised that there was no point in sunshine if Rebecka wasn't here to enjoy it. It's so lonely here without her. I try to think positive, that we have had a wonderful time together and that it's only four weeks until we see each other again but today positive thinking only goes so far.

I hope all of you had a lovely Christmas day! Rebecka and I continue to enjoy what Guangzhou has to offer and you can see lovely photos on Rebecka's blog here: http://www.becka.nu/. Rebecka is a good photographer while I'm a lousy one, but in my defense I can mention that Rebecka has a SLR camera.



We're off to Macau tomorrow and on the 28th we continue on to Hong Kong where we will celebrate the New Year! It will be awesome!

Take care!

All is well, Rebecka arrived on the 21st of December, three days later than planned but the most important thing is that we are together now and get to spend celebrate Christmas and the New Year together. We both want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Rebecka was supposed to arrive here in Guangzhou the 19th of December, it is now the 21st and still no Rebecka has arrived, the situation is that she was not let onto the aircraft from Copenhagen to Amsterdam due to her connecting flight from Amsterdam to Guangzhou. The reason being that Amsterdam airport feared even more passengers becoming stranded in Amsterdam due to the bad weather in Europe. KLM which was the airline flying her from Copenhagen to Amsterdam then made a new reservation on the 21^st, three days later! Why on earth they did not make a reservation the 20 is beyond me. So I called China Southern Airlines to try to get Rebecka on a flight the 20^th but they wouldn’t, why? I can’t say for certain because they kept giving me different excuses, in the end it turned out that the ticket on the 21^st was only reserved but not confirmed.

 

Rebecka even went back to Copenhagen airport to see what could be done from there which was not much. More phone calls around the globe to KLM and our travel agent revealed that only China Southern Airlines could confirm the ticket, more phone calls and more waiting in endless phone queues only to be told to “hang on” and more protesting from China Southern Airlines in China that they couldn’t do anything when everyone else was pointing us towards them as they were the only ones who could confirm the ticket. At 8 PM I got a call back from China Southern Airlines in Amsterdam (not their support in China) and I was then told the ticket was finally confirmed!

 

Although, when Rebecka called our travel agent and KLM to double-check it turned out the ticket was still unconfirmed.. More phone calls to CSA in China as the office in Amsterdam was closed at this point and we were then told that only the counter at the airport could confirm our ticket! And that’s where we stand at this point.

 

Rebecka is going to go to Copenhagen airport and get on the flight to Amsterdam, hopefully everything will be sorted before that time. So, a short review of China Southern Airlines would be that they refuse to rebook your ticket and blame everyone else, they are happy to take your money but not to help you out if problems arise. If you have the opportunity to fly with a different airline, please do so.

 

 

I just saw this clip: http://www.china.org.cn/video/2010-12/16/content_21557639.htm about the metro in Beijing, it moves 6.5 million people every day, that's just an insane number! Luckily the metro in Guangzhou is not even close to that and is far from that crowded but it's rare to get a seat if you're travelling the downtown lines.


Since the Guangzhou metro is quite new it's in a neat condition and feels clean and modern as well. I think it's the best way to get around quickly and effeciently this huge city.

I have noticed it before in Japanese movies but now I see it on a daily basis, a lot of Asian girls cover their mouth when laughing or when they are embarrassed. This tends to be especially true of Japanese and Korean girls, the Chinese do it too but not to such an extent. So I became curious of the reason, at first I thought it had some relation to that they don't wish to show their teeth, as exposing teeth is considered rude and bad taste in some Asian countries. That might be true for laughing but why do it when they are embarrassed? So I asked some Korean and Japanese girls here at school, the answer it turns out is that covering your mouth is a sign of your shame. But why don't the boys do it then? According to some of my students it's gender specific, not covering your mouth when laughing or being embarrassed is less lady-like so they cover their mouths to be more lady-like.

