Why I Love China.

Why buy a regular old cactus when you can buy one that’s made to look like a bunch of green ducks?

Hello there.

A long no-show from my part, I know, but I’ve been busy enjoying the summer…. and being with this little face!!

Everyone, meet DD. DD, meet World.

No, she’s not our new family member, we’re just dogsitting her for a colleague. And she’s stolen both of our hearts in the process.

The first 24hours were very hard given that she wouldn’t let us near her (which made clipping on her leash and going for walkies a bit of a task) and Dave’s tall frame would spark a barking episode everytime he entered the room but that quickly changed to lots of dogtail wagging and what I can only guess to be thoughts along the lines of: “Ohmygodohmygod, you’re here, you’re back and we’re going for a walk, and you’re giving me food, ohmygod, I looooove youuuuuuu!!!!!!”

Even makes going for walks in 35C enjoyable.

Why I Love China.

When Bashful gave in to peer pressure.

Spotted in the kids play area in a mall.

Life Lately.

Laundry drying in student dorm balconies, Basketball // Sunset in Yinzhou, Japanese plum wine // Stuffed Chinese flatbreads cooking in an oven, Teppanyaki // Dave hard at work, Planning Bureau Yinzhou and cherry blossoms.

 

Beijing Bicycle.

One thing I noticed in Beijing was the dire taxi situation. We had it all: no available taxis, taxis that would decide not to take you once they realised where you wanted to go, taxis that changed their meter reading, taxis that claimed their meters were “broken”…

Why I Love China.

This is in our building’s lobby.

Nobody is afraid to air their CLEAN laundry.

A few more holiday snaps.

Part 3: Ruth and Kenny in Beijing.

Beijing: 3 nights

What we did: on Sunday afternoon we took the 5hour bullet train from Shanghai to Beijing. I highly recommend the train: tickets were 500RMB per person (cheaper than airfares I found but I did only check last-minute) and if you include all the faffing about before and after flights, total travel time probably amounted to much the same. We arrived at our hotel quite late and the only thing we did was hunt for some dinner and book our tour to the Great Wall for the following day.

Part 2: Ruth and Kenny in Shanghai.

Shanghai: 2 nights

What we did: walk, walk, walk. Again.

Ruth and Kenny in China aka How to see as much of China in 10 days (Part 1).

Ruth and Kenny left on Friday afternoon after an action-packed 10 days with us in China. We did a lot. Walked A LOT. A relaxing holiday it was not, hehe, sorry!

The itinerary: Ningbo, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing and back to Ningbo. In ten days.