Halloween

China doesn't celebrate Halloween but as we work in a 'western' school and have kids there, the school did have a big celebration for Halloween.

Becky & Amanda

We had about 200 kids attending and all the teachers were responsible for organising a game for them, from 'musical mummies' to relay races - all themed around Halloween of course.

Layla and her 'friends'

Coco & Vicky with some of the kids

Vicky and the boss (Michael)

not all costumes were very Halloween-y

pandas and opera

Last weekend China celebrated its National Day. This meant a few days off for everyone and I took this opportunity to travel a little. Unfortunately, so did the rest of China so it was very busy!!

I started my journey in the Yunnan province and went to Kunming. I took an overnight train from Nanning.  My first train in China, and I was impressed.  I had a 'soft' sleeper which is a 4 berth cabin, with mattresses, pillows and duvets on the berths.  Kunming didn't have that much to offer for me, the state is more known for its hiking areas, so I only stayed the one night before continuing on to Chengdu. I was very excited about going to Chengdu as this is where the Giant Pandas are.  I did enjoy walking around the city, which has a nice climate, not too hot and not too cold and is more 'western' than Nanning.  I stumbled across a park where people were playing mahjiang, cards and dancing as well as attending choir practice.

choir practice

In Chengdu I stayed at a backpackers place.  There were loads of Dutch people there (they always seem to travel everywhere) so I ended up practicing my Dutch again.  A group of us went to the panda breeding reserve where we fed the pandas, cleaned their cages and learnt a little about Giant Pandas.

big teddy bears?

and small ones... these are 1 month old.

I also spent a day visiting the Giant Buddha in Leshan. This was carved into the cliffs by a monk many years ago as he believed the spirit of the Buddha would calm the rough river below. This did actually work, though it's more likely due to all the rocks and dirt that went into the river in the process of creating the Buddha.

World's largest Buddha

big hands

The other highlights included eating the Sichuan food (very spicy)

hot pot

and seeing the opera. This is not like a typical opera, as it's more of a mix of different talents and skits being performed. The most impressive of which is the face changing act. The people come on stage with masks on and through various moved manage to change them entirely in a split second. It's very impressive.

Sichuan Opera performers

Chinese hospital

When you call in sick at work, even with something simple like the flu, or bowel issues (luckily I've so far managed to avoid that!), the school sends someone to your house to take you to the hospital!  The Chinese appear to be very quick to go to the hospital, even if it's something as simple as 'needing rest, over the counter medicine and fluids'.

People's # 1 Hostpital

When we first arrived here we needed to do a medical for visa purposes and we were taken to a brand new, very modern hospital.  Since then, they've used an older, more popular hospital.  At first I was a bit thrown off by this as you don't get private consulting rooms with the doctor and everthing looks so old.  However, once you get used to that, they are meticulous about cleanliness and their system seems to work. 

ambulance bay

While waiting to be seen (or to pay) I've been watching other patients.  I've obseved people walking around carrying their drip attached to a stick to keep it high, I've observed Traditional Chinese Medicine being practiced and have partaken in some acupuncture sessions. 

Here they don't just give you acupuncture, they also use 'cupping' to draw out the bad energy and burn moxa herbs to aid the treatment.  Sometimes the hospital is extremely busy as it's an auspicious day where they burn moxa herbs on ginger directly onto your body.  This is supposed to aid circulation. 

cupping leaved marks that last about a week

I've also seen treatment on the ears (to help weightloss) and on the face to clear sinuses.  It's interesting to see what the locals believe in.  One girl got an injection with vitamins (I think) which is supposed to help thicken her hair.

I'm generally the only western person there and it's been a real draw for doctors and nurses to come by and practice some English (for the courageous ones) or just to 'see a foreigner'.  I'm used to this by now as in Nanning you get stared at a lot and often people just say 'hello' when they pass you.  There are relatively few white foreigners here so we're still a novelty.

Life's a beach!