Every year in the beginning of December Utahloy International School organizes a Festival, called the ‘Festival of Lights’, which I think is a wonderful poetic name. This year the festival was celebrated last Friday, the 3^rd of December. It’s a festival filled with music and performances and parents sell food from all the corners of the world. The school was closed for students on Friday but teachers were working on preparing the band stages, one for primary kids and one for secondary students, stalls and decorations were put up as well as various games. It’s a popular festival judging by the amount of people present, somewhere around 1200 was estimated. I was on the photo and video committee so I’ll be doing post work on some photos that our photographers took during the evening so that we can print a few selected photos in poster sizes and put up around the school. All in all I enjoyed the evening even though it’s hard for me to get into any Christmas feeling with the weather around 20 degrees during the evening – no matter how many Christmas carols are sung by the primary kids!

 

As I was filming with a hand camera later in the evening I forgot to take any photos when it was dark, but I'll try to find some and post them later on.

 

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2 ½ weeks ago Rebecka said she had sent something to me, and since I didn't get anything last week I had more or less given up hope and we were both pretty sad about it since it supposed to be something personal. So yesterday I walked into our admin staff to make a formal complaint to China post. When I had explain everything to our admin staff I walked to our pigeonholes and found this:


It had finally arrived the same day I wanted to form a complaint! So I happily walked back to our admin staff and said that there was no need to contact China post.. Inside the package I found something wonderful:


Rebecka sent me a love letter, 35 photos of us together, her top with the smell of her favourite perfume "Dolce&Gabbanna Light Blue" and I also got some jelly hearts!

I've looked through the photos several times now, I can't believe it 2 ½ weeks until she arrives! My baby is the best girlfriend ever!

This weekend I went to Macau, a city which is along with Hong Kong a SAR (special administrative region) of China, it was a Portuguese settlement until it was transferred back to China in 1999, but it will not be until 2049 that it will fully belong to mainland China. Macau has a very interesting history, more of which you can read here. Macau is interesting because in only a few years it has become the Las Vegas of the east, and it has actually long passed Las Vegas in amount of money spent in the casinos! However, I didn’t go there to gamble, but to see the mix of Portuguese and Chinese culture and architecture.

 

View of Macau from Penha hill.

 

It takes roughly two hours on a bus from Guangzhou to Zhuhai, which is the border city and where you have to pass the two custom controls, one going out of China and one entering Macau. Customs took me about 1 ½ hours. Straight out of the customs building there are several casino shuttle buses that will take you to their casino for free. Not knowing exactly where I wanted to go I jumped on going to Sand’s. Arriving there I was greeted by an expensive looking car park, with massive chandeliers in the ceiling!

 

My future garage?

 

Close by is the Fisherman’s wharf which looks more like a theme park than anything else with its Roman amphitheatre and Aladdin’s cave.. The remainder of the day I spent wandering around the city, passing by the famous Grand Lisboa building and numerous small churches.

 

I didn't know the Romans ever settled in China!

And the Arabs settled right next door to the Romans, fascinating!

 

The Grand Lisboa, certainly an interesting structure.



A cosy square with some of that old colonial Portuguese charm.



All the old buildings look really new.. Hmm...



The famous Ruins of St. Paul's church.



A cannon at the Monte Forte is strategically placed for taking out the Grand Lisboa if it poses any threat.



The north side of Macau.



Sun is setting over Macau.

At 8pm I was to meet up with my Couchsurfer host, Dan and at his place I got to try chicken feet for dinner! They look gross but they weren’t that bad actually, after the chicken feet the Tequila bottle made an entry and the rest of the night was filled with tequila shots and lots of laughs.

 

Grand Lisboa at night.

 

Eating chicken feet!

 

The day after Dan took me on a tour on Taipa which is the island south of Macau. On Taipa one will find enormous casino buildings such as The Venetian (fourth largest building in the world), the Hard Rock casino and “The city of Dreams” casino. I think these buildings and their interior looks so surreal that it’s hard to consider it real because of all its luxury fakeness but it’s definitely a great experience seeing it all!

 

Me and Dan outside the Hard Rock casino.

 

Inside the Venetian, which has the canal's inside and a permanent blue sky!

 

Even the Gondolas are here!

 

After the casino tour Dan took me to the Hac Sac beach where we planned to have lunch but the famous restaurant Fernando’s wasn’t open so we had to settle for a few egg tarts by the beach. Since I had a dinner and karaoke night waiting for me in Guangzhou I left Macau around 2pm and I’m looking forward to returning with Rebecka and show her around.

