Chinese New Year in Hong Kong

The big news from Huaian is that we had a great snow fall here on Sunday, 5 February! It snowed all afternoon and into the night and turned this (rather plain) city into a lovely, white, winter wonderland. I got very excited! After all, if it is going to be this cold for such a sustained period of time, then a little bit of snow is not much to ask for. It did snow a couple of times back in early January, but the pitiful effort of the snow God was not really worth writing about. This time, however, the snow actually covered everything and was at least a couple of inches deep. But 2 days later, and the sun came out again, and my winter wonderland is beginning to melt…

So, it has been about a month since my last chapter and much has happened in that time. There have been many leaving parties, as the end of the semester marked the departure of all the Australian, NZ and English foreign teachers and left me here in Huaian with nothing but Americans and 1 Irish guy. (With at least 4 new Americans arriving soon!)

Then, of course, it was Chinese Lunar New Year (CNY), which falls in late January/early February and which the Chinese call the Spring Festival. (No idea why they call it the spring festival when, in fact, it falls in winter and is actually the coldest time of the year!). The spring festival coincides with the school’s one month winter vacation, which, for me, means travelling time. And it was off to Hong Kong for me. But more about that later.

So, with the leaving parties and then the trip to Hong Kong for CNY, the festive season continued for me. At the end of my last chapter, I was with cold and without voice. Whilst I did recover for awhile, I am again with cold and without voice!

But before I get into the details of the continuing festive season, let me first tell you about the saga of trying to obtain a new bank ATM card after mine was stolen on NYE in Nanjing.

So I got back to Huaian after NYE in Nanjing and, the next day, took a student with me to my bank to cancel my card and apply for a new one. I warned my student that I was expecting the bank clerk to tell me “it is impossible” because that is the first response you get from anyone you ask anything of in China. So I told him to be prepared to be polite but insistent.

Sure enough, that is the response we got. In fact, my friend was told that, because the account was opened in Yancheng, I had to go back to Yancheng to cancel the card and obtain a new card. Apparently, even though this is supposed to be a national bank from which I can access my money anywhere in China, they can’t actually give me a new card or transfer my money from a Yancheng account to a Huaian account. Not only could I not apply for a new card, but they would not even make the phone call to the Yancheng bank to cancel the old card. I insisted that my friend argue with them and make a fuss until somebody actually did something, but despite him diligently pursuing my requests for about an hour, the bank would not budge. Suffice to say, whilst my Chinese friend continued to be polite but insistent, my own attitude degenerated considerably.

I had my friend ask for the manager but, because it was a holiday, there were no managers on duty. So then I asked my friend to obtain the name of the manager so that I could have the foreign affairs department take the matter up further with the manager. This, of course, presented a further problem; the bank clerk did not want to give me the manager’s name, because, if the manager “lost face” then she would be in trouble for giving me his name. Finally, we got the manager’s name and left, with me promising, through my translator, to get the foreign affairs department on to this ridiculous situation.

I immediately went to my school’s foreign affairs department and explained the situation to Mrs Dai. I told her that it was “impossible” for me to go to Yancheng at the present time because I have final classes and then exams over the next week. I also told her that I thought the whole situation was ridiculous and used the example – “What if I had moved to Urumuqi (far, far, west China)? Would I still be required to return to Yancheng to access my bank account?” I told her that I wanted her to find a way to get me a new card to access my bank account without the need to go to Yancheng. She is actually a fairly powerful player in “the party”, so if anyone could pull some strings, she could. She told me she would make some phone calls and get back to me.

Later that afternoon I received an email from Mrs Dai informing me that she had spoken to the bank manager and that there would be no problem getting a new card but I had to wait 7-10 days for the bank to do some “correlative” work on my stolen card. She asked me to give her some information, which I did.

10 days later I went to see Mrs Dai and asked her what I needed to do to get my new card. She said she would accompany me to the bank to apply for the new card. So, off we went to the bank, but, lo and behold, apparently I have to go to Yancheng to get a new card for my bank account! All this bank can do is open a new account and give me a new card. Fat lot of good that does me when all of my money is in the Yancheng account. I was pretty pissed off at this stage, because I had been without money for 10 days, and was leaving to go to Hong Kong at the end of the week, and I was no better off than I had been 10 days before. So I had a bit of a spat with Mrs Dai in the bank, causing her to lose face, told her that she had done nothing for me and the situation was *** ridiculous, and then stormed out of the bank, leaving her in there. (I think the frustrations of living in China may be getting to me!)

