The Nanjingers Blog on RealTravel

Beijing journal: Beijing Quartet

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 04:15:37 GMT

Our time in Beijing has been all about ...Health and Safety!China may be an emerging nation but a H&S Exective is a long way off.

We've risked life and limb in the last few days....mainly associated with the taxis and the building sites....the preparations for the Olympics are everywhere.

Kevin,Janet (the parents),Richard and Anna arrrived in Beijing in glorious sunshine and having visited the hotel booked online in England(which was very 'functional' but without character), Anna sorted us out with a lovely hotel near Tiananmen Square which has been terrific (thank goodness for ...

Nanjing journal: Two Came to Tango.

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:46:31 GMT

Greetings from Janet and Kevin.

For those of you who don't know us - we're THE PARENTS! We arrived in Shangai on Sunday on a mission to check Richard out (as well as the Country).

We find him in good form - still very fond of his food (and beer) and pretty much as we remember him. I suspect a hair cut and a shave were carried out in honour of our arrival - to avoid a good nagging! He and Anna,his girlfriend, met us at the airport before whisking us off to the high speed train - which was very impressive (see Shanghai entry - ed). We had a quick look at Shangai before heading for ...

Lijiang journal: Lijiang

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 06:23:06 GMT

Jimmy and I said a tearful goodbye, knowing that we would see each other again in about 4 weeks back in Nanjing. For him i think the crying was more about the fact that he was going to meet his girlfriend to spend 3 solid weeks with her in Guilin.

I had originally planned to take the back door road into north Yunnan via some very small towns on the bus - a trip that is supposed to be both scary and incredible. Unfortunately the snow had put paid to this plan and so i found myself waiting in Chengdu airport for a plane to Lijiang that was ultimately delayed by 6 hours. The upside was that ...

Chengdu journal: Chilling in Chengdu

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:38:57 GMT

Chengdu is a clean city, and compared to the other major cities i have been to in China it appeared fairly laid back. I have to admit that i dont have that much to write because i spent a good five days doing very little other than sleep and relax. I felt justified because the past week and a half had been an absolute whirlwind. Jimmy and I stayed in a very cool hostel in the centre of town which used to be a paper mill. It had been renovated by a team of chinese artists a few years ago and was fitted out with central heating, which was an absolute godsend! The place had a pool table and a ...

Songpan journal: Snow covered Songpan

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 01:16:18 GMT

We took the bus from Chengdu to Songpan at a dizzying 5.50am on thursday morning. The bus was filled with minority peoples who were making the trip back to their home towns for the new year, (which is on the 7th of January) and Jimmy and I who were both wearing as many clothes as we could get on to combat sitting in a cold old bus for 8 hours.

We slept most of the way and arrived in Songpan in the mid afternoon. I don't know what we had expected but what we found was a bit of a surprise. The majority of the town is within great stone walls with two large temple like structures at each of ...

Nanjing journal: Welcome back to Nanjing.

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:31:42 GMT

Well, now that i have been back in Nanjing for about a week or so i thought it was time to get this blog going again.

All has been pretty well. I arrived back in Shanghai and took a train straight back to Nanjing and spent a night with my friends before a number of them left for beijing. I then went over to take a look at what is now my new apartment. its about a 10 minute walk from the university but I HAVE A BIKE, which should mean its more like a 3min journey if i dont take any notice of traffic! Its fairly nice inside (the apartment not the bike). i have a kitchen and a living room ...

Nanjing journal: Nanjing Update

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 23:45:10 GMT

It has been so incredibly hot here for the last few days, that the classroom and our air conditioned bedrooms are proving to be the only respite from almost uncomfortable temperatures. Thats the main reason im sat inside in my boxers writing this new entry, but of course i want to keep you all updated as well!

I think one of our teachers, a relatively young girl called jing jing, found us a little too much this morning. Its been so hot here that its hard to expend energy outside without sweating like a geordie in a spelling test, so im afraid we all went a bit nuts in class this morning ...

Nanjing journal: First Impressions of Nanjing

Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:53:22 GMT

Stories of Chinese trains from previous students had led me to believe that my friends and i were to be herded onto a sort of horse box for humans on Friday afternoon and unceremoniously carted to Nanjing. That was not however how it happened. I almost missed it because it seems that the Shanghai Railway Station stop of the Shanghai metro system is not even vaguely near to the station, but once i had boarded the "bullet" train I found to my surprise that my Y100 (7.50) had bought me the most comfortable train seat i'd ever sat in. Its somewhat odd that the average chinese person is smaller ...

Shanghai journal: Shanghai

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 06:09:53 GMT

I am currently sat in the bar of the hostel at which i am staying in Shanghai accessing free internet on my laptop and awaiting some food at a grand price of £1 (and that's fairly expensive). I was planning to go out to a restaurant but i don't think my legs will carry me, i'm that shattered. That does give me a chance though to write my first entry into my blog! I've had a pretty full few days out and about visiting all that Shanghai has to offer after arriving here at Pudong airport on Friday and so by definition this should also be a pretty full entry.

I have only been here 3 days but ...

China journal: 在南京的留学生 An international student in Nanjing, China.

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 03:27:34 GMT

Having spent a year at the university of Sheffield studying Mandarin Chinese from scratch, the second year of my course has brought me to China to experience the culture for myself and to improve my language skills through a total immersion technique. I have been here just three days and I can already see just how beneficial this year is likely to be for my Chinese. At the point of writing this introduction I am in Shanghai. I plan to stay here for about a week and then i will move on to Nanjing which is a city about 3 or 4 hours inland. It is in Nanjing that i will be living and studying for ...