Five go adventuring in Hangzhou

The last time I went to the small city (pop 6 million) of Hangzhou I came away with the impression that it was just another Chinese city. Since then Sam took his mother there on a day trip and they came away raving about it. Therefore we decided to give it another go with my mother in tow.

Now veterans of the high speed railway we boarded our train in Shanghai and within an hour we had travelled 200 miles and arrived in Hangzhou. We got a taxi to our hotel, checked in and checked out the facilities and then headed away from the city to the other side of the lake.

It was beautiful and wonderfully leafy and green as we pulled up outside our restaurant on the water.

The food was fantastic and after lunch we walked through the tea plantations to the tea museum.

We bumped in to another set of twins also wearing red and green!

It was lovely watching the tea being picked and enjoying some beautiful scenery.

After looking around the museum we decided to head up the hill towards the famous Longjin (Dragon's Well) village and see the well. The walk was quite long and very hairy as we kept having to dive in to bushes to avoid buses and cars. Eventually we saw a sign tucked away behind a bush pointing to the well. We enjoyed stirring the water and seeing the local wildlife nearby!

As it was getting late we decided to jump of a bus to get us back near the lake much to the delight of the other passengers. We managed a conversation in broken Chinese and had lots of photos and video footage taken of us!

The bus came to stop in the car park of a stadium and we all had to get off. We then went in search of a taxi conscious that happy hour in the executive lounge was about to begin! Taxis' in Hangzhou are plentiful but notoriously hard to get. As several passed us with their green light on we waved to them but they refused to stop! Eventually one pulled over but drove off after we said where we were going. It wasn't just because we were foreigners as the locals were being refused too. I kept noticing small delivery type trucks with green lights in so Sam flagged one down. It was an illegal taxi and he shook his head when we said where we wanted to go. I then offered him £10 and he opened the door! Suddenly we knew how to get a taxi in Hangzhou! We made it back to happy hour with plenty of time to spare.

The following day we went out on the lake and then had a lazy afternoon by the hotel swimming pool. On the Sunday our train wasn't until the afternoon so we went to Longgin Temple and walked up the mountain looking at the Buddhas carved in to the stone. We made it back to our hotel after bribing another taxi driver and got the train back to Shanghai.

Grandma has landed!

Excitement reigned on the 16 April as I set off for the airport to collect my mother. We made it to the airport in record time after I got in the car and told Gao Yi that the flight was early and had actually landed! Mum had come through just as I sprinted up to the arrivals gate! She proudly showed me her new suitcase she had especially bought but went on to tell my that we would have to cut it open as the code was not working!

When we got home Sam and I googled the lock type and tried various ways to open it, all to no avail. One web site suggested 999 but Sam tried 000 and it worked, it turned out that Mum hadn't actually set a code at all!

On the first day our tried and tested jet lag cure was put to work once more and mum thoroughly enjoyed her and hour and a half massage. The next couple of days were spent sightseeing on the river, lunching with Sam, at the fabric market and spending time with the boys.

It took mum a while to get used to having an Ayi!

William and Oliver enjoyed taking Grandma for a coffee!

Happy Holi!

Living in an international community means that we have a diverse, international group of friends. Oliver and William have a friend Anvita, who is from India. At the end of March the festival of Holi is celebrated in India. It involves getting covered in multi coloured paint and lots of dancing. Anvita's family invited us to celebrate Holi with them at their home. They delayed the celebrations until April so that the party could be held outside. When we arrived we were greeted by having paint powder wiped on our cheeks and were told 'happy Holi'.

As more and more people arrived everyone just covered each other with paint. Once everyone had arrived the dancing started and Sam had a lesson in Indian dancing.

We had been told that the festival can include throwing water but they had decided not to do it this year. However, the children had other ideas! By the time we tucked in to some delicious Indian snacks we were all soaking wet!

School holidaying in Shanghai

This year the school holiday at Dulwich coincided not just with Easter but with the Chinese Festival of Qing Ming, or Tomb Sweeping Day. This is when people tend to the tombs of their families. It also meant that Sam had a couple of days off at the end of the week. After our three week trip to New Zealand over Chinese New Year, we decided to spend these holidays in Shanghai.

During the first part of the week William, Oliver and I went to the Shanghai Sculpture Park with Lisa, Henry and Charlie and Meeta and Ria. It was the first time we had been and the children all loved exploring the giant tree house and building sand castles on the 'beach'.