I had been told on many occasions that Mrs Dai is a bit of spiteful woman and could make my life in Huaian a misery, so I was sort of regretting my outburst. That evening, Mrs Dai was hosting a dinner to farewell Glen and Roger. When we arrived at the restaurant it was just us (the foreign teachers) and Mrs Dai. But she acted as if nothing had happened, so I did the same. In fact, during dinner she mentioned to me that she was seeking authority from her superior to take me to Yancheng later that week and assist me with closing the account and transferring my money to a Huaian account. Well, miracles will never cease, I, of course, politely accepted the offer of assistance.

So, later that week, Mrs Dai and I took a road trip to Yancheng to sort out my bank account. I won’t bore you with the details, suffice to say that I now have a new card to access my bank account; although the account remains in Yancheng, so there could be further dramas in the future!

So, with access to my bank account again, it was time to head off to Hong Kong for CNY. My English friends, Nick and Katie (N&K) were on their way to Australia and NZ via Hong Kong, Thailand and Bali, so they invited me to join them in Hong Kong. Not wanting to break up the “Huai’an young’uns” just yet, Bill and Mark (B&M) also planned to meet up with us in Honk Kong for CNY.

The foreign affairs liaison at N&K’s school (Martin) arranged the transport for us to Hong Kong. We were supposed to get a bus from Huaian to Shanghai and then a direct train from Shanghai to Hong Kong. However, in typical Chinese fashion, nothing was simple and the plans changed time and again. According to Martin, despite telling N&K the opposite all semester, there were no direct trains from Shanghai to Hong Kong. This, of course, was not true, but communicating with Chinese people and getting accurate information is no easier now than when I first arrived 18 months ago. Everything is “impossible”, the information (if you get it at all) changes constantly and everyone you ask tells you a different story.

Anyway, in the end, Martin booked us tickets on a bus from Huaian to Nanjing airport, and then a flight from Nanjing to Guangzhou, at a reasonable price. Of course, Guangzhou is still on the mainland and we still had to get from there to Hong Kong. We were a bit worried about this because in Guangzhou they speak Cantonese, not Mandarin. Our flight arrived in Guangzhou at 7:30pm; Martin had told us that we could get a direct train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong at 9:30pm, but on past history we were not sure whether to believe him. We had no idea how to get to the train station from the airport. And we had been told time and again that spring festival is the busiest travel time for Chinese people and getting train tickets to any destination on the day you want to travel is “impossible”.

So, when we arrived in Guangzhou, we jumped in a taxi and told him in broken Mandarin and English, which he seemed to understand, to drive quickly to the train station where the trains to Hong Kong depart from. He charged us an extortionate amount and seemed to be trying to tell us that there would be no trains at this time of night. Great!

However, when we arrived at the train station, we had half an hour to spare to get on the 9:30pm train to Hong Kong, so Martin was, thankfully, right about at least one thing. Actually, because the direct Guangzhou to Hong Kong train is run by a HK company, getting the tickets was very easy, and I could even book my return train ticket for a week later. (Booking return tickets on any type of transport is almost unheard of in mainland China!)

So, 2 hours later, we arrived in Hong Kong, just in time for Katie’s birthday! We were staying with Alan, an old friend of Nick’s family. He lives at the foot of Mt Davis on the west side of the island. By the way, I have to confess that, until about a week before my trip to HK, I thought it was just an island and had no idea that it also takes in a part of mainland China. Did you know?

On arriving at Alan’s place at midnight, it was immediately obvious that we were back in a civilized country, as we were offered a drink from his fully stocked liquor cabinet! After a few welcoming drinks, we got off to bed around 2:00am.

So, whilst it was already Katie’s birthday when we arrived, we celebrated the next day by having a dim sum lunch. Dim sum (or Yum Cha to most Australians) is a familiar Chinese meal to many. Actually, it is a Cantonese (or southern China) specialty and the majority of Chinese people on mainland China would never have experienced it. We went to the famous dim sum restaurant at city hall on the island. It was good; almost exactly the same as the Yum Cha lunches I enjoyed with Anthony & co. in Brisbane. (Good to know Brisbane serves authentic dim sum). It was much more expensive though. HK$400 for 3 of us (and we didn’t eat that much). I could eat for a month on that amount of money in Huaian!

