Noodles and fags

    

Bucharest

This week I flew in 72 hours;

Manchester-Amsterdam-Bucharest-Amsterdam-Seoul-Changchun-Shanghai-Amsterdam-Manchester.

I spent a night in Bucharest and a night in Changchun. It was my first time in Changchun, which is in Jilin Province in the far North of China. Although interesting I would have much preferred Beijing or Shanghai, and a quick visit to Hong Kong would have been very welcome.

 

Changchun

 

I was the only foreigner on the plane from Seoul to Changchun, and that was the way it stayed until I got to Shanghai the next day. I have travelled to Shenzen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Beijing over the last few years, but Changchun was by far the hardest. Nobody spoke English (or Cantonese) which was challenging to say the least. Even in the airport nobody could tell me where I could find a hotel or even how to get to the city.I took a gamble and jumped on the first bus that came along and just kept on saying Changchun.

Try saying that after a few bevvies-

‘Changchun Changchun Changchun…’ or even better ‘Changchun China Changchun China Changchun China’ see?!

Two hours later(!) I arrived in a pretty nondescript city which appeared to have no centre.I won’t go into the hassle I had to find the hotel, actually get a room and find something to eat, but it wasn’t easy(got to try and learn some Mandarin!) I bought as many packs of noodles that I could carry and some mini-moon cakes as Teosdee finds it difficult to buy decent noodles here. I stocked up with fags and flew home via Shanghai. In China people do literally stop, stare and even wander over for a closer look, which can be quite disconcerting if you’re not used to it, to give them something a little more interesting to look at I kept my shades on the whole way back to arouse suspicion, which worked a treat judging from the reactions I got.

Definitely made a nice change from doing the shopping at Asda!

Seoul                                    Plane to Shanghai