3 nights in Shanghai

Shanghai has been my favourite city that I have visited in China!

I met up with 4 of the girls I met at the start of my internship, Sammy, Hannah, Laura and Kasey, it was so nice to see new old faces! Especially as I have been traveling on my own and hadn't met any westerns yet. 

The first night we headed to the French concessions. It was a really lovely area, filled with restaurants, however it was pricy and we decided not to eat hear. And instead we walked down towards the bund to take night photos of it all light up. On the way we found an Italian restaurant that's a big chain in China. So we all ate hearand got a bottle of wine all for less than £3 each. I did not expect to find places this cheep in Shanghai. 

The next day we all got up early to go visit one of shanghais water towns. We got the bus to Zhujiajiao and it took around 1 hour. We wondered about the town and took a boat ride around the area. It's such a beautiful place and it's hard to believe it's only a hours bus ride from the centre of Shanghai. 

The bus ride back did take a lot longer, I think it was over 2 hours but I fell asleep so not entirely sure. When we got back we went for dumplings at Yangs Dumplings. They were very good, but very oily. I am told your meant to suck the oil out and then eat the dumplings, but with that much oil I think I would have made myself ill. Then we headed towards the pearl tower, as we wanted to time it just right so that we could see the view in the day and the view when it got dark. It was a great surprise to find out the entry fee was half price! We don't know why but it made us all happy! (I have now found out there was lots of attractions half price accross the city, something to do with a tourism day?) The views from the top were great, there were two levels you could access with our tickets. One of them had a glass floor that was pretty cool! 

The next day Sammy and Hannah left early as they were teaching later on in the day. So Laura, Kasey and I spent the day together. We walked to Yu gardens, visited Shanghai museum and the jade Buddha temple. Later in the day when they left for there overnight train I visited m&m world and treat myself to some chocolate! 

I feel like I have done so much during my time in Shanghai and i have had such a great time. It definitely is my favourite city in China so far. And I didn't spend half as much money as I expected to! 

Speak soon,

HanHan xx

Chengdu's Pandas

The reason I decided to visit Chengdu was to see the pandas. It is thought that there is less than 1000 pandas left in the world so it was on my bucket list to go and visit them during my time in China. 

I visited the Chengdu research base of giant panda breeding. It cost 58y entry so that's around £5.80. I thought it was very reasonable I was prepared and expected to pay a lot more! The research base opened in 1987 with 6 pandas that were rescued from the wild. Now it it home to more than 100 pandas. 

The park was huge and had lots of different areas wherry you could go watch the pandas. They had so much space and looked to happy. Pandas spend a lot of there time eating so I found a few pandas eating bamboo and others where sleeping. I found baby pandas, they were the cutest and I seen one to a forward roll!

The red pandas I thought looked like a fox. At first that's what I thought it was, but then I realised!

Inside the park there was also a museum and a 20min video on pandas. It was good to gain some more knowledge about pandas while I was there. 

I would highly recommend if your visiting China to head to Chengdu and see the pandas!  

Do you know years ago, China gave pandas to other country's as gifts! Then they realised they were running out of them and stopped handing them out!

Speak soon,

HanHan xxx

Dapeng for the long weekend

We set of to dapeng at 7am Friday morning & arrived after 6pm in the evening! Mainly due to the traffic been so bad, getting wrong bus and our taxi driver taking us the complete wrong direction. 

We chose to come to the beach for a relaxing weekend however when we arrived at our hostel we soon realised there was an all night rave happening. As I didn't arrive till after 6, and the free drinks ended at 9 so some of us decided not go. We headed down to the beach to grab some food instead. The beach was so busy still even at 8pm at night! 

The next day we visited dapeng fortress. It reminded me of the houghtons in Beijing. We wondered around the area then walked to the temple. I have seen so many temples on my travels but this was the most beautiful. There was so much colour, it truly was amazing. 

Later in the afternoon we walked down to the beach. An area was closed of as couples were getting there wedding photos taken. In China couples get there wedding photos taken 6 months before the wedding. So it's all so fake, there was loads of props along the beach and hair and makeup stations along the back. We got speaking to the manager and over the whole day more than 100 couples come for there photos. I wouldn't like to have my wedding photos taken right next to so many other couples, but I guess this is china. As the photographers were finishing, the manager let us on to his part of the beach. It was so nice to have space. As the public beach was so so busy! You couldn't even see the beach due to that many people! 

