Days 123-128 - Relaxing the week away in preparation for an action packed weekend

After 9 days off teaching, we have to admit that getting back into work again was a bit of a drag! However the week's classes went well, and our light schedule still gives us lots of time outside of class to do what we want. It just so happens that this week we didn't really want to do much, until our day off on Thursday.

On Thursday it rained. Not the normal kind of rain from above, but the kind that arises when Liv has a bad day in China. Despite China being a phenomenal experience that we wouldn't give up for the world, the reality of being pushed out of our comfort zone so far away from home and on such a regular basis has the effect of stretching our emotions to the extremes some days. On such days, Adam usually takes the role of the sensitive comforting boyfriend, but on this particular Thursday Adam's own strained emotions meant Liv's tears were met with an indifferent "what the heck is your problem, you're the one who wanted to come to China in the first place?" attitude.

Luckily, after a silent bus trip downtown we found a restaurant with vege dumplings and all Liv's worries were forgotten - except maybe some resentment at Adam's previous attitude! Never fear, as Adam knows how to solve these problems and soon we were off shopping - the bargains of the day being more dvds and some new glasses for Liv, which she paid a ridiculously low price for! On the way back to the bus we detoured along 'our' river, and past Black Tiger Spring, where we did our fair share of people-watching and hanging out on the local bridges.
Giving our emotions a chance to recover, our Friday was literally spent sleeping in, eating, teaching 2 classes, eating, and then sleeping again. On second thoughts, this teaching life may not be too bad after all ...

Come the weekend it was lucky that we had had such a lazy week, because our weekend was jammed pack. On Saturday we explored Jinan's sights, and on Sunday we undertook some high altitude adventuring.

On Saturday we went to the food street for a feed, where we ordered enough for an army, and then on top of that we were brought out another dish that Liv swore she didn't order! The thing is that we started eating before we realised that we hadn't ordered it, but that's what happens when you undertake the "yi ge zhe ge" ("one of that") style of ordering - you're never quite sure what's going to come out to the table! The short (and fat) of the situation, is that we spent the next hour and a half chopsticking away, and at the end we had almost cleared the entire table. Adam was still licking his lips after his own personal meal of garlic shellfish, and Liv was scared that Adam was considering a re-order!

Hardly capable of walking, we wobbled out of the restaurant towards one of Jinan's many Springs: Five Dragon Pool. As mentioned before, Jinan is world famous in China for its 70+ underground springs that bubble up to the surface all over the city, creating a sparkling, clear oasis in a normally dusty and polluted city. The locals even fill up their water bottles from these springs, an act that elsewhere in China would result in a visit to the doctor. We spent a good few hours ambling along the pathways that twist along the river, in and out of bamboo forests, and zig-zagging our way between the many springs that over time have been made into small ponds - complete with rock sculptures and Chinese pagodas. Adam managed to make a spectacle out of himself by climbing on ornamental frogs perched in the middle of springs and undertaking the Chinese tradition of throwing coins into a spring for good luck.
Our peaceful wanderings were interrupted on several occasions by teenagers wanting to capture a photo with the laowai, as well as being stopped by parents and grandparents wanting their kids to say hello to us!

On our way home we ambled our way through Quan Cheng Guangchang (Spring City Square), which is the focal point of Jinan city. Here we gazed upon dancing kites (which, compared with the kites back home, are more like 10 kites all stretched along the same line) being flown in the cloud blanketed sky by people of all ages while relaxing in the warm autumn evening.

At the end of our stroll we got up close and personal with some Chinese heroes from the past. Unfortunately they weren't in a talkative mood, so we didn't hang around for long!We have a lot to say about our adventures on Sunday, so check out our next post where we'll take you to one of the highest points in Jinan for views of the city!

Lazily adlibing the bubbling Springs.

Days 114-122 - Staying put in Jinan to avoid the Golden Week rush

The first week of October is National Week in China, which results in 1.3 billion people travelling around the country and celebrating with their friends and families. As we like to adlib our way around China, we don't tend to plan in advance, but during Golden Week planning is essential - hence our plans to stay put (due to lack of any other options!).

However staying put turned out to be rather perfect. Even though we have been in Jinan for a month, we have only really had brief expeditions out and about our new city. So, this week was spent exploring and finding the best places to eat, shop and enjoy ourselves for the next 8 months.

One of our first accomplishments was finding the cheap dvd store where we stocked up with way too many dvds, which eventually resulted in a few too many hours at home in front of the tv instead of being immersed in the golden week crowds. However, at NZ$1 per dvd, can you really blame us for catching up on English movies after three months of being subjected to Chinese movies on our many bus trips across the country?!

We also made it back to the huge markets, without a student entourage, where we literally shopped till we dropped. Luckily there were street vendors selling egg and vege pancakes to sustain us while we purchased our way to a new wardrobe full of clothes and shoes. Even though we were there for almost the whole day (minus the 2 hours it took us to get there) we only really managed to wander the shoe market and a small section of the huge clothes market - at some point you have to admit you can't walk or shop anymore! Plus we still had 2 hours worth of bus rides home!

