First Impressions of Nanjing

     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 than the average westerner and yet they are provided with far more leg room on their trains, but that did mean that i could get my legs and all my luggage into the gap.

We arrived in Nanjing, a group of about 14 pouring off the train with the rest of the crowds and all our luggage. Fake taxi drivers (yes that's right, FAKE taxi drivers) tried to take our luggage and we lost a few of the group to fatigue and the crowds but we had known there would be casualties and ploughed on regardless. Our first views of Nanjing were from the windows of our taxi and i generally liked what i saw. I tried talking to the taxi driver about the city but it turned out he didnt like foreigners much so i just sat back and took it in. Nanjing is much less imposing than Shanghai. There aren't skyscrapers everywhere and there are less people to fight through when you walk down the street. We still get the stares but you expect that more in a city like Nanjing where there is far less emphasis on tourism. The main difference though is the presence of greenery and the temperature, which is a lot more bearable. I guess the best way to sum up my impression of it so far is as an attractive city, as far as that is applicable in China.

It hasn't all been fantastic here though. We are learning very quickly that Chinese people come in two very different ilks. Some we have met, such as the lady and her daughter who run the shop accross the street, are amongst the friendliest and most helpful you are likely to come accross. Others however, like Mrs Ying who works in the office here at the foreign students dorm, are not in the least bit interested in helping you one bit. The problem we've had here is to do with our rooms. We were told both by the university of Sheffield and by Nanjing that we would be placed into twin rooms with private bathroom facilities in the new foreign students block (zeng xianzi building). Upon arrival though, those of us who have scholarships have been allocated rooms in the old block across the road with 2 showers between 40 of us and a hole in the ground for a toilet, while those without scholarships are in the newly built block with all the facilities we had been promised. Its hard to see the advantage of working hard all year to achieve a scholarship isn't it! 

Somewhere along the line something has gone wrong and so we have kicked up a fuss. It seems i have inherited my mother's ability to do this, as Jess and I almost had Mrs Ying in tears on Friday afternoon and have been back to check on her progress every day since. I don't think she likes me... she almost fell off her bike when she saw me today! We are currently hoping that we will be moved to the new block and have notified Sheffield who are trying to deal with the problem. Its not all bad and nobody should worry about me. I'm fine and im sharing a room with my friend Jimmy but I think they thought that we wouldn't say anything. We are being constantly lied to by the staff here though and are really not sure whether or not we will be moved which is making settling in a more difficult task than it already was. We are assured though that Sheffield's "special relationship" with Nanjing will be enough to make the difference and we have already forced the dean of the faculty admit that he is in the wrong so maybe we are getting somewhere. It wouldn't be so bad if all the Americans and Australians weren't all in the new building as well!

Jimmy and I did go to Carrefour (called Jialefu in Chinese) today though and couldn't leave without buying a toaster!! We also went for a walk around the campus, which looks very nice. The locals seem pleasant and welcoming too and several of us ended up playing a dice game with some of them in a drunken state on Friday night.

We've got a week of bureaucracy coming up, which could be a bit tricky at times in terms of language but i think general consensus is that we are all looking forward to getting the first week of classes done and getting into some routine!

Hope all are well at home.

Richard xxx