About 3 hours south of Nanning is the South China Sea.  There are a few places to visit on the coast, most notably Bei Hai.  Following a school trip to Fang Cheng Gang (a port city) a few of us continued onto Bei Hai to relax on the beach. Whilst it's not a Carribbean beach, we had fun there.  I think we were a real sight for the locals as it's not often they see foreigners, and we stayed on the sand whilst they all sat in plastic chairs, hiding from the sun.  The Chinese are so afraid of getting dark skin that they even walk down the street using an umbrella as a parasol to avoid the sun.

beach at Bei Hai

at Bei Hai beach

We also had a fantastic seafood lunch at the beach and enjoyed some 'western' food in town.

crab for lunch

Mike, Chris, Becky, Edward

Bei Hai town was pretty quiet, perhaps as it's the end of summer and school starts again this week.  We did manage to find a Dutch bar in town, and the guy was very excited to speak dutch to me!

Whilst walking through town, we came across some outdoor massage tables.  I think this would be a little too public for me.  I'm happy to do this on the beach, but not in the centre of town.

massage tables

Bei Hai

school trips

Our school has been running a summer school course and keeping us very busy!  We recently moved location and got a shiny new school, with new equipment so the management is wanting to promote this.  I can hardly believe I'm saying this but I can't wait for the new school term to start again!

On Fridays we've been taking the younger children out for an activity.
The first week we made sushi at the school.

hard at work rolling sushi

Next we went to a park to play games like 3 legged race etc. but we 'camped out' on a concrete patch in the park and at first the kids complained that they were too hot to run around!  Eventually they got into it though.

3 legged race

The following week we went to the Guangxi museum of Minorities.  Keeping the really young ones (3 years old) interested in this was a challenge - fortunately I had older kids.

my class at the museum, with Ashley (who works at the school)

Becky 'pulling' her 3 year olds along

Then we went to McDonald's where they were taught how to make hamburgers.  The younger ones pretty much watched, whilst the older ones made them.  I think the kids mostly enjoyed eating the burgers!

making hamburgers

happy kids

The following week we watched a movie.  This was a cartoon movie (in Chinese!) which unfortunately scared some of the young ones.  The non-Chinese teachers were mostly reading a book or listening to music as we couldn't understand the Chinese. 

The last outing is a trip to the beach.  We were there with about 30 kids and their parents.  We had activities on the beach and then stayed for lunch.  Some of us teachers decided to stay on for the weekend and visit the Bei Hai beach, a few hours from the one we were at with the school.

Bai Liang Tan beach

kids (and parents) in tug of war - they beat the teachers!

Yang Mei - Ancient Town of Nanning

About an hour and a half out of Nanning is Yang Mei, known as the ancient town of Nanning (http://www.chinahighlights.com/nanning/attraction/yangmei-amcient-town.htm).
To get there, you travel through lush countryside and rural areas.  I went there with some Chinese friends who tell me that this is what most of China, outside of big cities, is like.

Yang Mei has an abundance of fruit trees and natural produce.

pomegranate tree

drying rice and peanuts

vats for fermenting pijiu (rice wine)

 The town is very picturesque and traditional.

carrying goods up the hill

It is mostly known for its preserved buildings dating back to the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

entrance to a preserved home

inside a preserved home

We had a very relaxing day there, with a superb lunch cooked with local produce of fish, starfruit, dragoneye fruit and other delicacies.

local crab

Jing, Troy, Lining, Mike



'nam

After 5 months of teaching, our term (finally) ended and I was on holiday - well, for a week anyway as we do have summer school so unlike most teachers, we don't get the whole summer off!
I decided to go to Vietnam, as my uncle and cousin are travelling in SE Asia and it seemed a good place to meet up.

Nanning is a good point of departure for Hanoi.  There's a Vietnamese embassy here, for visas, and regular direct buses.  So, after 4 hours on a nice Chinese bus, and then another 4 hours on a more rickety Vietnamese bus, I made it to Hanoi.

After dumping my bag, I decided to look around the 'French Quarter' area where I was staying.  Almost immediately I bumped into my family and we decided to have a drink at 'Beer Corner'.  They had been travelling for a few weeks in Thailand and Laos, and had lots of stories to tell.