After being at school for almost a month we finally managed to walk up the hill behind us, where we got some cool views of uni, the surrounding hills, and the little suburb below us - the only catch was having to steer our way through a thin layer of smog ... During the week we made many stops along what we have nicknamed "the food street" (not very original, we know), breaking up our day of shopping and exploring with a delicious and cheap meal for lunch / dinner.

Despite numerous trips to this small bustling street, we are not even close to sampling every restaurant or food stall, so we foresee many future trips to indulge our taste buds there. In fact, Adam has even made a friend along this street, who happens to be there every time we go, he's even invited Adam to meet his warrior friends next time we're in Xi'an. This week there were more markets and ad hoc stalls downtown that we had to battle our way through on each excursion. Add to this the droves of people who cluster together - at some points it feels like the whole group is moving you, instead of yourself leading your own way. On one occasion, Adam knew where he wanted to go and what he wanted to buy (running shoes) but found himself frustrated when the sales lady paid him no attention because she could made multiple sales to the Chinese people around her, instead of dealing with the single laowai who would just take up time! Even more frustrating was the fact that her store was only full of people coming to see what the foreigners were buying (well, that's what it felt like to us)! After filling ourselves up along the food street, we returned to her shop and seeing it empty we scurried in, made the purchase and made a break for home! With running shoes now in hand, it wasn't long before Adam had them strapped to his feet and he was on his way bounding along the mountain tracks behind campus.

Sticking to the food and beverage theme of our holiday, on Wednesday we treated ourselves to a scrumptious Indian dinner with Dovid at the Jasmine Restaurant, a place we also foresee ourselves visiting a fair few times during our time in Jinan. After our dinner we made our way along to the Muslim Quarter where the foreign teachers meet at Wei Weis to begin the weekly ritual of drinking the place dry!

One of our favourite days during our week off was spent just wandering through downtown and adlibing our way along the riverside. The great thing about the rivers in Jinan is that they are fed by the numerous springs (about 70 in total), which means they are almost crystal clear - this is practically unknown in China outside of rural villages! As dusk fell we ventured up a war monument called Liberty Building (the only remaining piece of the old city wall) that graces the riverside, which provided spectacular views of the river and city below - it also provided Adam with something to climb. As the week wore on it became colder and colder, and many days were fogged out with pollution and drizzle, which acted as further impetus to stay at home in front of the tv! However, on the odd occasion when it was clear we made a mad dash in the name of exploration. On one such occasion we found ourselves surrounded by the trees small lakes at Jinan's botanical gardens. Here we sat reading our English newspapers (the first time we had managed to located some here) and eating the baked kumara we had purchased from the street vendor along the way.
It's a nice feeling finally getting to know our city - where the buses start and stop, and where the major attractions in Jinan are. So when we decided to go to Da Ming Hu (Daming Lake), it was a stress free trip there. The lake itself was pretty and we spent a good few hours exploring the pleasant surroundings - we even saw people relaxing on the grass, with no signs forbidding it in sight, this is a very unusual occurrence!! Put a big bell in front of Adam and you know what will happen ...We enjoyed a fried egg delicacy, where mini eggs from unknown hosts are fried on a skewer and covered in spices. Mmmm, mmmm. At the lake we also had our first experience of random Chinese people asking to have a photo taken with us, instead of trying to look subtle and taking them of us from a distance!

During the week we explored the mountains around our campus, where we get great views of campus and the surrounding suburbs - well, when the pollution doesn't block the view! Our first walk led us to the top of cliff behind campus, where we ambled amongst the multicoloured foliage, and stumbled or way along unsteady, rocky paths. On our next trip we began by walking along relatively clear paths that soon disappeared and we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a cemetery - if this wasn't freaky enough, even more strange were the massive piles of dirt, which made us question whether graves were actually dug?! Despite the questionable site of our hike, we were rewarded with an informative view of the city - on one side of the mountains are factories who are barely visible below the pollution that bellow out from them, on the other are complete neighbourhoods that have been demolished down to nothing but piles of bricks to make room for new subdivisions. Around the corner, we watched the quarry below us in action, as diggers and bulldozers bashed down the mountains in order to provide land for the masses. Adlibing Jinan to see what we can find.

Days 102-113 - Making it to the end of teaching week three!

Although we admit that the teaching profession is a noble one, we are finding that repeating the same 2-hour lesson six times does not exactly make for a thrilling teaching week. However, as we have previously said, some students make our experience very rewarding - over the past couple of weeks we have both received gifts (moon cakes) from several students to mark Moon Day celebrations. These gifts were accompanined with stories to inform the foreigners about one of the many unique celebrations in China. Liv also got a beautiful paper cutting from a student as a thanks for help outside of class - which is awesome as Liv has had her eye on buying a paper cutting since arriving in China.
Since we can't always rely on gifts to break the monotony of teaching it is lucky that we live in China where the world around us is all very new and exciting, meaning that outside of class there are many things to keep us entertained - and trust us there are a lot of entertaining things about the place! Such things tend to pop up out of nowhere, which makes for more fun and laughter on our part!

