When I recently got the opportunity to go back to Shanghai and visit my friends in the SJTU lab, of course I jumped at the chance! I had the chance to not only go back to all my old familiar places that I used to know and love as well as cross off a few things on my list that I didn't get to do last time.
I also realised several things. Things I missed (apart from my friends of course!):
1) The smell! It's hard to describe, but the smell of the streets, of the lab, of the metro, everything. It's funny how smells really link back to memories, and I don't know what it is, whether its the aromatic mix of smog, gutter oil and street food that's so quintessential to China, or just the fact that there's nothing quite like it back in the UK, but they really cause memories to flood back, because there's nothing like it back home
2) Hearing Chinese everywhere again! Since last time, when I knew next to no Chinese, I've now passed HSK2, and even this low level of Chinese was enough to mean that I had a much better idea of what was going on around me on some rudimentary level. People were very impressed with my new vocabulary and even my pronunciation. It also meant that I could order food by myself a couple of times. If there's one thing I can definitely, definitely recommend prior to going to China, it's to learn some Chinese, any level at all will go some way to helping you get by in China and impress some of your Chinese friends.
3) Chinese hospitality! It was great to be spoiled by the renowned Chinese hospitality, and my friends spared no effort in spending time with me and making sure that I had a great time. I also left with approximately twice the volume of presents that I brought with me, making it very difficult for me to close my suitcase for the way home!
I was surprised that on this occasion much fewer people asked to take photos with me, which is probably an indication of how much Western culture has infiltrated China now. We did draw some attention from a few strangers in Nanjing, but actually they were very polite, and tried to speak to me in English, or at least attempted to have a conversation via a translating friend. Which goes to show that a lot of progress has been made with regards to China's attitudes to Westerners. And just in case anybody is disappointed by lack of celebrity status, you can still go to tourist hot spots such as the viewing platform of any of the skyscrapers to get your hit of photos-with-strangers and a plethora of new WeChat friends!
(Incidentally, I met a lovely girl with excellent English at the Oriental Pearl, who helped me out of the labyrinthine building designed to make you stay in it as long as possible so that you spend as much money as possible, but she didn't write down my WeChat name properly I think, so I don't have any way to contact her! If you're reading this now, please add me! ~ UPDATE - she had added me correctly, I'd just gotten her confused amongst the numerous people who'd added me that day).
Things I didn't miss:
1) The cough/spitting. It happened as soon as I got my connection from Dubai. Yes, really. A middle-aged Chinese man started that horrible retching-like sound of clearing his throat and then spat in a sick bag during the flight. Quite a wake-up call to remind me of the negative aspects of China that my memory had conveniently erased.
2) The traffic/queueing. I actually don't mind the hustle and bustle of a busy city with lots of people, but it does get annoying when sometimes you're going at snail's pace on the hectic Chinese roads, taking 2 - 3 times as long for a journey, which of course is just a recipe to get everyone mad at each other.
3) Not realising the true significance of the fact that since I left, Google has been blocked. I thought this meant that it meant that you could no longer do Google searches. But oh no, it didn't end there. Not only the search page blocked, but also ALL other apps and pages owned by Google in any shape or form. This includes Google Translate and Google Maps, which I pretty much lived out of the last time I was in China. This new development meant that the Samsung phone I brought to use in China was now effectively useless, except for text, calls and WeChat. Hooray for VPNs when they worked!
And lastly, I felt like that even through the medium of blogs and the thousands of photos I made, it still wasn't enough to really give an accurate representation of the general "vibe" of China. I still feel like there are a lot of misconceptions about China, about the food, about the people, so I made this video of my visit, to help show people the awesome side of China and spread the Sinophile love :)
Hope I get to visit you again soon!
I also realised several things. Things I missed (apart from my friends of course!):
1) The smell! It's hard to describe, but the smell of the streets, of the lab, of the metro, everything. It's funny how smells really link back to memories, and I don't know what it is, whether its the aromatic mix of smog, gutter oil and street food that's so quintessential to China, or just the fact that there's nothing quite like it back in the UK, but they really cause memories to flood back, because there's nothing like it back home
2) Hearing Chinese everywhere again! Since last time, when I knew next to no Chinese, I've now passed HSK2, and even this low level of Chinese was enough to mean that I had a much better idea of what was going on around me on some rudimentary level. People were very impressed with my new vocabulary and even my pronunciation. It also meant that I could order food by myself a couple of times. If there's one thing I can definitely, definitely recommend prior to going to China, it's to learn some Chinese, any level at all will go some way to helping you get by in China and impress some of your Chinese friends.
3) Chinese hospitality! It was great to be spoiled by the renowned Chinese hospitality, and my friends spared no effort in spending time with me and making sure that I had a great time. I also left with approximately twice the volume of presents that I brought with me, making it very difficult for me to close my suitcase for the way home!
I was surprised that on this occasion much fewer people asked to take photos with me, which is probably an indication of how much Western culture has infiltrated China now. We did draw some attention from a few strangers in Nanjing, but actually they were very polite, and tried to speak to me in English, or at least attempted to have a conversation via a translating friend. Which goes to show that a lot of progress has been made with regards to China's attitudes to Westerners. And just in case anybody is disappointed by lack of celebrity status, you can still go to tourist hot spots such as the viewing platform of any of the skyscrapers to get your hit of photos-with-strangers and a plethora of new WeChat friends!
 |
| On the transparent glass viewing platform of the Oriental Pearl Tower |
Things I didn't miss:
1) The cough/spitting. It happened as soon as I got my connection from Dubai. Yes, really. A middle-aged Chinese man started that horrible retching-like sound of clearing his throat and then spat in a sick bag during the flight. Quite a wake-up call to remind me of the negative aspects of China that my memory had conveniently erased.
2) The traffic/queueing. I actually don't mind the hustle and bustle of a busy city with lots of people, but it does get annoying when sometimes you're going at snail's pace on the hectic Chinese roads, taking 2 - 3 times as long for a journey, which of course is just a recipe to get everyone mad at each other.
3) Not realising the true significance of the fact that since I left, Google has been blocked. I thought this meant that it meant that you could no longer do Google searches. But oh no, it didn't end there. Not only the search page blocked, but also ALL other apps and pages owned by Google in any shape or form. This includes Google Translate and Google Maps, which I pretty much lived out of the last time I was in China. This new development meant that the Samsung phone I brought to use in China was now effectively useless, except for text, calls and WeChat. Hooray for VPNs when they worked!
And lastly, I felt like that even through the medium of blogs and the thousands of photos I made, it still wasn't enough to really give an accurate representation of the general "vibe" of China. I still feel like there are a lot of misconceptions about China, about the food, about the people, so I made this video of my visit, to help show people the awesome side of China and spread the Sinophile love :)
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