After lunch we met B&M at the star ferry terminal. N&K needed to go to the travel agent to sort out their onward travel, so I took B&M to the hostel on Mt Davis to check in. We all got together in the late afternoon for a few drinks on Alan’s balcony and then headed into the bar district to meet Nick’s friend, Rami. There are several bar districts on HK island, the most central and popular being Lan Kwai Fong (LKF). This is a U-shaped street packed with gwylo (foreigner) bars. We met Rami in LKF then walked over to Soho (South of Hollywood road) to an Italian restaurant. There were 6 of us; we each ordered a pizza and a beer; the bill came to nearly HK$1,000. Oh my God! (Exchange rate is about HK$6 = AU$1. I know this is not much to most of you, but it is a fifth of my monthly wage in China!)

After dinner we went to Staunton’s bar in Soho where I caught up with my friend from the African trip, JP. After Africa, JP lived and travelled in Australia for a year, then ended up living and working in Hong Kong via south east Asia.

It was a big night out – after Staunton’s, we went to the Russian vodka bar where you put on fur coats and drink shots of vodka in a big ice freezer; then La Dolce Vita in LKF; then a little jazz bar called Gecko located in a small alley somewhere, and ending with a 2:30am breakfast at “The Flying Pan”, a 24 hour greasy spoon restaurant.

On average, the drinks cost about $HK60 each. (Remember, a tallie of beer at my local costs me 2.5 yuan (33cents)). So, when I woke up the next day, my wallet was HK$500 lighter than the night before!

Day 2 didn’t start until about midday. We met B&M again, had a relatively cheap wanton noodle soup lunch in the city before heading up to The Peak on the Peak Tram. The views from the Peak over the north shore of the island and then over the harbour to Kowloon were pretty spectacular, if a little marred by pollution. I hear rumours that HK is the most densely populated city in the world and I could believe this based on the view of mammoth apartment blocks stacked on top of each other for as far as the eye can see.

It was sunny and warm, which made for a very pleasant change from the cold winter we had been experiencing in our part of China. In fact, after walking around the Peak for awhile, it was positively hot and I had to take off my long sleeved shirt and walk around in my t-shirt! We decided to walk down from the Peak into Central via the Central Midlands Escalator. This is a series of 20 connected escalators moving people from the CBD of HK Island up the hill to the Midlands residential area. After twisting and turning and following some very dubious signs for about 40 minutes, we finally found the top of the escalators, only to find that they only go up hill and not down! (Apparently they only go down from 6:00am – 10:00am to ferry people to work, but then only go up for the rest of the day and night). So it was more walking down hill to reach Central.

Coincidentally, we passed Staunton’s bar on the way down, so we went in for a happy hour drink. By this time it was after 6pm. B&M left us to go back to the hostel, so N&K and I decided to “go budget” and eat on the street. However, even street food in HK is not cheap and we still paid $HK30-40 for a basic dish. (This amount would pay for 3-5 dishes in Huaian). After eating, we went back to Alan’s place for an hour or so, before heading out to Wan Chai, another bar district, for ladies’ night at Kwong’s. Wan Chai used to be the red light district, but now is just another gwylo bar district with some girly clubs for those in the know. Ladies’ night at Kwong’s meant free vodka with a mixer for the ladies all night, while the men pay double the price for their drinks! This night started quite late so, naturally, ended quite late also; this time with a sensational kebab at 2:00am. (It probably tasted so good because it had been so long since I had eaten one).

Day 3 and another late start. The gang met JP who took us to an even cheaper wanton noodle restaurant for lunch. This place reminded me a bit of the soup nazi from Seinfeld. Our order was taken while we queued up outside; when we got inside the food was dumped on the table in front of us as soon as we sat down; and no sooner had we taken the last spoonful, than the soup nazi whisked our bowls away and ordered the next customers in.

B&M wanted to sort out their return travel arrangements and Nick wanted to find the football stadium to buy tickets to a football match, so Katie and I spent the afternoon by ourselves. Getting around on public transport in HK is pretty easy and we managed to catch a bus to Stanley on the south side of the island. The drive over afforded some great views, but I did not think much of Stanley, although we just went to the town and not the beach. Stanley is famous for its markets, but the markets were pretty touristy and quite kitch. It is worth a look if you like markets though.

From Stanley, we took a bus to Aberdeen. I thought this was going to be a little fishing village, but it was actually a big town. Aberdeen is famous for its harbour (not to be confused with the main harbour on the north shore of the island) which is crammed with traditional sampans, floating restaurants and other fishing vessels. You can cruise the harbour on a sampan and take a look at the other sampans on which a minority of the local Chinese people still live. We just took a walk along the promenade.