Waking at 6am on Monday morning to the sounds of new army trainees practising their drills outside our window, we laughed off our early wakeup call as a once off. When we were woken in the exact same manner for the next two weeks (even during the weekends) the humour quickly faded.

The most memorable event of the past few weeks happened on campus as we were heading home after a day of teaching. Out of nowhere a security van zoomed past us and came to a tyre-screeching halt, before a pile of heavily armed personel exited the van as if they were on a military exercise, only to burst the illusion by calling out to the two foreigners (us!) "helloooo". A little surprised and not wanting to take a bullet for the country we returned the pleasantries and continued on our way. Everywhere we go people are constantly calling out "helllooooo", but shy away giggling if we dare to reply or attempt to take the conversation further.

Almost daily we jam ourselves onto the already sardine-tin packed bus for our trips to town, but normally the bus driver will refuse more passengers at a point. However on some occassions the physics of maximal capacity doesn't apply as more and more passengers pile on the already overflowing bus. On one occasion when we were already packed on so tight we didn't even have to hold onto anything, even more people climbed aboard, leaving the bus so full the door couldn't close and the poor people were hanging on for their lives, so as to not fall out! However, the real adventure is when we have to try and scramble our way out of the bus before the bus driver loses patience - this task is even more difficult when carrying mulitple bags of shopping.

During one trip into town we stumbled across the night markets in the middle of downtown, where we spent almost 2 hours wandering the stalls of what will now be our local market. The markets were filled with the wonderful aromas drifting from the foodstalls, which we will enjoy on our next mission there. However, our first experience here was all about shopping and we walked away with clothes, glasses, belts and new jandals for Adam! The only problem is that we were ever conscious of the fact that the last bus back was at 9pm - if we miss the bus the cost of getting home goes from 2 yuan by bus to about 30 yuan by taxi.

The day after the markets we were finally taken to the visa office to get our working visas, and we were ecstatic to find out that they last through to the middle of September giving us a couple of months to adlib more of China after work. The trip to the visa office couldn't have come sooner as our travel visas were due to expire that very weekend, and we were getting a little worried about the hefty fines and deportation issues that come with being overstayers! After our previous experience with getting Chinese visas we were prepared for the inevitable wait at the visa office, however our boss who had accompanied us was clearly not prepared for the over 3 hour wait! The very slow 3 hours was rewarded with a delicious lunch at an old, traditional Chinese restaurant, where it was wonderful having a local do the ordering. In true Chinese fashion much more food than needed was ordered meaning Adam got a doggybag full of goodies to take home!

Our third Saturday in Jinan was spent with students who took us around more of the shopping sites of Jinan. Our first port of call was the skate shop were Adam spent hours deciding on a wicked new skateboard setup. Then our student guides took us out to lunch ordering again a feast that we couldn't finish. Before long we were headed on a doubledecker bus towards the huge markets that sell almost everything! Although we set out with the aim of returning with a new wardrobe, the enthusiasm our students displayed at the skateboard store quickly diminished amongst the skirts and jeans! Sparing the students some misery we headed back home, vowing to return on our own with a wallet packed full of Maos (cash!).

Liv's committment to her students was very evident last Wednesday, as she spent the evening helping out one of her most dedicated students, while Adam headed into town with Dovid. Every Wednesday night foreign teachers from different universities and schools throughout Jinan get together at Wei Weis for a feed and beer. Wei Weis is located on the Muslim street that is dotted with 2-metre long bbqs where seafood, meat, and vege kebabs are cooked on the spot! While Liv got an early night to bed, Adam finally made it to a Chinese bar (a nice change from buying beer on the street, although it cost him 5 times as much) and partied the night away with his new friends returning in the wee hours of the morning ...

One of our hightlights over the past two weeks has been putting our webcam and headset into action as we finally got skype set up! We have since spent the majority of our time skyping the hours away - seeing our family for the first time in months is wonderful, hopefully they don't get sick of seeing us! Just got to get mum and dad techniphobics online with skype now ...

The first of October is National Day in China, and this is commemorated with a week long holiday, which we welcome with open arms as a break from teaching and a chance to really explore our new home.

The adlibers survive to the holidays.

Days 95-101 – Our first working week …

After three months of continuous travelling, we have to ditch our adlibing ways and begin our life of planning and preparation as we enter into the working world once more. Though we are officially titled “Foreign Experts”, we still struggle to think of ourselves as university teachers and feel our role is more similar to that of a tutor. Being on the teaching end of class has taught us a few lessons – the main ones being that we now understand why teachers have teacher’s pets and that teaching is as much a motivational challenge as it is about passing on knowledge. While teaching isn’t difficult itself, it is extremely draining – and of course there is the preparation that goes on outside out paid hours.

The advantages in relation to school include the fact that our schedules are identical, which means we have all our spare time off together, and that we teach the same level and can thus prepare for classes together.

Our students are second year students attempting to prepare themselves for attending Canadian Universities for the final two years of their study – it is our role to prepare them for the test they need to pass to get into international universities. So after saying goodbye to our university studies, we now have textbooks in our possession once more.