 

Last weekend I went into Zhujiang new town, which is the district where the Asian Games opening ceremony took place and also where a promenade dedicated to the Asian Games have been laid out. It was beautiful with massive flower decorations and sculptures. At night impressive light shows and buildings dressed with lights in changing patterns. Untold hours of work has been put into making this area the showcase of the Asian games and Guangzhou! Unfortunately I forgot to bring the proper camera and only had my mobile camera to take the photos below, my bad.

It's been four years since mine and Rebecka's magical second date and the date we hold as the beginning of our wonderful relationship. It seems so long ago but at the same time as if very little time has passed, I feel that there is so much more I want to know about my lovely girlfriend. I'm still madly in love with her. My brain has a hard time formulating what my heart feels when I think of Rebecka.


Rebecka had a big and beautiful bouquet delivered to my school, I was really surprised! I have had a big smile on my face since our receptionist gave them to me.



It's hard to be away from each other this long, definitely a trial by fire of our relationship but so far so good, and I count the days until December 19th when I will be able to hold my love in my arms once again!

Yesterday I went to Shamian Island which is a very small island by the Pearl river in Guangzhou, it was here that the first trading companies from Europe set up their business and the colonial style of the buildings remain, unfortunately the "old street" is not very big, but what's there is beautiful!






The old building street is a very popular place to get one's wedding picture taken or to have an advertisment photo shoot.


Yes, I do look cool in my new shades.


Lady of Lourdes Chapel


The sun sets on the Pearl river.

Considering the fact that I haven't had a proper haircut since July, it was about time I went to a hairdresser! I was all prepared with a photo that I could show and my Cantonese phrase book for instructions on how I wanted it. I went into the salon and asked for the price, and for a simple haircut the price was 30 RMB (35 kr), nice price, eh?

 

Taking a walk in the Bai Yun mountains (hills) with my new haircut.

First, I was taken upstairs for hair wash but apparently hair wash includes a massage because after a few minutes of washing, my temples were being rubbed and later my neck, arms and shoulders. I even got an ear wash! I didn't expect the massage but I wasn't complaining! After the massage I was taken down stairs and a hairdresser went to work after I showed him my photo and how short I wanted it. I didn't have very high expectations because what would you expect of a 35 kr haircut? Plus that there is a lot of difference between cutting asian haircuts and western haircuts. But my hairdresser was good, it took a bit of time but did a great job. After the haircut it was time for some more hairwashing and a bit of scalp massage. With this kind of treatment for 30 RMB, I'll be going to the hairdressers every two weeks!

This Monday I flew out with the year eights to Hainan for a few days of school camp. As I mentioned in a previous post, Hainan is an island just off the Chinese south coast. It’s been treated like a backwater province for years but with the Chinese growing capacity to go for vacations, Hainan is seeing some rapid development as a tourist spot. Sanya, the largest city on Hainan has for some years gotten a lot of Russian tourists, and some signs in the touristic parts are written in the Cyrillic alphabet.

 

Our hotel had a very nice pool.

 

My hotel room, nice but stone hard beds as usual.

 

The beach were we had a lot of our activities.

 

On the Monday we landed at Sanya aiport after about an hour’s flight from Guangzhou and had checked in around lunch time. After lunch it was time for some teambuilding activities on the beach. It was great to leave kids in the hands of the Hainan Adventures leaders during activities, they were great and enthusiastic. On the Tuesday we left for a camping trip in Yanoda rainforest, though it was more of a “rainforest garden” than a proper rainforest, it was a very tourist friendly place. Before camping we did some gorge climbing up some waterfalls, it was great fun!

 

Yanoda, the rainforest garden.

 

 

Yanoda from above.

 

On Wednesday it was time for some "hiking" but it was more of a walk around a very comfortable path around the “rainforest garden”. By lunch we were back in Sanya and the kids did some more teambuilding activities such as raft building and constructing their own catapults.

 

A tent above a tent?

 

The winning team in the raftbuilding contest "Hot Tuna!"

 

On Thursday we went surfing and “coasteering” which is walking by the coast and climbing the rocks there. Before surfing we also did something called the vertical challenge where we climbed up a 12 meter high platform where we had to jump to other platforms.

 

The vertical challenge!