After Aberdeen, we made our way back to Alan’s place on another two buses, initially getting on the wrong bus. Thankfully, in HK, even the bus drivers speak a little bit of English, so we found out our mistake and rectified it very easily.

That evening, Alan and his girlfriend, Sara, took N&K and I to the yacht club for dinner. The yacht club is in a very nice location on a small peninsula on the north shore of the island with good views back over Central and over the harbour to Kowloon on the mainland. We had some lovely Australian red wine and I ordered lamb shanks. Mmmm!

Day 4 – We had pre-arranged to meet B&M at the usual meeting spot at 10am instead of noon; however, they didn’t show up so N&K and I took the ferry over to Lantau island to visit the largest sitting, bronze Buddha in the world! It was a pretty impressive Buddha. We ate at the vegetarian restaurant at the monastery. A little expensive but not bad.

When we got back to Central in the afternoon, we took the MTR (metro/subway) to Causeway Bay which is further east along the north shore. We visited Times Square which was nothing special and does not compare to Times Square in NY. The interesting thing about Causeway Bay is that there was hardly a gwylo to be seen; this is where the local Hong Kongese live and do their shopping. It was very busy and crowded with the locals doing their last minute shopping before CNY.

From Causeway Bay we caught the double decker tram back to Central and then headed back to Alan’s place for a BBQ and more Australian red wine. This was a western BBQ, not like the Chinese BBQ I have been telling you about – king prawns; chicken wings; steak. And did I mention the Australian red wine?

After the BBQ, we headed back into to LKF to meet up with B&M. Our meeting place in LKF had become La Dolce Vita, after which we went back to the Russian vodka bar again. It was not as good this time because there were too many people going in and out of the ice freezer so it was not as cold. So we moved on to another bar called Insomnia. It was extremely crowded and the people in the bars were overflowing into the street. LKF and become one big street party. This was a Friday night and so all the business people were celebrating the 4 day long weekend for CNY.

It was around 1:30am when Rami and his friends wanted us to pay HK$200 to go into a club. I declined. Why pay that much to go into a crowded, stuffy club when all the atmosphere is on the street? The others all decided to go in, so I decided to head back to Alan’s on my own and a reasonably early night.

Day 5 – N&K did not get home until 5:00am so I knew there was no hope of getting them out of bed before lunch. So I went into the city on my own and spent a couple of hours wandering through Hong Kong Park. This is big park right in the middle of the city and definitely worth a look. It has a pretty good bird aviary if you are into birds.

I met up with N&K again at 3:30pm and we took the ferry over to Kowloon on the mainland. We walked the length of Nathan Road which is the main shopping street in Kowloon, good for electronic products. Kowloon is much more “Chinese” than the island, although there are also a considerable number of Indians who live there. In the back streets off Nathan road, it becomes much less touristy and a lot more like China, with lots of small eateries, street food, markets, ducks and other meats hanging in shop windows, herbal medicine shops, and the distinct smells that go along with many Asian cities.

We visited the ladies markets which are good markets for clothing, wallets, handbags, etc. We then walked back to the Temple Street night markets. The night markets have a good atmosphere, but don’t go there expecting good quality stuff. It is mostly rip off labels and kitchy trinkets.

After leaving the night markets we walked all the way back down Nathan road (quite a long way) to the Avenue of the Stars on the harbour promenade (still on the Kowloon side). There is a nightly light and sound show from all the buildings on both sides of the harbour. I think the light and sound show goes all year, but some of the buildings were specially lit up for CNY. It was really good and I have some great photos.

After the light and sound show we went back over to the island by ferry and then headed to La Dolce Vita in LKF to see in the New Year. As it was CNY’s eve we thought LKF would be very busy. In fact, it was pretty quiet, at least in comparison to the night before. So we were still at La Dolce Vita when midnight came. We were going to do a countdown but we all had different times on our watches. While we were debating which watch to go off, some Germans at the bar next door started the countdown in German. So we all wished each other a happy new year and then we all joined hands around the bar and sung “Auld Lang Syne” and “Happy Birthday to China”. Nearly everyone in the bar joined in, except for a group of Chinese people who were looking at us strangely.

After midnight we moved on to a couple of other bars in LKF, one specialising in tequila and the other in some Mexican cocktail called a Mojita which packs a bit of a punch. I have no idea what time we went home, but it could not have been before 2:00am.

Day 6 – New Years Day. The plan for today was to get some much needed rest. Nick and Rami went to a football match in the afternoon. Katie and I stayed at Alan’s place all day.