It was nice to experience a Chinese beach, but I wouldn't visit again as it is nothing like a beach we know. It's over crowded and dirty.

Speak soon,

HanHan xx

Weekend 7 - Exploring Guangzhou and Baiyun mountain

So this is our last weekend before pay day! It's been so long so we are all very excited to be getting paid finally. 

On Saturday I went to Guangzhou. It's the 3rd biggest city in China and I have only been hear once to go to a shopping mall so I thought it would be a good weekend to explore and wonder about the area. 

It cost me just 50p to get hear from Foshan, and it is quite far, over an hour on the metro depending what part your wanting to go to. 

I went to Shamian Island. I was surprised at how easy it was to get to. It was only a 5 minute walk from the metro station. In the 1800s the area was divided between the UK and France. So Athens area doesn't feel like china, all the buildings look European and it's a nice place to go walk about as this island is very small. 

Afterwards I went to Beijing road pedestrian street. It was so busy, full of all the international shops and malls. It reminded me of the walking street in Beijing. 

On Sunday the weather was amazing, we went to Baiyun mountain. We walked all the way up to the summit, there was so many steps and even an McDonald's half way up, but you wouldn't expect any less in china! The view from the top isn't as pretty as mountains in England as it just over looks the city and it was a smogy day but it's still worth while seeing.

Speak soon,

HanHan xx

Pancake day in China

So we celebrated pancake day a little bit late in China! But it was over 2 days so we had lots and lots of pancakes. All the foreign teachers where the pancake cooks and we had an allocated cooking time, and a chefs outfit, including the hat! It was lots of fun, we could make the pancakes into shapes, however all I could manage were circles and Micky mouse! Some people could make cars, hearts and boats! 

The children really enjoyed it, we took our classes to over and they watched us make the pancakes, then the added all the fruit toppings and sauces. Lots of kids came back for more. I can't wait to see what special day the school have planned next, they seem to celebrate something different every week :)

Spar day with school!

We we all got taken out to a 24 hour spar treat for ladies day! We weren't quite sure what it entailed and we were told we didn't need to bring anything, but of course we did, we thought surely we would need lit toothbrush and phone chargers if we're staying over. How wrong we were!

The spar was unreal! We checked in and got taken down to the changing rooms. We showered then got given pyjamas! Everyone walked around in there pjs. It was so cool. It was around 7pm so we wanted food. There was a huge selection of foods, it was a buffet so you could have as much as you wanted. It was a nice change from the canteen food we had been eating all week. Then we had our massage. I chose a Thai massage. We all had our own separate room, with the most comfy bed in. The massageaasted 1:5 hours! We only expected an hour! 

Afterwards we checked out all other bits te spar had, a hot igloo room, oxygen rolms, heated lie down things! Jade pool, cinema rooms. It was so nice. 

The sleeping arrangements where we all had the most comfy chair ever, in a huge big room. It was like a sleepover!! We all had our own tv, it kinda felt like we were on a plane. We went to sleep around 1.30am, but as we were doing the colour run the next day we had to wake up at 5am, but we could have stayed till 5pm the next day had we wanted to!

Speak soon,

HanHan xx

Lantern festival

We celebrated lantern festival on Friday at school, as the weather was so bad on Thursday. 

In the afternoon all the children's parents came into the class and we all made sweet dumplings together. Then we went outside to see the stalls and solve riddles. It was busy, so many parents and children! 

There was a lion dance where the lion ate the vegetables that were ontop of the pole, then it was our turn to dance. We had been learning a dance to preform I front of the whole school this week, bi we hadn't had much time to practice it as the moves kept changing. But I think it went well! 

Afterwards we went back to our classes and ate our dumplings, they were so tasty!

Speak soon,

HanHan 

Xx

Teaching in Foshan

So I got my teaching internship at a kindergarten school in Foshan, Guangdong. I couldn't be any happier! 9 of us got placed at the same school so we all flew down at 5.30am on Thursday. 

We got of our flight and got taken straight to the school, all we wanted to go was go to our new apartments and unpack and relax, but instead we got shown round the school. The school is AMAZING. I have never seen any school like this one, I feel so lucky to be working hear for the next 6 months. We started training the next day, and to celebrate Chinese New Year we all got given a red envelop, it's all so exciting!

First day teaching

Today was my first day teaching English, I was so excited to get started as we have been in the school a week now, watching other teachers. My class is KS1, so that's small class. There are baby classes, small, middle, big and big big.