The first week of teaching was full of up and downs – the students who try in class reward our efforts, while those who couldn't care less leave us frustrated. Some students are clearly ready for their overseas experience, while others will get a harsh reality check once they arrive in Canada (if they make it).

Mondays and Wednesdays are both 8-hour days with an 8am start and a 6pm finish – the only saviour is the 2 hour lunch break between the four 2-hour classes. Basically we just try our hardest to survive these days but still provide the last class with at least an ounce of enthusiasm.

Tuesdays and Fridays are our 4-hour days, and we get to relax/plan classes on our day off on Thursdays! The weekends are true weekends, where we have time to ourselves to do our own thing in our way, except for late Sunday night when we enter cram mode in preparation for the week’s lessons. The excellent thing about our Friday classes, is that we have the ability to have the four hours jammed into Tuesdays, giving us a four day weekend to adlib our way around the China we haven’t seen yet.

After living in permanent weekend mode for months on end, where days were just numbers to us, our first ‘weekend’ (as in, a break from the working week) couldn’t come too soon! It seems we had adapted to the “do what you what when you want” way of living with ease, and now have to somehow struggle our way back into our new working life of schedules and class plans.

So when Saturday arrived we spent our time in similar fashion to the prologue week, by exploring the town and indulging in some shopping along the way. On Thursday we had attempted to go shopping, but ended up at a huge and expensive mall underneath the City Square (the Silver Plaza), which had just reopened after falling victim to the massive floods that wrecked havoc on the Chinese population. The same floods also wrecked havoc on our minds during our travels as we watched future destinations of ours feature in the news (underwater). As the prices in the Silver Plaza were comparable to prices at home, we had left empty handed with that feeling you get after setting out to spend money but not finding anything to buy!

For our second attempt at shopping, we armed ourselves with one of our students who was keen to practice his English. This resulted in an informative tour of shopping and eating spots around town, and seven hours later we returned home with bags full of goodies! Our main purchases for the day were computer-based accessories, and once the University fixes the internet (again) we’re geared and ready to skype our friends and family!

Sunday was pretty chilled – we started the day preparing for lessons and then made a brief foray to explore a market we’d passed on our regular bus trips, only a few purchases but we’ll be sure to return!

Adlibing it into the working world.

Days 89-94 - A prologue to teaching

Jinan is the capital city of Shandong Province, a wealthy coastal province South of Beijing and North of Shanghai. The most famous draw card in Jinan are its Springs (Jinan is known as the City of Springs), but apart from that there are no real tourist attractions – this suits us fine though as we will adlib our way around the town and seek out our own sights and formulate our own opinions of the place! “Shandong” itself means “East of the Mountain”, which we think is very fitting considering the amount of mountains around us. The Yellow River (Huang He), which starts in Tibet, ends its journey in Shandong, reaching the sea in the North of the Province. As well as being famous as the hometown of Confucius, Shandong is also home to the most holy of the 5 sacred mountains in China – Tai Shan, which we will summit one of these days …

Our arrival in Jinan was brilliant - firstly because we were picked up directly off the train station platform by our boss-to-be and driven through town where we got a glimpse of our home for the next 9 months. Secondly our arrival at the campus where we will be living and teaching was a lovely surprise, as it is located in the suburbs out of the hustle and buslte of town and surrounded by hills - the sun was even shining and the blue sky looking down upon us - what a welcome! Finally the news we had been waiting for: our 9kgs of important and valuable gear that we sent months ago had arrived and was ready waiting for us!!

Without further ado we were taken to our dormitory (we like to call it our apartment, as that is what it is like). We have 2 bedrooms, one with a sunroom/drying room off it, a large living area with comfy couches, TV, DVD player, fridge and microwave (they don't fit in the kitchen!), and a welcome airconditioner (thank goodness). Off the living area is our kitchen (complete with washing machine!) and a bathroom. The only problem with the kitchen is that the 2-top gas stove doesn't work because the university refuses to allow foreign teachers to connect to the gas line! This problem was solved when we went to the supermarket the next day and purchased a rice cooker, jug, and an electric element.

We weren't totally sure what to expect as far as accommodation went, but we did have visions of a one room apartment with shared kitchen facilities - but the short of it is that we are pretty stoked with our new home so far.

The rest of our first day was spent receiving a campus tour from a soon to be student (Snoopy) - the campus itself is really pretty, it is the smallest of six campuses that make up Shandong University (we are based at the Software Campus). The buildings are beautiful brick constructions and house the offices, teaching rooms, sports rooms, a convenience store and a number of cafeterias (called 'restaurants', but we'll be the judge of that). Surrounding the campus are mountains, with one of them right on our back doorstep, lots of grassy areas (complete with signs telling students to keep off the grass), lots of outdoor areas with exercise equipment, and a construction sight a few hundred metres away!

After our tour and a rest we were taken to the supermarket by Snoopy and her friend Ian, where we purchased some food and cleaning products, and we enjoyed(!) washing our evening away before settling in for a rewarding Grey's Anatomy session.

