4th JAN 2011

Woke up at 9.30 by people from next door walking down their stairs !!!

Went out @10:15 for breaky to the market again i had Baozi slightly different filling to the Nanjing ones but it was still yummy. I also had one of those pancakes again

Whilst we stood eating, one of the men who worked there asked whether I was Russian !!

I imagine Russians to be like bulky Cossacks but apparently they can be blonde too so i suppose its a compliment in away

We got back at 10:40 aiming to leave at 11 but as usual everyone was ready half an hour later lol

Ski trousers were a must along with

thermal leggings

a vest top

thermal top

a hoody

a ski jacket

2 pairs of gloves

a ski hat

thin socks

Arctic socks

plastic bags (try it it honestly does help)

and my shoes

We wanted to go the Siberian tiger park, they boys mainly because they had heard about the fact you could feed a cow and other animals to the tiger live......

the taxis took us to get tickets on route and we ended up picking up some tour guide style thing

it was 37 RMB for a 20 min taxi ride

we got straight on the safari with some other Chinese people. It was covered in a cage but there were some slidy windows so you could get some decent photos.... i may have accidentally slid the window into the little girls face who was sat behind me whoops

everyone was staring at us as per usual

but the park was absolutely amazing, the animals were incredible, beautiful

i thought it would be a safari type truck luckily, with it being so cold it wasn't but my feet still began to hurt to freeze 

we were asked about a quarter of the way round whether we wanted to buy any animals, the boys wanted to buy a cow which was 2000 RMB but thankfully we weren't able to get one of those, neither the goat so everyone 'bought' a chicken each.

we drove into a huge enclosure with the larger tigers in, easily a whole pride, and we pulled up in the middle of it. A caged truck then pulled up opposite us which had the animals in and a guy. All of a sudden he opened his door with a chicken in hand, chucked it on top of the roof and closed his door

(i would just like to point out this man has recently died after being dragged out of the car by the tiger and mauled to death...)

The tigers then swiped at it with their paws and some even got on top of the roof.... this continued until all of our chickens had been fed to them.

Now, curiosity really got the better of me here, & in England i would of never considered taking part in such an 'event' but the way i got through it, no matter its cruelty was the fact that they were being fed to the animals and at some point or another an animal would of been fed to them. I am not denying it is incredibly cruel but this type of thing is the norm in China.

Once the safari had finished we walked along a caged platform round some other tiger enclosures and then towards the end we got to see other cats such as a LIGER !! it was only one of only 10 in the world !

You cant breed them though which is a shame he had stripes all over his legs and then was a normal slightly less maney lion

Speaking of which it was incredible sad to see a native African lion in -25'c weather, he was in the smallest cage on a little wooden pallet to keep himself off the cold floor all curled up with a HORRIFIC cough it was incredibly upsetting

We didn't do much else this day

something i have noticed is that the people here are slightly more stocky and are definitely taller than people from more southern provinces

On our way back to the hotel we stopped off and i bought a yam (i have been spending too much time around these Canadians) it was a little OTT but it was soooo yummy

we went out again for some dinner and i had the yummy aubergine thing again it is quickly becoming one of my favourite foods !!

3rd January 2010

3:10 woke up and its snowed & snowing,

dressed into travelling pants, leggings, thermal, netty top & hoody, finished packing met john & nicole 4am hailed a cab 150RMB for an hour long taxi to Nanjing airport, i tried to sleep but the car kept sliding across the wet road

something everyone should be aware of, people in china still spray the roads with water (its meant to stop the dust rising) even when its snowed and icy ?????

Arrived at the airport at 5am and it was closed !Closed!!! what airport actually closes and locks its doors? we were sat outside in the snow but surprisingly it wasn't actually that cold. A snowflake landed on my knee and i could see the points which was so cool.

5.30 the doors opened :) did self check in 13A&B

they delightfully informed us that the temp was -20'c at our destination theres something to look forward too!

There was a temple in the middle of the airport with potted plants leading up to it. checked in 6.13am G8 desk and wow was the woman happy, talk about service with a smile

In the queue next to us there was a guy with the biggest caterpillar eyebrows i have ever seen with a make shift rucksack on his back made from rope !

We went to get food what a joke 90 RMB for NOODLES!!

Great surprise the toilets are WESTERN!!

which was surprisingly odd as I'm starting to get used to the eastern way !

We boarded at Gate 8 at 7.20 and because of the lack of cheap food i had water and a small sprite for breakfast" just as we sat down and got comfy john threw himself over the head rest and was like 

"Andy i think we should get off, I've got a funny feeling about this flight" 

which got us a few odd looks that for sure.

