What did I just think?

I’d heard of KTV on my previous trips to China but thought it was just a chain of nightclubs. This year I got to experience it for myself. I knew that the Japanese were big karaoke fans but I didn’t know that the fanaticism extended into China. How wrong I was!

After a traditional Miao meal (see my Goat Poo Soup blog post) our group took a mini-bus ride into the centre of town. There had been discussion in Chinese about where we were going, but my lack of linguistic skills meant I knew nothing of our destination. Pretty soon someone pointed up at the LED sign and I realised I was going to experience KTV for myself.

We were whisked up to the third floor in a lift, then where the world became surreal with painted mannekins, mirrorball animals and a variety of other trendy nightclub things on display. As this was all planned ahead we were quickly shown to our music party room…

The room was pretty blinged out with loads of place to sit and big TVs on most walls.

Beer and snacks were put on all the tables so we started drinking and snacking. Chinese drinking is very sociable…pour a drink for your friends, say the obligatory ‘ganbei’ (cheers) then down your drink in one!

SideNote: Ganbei is only one form of cheers. On my first visit to China I thought it was the only way to say it, so said it all the time. It was only on my second visit that I was told it’s the equivalent of ‘down your neck’, i.e. drink the whole glass at once. This is more serious with strong spirits like Maotai, but fortunately my large size compared to the average Chinese person means I’m affected slower than my drinking partners :-)

After everyone arrived the karaoke started…for everyone but me! Being a reserved Brit I wasn’t keen on showing my bad singing voice off, but my Chinese friends loved to join in. Song after song was put on with a constant trail of people grabbing the microphone to sing solo or in duets, or more at once. I’m not an expert on Chinese music but I got the impression that the songs were from multiple genres…old traditional songs to the latest hits.

Everyone seemed to have a great time singing and joining in with others singing. I was asked numerous times if I wanted to sing, but I managed to avoid causing a major diplomatic incident due to my weaponised voice causing mass hysteria. It was still a good night watching my friends, old and new, have fun. There were also a few Chinese there who spoke some English, so despite the noise, I learned a bit more about the local area and other interesting topics.

It’s birthday BBQ time. We’re out by a big lake in the countryside with the Chinese family. We’re making BBQ chicken. The first step is to make a hole in the ground…

You wrap the chicken in foil and put it in the hole then cover it with wood and set fire to it (the wood, not the chicken!).

After the fire burns down your chicken is cooked under the cover.

I’ve not tasted the chicken yet. I assume it’s very tasty.

This is a heavy way to start our holiday. A big meal after about 3 hours sleep in the last two days. Maotai on my first night might help me to sleep though!

Currently at 9000m and 600mph (sorry about the mixed units!) on Cathay Pacific CX216 from Manchester to Hong Kong. Very smooth take off and flight so far. Only another 10h43m to go to reach Hong Kong. WiFi all the way too and only $20 so not too bad.

I hope it’s not cloudy on the flight…it would be great to see what we’re flying over.

Football is coming home in 2018 and I’m going to China. The flights are booked. Got my visa on Friday. Started making my packing list yesterday.

No specific plans of where we will go yet. We’re flying to Nanning via Hong Kong then getting to Laibin somehow. After that the rest is a mystery!

This was an unplanned tea party whilst visiting friends in Laibin in 2017. The Chinese tea ceremony is great to take part in. There’s a ritual to the cleaning process and making of the tea which is good to watch…and something I try to emulate to an extent when making Chinese tea in the UK. I’ll describe the ceremony in a future post.

There are always nibbles to eat, fruit and nuts in this case, and lots of tea is drunk. It’s an opportunity to try different types of tea, chat (if there are English speakers present) or just observe if there’s no English being spoken.

It was also a good time to test out my new 3D Photosphere camera. The picture is a photosphere but without the appropriate software to view it, the picture just looks a bit weird!

I like to try new foods, but there are some that I won’t try (mostly raw seafood) and some that I’m not sure about because they’re just not something I’ve ever contemplated. A meal in Ronghshui (Rongshui Miao Autonomous County) north of Laibin gave me one of those once in a lifetime opportunities to try something new. I’d heard about this local ‘delicacy’ on the way to Rongshui but didn’t think I’d get to see it.

The title is a little misleading, the delicacy isn’t actually made from goat’s poo, although it is from a goat and is composed of what the goat has eaten. Strictly speaking it should be called ‘goat cud soup’ because it’s from the cud rather than having been excreted. It would be wrong to say it looks appetising, it doesn’t. It would be wrong to say it smells good, it doesn’t.

