I came out of my community to find Nanchang Lu full of lights, staging, cables, equipment trucks and a fair few young people hanging around. I noticed that several empty shops had been fitted out and their appeared to be an actor with a racing bike in th doorway of the hostoric Art Deco building.… Read More »
One of the things we, in the west, can learn from the Chinese is the willingness to make-do and mend our appliances. Once in a while several fixers come with their tables and tools and sit on the pavement outside my community. My neighours bring out their broken objects and for a small fee they… Read More »
I went for a wander today around Suzhou Creek in the vain hope of seeing some dragonboating. I think I was a day too late. Anyway I saw a fantastic Art Deco fire station with a tall look-out tower and then, at the top of Shan’an Xi Bei Lu a huge collection of boxes waiting… Read More »
It’s been happening slowly, you don’t notice it at first and then someone mentions it and you realise that, yes, the kisosk which used to add life to the streets, are being closed. The one near Xiang Yang park was my favourite. It was always busy with people buying drinks and ice-crean and in the… Read More »
I have just noticed that this is my 500th blog post. I would never have thought when I started this project that I would have written so much. It started because a French friend in Nanjing suggested that as so many strange things happened to me, I should start a blog. So I have Pascal… Read More »
I had lugged a bulky tent and a sleeping mat from Shanghai and even though it looked wet, I was determined that I would go camping. I hadn’t brought all this stuff to leave it in the flat. I set off for the ferry terminal after lunch and as soon as I got on board… Read More »
I was getting so fed up of being in Shanghai. I love it but sometimes I just need to escape and what better place to escape than Hong Kong. It’s only a few hours away but it’s a different (dare I say, more civilised) world. I had organised some free accommodation near the racecourse and… Read More »
I was walking back to my flat in Hong Kong and the route took me past the racecourse in Happy Valley. There was a lot of noise coming from within and so I asked the attendent on the gate and she said there were races on tonight. Wow, now I can tick off another item… Read More »