We planned to leave Hanoi (and its manic traffic) almost straight away. 

Vietnam is a big (long) country and we had a lot of ground to cover.  We tried to book a sleeper carriage on the 'reunification express' train but all the trains were full, due to the Vietname school holidays starting.  We were lucky enough to get 'soft' seats and sat on them for the next 13 hours, to Hue, beyond the DMZ (demiliterized zone).

Hue was the old capital of Vietnam.  Now it's a very peaceful town with a few old reirlics but not a huge tourist pull.  This was nice, we'd been inundated with people trying to sell us things from copied books to rayban sunglasses in Hanoi. 

We visited the old Citadel

and took a boat trip to a pagoda, which had beautiful views.

Our next stop was Danang, to catch a flight to Nha Trang.  Again the trains were full, with only hard seats available.  An alternative was a sleeper bus but we managed to find affordable flights instead.  Danang was a popular place for US soldiers to spend their R&R time and the China Beach there was sometimes used as an airstrip during the war.  Now it's a bustling industrial town with minor tourism.  Again we enjoyed being away from the touts and spent an enjoyable evening playing pool and cathing up.  My cousin had just learnt to play pool so she was very keen.
Early the next morning saw us on a Vietnam Airlines flight out of Danang.  Nha Trang is on the coast and one of the places in Vietnam where you can go diving.  I was keen to go there for this reason.  My uncle and cousin were just happy to stay put somewhere for a few days as they'd been on the go for so long.  The diving was fun, and we introduced my cousin to it.

She was a natural and became hooked immediately.  I would not be surprised to see her become a dive master when she's a little older.

Vietnam has a french history, pre-Communism and the US war.  I expected to hear more people speak french but this did not prove to be the case.  English was the 'tourism' language, like in so many places in the world.  However, Nha Trang did have a number of french restaurants and cafes and I must confess I enjoyed going there, rather than indulge in the Vietnamese food.  I find the Vietnamese food very similar to the chinese food that I have here so it was a nice change for me.

After a few days in Nha Trang, I flew back to Hanoi, from where I was taking the bus back to Nanning.  My uncle and cousin carried on to Saigon - I know, Ho Chi Min City, but everyone called it Saigon over there.  I was sad not to see Saigon, or Phnom Penh, the island south of the country, but these are reasons to return one day.

water, water, water everywhere...

Asia's largest 'cross-border' waterfall (and the world's 2nd largest, after Niagra Falls) is on the China-Vietnamese border, about 4 hours from Nanning.  Last weekend a group of us decided to visit it.  And it was spectacular!

We took a bus there and planned to spend the night.  The problem was that none of the 4 of us spoke Chinese and there was no english spoken, and very little pinyin being used!  Maybe I do need to learn the Chinese characters after all. 

But, we managed, with phrasebooks and translating programmes.  We organised a room (in a much better condition than I'd expected), got tickets to see the falls, and managed to find a return bus to Nanning.  For meals, we've got a few staple dishes down in our limited Chinese so we'd ask for them and hope for the best!  Some of the best food I've eaten so far was there, especially the Vienamese style egglant.  We also got lucky that a Czech tour guide who was living in Guangzhou and taking Czech tourists around China (and spoke English) was there to help us at times.

When you approach the waterfall there is an option to take a bamboo raft towards the bottom of the falls.  This we did and we got close enough to have a shower!  We also spotten a man standing above the falls fishing.  I'm not sure how successful he would have been.

with Carly on the raft

Carly, Mike & Becky

see the man in the middle?

The journey there was quite stunning, very green and rural.  We'd pass rice paddies, pineapple plantations and plenty more of crops we were unfamiliar with!

We climbed up to the point where the mountains turn into Vietnam.  This is not an official border crossing but it is marked.

This border area is filled with people selling the staple tourist stuff we see all over.

We also visited the neighbouring town of Shualong Town.  There was little there but the guys went swimming (I was on camera duty) and we had a nice walk through town.  We came across problems with ordering here and when we thought we'd ordered Coke and Sprite, we were presented with rice and snails! 

Finally, we said good bye to Detian and returned to Nanning.