Having been in China for almost 2 months now, i felt that this blog is well overdue. It is difficult to compose my thoughts over the last 8 weeks into a legible piece of prose, especially with my emmentaal-esque memory and with so many new experiences flooding my senses.

To start from the top, Beijing is an amazing city. You can tell that alot of emphasis must have been put into making it look clean and presentable for the olympics as there are so many trees and flowers running alongside the busy roads. Other than our standard 8-4 shifts, 6 days a week, at the local school, there was not much time for activities in our short 10 day stay in the capital. The compulsory tourist trips were provided; the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the National Museum (a whole exhibit dedicated to Mao but surprisingly no mention anywhere in the museum or Tiananmen itself of the 1989 student protests...) and the Great Wall which, while breathtaking in its size and location, seemed somewhat sanitized. We later discovered that the section we had walked had been largely renovated over the years, specifically for tourists.

This was a nice way to climatize to the vast cultural differences in China but I felt that the real China was not yet revealing itself. It seemed as though everywhere I went the country was growing at an explosive rate. I have never seen so much development going on at one time and this is also the case in the smaller cities and towns, not the metropolises of Beijing and Changsha (a city of immense size which only just makes it into the top 10 largest in China). Skyscrapers are sprouting out of the ground at every angle and in blocks of 5, 10, ??. The rate of growth is astonishing, cranes dominate every skyline. Even as I type this from our apartment in the small town of Leiyang, I can see new apartment blocks springing up in the distance. I do wonder if these buildings have a purpose or whether they are commissioned just to keep the country booming but I'm sure this will become apparent in the next decade or so.

Roads here are incredibly dangerous. When we first arrived I would wait until it was completely clear before even thinking about crossing. Now i just do as the locals do and walk out infront of cars that I judge to be going slow enough to stop. Do so infront of a shiny BMW or Mercedes at your peril. The 1 hour taxi ride from HengYang back to Leiyang was a real wake-up call. Driving at night in heavy rain with no reflectors on the roads, overtaking huge lorries on blind corners and our driver was surprisingly conservative compared to others we have had the misfortune of travelling with. At one point I saw a lorry overturned at the side of the road and decided to look at the driver's speedo to gain some sort of comfort. I was hardly shocked to see it didn't work.

It is clear that most people here have no concept of waiting your turn so the culture is a free-for-all in every aspect. If you do not make enough money to get out of poverty then it's is your own fault. Cars squeeze their way into any gap available even if it means clogging a crossroads for the best part of an hour (we have been unfortunate enough to experience this when trying to catch a train). Women here are rightly prepared to be elbowed in the face considering the amount of shouting and pushing they do when trying to get in/out of some confined space, a common pasttime in China it seems.

Luckily our small town is not nearly as crowded as the cities and we are only subjected to the farcical Chinese travel system occasionally. Despite this, it is always worth the journey. For national day we had 5 days off, 3 days straddled either side by 1 of travelling. Our first stop was GuiLin, a beautiful city in Guangxi province to the West. Sitting in a cafe eating pizza and drinking beer on our first morning, looking out onto the pavement dotted with flowerbeds and a canopy of trees we could be in Europe rather than Asia. A short bike ride through the rain took us to Reed Flute Cave, a stunning cave network complete with stalagtites/mites illuminated by gaudy disco lights which, while tacky, created a beautifully eerie effect.

We had our first experience of someone trying to con us which left me somewhat bitter but we quickly forgot about it when we were on a small boat scudding down the LiJiang (Li river for engrish infidels). The scenery is probably the most incredible I have ever witnessed and from the unique viewpoint of the river you really get a sense of how ancient and gigantic these geological anomalies actually are.

We spend the afternoon on a smaller bamboo raft (picture) doing the normal touristy stuff; cormorant fishing show, feeding the already overweight water buffalos etc. Arriving late in Yangshuo we were immediately plunged into one of the busiest areas I have ever been. West street is full of tourists, ergo hundreds of stalls, street vendors and presumably pick-pockets. Despite the crowds and pushy natives, Yangshuo is an amazing place, the perfect combination of eastern tradition and western convenience, surrounded by the breathtaking peaks that can be seen from almost anywhere in the town. Me and Rose hired a tandem bicycle (super gay) and made our way out into the styx away from the popular tourist trails. Here we were awed by the grandeur of the scenery and wondered how difficult a decision it must be for locals to maintain their rural lifestyle while throngs of their ilk flood to the town looking to make a fast, and arguably much less grueling, yuan. All this we did while scaring them with a rendition of bohemian rhapsody. I almost plunged us into some angry looking foliage when partaking in the customary headbanging. Old habits die hard.

That night we went to see Liu Sanjie (the third sister), an outdoor performance done mainly on water with 7 of Yanghsuo's famous peaks forming the scenery. Lots of dancing and singing in Chinese is not exactly my cup of tea you would probably think but I was absolutely blown away by it. The fact that it was created by the same guy who did the opening ceremony at the Beijing olympics probably gives you an idea of the scale (600 locals, shiny things and lots of fire...) and I honestly cannot explain it in a way that does it any sort of justice.

So after our short exploration of a minute corner of China, we headed home on luxurious 'soft-sleeper' seats to Leiyang. Despite being stuck in a horrendous traffic jam caused by one or two imbecilic drivers and arriving more than half an hour late, our train was later still. All hail the inefficient Chinese travel network!

Leiyang has little to offer although the people here are lovely and always willing to help. We are treated like celebrities being the only whites in the town and so far I have not seen anyone here taller than me. I also had to buy shorts sized XXXL, always nice to know you are considered fat and repulsively giant somewhere in the world. Teaching goes well and most of the students are quite enthusiastic although their levels of english are generally low. A lot of boys at the back of the classrooms just sleep throughout my lesson but I let them get away with it as they are in school for about 11 hours a day, 6 days a week (and then they only get sunday afternoons off before they have to come back for 7-10pm evening classes).

I feel that two months have flown by already and without much culture fatigue thanks to oreos, coca cola and regular sessions of football. This could all change of course and in my next post I will probably have a long list of things that really get my goat (insert generic joke about Chinese diet) but for now I am quite content in this strange place. Speak to you soon, tsai jian!