We landed at our stop off airport at 8.40 and boarded the SAME PLANE we got off, i attempted at this halfway destination, to buy something on my own for the first time

So i went for ice cream, and even that failed !! i only a 100 RMB note which was too big so i had to call on andrew :(

we boarded and we were in the SAME SEATS next to the SAME PERSON

we landed at 11.10 picked up our baggage really quickly but the ordeal started trying to get from the airport to the hostel.

Not before we had been greeted by our first ice sculpture which was amazing and the sky was clear and well i will just let you judge from the picture

Worked out we could get a shuttle bus 20 RMB each and then had to guess when we got off. On the way there were some amazing snowy scenes, just wish i had had the opportunity to stop and have a decent photography camera Sam (he will be very happy hes been mentioned) would of been jealous

Now i know he will kill me for writing this but he has to admit it himself the whole time we were on this bus but more to the end of it Andrew was completely pretending that he knew where we were going and that he had "full belief in the driver" I'm sorry my love but whatever your face said it all !

We got off at the train station and were mobbed by fake taxi drivers, there was black ice everywhere, the train station area was insanely busy and the queue for the taxi wasn't even worth contemplating so we got one of the fake taxis who quoted us 80RMB for a 13 RMB taxi ride but we just paid for it as we were all stressed

the boot wouldn't close !!

me and nicole were turned the other way round the whole taxi ride keeping an eye on our luggage which was sticking out the back. Our hostel was a synagogue that had bambi murals over the walls

The rooms were so toasty and so cool, its en suite, one double bed and then upstairs on the mezzanine level there where two double beds built into the wall !!!

the thing that sleepover dreams are made of

Food search- naturally

we went right out of the hostel and took the second left and poked our head through a door to find a market full of fresh food! NOM NOM i had a wrap with fried crispy cracker type thing, spring onions, egg, lettuce for 4RMB 40P and it was amazing

Having refuelled we walked along the main Russian street and there were so many disney themed ice sculpture including winnie the pooh and cinderella. The winnie the pooh one had coloured ice in it ! not lit up ice actual dyed ice

We went to the bank and i kid you not there was a girl who could of been mistaken for a hooker.

Let alone mad for being dressed in hot pants high heel boots and tights ???? not very practical for black ice and -25'c.... wow i sound like my mother. We went back to the hostel and caught up on some sleep until the guys got here when we went and found more food at 10 pm

We all chipped in and layered the plates of food on the lazy susan

aubergine (my fav), potatoes and gravy, a mushroom selection, peanuts and chicken, fish flavour pork and veg and dumplings yummmmmmyyyyy

however one thing definitely stands out from the rest and that's the snake and reptile infused bijo or rice wine

yes there were actual reptiles decomposing in this bijo which you could drink and of course all the guys wanted to try it, me * georgia refused but andrew drank a whole glass

a whole glass of reptile bijo = smelly salty breath, drunkenness and the loss of any form interaction that occurs within 10 meters of you be warned

2nd January

I forgot to say that Andrew last night washed all of our clothes by hand

the littler washer woman was at it for hours hahaha

So i got up for a shower at 1pm whilst Andrew went and bought a heater to dry the clothes as the room is so freaking cold

Anyway 'breakfast' was soup hotpot type thing at 13RMB, the idea is amazing but I'm not going to lie it was slightly odd picking out your ingredients using bbq tongs out of plastic baskets that were placed in a warm refrigerator. Each item was segmented into little bundles to determine price.

All these were then boiled in metal baskets there was something in there that was hard when it went in but jelly like when it came out, however my favourite were the dumplingly things.

Not as good as the Passionfruit Milkshake complete with and icecream dollop!

Fresh, Organic, Tasty and Creamy

At 3.30 we came and went and got Matthew some DVD's and then made our way to the electric store

It was so strange, it was like a market inside for electricals particularly the higher floors as the ground floor resembled more of an electrical fair with all the large brands having their own stands.
There were some demonstrations outside which included games to win prizes all as a form of promotion for the brand.

It was incredibly bright and colourful & it was evident that they like to customise things
Stickers, Choosing colours, Patterns, characters
Innovative forms of visual merchandising included using fluro pens on clear glass which lit up

i bought a memory pen for 65 RMB for 8 GB
we went to store near by that was essentially a factory store for the various designer labels constructed in china but it was in an actual store. It didn't have much selection but it was good quality

Went back and packed for Harbin but met the others at 6 to go to the futsimal temple with Matt, his parents, Laura, Nicole & john.

Its amazing there, it reminded me of Sunny Beach in Bulgaria but obviously Chinese and with a temple in the middle of it.  We took a boat ride which cost us 60 RMB each (very typical Chinese boat shape complete with lanterns)

It was a lovely ride actually and Laura translated for us. The buildings on either sides of the roads were home to prostitutes (more like geisha's) and men would come to them via the river. Poets used to write about them. There is one particular part of the river which used to run the fastest and it was here where a poet had to pass through to meet his prostitute however they fell in love and wrote love poems for each other.