Day number 2 at university we set off with Dovid (another foreign teacher here - there are only 4 of us at this campus) to another supermarket via a different bus route, increasing our knowlegde of our new hometown. Here we purchased appliances, more cleaning products, and a little more food before heading home for what would be our running theme for the rest of the week: cleaning, watching Grey's, cleaning, watching Grey's ... you get the picture. The apartment wasn't that dirty by Chinese standards, but after having not been lived in for a few months the dust and grime had built up and "if your mother won't live there, you shoudn't either", so we cleaned, and cleaned.

As well as the usual theme, on day 3 we got our contracts and had a 3-hour meeting with our bosses - this would have been a lot shorter had they not left us for large periods of time to talk amongst themselves. While we were told the contracts were the standard form contracts signed by all foreign teachers, we found some things we were unhappy with and managed to convince them to allow us to re-write a few clauses! During the meeting we found out that some teachers purely hadn't turned up for work, and we were now being asked (almost expected) to take on the extra hours. Realising we held a huge amount of negotiating power, we set about securing a computer for our apartment in return for the extra hours. When they refused, we decided that we weren't that keen for overtime, and within minutes a computer was being organised for our room!

Exhausted from the meeting we headed 10 minutes down the road to a Muslim restaurant to dine with our new teaching friend Dovid, and returned home with 2 yuan beers to fill the void in the fridge.

The number of cards in our wallets is increasing, as we now have a card we can swipe at the 'restaurants' on campus as well as the convenience store, and a card to swipe to pay for our frequent bus rides into town for shopping. These cards make life easy as we no longer have to carry around piles of one yuan notes for the bus (you must have exact change to catch buses in China). Although downtown is 40 minutes away by bus, our apartment is right on campus so it only takes us a few minutes to walk to class!

The next few days were spent getting our apartment in shape, signing the (re-written) contract, making repeat trips to the supermarket, and a LOT of Grey's watching. Finally on the night before class started we began some planning ...

This blue sculpture sits in the middle of the City Square, which is in the middle of Jinan City - a very handy orientation point!

And this is the beautiful crystal clear river that passes through the city:Adlibing our new home.

Day 88 - Last day of freedom

In preparation for going to Jinan tonight, we spent the morning undertaking the normally despised task of packing, planning and preparing ourselves for our next destination. However, this packing mission was attacked with enthusiasm as it will be the last time, for a long time, that we have to go through these motions. Even better we know that once we arrive in Jinan someone will be at the train station to pick us up, meaning that we won't have to lose ourselves in the masses and figure out how to get to somewhere with a bed.

After the packing we headed out for one last adlibing adventure, which led us to the Suzhou Silk Museum. Our Lonely Planet had told us this was a must-see, and since Suzhou has a 4,000 year history of silk production, we thought we'd better stop by. However the museum consisted of mainly replicas of ancient silk, and apart from getting to watch silk worms eating mulberry leaves, we left disappointed.
So in search of something exciting to do on our last day we headed out into the rain - our destination being a pedestrian shopping street that houses a Taoist Temple - The Temple of Mystery. The bazaar area surrounding the temple was once home to travelling showmen and acrobats, but all we found was the normal hawkers selling knock-off handbags, sunglasses and belts. Nonetheless the markets were located in a beautiful setting with the temple smack-bang in the middle, and we enjoyed our hour and a half wander through them. As the rain intensified we hopped on a bus to take us back to the hostel. However, after spending half an hour barely moving, we opted to sacrifice our 2 yuan ticket and walk back - we ended up beating the bus and were relieved to escape the sardine tin bus, and the smell that comes with wet people in the summer.

With a few hours to spare we decided to break away from the adlibing budget and spend up large, before we start earning in Chinese yuan - so we treated ourselves to a delicious Italian meal for dinner and spent some time reflecting on our wonderful three months on the road through China. This dining experience was the first time we have dined in a restaurant where the patrons were 100% foreigners! Although the meal was a fantastic change, it cost us 10 times more than our usual meals, and left us just as satisfied.

Mounting our packs we boarded the ever familiar public bus for our journey to the train station, where we settled into our ever familiar role as the station-spectacle and after waving to or 'fans' we sat down and read our way through the hour until the train arrived.

As it was already almost 10pm when the train arrived, we off-loaded our weighty friends and set about reading ourselves to sleep in our luxurious soft-sleeper cabin for our last night of freedom. Our cabin even had a door to keep out the noise and the smell of urine drifting from the toilets, AND we could sit up in our beds as there were only 4 bunks in the room instead of 6!!
Adlibing our way to a new home.

Day 87 - Wandering the sights of Suzhou

After the dramas we encountered with buses yesterday, we decided to tackle today by foot. Our first port of call for the day was The Master of Nets Garden (we figured we couldn't leave Suzhou without visiting one of the gardens it is famous for), which was beautiful, but to be honest, not that much different from the other gardens we have visited in China. The good thing about this particular garden is that it was small enough that we could see all of it and not feel like we missed something.
After this we got ourselves lost while searching for the Pingtan Museum, however in our lost state we journeyed along Pingjiang Road, which is a cobblestone path that follows one of the city's canals, and got to enjoy the local scenes (while dodging scooters and bicycles!). Perched along both sides of the canal are the slowly deteriorating houses of the locals who go happily about their lives, while tourists mill amongst them. We eventually came across an interesting building we thought we'd explore, only to find out that we had actually found the Museum we had been searching for - it's great that a completely adlibed path can succeed as if you were following a map. The Pingtan Museum is really just a theatre in a beautiful old building, where Pingtan shows of singing and storytelling are performed daily - and we had timed our visit perfectly as a show was due to begin half an hour after we arrived.