We quickly realised the purpose built nature of the beach when we dug down and hit the membrane holding the sand in place. The children thought it was great as it meant the water stayed in the moat.

A local school party offered their help too.

Another attraction of the beach for the children was the life sized models which I thought were real people at first.

We also rented a boat and allowed all the children a go at driving until they had made us feel sick from going in circles.

Oliver, William and I went to the Science and Technology museum where we encountered hundreds of school parties with hundreds of iPads who took hundreds of photos of us.

William and Oliver particularly enjoyed the robots who solved Rubik's cubes.

On Sam's first day off we met up with Lisa, Darren, Henry and Charlie and Noor, Mark, Tess, Lotte and Dirk at Big Bamboo. It was just about warm enough to have lunch outside and the children all enjoyed playing together.

For the remainder of the week we decided to book ourselves in to a hotel in the French Concession on the other side of the river in order to explore some of that area and have a bit of a break. Intercontinental have just opened there and were doing 'soft opening' special offers. The hotel was amazing. It used to be the State Guesthouse and has played host to visiting dignitaries including President Nixon and Chairman Mao. It is like a huge villa with very extensive grounds which make it peaceful and yet it is in the middle of one of the busiest parts of Shanghai. The interior is very Art Deco and the new buildings have been sympathetically designed to blend in well.

After arriving and checking in on Friday morning we headed out to an Indian restaurant, Saffron. It has not been open a year yet but has been getting excellent reviews. It was the best Indian meal we have had so far in Shanghai. This then tired us out so we headed back to the hotel to use the lovely pool for the afternoon and to make the most of the club lounge afternoon tea and happy hour and canapés!

Breakfast the next morning was excellent and after filling ourselves we headed to the Jade Buddha Temple to see the 1.9 metre tall Buddha carved from one continuous piece of jade.

We also decided to head to the Shanghai Natural History Museum as Oliver and William are very in to dinosaurs and we were told there were some bones there. As we stepped in to the building we felt as if we were being transported back in time. The dinosaur bones were impressive but the room they were in felt a little like a shed.

The rest of the museum had a 70's feel to it with many of the displays covered in dust and looking very dated.

After looking at the description for each floor we made a beeline for the Ancient Chinese Corpse!

This turned out to be unwrapped mummies! There were photos of its excavation showing many jewels and gold but all that was on display was the body! The boys enjoyed themselves and Sam and I enjoyed the museum as a museum of itself. Our afternoon followed the same pattern as the previous day.

On the Sunday morning we headed home to get ready for the week ahead. Sam is off to Chongching for the week, I am teaching my second full week since having the boys and we are preparing for my mum's first visit to Shanghai! Exciting!

Easter with friends

As usual in China Easter suddenly crops up as there are not many reminders around town. There are a few Easter eggs in the shops but they are usually horrifically expensive - £10 for six creme eggs! Therefore the Easter Bunny has to prepare well in advance!

Because of the lack of Easter reminders I retold the Easter story to the boys, explaining that Jesus was resurrected on Easter Sunday. Oliver's reply to this was "that's good, just in time for the Easter Bunny"!

This year the Easter weekend coincided with the school holidays, called Spring Break here (but not by us!!). We invited our friends Krassi and Austin and their children Liam and Elena to spend Easter Sunday with us. Before they arrived William and Oliver had an early morning Easter egg hunt in the garden. They began by using a magnifying glass and binoculars to spot signs of the Easter bunny but it wasn't long before they discovered lots of eggs. They also took part in a compound egg hunt organised by one of our neighbours who went to Carrefour and bought several hundred mini 'chocolate' eggs!

Sam set up the BBQ and cooked a lovely leg of lamb which we had with breads and salad, a slightly alternative take on a roast as it is getting warm here.

Krassi, who is from Bulgaria, brought with her lots of Bulgarian Egg dye and lots of hard boiled eggs for the children to dye and then fight with. A traditional Bulgarian Easter Activity.
The children all followed Krassi's instructions and dyed the eggs in a variety of colours. When the dye had dried we all really enjoyed decorating and polishing the eggs. everyone then thoroughly enjoyed fighting with them! At times Krassi had to remind us that the activity was for the children! Liam had the champion egg which appeared to be super hard to crack.