I also learnt that the raised sections on the roofs (like a mini wall) were designed specifically to stop the spread of fire from one house to another as the buildings used to be made out off wood, this combined with the fact they were terrace style houses made them all extremely flammable.

After the boat ride I sampled the Chinese equivalent to a toffee apple, a toffee strawberry stick.
Its a cross between a fondue and a toffee apple actually and they are everywhere in china, street corners, shops, theme parks, ice festivals you name it

walking through the markets there are lots of pet stores, again nothing like that that you would expect to see in England. even as i got off the bike i saw goldfish being sold in the plastic egg shape gum ball machine like cups. In the market rabbits were being sold in cages that they only just fit in, it was like the glass cases you used to be able to put your TY beanie Babies in except they had literally no room to move which i found a little harsh. The dogs in the shops were adorable
The puppies were in the shop window just like in the song all piled on top of each other to keep warm,
there were some lovely dogs in there as well, huskies, labs i would of easily have taken one home :(

Whilst we were there it started snowing which was nice and i bought a hoody that was very Chinese esq
(i shall put a picture up at a later date) i also got the opportunity to see the store that Andrew has modelled for which was nice. Its such a big store, kind of reminded me a bit of Vera moda and jack jones with a hint of Zara but its really big there particularly in Nanjing

we went back and got some food so Andrew had some sustenance to stay up and keep changing the clothes over to dry blessssssss but we had to be up at 3 am to get to the airport yay!!!

January 1st 2011

Woke up at 10:50 and had a call at 11:55 to remind us of check in,

Do these people not realise things are not rushed on New Years Day !

Nicole and John had already been up and about so we went to get some street food for breakfast!

I had this amazing crepe pancake things with egg scrambled on it & the filling of lettuce, parsley & spring onions with hoisin sauce... honestly so tasty very hot though ended up with a lot of sauce around my face NOM NOM

Walking the metro we were walking up quite a busy main road and someone had tied their washing line between two lamposts on the pavement???

OK i have understanding for outside peoples home windows but on the actual pavement in the middle of Shanghai ???? There are several problems i can for see with this method of drying...

Not least a smelly traveller revelling at the thought of some free clean clothes and blankets

Metro lines 10-2 &1

I was complimented on having nice skin :) that's a first !

Whilst waiting to buy tickets a kid who was running around the station contemplating the idea of going for a poo... he kept squatting, squeezing and then getting up again... maybe he had stage fright??

We were a little early for the train so we popped to the underground maccy d's for a light bite

i tried one of the strawberryy milkshakes which, i have discovered, taste nothing like ours.... very powdery and horrid

We caught the 2pm train 71009 carriage 4 seat 61 on which we realised that one of the Canadian guys parents were a few seats behind us on the way to visit him. So when we got off the train we helped them in getting to the hotel by sharing taxis and taking them to him.... Good deed for the day... Check

We dumped our bags and went to go and fix the scooter.... most terrifying trip on the scooter yet with the back break broken :$
I met the cutest kid yet of china here by far !
He was walking with his granny and i said ni hao to him and he just kept repeating it to me !!

Whilst waiting we went to go and find food, walking along the street we saw some geese who's bodies were all mixed together in a bag with all their heads poking out of the top.

They were lying on the ground next to where they were going to be cooked !they were literally waiting to die. Not the nicest experience i have to say. One of them I'm pretty sure had died in the bag

I picked up a sesame pitta but it wasn't as nice as Bird Flu and also picked up some boazi

The guy we bought it from is the one i had his picture taken with.

When we had taken it i showed him the picture and he got so excited about the fact that he could see himself he called his wife through from their backroom and showed it to her.. they were amazed
It just makes you think about all the things that you take for granted and humbles you a bit

I tried this garlic roll thing which was like a flattened baozi which is fried but it tasted horrible!

The filling tasted like the smell of the garden and the garlic on the outside was incredibly runny unfortunately not my cup of tea
Along this same street there were pool tables on the pavement which people were using

Moving around we found what i have named electric alley..

It was jam packed with broken wires, telly's and computers which were all being fixed to be sold on
There was welding happening on the side of the road with no safety wear at all or just a side of cardboard box attached to some sunglasses

We picked up the bike but didn't have to pay as Andrew apparently has brought them a lot of business since being in Nanjing which was nice. The little boy from before was crying which just broke my heart but this was quickly forgotten when his dad gave him a screwdriver to play with !!!!

A 2 year old boy was given a screwdriver !!

On the way back we went and purchased some DVDs for the evening
£1 for one and £3 for a series wooo hooo

this place gets better and better :)