The Magic of China

 YoYo was downstairs in the hotel waiting for me, and she kindly bought me breakfast, though I really wasn't sure what it was and whether I liked it, but she made me eat all of it. It included two tea eggs, that is, eggs marinated in soy sauce and bay leaves for around two days, again with another vegetable baozi, and soy milk, a very traditional Chinese breakfast. I was beginning to understand that Chinese cuisine didn't really have 'breakfast' in the same sense as the West where we generally have different types of food according to the type of day, for example, cereal or eggs on toast in the morning, while fish and chips, lasagne or pies would be served for dinner. From my limited experience in China, they would eat the same food for breakfast as what they would during the rest of the day.  She walked me over to a 'secret' passage in the shopping mall underground, and got the lift to floor 4F on the way to the centre. She introduced me to Andy, who was a rath...

 I arrived in Hangzhou, to find that a Chinese girl, around my age, called YoYo would pick me up and take me to the hotel via taxi. She explained that she just started with the company after moving from her hometown in Shenzhen and was surprised to find that she was so far away from home. Her job was trying to sell courses to passersby, basically aggressive marketing, which is common in China-to coax people in from the street to just take an interest in the courses.  I told her I was interested in learning to speak Chinese, and said she was happy to be my 'Chinese teacher'. She started Lesson 1 immediately and upon entering the hotel she tried to get me to ask to checkin, which I don't think I was really any good at. She escorted me to the hotel, which wasn't the Holiday Inn, but it had a bed, looking over a fairly dodgy looking alleyway with the odd e-bike passing through, as they collected breakfast/lunch from the makeshift 'baozi' kiosk.   Yoyo gave me five m...

 This was my last morning in Shanghai, and I was a little upset about already leaving the friends I had made, but they seemed more occupied with the vibrant nightlife, while I wanted a more deeper cultural experience.  The concierge had successfully called a taxi and also told me that it should cost around 60RMB (6 pounds)-just to make sure I wouldn't be taken advantage of. On arrival at Shanghai Hongqiao, I made my way through a sophisticated level of security, only the equivalent to that undertaken before boarding a plane. I had to show my passport, then put my luggage through the scanners, and after that I had to undergo a full body search as well. I was finally through the barriers, and I turned up around 2 hours before-just in case something went wrong. I had a lot of luggage and so decided to simply go to the platform waiting area and wait. I then met my next Chinese companion, who was on the way to Wenzhou, which is apparently the most difficult Chinese dialects to lear...

 My first Chinese 'friend' was called Victoria, a Chengdu girl who had recently moved back from teaching English in various countries in Asia. She seemed very laid back and relaxed, turning up to every meeting at least 30 minutes late, and getting lost most of the time too. My British colleague, Johnny, who was in China with his long-term Chinese girlfriend says 'she's from Chengdu so she's really laid back'. This was probably my first 'education' about the differing places in China. All I knew about Chengdu was that it was the home of some really cute pandas, nothing so much about the individual characteristics of its people. The differences between Chinese cities are not only geographical, but cultural and linguistic, with each having its own attributes, or rather 'personality traits' of its people. This small encounter made me realise that I knew nothing about China She was a new 'local' teacher, basically meaning that she did the exac...

 Jason knocked on my door, which he had to do everyday because I didn't have WeChat and I refused saying 'it wasn't necessary' and I could do without. I never really needed a phone in the Uk or Facebook or any other social media APP, so why bother now? I rejected WeChat, APPs and a phone.  On the schedule the people who were staying in Shanghai had to go apartment hunting and those going elsewhere such as Hangzhou, like me, could just have the days off to explore and settle in. As a group, with Chinese people on hand to help, I tagged along, as Jason and the others went off to buy a Chinese phone, but as mentioned before, I rejected this idea of buying a phone-a pretty stupid one at that.  While everyone else was in a WeChat group and messaging each other, I wasn't, so I had no clue what was going on. Everyone else was meeting up on a night and going to bars, with one-the law graduate-commenting that it was like 'freshers week'. I was missing this experience...