After being seated at the back (fine by us as this minimises the eyes on us and keeps them focused on the show) and given our cups of tea, we waited patiently for the show to begin. These shows are a very social occasion, although clearly for the older generation - we were out-aged by at least 50 years! We didn't mind the age gap though as our fellow theatre-goers showed extreme kindness to us and welcomed us warmly. The first man who approached us was slightly taken aback when his comment was understood and replied to in Chinese - though he was also clearly appreciative of our effort. Before long we had a steady stream of visitors, most proclaiming "they won't understand anything" - only for us to be defended by our friends saying "they do understand!". One man happily wandered over to us to explain that he had seen us (the bearded one and his girl) as he rode to his favourite theatre on his bike. The expression on his face illustrated that this conversation might be the highlight of his day. Eventually people told us what we already knew - that this show would be performed in the Suzhou dialect, different to Putonghua that we can semi-understand - and we all laughed together about the fact that we would understand very little, if anything at all!

The storyline completely alluded us, but at one time we were sure the joke that had the audience in hysterics was to do with the size of the male character's family jewels. We basically spent the show enjoying the changing tone of the actors voices, and their ever varying facial expressions, as well as listening to the musical pieces of the show - quite unlike anything you'll hear on MTV! We were stoked that the shrillness of the famous Peking Operas were absent from this show!
After the two hour performance and many cups of tea (all for 80 cents each) we headed for lunch as it was already 3.30pm. We ended up at another Muslim restaurant which we love - the meals tend to have more flavour and variety than other street kitchens - thus our noodle dishes threw a curve ball at our stomachs that are used to the usual grease and soya sauce flavoured noodles.

Back on foot patrol we enjoyed getting to really see Suzhou town as we headed for the North Temple Pagoda - the tallest pagoda south of the Yangzi at nine stories high and adjacent to a 1700 year old temple, which turned out to be one of the most relaxing and enjoying complexes we have been to in a long time. It was especially enjoyable as most of the tourists were headed away just as we were arriving. After gazing up at the height of the pagoda, it was thrilling to know that we were going to get to climb the biggest pagoda we have seen so far! The lack of tourists while climbing the pagoda was very welcome as the staircases were very narrow and it meant we got a clear run to the top, rather than waiting in line like we're used to! If you look really close you can see Liv hanging out the third window. At the top we got sweeping view of the city, and despite it being a clear-ish day, the skyline in the distance was still battling to break through the smog. The battle between sky and smog is a continuous one in China, and with the huge coal towers burning 24/7 it's no surprise that the latter is winning. From all the way at the top, the pagoda seemed even higher than it did from below and had there been any tourists in the complex they would have looked like ants - and we looked forward to enjoying the temple and its surrounds in peace. With all the tourrist gone it was easy for Adam to slip under a fenced of area and get up close and personal with Buddha.
Back down on level ground we spent the next hour wandering through the temple grounds, and although we've seen many gardens and temple this one was a nice change, due to its simplicity - straying away from the maze of pavilions, alleyways and rock sculptures of many others. Making our way to the exit, we were sidetracked by a roaming white rabbit, which was incredibly friendly and easy around us - letting us pat it and feed it by hand. This is a perfect example of when you treat an animal with kindness it has no reason to fear you or anyone else - kind of like the dogs here that roam the streets with natural freedom and cause no one harm, in contrast to the environment in NZ where fences sometimes aren't enough to keep savage dogs out of sight (or out of trouble). Nipping between the closing gates of the complex we were so enjoying, we continued our foot march with dedicated steps towards the markets - determined we would find them tonight! After less than half and hour of wandering, it seemed like this determination had failed as we arrived in the exact same place we had searched in vain for the markets last night. However, with a stroke of fate Liv read a neon hotel sign with the character for the street we were looking for on it. Soon we had a semi direction to head towards, though it took us another half hour of searching through handbag stores and watching a watershow for us to finally locate the elusive markets.

At the markets we set about a frenzied shopping spree, with the knowledge that we only have to lug our packs around for one more day - as well as knowing that travel clothes probably won't do at work. At the end of our night Adam had purchased a pair of trousers that are a mix between 'good' work pants and kick ass grandpa pants (of course 5 sizes too big, according to Liv). Liv walked away with a pair of cool jeans and a handbag that made denying all the other handbags on offer over the last three months worth while (though she's still keeping the bag from mumbles that connects her to home, even though it's broken!).

After finding dumplings for dinner and a McD's ice cream for dessert, we congratulated ourselves when we found the bus we needed to catch by pure happenstance! Ice cold beer in hand we relaxed our last travelling evening away trying to wear off some of the excitement of a great day but the end of a wonderful adlibed tour, well for now, that is ...