 

On Friday it was time to go home, it was a great week with lots of fun but I was exhausted by the time I got home. Even though the Hainan Adventures leaders managed the activities it’s not an easy job keeping track of 60 students who are 13-14 year olds.. I’m glad I teach the older kids!

 

The full group.

 

I’m sorry I wasn’t able to post this the day after the Halloween party but I wasn’t feeling too good that Sunday. Might’ve been a sudden and severe cold or it might’ve been that vodka buffet on the party.. Anyway, the party was good, we had a pre-party at a friend’s place before taking the metro to the China hotel. While taking the metro we were somewhat of a moving theme park attraction. The Chinese were taking pictures like crazies, they are a very curious people I’ve found and have none of the restrictions that I’m used to. Here are some photos!

 

An evil wizard, an evil clown and an evil witch! Lots of evil!

 

A very pale vampire, with a mobile phone, not even vampires can do without them..

 

Always fun to see your colleagues dressed up!

 

We were popular amongst the Chinese on the metro. Bless the mobile camera!

 

At the China hotel, the entrance fee was pretty expensive but inside there were "free" beer, wine and vodka. I should've stuck with the beer as I usually do. It's always a bad idea to mix..

 

I apologize about the fact that this blog is not seeing as many weekly updates as it used to. It's partly because there are less "new" things to blog about, a natural decline since in the start everything is new and interesting. However, it's partly because I've had less time to post things. Some news though, next week I'll be going to Hainan Island on a school trip. As a homeroom teacher for year 8, I'll be going with them. I don't teach year 8 as I teach older kids but it will still be fun to see the kids in a non-school environment. I don't know a lot about the trip other than there will be a lot of outdoor activities such as hiking, canoeing, swimming and surfing. On some pictures I got from the web, Hainan looks pretty sweet to me:





I'll make a post on Sunday before I leave, letting you know how the Halloween party was.

Today (Sunday) I have spent most of my time here:





Yepp, that's right, I've been tanning and swimming in our lovely pool! The weather now is brilliant, clear skies for the most part, about 24 degrees and some cool breezes. Every Sunday should be like this! Yesterday I did my usual weekend cleaning and laundry routine and then went to the city centre for some Halloween cotume shopping with a couple of colleagues. I settled for a traditional vampire cape and make-up kit, similar to this:


Next Saturday there will be a big Halloween party at China hotel, looking forward to it!

I’ve joined a group of colleagues who occasionally go out on weekend trips to places in the “nearby” area, the group is called the Utahloy Wanderers. The trip to Licha Cun and Xiangang Cun was arranged by this group. Last weekend the destination was Shapawan, a beach town some 4 ½ hours away according to Google maps, well I was skeptical following the horrendous amount of hours we spent on the bus during the last trip. In the end it took us 6 hours on the road getting there including stops.

 

We went straight from school on Friday the 15^th around 5pm and arrived at our hotel at 11pm. The hotel was ok, nothing fancy but clean and ok bed. Our hotel was just a couple of hundred meters from the beach itself and the beach was very nice, better than I expected it to be.

 

 

The weather was good for walking but not for tanning, it was about 25 degrees but the sun hid behind some clouds, as you can see in the photos. I enjoyed just walking along the beach, seems like a long time ago I was close to the ocean. I think most Swedes are a bit spoiled in this manner, seeing as a lot of Swedish cities are located on the coast and that Sweden has long coastline compared to its size!

 

 

After walking on the beach and doing some reading in the sand I decided to walk up a hill nearby to get some nice views of the area. Well up the first hill I saw other hills I wanted walk up, but there was no paths or trails.. But I didn’t let that stop me!

 

The view from the hill.

 

Would've been nice with a trail here..

 

View from another hill, not the same beach though.

 

After walking in the hills I went back down into town, and had a walk there. It was nice seeing the fishing boats being repaired and prepared. Saturday evening we spent at a barbeque place enjoying grilled lamb and cold beers.

 

 

The Sunday I spent on the beach, getting a bit of a tan since the sun was out. It felt a lot like a good day during a Swedish summer, hot when the sun is out and temperate when behind clouds. The last few days I’ve really been enjoying the weather in Guangzhou, it’s 25 degrees, clear skies for the most part and with a bit of wind to cool you off. A bit of strange for me hearing about snowy weather moving down towards Småland right now.