Did I try it? I did have a spoonful, but that was all. So, does it taste good? Can you guess the answer? It’s delicious! Only joking, it tasted like it looked and smelled, like goat’s poo. I’ve never actually tasted goat poo…honestly…but it definitely tastes like how I would imagine goat poo would taste. Sort of part-digested vegetation with a poo aftertaste.

Would I have this again? No!

Driving home from Sanjiango (sp?) this evening. The landscape is forever changing and each new view is just as amazing as the thousands that went before it.

Does anyone like spicy boiled animal parts? Including tripe, brain and liver, plus some other unidentifiable parts. I tried a little but only the ‘safer’ parts!

It’s just like Old Blighty here. We’re on a charabanc trip to the seaside. Fangchengang to be precise, but driving through Luwu, Guangxi at the moment. Cake has been served as in-flight refreshment. Also like Britain it’s raining. What would a trip to the beach be like without rain?

Don’t get offended by Chinese road signs. “Next exit Yu Dong” isn’t a command ;-)

Unfortunately I was too slow to snap a picture of it.

Saturday 29th July 2017 dawned and “China 2017” was underway. A quick taxi ride to Blackpool North train station. A train to Manchester Airport, which got delayed and then terminated at Manchester Piccadilly. We’d left plenty of time so just waited for the next train and we got to the airport about 20 minutes later than planned.

This year we flew with Hainan Airlines. So rather that flying via one of the Arabian Gulf states this was a direct flight from Manchester to Beijing. That’s a long flight…stated as 11 hours on the schedule but in reality only about 10 hours. Hainan Airlines were pretty good, especially as they were about £300 cheaper per person than the Gulf airlines. Good points were enough leg room for me (well built and 6ft2in) and the food was pretty good for plane food. Bad points were that the film selection wasn’t too good. There was also a lot of turbulence pretty much all the way to Beijing. Not the airline’s fault but it did mean it wasn’t the most comfortable of flights. Also not much sleep considering it was a red-eye flight - leaving Manchester at about noon and arriving in Beijing at 05:45 the following day.

Arriving in Beijing before 6am. It was quite hazy, partially from the ever present smog and partly from a grubby window. We were in China, but still many hours from our final destination.

Our plane that carried us from Manchester to Beijing. It looked pretty small to me for such a long flight but I guess my perceptions were wrong because it did get us there.

At Beijing we had to clear immigration and customs. Immigration wasn’t too bad. It seemed we were the only flight landing at that time so with 10-15 minutes of queuing we were through without any problems. We then had to collect our bags and go through customs which again didn’t take too long. We then had to walk about 15 minutes from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1 for the internal flight to Nanning. Unfortunately you don’t get checked-in all the way through in the UK, so we then had to join long queues to get checked-in. This wasn’t helped by the fact that there were queue touts working…get someone to stand in the queues then you can pay the tout to become a colleague of the queuing person and jump to the start of the queue. Eventually we got checked in and found our way to the gate for a 3 hour wait until our flight to Nanning. That flight was pretty uneventful and about 3 hours after leaving we were greeted by family and friends (He Li Ping, Xiao Wei and Qiao Li).

After a quick stop at McDonald’s at Nanning Airport for lunch we set off on the final leg of our journey, a 2 hour drive to Laibin. Xiao Wei was our driver and once we got past some confusing road junctions, apparently made more confusing by the Chinese satnav, we had a quick snooze before arriving in Laibin.

Departure day is getting closer. Flights and train tickets are booked and the taxi has been ordered for the trip to the station. It’s starting to feel real. 

The journey begins at 07:15 on Saturday 29th July with the 11 hour flight direct from Manchester to Beijing leaving at 12:15. We’ve not flown on Hainan Airlines before and hadn’t even heard of them 6 months ago. Most people seem to like the airline so hopefully we will have good flights.

The itinerary this year includes:

Nanning Laibin Shiling Liangshui Various places along the South China Sea coast Lunch in Vietnam BBQ by the beach for my birthday Fishing on the South China Sea Jinxiu Rongshui

There may be other places added along the way too, but the full itinerary is in the hands of Anan’s relatives and friends so we will find out as it happens!

I hope that I can still update this blog from within China, but if the Great Firewall blocks me I might have to do a lot of catching up when I get home. I’ll try to do regular updates from Saturday morning when the fun starts.

No matter how many thousands of years of amazing culture you have, the grass always looks greener on the other side so the Chinese want to adopt other cultures too. English is the second language of the country and in recent years the government has encouraged everyone to learn English at school. In practice this usually means learning to write English because there are few English speakers in the country to educate so many people. It’s not unusual to see signs and names of objects in English as well as Chinese. It is however unusual to find Chinese people who speak more than a few words of English.