Adlibing the night markets, eventually.

Day 86 - A day at Lake Tai on foot

After all the thunder, lightning and rain last night, we woke to a clearer morning and prepared for our day out. Our destination for today was Lake Tai, and more specifically Dong Shan (East Mountain). Lake Tai is a fresh water lake which is home to more than 90 islands, including Dong Shan, and is famous for its eroded rocks, similar to which we have had the pleasure of viewing in traditional gardens all over China. Dong Shan, which is positioned on Lake Tai's southern shores, is famous for its gardens - however we are slightly over visiting gardens, no matter how beautiful, so instead we spent the day wandering to nowhere specific on the island.

Deciding to do something out of the ordinary, we accepted a taxi driver's offer to drive us part way around the lake to save us some walking time and give us more time to explore the lake and the villages on its edge. The taxi driver thought he was being very clever in charging us only a few quai to take us to a place beside the lake with no particular attraction - hoping to lure us into paying a lot more to take us back to the tourist spots in the opposite direction. Little did he know that this secluded place he dropped he had dropped us was exactly where we had wanted to end up, for this is the adlibing way. Soon we were wandering along the lake by foot power, which we are much more accustomed to, and we got to slip down and explore the local fruit orchids that make up a large proportion of the landscape. Here we got to watch ferrets (we think) playing together amongst the trees and walk along small, aging jetties that hover over the lake. Continuing our adlibing adventure, we found a cliffside spot, where we feasted on crackers and cookies, and took in the semi-disturbing view of enormous power pylons planted directly through the lake, creating a stepping stone route to other islands on the lake. To the other side, below the lush mountains, we had a great view of small villages settled on the edge of the lake, with local boats sheltered in small canals that led off the lake. After almost being attacked by local dogs on one of our ventures down a small alleyway, where grandparents rushed to get their grandkids to show off the foreigners to (it's not common for tourists to venture away from the usual attractions) we decided to board a local bus and see where it took us. Unfortunately, the bus ride wasn't a long one, and we were soon dropped off in the midst of locals pleading with us to hop aboard one of their motorboats for a lake cruise. Adam had earlier laughed at the boats' attempts for cornering at speeds, knowing too well what speed is - there's nothing like a real Hamilton turn!

Instead of accepting their offers, we walked in the opposite direction from all the other tourists and headed along the road we had just come along - but enjoying it at a slower pace. Before long the bus we had hopped off only 15 minutes earlier made its return trip past us, and given the increasing rain we used the Chinese tactic of waving down any bus going your way to give our feet a rest. Soon enough we were going on our way back to the bus station to catch our next bus - we like the fact that it only costs us $1.50 for the two adlibers to make an hour journey back to town.

On our bus trip back home we sputtered over one of the massive bridges that span the Grand Canal, this provided us with a great opportunity to gaze upon the gigantic tug boats hauling their loads, some sunk so low to the waters edge that it splashed over the decks. It was so easy to imagione the canal in its hay day for in reality it hads never stoped poroviding for the towns that surround it.

Back in Suzhou, it was already almost 5pm and since breakfast all we had eaten were snacks, so we decided to have an early tea. Walking our street, we came across a Korean restaurant and Liv finally relented to Adam's desire to try Korean food. Much to Liv's pleasure the food was great (though the kimchi still doesn't go down well with her) and Adam loved having real spicy food once again.

Our night was spent searching for the night markets, which consisted of a bus ride to we don't know where - although where we ended up provided us with a spectacular view of Chinese buildings in all their illuminated glory reflecting off the gorgeous canals that trapse their way through the city. We found ourselves in the Old Town of Suzhou and spent some time wandering the streets aimlessly until the time came to catch the last bus. Back in our side of town we munched on a typical meal of noodles and rice while we chatted the hours away until it was time to pick up a beer and head home.

Adlibing Lake Tai, our way.

Day 85 - Sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll ... well partly

As one of the only cheap hostels in Suzhou and popular given its prime location amongst the shops and bars, we spent the morning waiting to see if we could have a room for tonight, and hopefully a few more! After eventually hearing the good news that our room was secured, we set out to the small canal town of Tongli. Tongli, situated only half an hour from Suzhou, has been around since the 9th Century and maintains a lot of its original character - when we arrived we marvelled at its stone buildings and bridges, and paved cobblestone pathways. After a stuffy bus ride, we were soon revived by the atmosphere of the town and were ready and rearing to explore the many gardens and other attractions in this small town. Before we got to such attractions, however, we were sidetracked once again by the markets, where Liv picked herself up some super cool Puma shoes for a mere NZ$9. We chuckled along the markets at the crazy prices quoted to us for the sellers' goods - for example Liv's shoes started at the quoted price of 360 yuan, but were eventually bargained down to 50 yuan. Though we don't begrudge their high starting prices as we know sometimes they get lucky and make a sale to tourists who are willing to pay such prices (after converting to their own currency).