That night was the CNY parade. Katie and I went into the city to meet JP and B&M at 6:00pm. B&M were a no show again, so Katie and I went out for dinner with JP, his sister and some friends of his. After dinner we tried to find a good location to watch the parade but the crowds lining the streets were enormous and the police kept barricading areas off. We eventually found a spot where we could sit and have a small view of the parade, though it was a long way off. In any event, the parade was pretty blah.

We left before the parade was over to avoid the crowds and headed to a bar in Wan Chai to meet the rest of the gang. No-one was really interested in a big night so we had one drink and went home.

Day 7 – my last day. N&K had left at 5:00am to catch the ferry to Macau where they were meeting Alan and sailing back on his boat. I declined the invitation. Instead, I got myself over to the New Territories on the mainland to meet JP and his sister. JP was house sitting for a friend and had use of his car so we took a tour of the New Territories by car. We visited a small fishing town and went out on a sampan for a tour of the harbour. Then we went to the Monastery of 10,000 Buddhas. This involved a climb up 409 steps to the monastery. The walls inside the temple were lined with 10,000 small, gold replica Buddhas. We ate at the vegetarian restaurant at the monastery which was very average. I don’t think they are fooling anyone when they call tofu, “vegetarian chicken”.

After dropping the car back at Sean’s place, we caught the MTR into Kowloon and did some shopping on Nathan road. I called N&K, who were supposed to be back from the sailing trip around 3:00pm, but they were still on the boat, some way from HK. The fireworks display for CNY started at 8:00pm so we decided to stay on the Kowloon side to watch it.

We went down to the Avenue of Stars around 6:15pm and it was already so crowded that we could not actually get on to the promenade. But we did find a good spot with a fairly open view and plenty of room to move. We sent JP off to find some food and drink but he came back 5 minutes later and said the police had barricaded off the entry points so he could not go out. The good thing was that no more people would be coming in either, so our roomy, vantage point would stay that way. So we sat down and waited for the fireworks to start.

The display went for about 20 minutes. I think it was worth the wait. Whilst it was not the best fireworks display I have seen, it was pretty good and I was in Hong Kong for it, so I was happy.

I had arranged to meet B&M in LKF at 10:00pm because I thought it would take us hours to get back across the harbour to the island. In fact, the HK police were so adept at crowd control, and the public transport system so efficient, that, from the time the fireworks ended, it took only half an hour for us to get across to the island on the MTR and be sitting in a bar waiting for our friends. Amazing! If there were that many people in one place in any mainland city in China, it would have been utter chaos with pushing, shoving, yelling, shouting, certain injury and possible death.

So we met with B&M and several friends of JP at our favourite bar in LKF. Unfortunately, N&K were still stuck on the boat and never made it for the fireworks or final drinks. It was a pretty quiet night in comparison to some of the others and I was home by 1:00am having said my goodbyes to JP and Jane at the bar.

The next morning I was up 5:00am to quietly shower and pack. I woke Nick and Katie to say goodbye and then left on my journey back to Huaian, which involved 5 buses, 1 ferry, 2 taxis, 1 train and 1 plane, plus an extra unwanted night in Nanjing.

I was sad to leave Hong Kong; I had a great time there and I think it is a fantastic city. It is very modern and soooo clean. The people, although mostly Chinese, are culturally very different to the mainland Chinese. It was so refreshing to be in a city where the people are polite and helpful, where orderly queues are formed, where the public transport is efficient and easy to use, where there is no spitting, smoking and littering allowed, and, most importantly, where you can actually get useful information instead of being told that something is “impossible” or being told any old story by someone who obviously has no idea what they are talking about!

It was immediately apparent when I arrived at the train station in Guangzhou that I was back in China. As I had spent so much money in HK, I wanted to travel as inexpensively as possible on my way back. I had to get from the train station to the airport. On the way to HK, I had shared the cost of a taxi with N&K, but RMB150 was a bit much for me on my own, so I tried to find a shuttle bus, or a local bus, or the subway… something… anything… to get to the airport. But there were absolutely no signs or information in English, and those people who did speak a bit of English were touters who were just trying to rip off the tourist.

So, in the end, I caught a taxi and paid RMB125 for the privilege. Fortunately, at the airport, my return ticket, which I had bought on some dodgy Chinese discount travel website, was waiting for me. On arriving at Nanjing airport, I caught the shuttle bus into the bus station in the city and arrived there at about 5:50pm. However, there were no buses to Huai’an which meant that I had to stay a night at a hotel in Nanjing.

