It was a sunny Saturday and I had no work do to. After a slow start I decided I hould make the most of the day and explore the end of the new Metro line 17. To get there you have to go to Hongqiao Station at the end of line 10 or line 2… Read More »
Maybe I have been in Shanghai too long and have forgotten what it was like to be an exotic creature. Those years in Nanjing were spent as the object of curiosity, a strange and exotic fruit from foreign lands. People stared at me, they pushed their kids towards me telling them to speak English to… Read More »
I had been to good ol’ Ikea to pick up some salmon and a lampshade and as I was waiting for the train home, a man next to me and his young son were hiding behind a pillar. He peeked around the edge and waited until the platform attendant disappeared before dashing into the toilets.… Read More »
I was surprised this week to find a display of musical instruments on the metro system at Shaanxi Nan Lu metro station. It was in the new part of the station where line 10 and 12 meet. And what a nice change from the advertising posters which normally line the walls, screaming out at us… Read More »
In a couple of weeks millions of Chinese will go back to their home village to see their parents and grandparents. It’s a huge migration and the train stations and bus stations are even more packed than usual with people struggling under the weight of bags stuffed full of gifts and supplies. Often this is… Read More »
What has happened to us? We are completely absorbed in own phones so much of the time. Dead time used to be filled by reading books or newspapers or listening to music with headphones but in China today, like so many place it’s the phone which demands our attention. I have found myself doing the… Read More »
In retrospect it wasn’t a very wise decision to go to Sheshan Forest Park on a public holiday but the sun was shining and it was warm and I was kicking my heels. A friend had told me early that day, over coffee, that there was a Catholic church on a mountain and I couldn’t… Read More »
Now the new metro line 12 is open I decided to go to somewhere which sounded really exotic – Fuxing Island. It is an island in the Huangpu river and I thought it might be a little like the island in the river in Nanjing which has a certain charm and was a favourite away-day… Read More »
They say you only see a place properly when you go and return. This was the case with Nanjing. I had not been there for about 6 months and had lived there for over 4 years and when I returned it felt like putting on an old pair of slippers. Of course 6 months is… Read More »
When I am worn out at the end of the day and am dragging my feet back towards home I enter the metro system and the first people I see are the staff at the scanning machines. They stand there all day, smart in their uniforms – two people whose job it is to point… Read More »