The standards for English writing vary quite considerably, so it’s common to see things that jar with the English mind and make you look twice to see if it was your brain playing tricks on you or not. For example, I’m sure I’ve seen this brand of motorbike on the roads in Britain…

Where would the world be without classy bread flavoured bread? If I remember correctly it didn’t taste too bad but the endless aftertaste was clearly a trades description act non-compliance because I can’t taste it now.

I wasn’t sure if you drank this because you had no friends or if the after effect of drinking it was that you wouldn’t have any friends.

Chinese food in the areas I’ve travelled in isn’t like the food from Chinese restaurants and takeaways in the UK. To me the food in China is quite bland and relatively plain, but then I’m a fan of spice and heat in food. There seems to be little spice used in Guangxi, but they love chilli in Hunan province.

Meat and fish are cooked simply, often just boiled, e.g. boiled chicken which is then just chopped up. Meat and fish aren’t prepared as cuts, e.g. chicken breast, the whole animal just seems to be cooked, chopped up and brought to the table with bones, gristle, skin, etc. intact. I find this quite difficult to eat but my Chinese friends love to chew and gnaw at the food. The more bones and gristle, the better the food.

Chicken, duck, pork and varieties of fish are common, but there are also stranger meats if you want to search them out. Unlike in the West, vegetables just describes just any green leaves found in the fields, gardens or road-side, that are boiled. There aren’t individually named varieties, pretty much any green leaf is a vegetable. This means there are quite a few different tastes and textures, from bland to bitter and everything between.

Noodles are common. Not so much the chow mein style that we might be used to in the west, although that is available. More common is what is perhaps best called spicy noodle soup. A big bowl full of liquid (mostly water), boiled noodles, boiled vegetables, possibly with some pieces of meat or a boiled egg in it. You can add spicy pickle to this. It’s quite common to have spicy noodles for breakfast, lunch and tea!

Various fruits in the market in Jinxiu.

There are many fruits available, mostly seasonal and straight from the farm to the market. Apples, pears, mangoes, watermelon, durian fruit and oranges are common, but there are also many other species from the area that are unknown in the West, e.g. longyan (something like a lychee).

Various ‘proteins’ in the Jinxiu market. Yes - those really are rats, small birds and frogs for sale.

2015 was my first opportunity to visit the Far East, specifically The People’s Republic of China. My girlfriend (Yanan) was going back home to visit family and friends and invited me to join her. In fact I think I might have suggested that she invited me to join her!

I’d always wanted to visit China but the language barrier put me off. I’m not a linguist and even European languages where I recognise some words scare me. Chinese being totally unknown to me was a huge stumbling block.

With Yanan it would be much easier. She could translate for me, not just the language, but also the culture. As a ‘local’ she would be able to explain what we saw.

So on 24th July 2015, with our passports and my visa in hand we set off. Our itinerary was:

Flying Manchester to Guangzhou, via Dubai (and return) Guangzhou Laibin Shiling Liangshui Guilin Yangshou Jinxiu

We visited other places along the way but I didn’t always know place names. I can summarise them all in one word though…amazing!

Whilst in China I met loads of Yanan’s family and friends. I hadn’t known what to make of the Chinese people before my first visit. I’d met very few and they seemed nice, but I’d be meeting many who had never ventured outside the huge country. Would they be different? I’d grown up in the Cold War era where I was used to seeing what seemed to be a dour looking population all dressed in the same clothes, so I wasn’t sure what to expect!

I’m pleased to report that the Chinese people are fantastic! Very friendly, even without a shared language, incredibly generous with their time and hospitality, and not at all serious…they are great fun too.

We returned to the UK on 10th August and after an amazing trip I was hoping that wasn’t the last time I’d visit China.

This blog is part historical and, hopefully in future, a live update of our continued travels in China. I hope I can give you a feeling of the country, the sights, the people and the food and drink. I have enjoyed my time there and hope to enjoy more time there over the coming years. Maybe I might even persuade some of you to travel there too?

Some photos from 2015

Halfway there (or halfway back) - Dubai Airport

Guangzhou Railyway Station - This was my first time alone in China. Yanan had gone into the busy ticket hall to queue for our tickets and I sat in the shade outside. I was one of a tiny number of westerners among a huge number of locals. It was scary sitting and hoping nobody would come to talk to me!

High-speed bullet train - The speed isn’t too visible, but it was about 195 km/h. That was a slow section of track. The train reached over 300 km/h in places (just short of 200 mph)

A view from the bullet train between Guangzhou and Nanning. I’d never seen karst mountains or rice fields before, other than on TV. This view showed me that I was in a very different environment to home.

One of many meals with Yanan’s family. Eating was one of the first things we did when we arrived in her home city - Laibin.