 I had my first of adventures in Shanghai, and this is when I realised I was starting to like it. The company had provided us with a a metro card with 50 RMB-I had no idea how much this was, but I was very grateful. I knew, unlike most of my fellow cohort who were remaining in Shanghai, that I probably wouldn't use the money.  Jason, who seemed to like me, invited me to go out with him to explore, so we met up together downstairs in the hotel. We found a place close by the hotel on the evening called 'Yang's dumplings', and of course, I ordered the cheapest thing, because I was worried about money, so I bought the 8RMB dumplings, which were pork soup dumplings, one first of the most delicious foods I had ever had. I was trying to learn to use chopsticks, but just ended up sticking them in the middle of the chopsticks, which I learnt was rude because I just wanted to eat.  Figure 1: Shanghai's famous skyline. We caught up with other members of the group and saw an im...

  Figure 1: The skyline in Shanghai I arrived in Shanghai Pudong Airport on November 16th 2016, what would become my ''Chinaversary'', and I was amazed to find that I quickly went through passport control, immigration, and collected my luggage with no hassle. But the next task was to find the driver who was taking me to the airport. As I arrived and walked over to collections I saw huge groups of Chinese drivers with various names of individuals and companies....I was so happy and relieved when I saw one sign that read EF. I think I was the second person he picked up, as I realised that we were waiting to collect at least a few other people. I remember being shocked to find how warm it was....I didn't think to check the weather in Shanghai but assumed it was cold this time of year to find that it was around 13 degrees and there was no need for layers of jumpers and coats. Slowly.....other future colleagues trickled in, one called Jason, and another guy who had recen...

 I had no real idea what to pack, I thought that bringing clothes plus bed sheets would be the best idea, since the expectation was that I would be getting an apartment. I remember my mum buying a really beautiful set of duvet covers, which I loved....along with packing a dressing gown and formal clothes.  I was also told to take at least 20 000 RMB in cash with me for startup costs. I watched EF videos about setting up in China while, they said China was a very 'cash up front' society-I didn't really seem to understand this, and didn't take it too seriously. But I took around this amount with me in Chinese money, thinking that I probably wouldn't really need that amount.  My magistrate mum wanted me to have the 'best start' so she arranged for her friend Ray, also another magistrate, to drive me in his jaguar to Humberside airport to give me the final 'goodbye'. I had asked Ray to take a look at the EF contract and look up the company-my mum's m...

 I don't live with regrets. All experiences are valuable and serve as memories of emotions of saddness, happiness and fear, and my adventure gave me all of these. My British life before moving to China was stable, routine and predictable, where every weekend was carefully planned, but generally not followed. The British, and Germans too, love to plan, as we like the idea of certainty, so what happens when that feeling of security is removed?  This blog serves as a document of my time living and working in China between November 2016 to March 2024, with an emphasis on the word 'living'. I kept diaries during this time, but I was never able to develop the self-discipline of writing in a diary everyday. I didn't see the point, as days are often the same, even in China, and so I wrote in them on days which I wanted to remember, for either happy experiences, sad, or to document my achievements. This meant that everything significant was remembered, and most importantly, docu...

In the interview I was asked where I would like to be based, and I had been looking up places and learning about Tier 1, 2, and 3 cities in China. While looking I saw Nanjing was a pretty vibrant place, filled with many expats, but wasn't really 'international' on the same level as 'Shanghai', with the prospect of having a more fully immersive experience in China of learning about the culture and the language. I was told that Nanjing was 'competitive' and was already full, and then the lady suggested Hangzhou because the Olympics in 2015 had meant that many expats had left due to the increase in security and police interference. I looked this up and did some research and saw that it had been nicknamed 'Heaven on Earth', with Westlake as the main attraction....on that I was pretty much sold.  The process had started, and I was getting my online free TEFL certificate as part of the visa requirement that I had to finish before flying to Shanghai. I don...