Eventually we began to explore the real old town of Tongli, immersing ourselves in the amazing gardens (such as Tuisi Garden - the main attraction of Tongli) and old residences (including Gengle Tang, which is made up of 52 halls and 5 internal courtyards). We soon found ourselves at the attraction most recommended by the Lonely Planet - the Chinese Sex Culture Museum. Not as saucy as it may sound (although it was forced out of Shanghai to Tongli), we learnt about the role of sex in religion, sex in primitive society, sex in daily life, and unusual sexual behaviour! As we wandered around the 'museum' we found ourselves giggling at huge penis sculptures and all forms of dildos, as well as the more 'proper' porcelain plates and vases with karma sutra style depictions. We also shuddered as we learnt about the darker sides of Chinese sexual history such as foot binding and the punishments given to licentious women. We feasted in one of the local restaurants before taking more time to take in the beauty of the locals rocking and rolling their boats along the canals, who despite their town being turned into a tourist attraction retain happy faces - a contrast to what we have seen in many other such tourist towns in China.
Once we felt we got as much as we could out of Tongli, we set about finding another hot and stuffy bus to take us home to Suzhou. Our evening at home consisted of reading, dining, and once again hiding out from the thunder storms that saturated the streets - hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow night so we can explore more of the markets, but for now our wallets are enjoying the break.

Adlibing the sexually infused canal town of Tongli.

Day 84 - Making it to the last Province of the Adlibing tour

Bidding farewell to Shanghai, today we boarded the ever familiar bus and headed to Suzhou in Jiangsu Province. Suzhou is a city situated along the Grand Canal (a major transport and trading route), and as such is quite a prosperous city. However, upon arrival we were met by a construction zone that resembled the aftermath of a bomb attack - the area where we arrived was full of half demolished buildings, to make way for expansion, rubble lining the canals, and several temporary bridges that spanned the canals. Avoiding the onslaught of the tuk-tuk drivers, we decided to walk to our next destination in order to save the pennies and walk off Adam's nightly beers ...

Given that we need to be in Jinan within the week, we decided it was about time we sorted out how we would get there! Thus against our general adlibing routine we booked our train tickets in advance - and a good thing too, as there were practically no tickets available - we had the choice of hard seat (lowest class - been there, done that) or soft sleeper (first class). As Liv didn't fancy a 12 hour overnight trip on a hard seat, Adam gave in and we bought the soft sleeper tickets - this will probably be the only chance we get as our traveller's budget dwindles, but lasting just long enough until we re-enter the working world once again.

After walking around fully loaded in the scorching heat for hours, we began showing the telltale signs of exhaustion, and it was a great relief to eventually arrive at our hostel where we were soon singing the praises of our airconditioned room! The hostel's walls are plastered with other traveller's pictures and words of wisdom / advice / complaints / praise - this 'wallpaper' adds to the atmosphere of this already very trendy hostel. Too hungry to rest, we ventured out in search of food, which we found in a small street kitchen around the corner, before making our way back to rest our heavy bellies.

As the evening wore on, we realised it was dinner time, and we had done little today but eat and travel, so it was nice to have our search for dinner prolonged while we slowly window shopped the trendy streets that surround our hostel - much better than the bombsite we arrived to! Our most prized purchase of our time in China was made today, when we acquired the entire three seasons of Grey's Anatomy - or so we think ... Our Japanese dinner was a nice change from the familiar food we have been dining on for the past few months, and set us up well for our perusal of the nearby, alleyway markets. Here we were tempted by handbags, t-shirts, jewellry and other market staples found throughout the markets of China, but once again left empty handed - and despite nearing the end of our travels this is probably a good thing considering the weight of our packs. Making it home just in time to fall into bed, we settled in for the night on the rock solid beds of the hostel - many fellow travellers have commented on this fact, but we just think they have yet to experience rural China and all it has to offer!

Adlibing the food and markets of Suzhou.

Day 83 - A slow start to a shopping binge

After Adam's dreadful night / morning we decided to postpone our departure to allow for some resting and recuperating, and enjoyed watching the box and reading our books, while listening to the rain and thunder outside, which further encouraged our lazy day.

Finally deciding we should eat, we purchased some supplies from our (now) local supermarket so we could relax even more of the day away in our room. Come 4.30pm with the rain having eased, we decided perhaps we should at least do something on our last day in Shanghai (again). Remembering antique markets we have passed on our frequent bus journeys into town, we set out in search of a bargain and walked away with four!

The antique markets fill a few small side streets off Tibet Road, and we thoroughly enjoyed wandering past the tables littered with a jumble of porcelain (China), Mao memorabilia, Chinese locks, wooden boxes and many other old and not-so-old pieces of interest. The markets was a great place to exercise the brain, as purchasing our goods involved a lot of hard bargaining, with the trump card of walking away being utilised to full effect! Our four purchases consist of a Chinese Dragon Zippo lighter (fuelled up and ready to go), porcelain chopsticks with delicate flower patterns, an antique(?) Chinese bronze lock, and two pretty pink China tea cups / bowls, which might just be the beginnings of an obsession that has been brewing since we arrived. As darkness fell we reluctantly left the enjoyment of the markets, heading once again towards home and food, and hopefully a better nights sleep.

Adlibing the antique streets.