Nanjing once again BUT in a western way!

After a rather long first week back I was jet setting off again to Nanjing to see Raihania on his whirlwind trip around Laos, Cambodia and China.

I was very excited as I was really looking forward to spending time with a really good friend and escaping the Wuxi life for a weekend. I knew it would be a weekend of good times and laughter an it sure delivered!

I was keen to show Raihania some Chinese cuisines so we manged to eat Hotpot, Street Food, and Schiuan and try to fit in Korean BBQ and Japanese Teppinyaki!

On Saturday we went and visited the amazing Nanjing Massacre Museum, which has the most amazing art work and very graphic photographs. It even has the bones of some of the people killed.

We ventured out west to the ruined city gates at the Zhonghua Gate.

That night (after a dud one the night before) we went to Nanjing 1912 a bar and restaurant area. We watch a Filipino band that were fantastic and then proceeded to tear up the dance floor and in list the local Chinese in dance off sessions, at 2 stages of the night their were conga lines going around the dance floor! Rai conveniently 'forgot' the camera!!!!!!!

The next day we made ourselves get up and went in search of a coffee to instead discover real China at it's best! Street food saved the day and we were off to Purple Mountain to climb the 300 and something steps (if that was not a hangover cure, I have no idea what is!), ride around the pagoda on scooters, play some games and see the Sacred Walkway.

Although our hotel was not quite up to standard (haha) we were ready to return to Wuxi and I was happy to have Rai look around the school (poor him, I made him teach!)

After our hard day at school we treated ourselves to massages and then off to Teppenyaki with a few friends to farewell Rai!

I had a great time and it made me miss home, Rai, Noel and Kelly heaps!! But sorry guys, not enough to pack and come home,

Love you,

Arohanui,

Amy xo

Qingdao Beer Festival!

Now I realise that writing to you about the beer festival and all of the other events in a few quick fire blogs really defeats the purpose of one but oh well, here goes!

We managed to negotiate our way through Qingdao to 'Beer City'. Immediately we were accosted but the hat bandits and then proceeded to follow the music to a big stage with seats. After ordering 4 different beers from Russia to share we sat down to enjoy the fire eaters and the funny raffle show they had going on.

The day seemed to progress in a very similar pattern and we ended up meeting up with fellow NZer's and Wuxites Abbey and Matt which added to the spirit of the event.

We were photographed A LOT and followed by the Chinese paparazzi and had to pose for lots of different shots as you can see demonstrated by Abbey and Matt (no they do not like feeding each other beer!)

There were a lot of very interesting characters and things to see:

After trying lots of exotic food and having a lot of laughs at Ben ogling the scantily clad women, we were ready to call it a day, declaring this a Chinese version of 'October Fest' (for those of us who had been!) But not before Abbey and Matt had a go on the carnival spinny ride, leaving Matt very white after just consuming half a bag of beer (Qingdao's speciality!)

After a lovely Schiuan dinner and some civilized drinks at a Jazz Club (no Jazz to be seen!) it was time to hit the hay!

The next day we spent reading on the beach and exploring the area around the Beer Factory (by exploring I mean trying more of the local cuisine and enjoying a coffee flavoured beer in the sun on top of a rickety balcony.

After taking in some sun it was time to find a western bar to enjoy some live music. Trust us to stumble on the bar that is having a masquerade party that night. In true NZ style we managed to sweet talk the people into giving us masks and the NZ sign from their display.

The next day was VERY low key and then it was back to Wuxi for a relaxing weekend hibernating before school started back!

Arohanui,

Amy

Qingdao...the land of plenty.....of beer!

Upon arriving in freezing Qingdao (ops no warm clothes!) we proceeded to our hotel and were greeted with a lovely seaview room and an even better view of each other if we went to the toilet or had a shower behind the half frosted glass of the tiny bathroom. We decided not to venture out that night as after our bumpy bus ride from the airport we did not feel the need to walk again! Enjoying warm Oyster Bay through fits of tired hysterics was the highlight of that day!

Day 2 in Qingdao it was decided, woud be a meandering day ambling through the German influenced streets and alleyways while we awaited the arrival of our fellow Qingdao travellers. After requesting a room change and non smokefilled towels, we entered the streets armed with my new camera, ready to snap away at the sights.

And sights we did see....the beach (No 6 Bathing Beach), should of been called, at least 6000 people beach.....it was packed with people with buckets and tiny nets invading the many rock pools. Now some may assume that this was children...alas..the children were not the least bit interested in such plights and it was the adults that were dipping and diving and peering into the homes of many a sea creature!

Sea food in big rectangle buckets littered the streets, filled with everything from baby stingrays, sea cucumbers and scampi to things that looked an awful lot like the male anatomy....hmmm...I guess I won't be trying those!

Dried fish shops used for Chinese Medcines stunk up the sidewalk and everywhere you turned you were faced with the putrid smell of rubbish bins...yes....this truly was a Chinese experienced....it really left me wondering...how could so many foreigners survive during the Olympics in these conditions? I soon found out a few hours later.

Luckily, the nosey people we are (thanks Mum!), we stumbled across St Michaels Cathedral, a massive westernised structure plonked right in the middle of a clearly very Chinese district...sore thumb anyone? Very stunning thou and with blue cloud poking through..the cameras were flashing...along with all of the wedding processions...it must be a lucky holiday.

We continued down Zhongshan Lu, an apparent shopping street (no western sizes) and found our haven - a mirid of alleyways with local, locals and where most laowai's had feared to tread judging by our reception. It was tiny and filled to the brim with hanging pork cuts, grains, fruit, veges, meat, fish...it was amazing and the people were great too.

We found amazing cold hashbrowns from a local stall and proceeded back to meet Ben and Belinda fresh off the plane and ready for some local beer and seafood!

I have taken a long time to publish this but will catch you up on the beer festival, Raihania's trip to China and Beijing soon!

Arohanui,

Amy xo

Holidays...again??

The Chinese have very different holidays to us so for Mid Autumn Festival (a weeks holiday), we decided to brave a Chinese Beer Festival in Qingdao. I was very excited at seeing the ocean again and being just after the Olympics...I was praying it was clean!

First off was a stop in Shanghai. This was aided by the lovely Hadleigh who entrusted Tracy and I his lovely apartment near Nanjing Lu while he was back visiting the real world (NZ) Thanks Had!

Tracy's step brother Ben showed us the ropes and we even watched (with a NZ tour group) the Warriors........lose....drastically......in the semi finals....we will never go back to that bar again! We then wandered down a dodgy alley where Ben assured us we would find the best Thai......around into another alley, into an unnamed building and up some stairs we emerged to a fantastic Thai restaurant....and the waitress looked at us like it was normal to find them there!

After a great nights sleep we headed for fresh food at Element Fresh...a god send after MSG filled Chinese food.... some fancy tarts (the food kind) at the heavenly french bakery Paul's and to take in some English at the foreign language book store.....we were in heaven........ but we had an aeroplane to catch...armed with some Element Fresh Hummus, fresh Paul's bread, some cakes and most importantly a bottle of NZ Oyster Bay Sauv we were on our way to Qingdao!