Hello and greetings from China.

I've been in mainland China for three days now staying in Meizhou in the Meixian region. China is very different to how I imagined it. There is scarely any english anywhere so I have no idea what all the signs everywhere mean. It is very odd being in a place where you understand nothing.

Traffic rules here seem to be non-existant. Cars, buses, motorbikes and bicycles just push in regardless of whether there is room for them or not, overtaking occurs from the left and right, people walk across junctions oblivious to the cars, and motorbikes carrying four people try and wind their way through the chaos.

Tomorrow we are heading to Shenzen, a city with a population the same as London for a bit from where we will cross the border back into HK.

While being in China I had the opportunity to go to a local primary school and go to two english lessons. It was really interesting to see how they teach english (by the children repeating what the teacher says) and the words and phrases that they learn. The 10yr olds were fascinated by the fact that I couldn't speak Mandarin, and the girls chose to crowd around me during their break time asking me questions.

Until next time,

Monica