Nanjing is the capital city of Jiangsu province and I could not believe that there were no buses to Huai’an. It is not that they were full; just simply there were no buses. I found out later, the reason for this is that Nanjing people don’t like Huai’an people; they think Huai’an people are rude and common; so they don’t let many Huai’an buses enter the city!

So I spent the night in the foreign students hotel at Nanjing University; the same place the gang had stayed when we were in Nanjing for NYE. By this time, I was very tired and had a bad head cold, and just wanted to get back to my apartment and sleep in my own bed!

The next morning, I caught a local bus to the main bus station in Nanjing, only to be told that there were no buses to Huai’an from this station. I had to go to the North Bridge station, across the river and on the outskirts of the city, at a cost of another RMB40 for a taxi.

As I was leaving the main bus station, a touter was calling out “Huai’an”. After confirming in my broken Mandarin that the bus was going to Huai’an, it would take 3 hours and cost RMB90 (about double the usual price), I followed the touter around a corner and got on an “illegal” bus to Huai’an. I called Betty on my mobile; she spoke to a passenger and confirmed that the bus was going to the right city. However, I had to sit on the bus for an hour and a half, waiting for them to fill all the seats, before it actually left Nanjing.

It was a milk run bus that stopped all the time to let people off in the middle of nowhere. 3 hours later, we reached the outskirts of Huai’an, but, because this was an illegal bus, it could not go to the bus station, so the driver made everyone get off the bus in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of the city. I had no idea where I was, there did not appear to be any local buses servicing this area, and there were no taxis. So I called Betty again and asked her to get in a taxi and come and get me. Fortunately, she knew where I was because she had caught a dodgy bus from Shanghai once and had been dropped off in the same place. (I cannot emphasise enough the importance of having a Chinese friend and a mobile phone when travelling in China!) Finally, I arrived back at my apartment around 3:00pm that afternoon.

I spent that night at home and then, the next day, Betty and I went to visit her family at their country home. We spent the morning going from house to house visiting her relatives. Whenever I visit, Betty’s mother cooks lots of meat dishes, especially lamb and beef which she knows I prefer to pork. As it was still the spring festival, there were even more meat dishes than usual.

Visiting Betty’s hometown is always an unusual experience for me. No-one speaks English and I generally just sit around while they gibber away in their local dialect. Whenever, they look at me, they laugh and I hear them say “laoshi” (teacher) and “waiguoren” (foreigner) every now and again and I assume they are asking Betty questions about me or commenting on the “foreigner”.

We watched “Friends” on DVD most of the afternoon, had another big feed in the evening and then went to a relative’s place to play majiang (mahjong) in the evening with Betty’s sister and cousin. It is always a bit disconcerting when I play majiang with Betty’s relatives. There are usually aunts and uncles hanging around, watching with fascination at the foreigner playing majiang. They stand behind me, looking at my hand, and gibbering away in the local dialect, obviously making suggestions as to what move I should make and then laughing when I make the wrong move. It actually makes me quite nervous and I can’t concentrate on the game, thereby making wrong moves constantly! At one point, an Aunty decided to “help me” and kept reaching over me, picking out tiles from my hand and throwing them down on the table; sometimes forcibly pushing my hand out of the way to do so! I was feeling very nervous and uncomfortable so I asked Betty to ask her Aunty to stop helping me and just let me play on my own. I muttered this under my breath to Betty, which was quite unnecessary given that Betty is the only one who can understand anything I say.

Lunch the next day was just Betty, her mother and I. But no sooner had we started eating than Betty’s brother and a male cousin turned up and wanted to eat, so Betty’s mum went and cooked more dishes while the brother and cousin stuffed their faces. It is amazing how quickly Betty’s brother can shovel food into his mouth. Then an aunt and another male cousin turned up, and they hadn’t eaten either, so Betty’s mum cooked more dishes. I was starting to wonder when the poor woman would get to eat herself, but this on-going cycle of relatives turning up to eat is apparently very common, especially during the spring festival.

After lunch, we caught the local bus back into the city. I spent a little bit of time with Betty over the weekend, but she went back to work on Monday. I don’t actually have to start teaching again until 20 February. So, for the last week, I have mostly be staying in my apartment, doing nothing much. I am pretty bored so next week I will go on another little trip to visit a student in Changzhou, a city near Shanghai.

Well, that is all for this epic chapter. Visit my blog (details contained in the email) to view the photos of my trip to Hong Kong.

Meagan