My impression of China, part two
I arrived at the station in good time and bought a ticket, here they have various classes, hard or soft seat and hard or soft bed or standing, my journey was to take around 8 hours so I opted for a soft seat, which cost about £15 ($27). I found my carriage and seat and we left right on time.It was still dark when we left so I slept for a while, awaking to a dawn filled with new sights, there is no doubt that to travel by train gives a wonderful view of any country, we passed rivers where men fished with large nets, women were busy washing clothes and kids were playing, I saw incredibly beautiful countryside with small towns made up of high rise buildings, some new and some very old and in awful condition, however, my immediate impression was that China is developing rapidly, everywhere there was construction, new housing blocks, new factory and business centres being built together with new rail and road networks, China is obviously invest billions into renewing her infrastructure, my train companions included a French journalist who spoke excellent English, she told me that Chinese government was paying tenants of old dilapidated buildings to move into new modern housing blocks and then clearing the slum areas to make way for new businesses and homes.
Sometimes as we passed through small villages the local people would stare at the train and give a wave always accompanied with a broad grin, Chinese people seem to smile more than any other people I have seen, so refreshing to see happy faces around you .
We stopped at various places on the way, where there were stalls selling fresh fruit, hot drinks and of course pot noodle, A pot noodle cost about 10 pence and a coffee (Still very sweet and strange tasting) about 20 pence, as we travelled through the city of Nanging it just seemed to go on for ever, a huge place by western standards, I saw both new modern towers and very old typical Chinese buildings side by side, there is a long and interesting history to this city and I hope soon to revisit and explore it.
As we continued we started to climb a mountain, the train slowing to just above walking pace, then went through a long tunnel breaking out the far side into a sunlit and warm region, very green and little sign of habitation, we continued at walking pace for about 2 hours, this was supposed to be an express train!!, then as time passed we started to see people, then housing appeared and we arrived in the city of Wuhu, again the tall towers and new construction everywhere. We stopped here for quite a long time as apparently there was a fault with the brakes, but this was fixed with a very energetic group of engineers including women members.
It took a further 3 hours to reach our destination of Chizhou, arriving at about 2pm, as I left the train I could smell the freshness in the air and it was quite cold although very sunny, snow lay around where it had been bulldozed away to make paths.
I was met at the station entrance by my new Dean of the English Faculty together with the head of English studies and my new classroom assistant, a smiling vivacious young woman who insisted on trying to carry my suitcase oblivious to the fact it probably weighed more than her!!.
I was taken to the college where, opposite the main entrance, were a row of maybe 40 tents all housing kitchens and small shops, we stopped at one and I was introduced to my first taste of Anhui province food, hot spicy vegetables with noodles and stick rice, as I looked around I could see that the college was built on the very outskirts of the city, in what looked like a new development of shops and business park, and was told that when the area was finished all the businesses in tents would move into proper shops and restaurants.
My first view of the College was how big it all seemed, 6 very new and beautifully designed buildings lay on each side of a wide boulevard which also contained round ponds and sculptured lights.
To be continued
Comments (7)
The rate of progress and change there is incredible isn't is, the cost must be gigantic and they can still afford to lend nearly $ 1 Trillion to the US !
Hope you settle in well, best of luck, it all sounds a fantastic experience.
The food is a different matter!! in large cities you can buy western food but here in Chizhou only local foods, hot and spicy most of the time, I enjoy most of this but find the meat strange as although it is cut to mouth or bite size, it always contains a bone and you have to chew around it to get to the meat,then spit the bone out, not something we are used to in the west, so I tend to stick with vegetables, rice and noodles, the egg fried rice and fried noodles are wonderful and of course the various teas available, but again not the same as in the USA, very watery green tea, in some places I have found red tea which is closer to Ceylon/African tea.
Fruit is readily available and the apples are delicious as are the kiwi fruit and bananas.
One word of advise, if you do come to China, don't eat from the street venders until you have are used to the diet here, you need to have the right bacteria in your stomach to deal with street food else you will sit on the toilet for days
Oh and remember, outside of the main cities, very very little English is understood or spoken and all signs, menus etc are in Chinese, a good electronic dictionary is a life saver
new biological weapons
SARS and CORONA not came from out the blue
To me by far the most interesting blogs of all are the ones from people moving from one world into another, their impressions and experiences. People who are actually living life, not merely reflecting their tiny view of the internet.
I hope you'll do more on your new life now, 11 years down the line and in a new country again