For my first lesson I taught the new Easter/spring vocab. I used flash cards and then played a game where two kids at a time had to run around the cards and when I shouted a number that had to go find that card and read it out. It worked really well, we also had a few songs and dances to wake the kids up.

My second lesson was about colours. I wanted to see what the class knew song I decided to recaps. I had flash cards and went around the class asking each individual student what the colour was. Then we played a flash game on the to where the kids had to say the colour they seen. I found a fun colour dance so I played that, then for the rest of the lesson I asked the kids to colour in a Easter bunny.

We were meant to be celebrating lantin festival in the afternoon, but it's been cancled as its raining, so hopefully we get to celebrate it tomorrow! 

Speak soon,

HanHan

XX

Beijing - Chinese New Year

I arrived into Beijing on the morning of Chinese New Year. It was so cold after being in Thailand for a couple of weeks! I got a taxi straight to ny hostel, I was staying in a tiny capsular room, you couldn't stand up in it! But it was so cosy and when we changed accommodation a few days later we all missed the cosy little hostel. 

Chinese New Year was amazing, so many fireworks going of into all hours of the morning. It was such a great 1st night in China! 

Friday was the start of our orientation week, we got ourselves to the university where we spent the next 6 days together, and met up with the other 50 people that were also on the internship.

The next 6 days consisted of ice breakers, receiving our internship deatails, getting drunk, being hungover and missing teacher training, getting to the top of the Great Wall of China, leaving training early to go to the forbidden city, lakers bar and my 21st!

The few of us that arrived before our internship start date all got on really well and we made friends quickly. It was so sad when we all had to go our separate ways at the end of orientation week, but we are all going to try and visit each other. 

Phi Phi island

HPhi Phi Islands

Where did we stay?

We stayed in an tiny hut - PhiPhi hill bamboo 

How long?

2 nights, we arrived Thursday morning and left Saturday morning to Koh Lanta.

What did we do?

  We arrived in Phi Phi with no hotel so we decided to stay near the view point. There are no cars on Phi Phi so a man put our bags in a wheel barrow type thing and wheeled them to our accommodation. Our room was awful... right on top of a huge hill, bed was just a matarass on the floor and it was so noisy. We headed down to the beach to get dinner and sunbathe, when it got to hot we went to get a oil massage, then headed up to the view point. There were monkeys throwing fruit on the way up! The view point it quite a long walk so its best to do it in the morning or early evening so its not to hot. 

The next day we had booked a snorkeling trip, we had breakfast included and we took a long tail boat to the islands. The trip was good as we got to see lots of different places but we spend way to much time on the boat, I would recommend paying a bit more and getting a speed boat. 

Budget

800 baht for 2 nights accomadation

20 baht tax to get onto the island

30 baht tax to go up to the viewpoint

30 baht water

30 baht ice-cream 

90 baht Phangan curry

180 baht for an Indian meal and Nan bread

550 baht for an all day snorkeling trip

40 baht for an ice coffee on Maya bay

50 baht for pringles on the long

40 baht for a brownie

100 baht for fired rice and a fanta

200 bath for the ferry to Koh Lanta

Speak soon,

HanHan xx

Koh Samui

Koh Samui

Where did we stay?

We stayed at Akwa guesthouse, the accomadation was nice but the location was a bit dissapointing as we had to walk 10/15min to get to the beach. The hotel staff were very friendly and the accomadation was reccomended on the lonely planned guide. For 700 baht per person for 2 nights (7 pounds a night!) we couldnt complain.

How long?

2 nights, we didnt have long in Koh Samui as we arrived 7pm Saturday night and left 6am Monday morning.

What did we do?

On Saturday night we arrived late so we checked in and decided to go explore the area. We ended up getting completely lost so we finally found a taxi and got taken to Ark Bar, we ate food out, the curry was amazing. Then walked back on the beach to our hotel as we were so tired after travling 36 hours to get hear. The next day we got up 11am and headed to the beach. We sunbathed for a few hours then had a walk to find a nice place for lunch. Then went for a bit of shopping, we got a beach bag and some sunhats. As we forgot to bring suncream with us we decieded to have a massage on the beach. We both got 1 hour thai massages, they were so good. Then went back to our accomadation to get ready for the night. We wanted to go see Big Buddah beach so we got a taxi there and had food and cocktails at that beach. It was a lot quiter than Chewang beach there was barely anyone there.  We couldnt go up to the temple as we fogot to cover out arms and knees so we took photos from the bottom.

Budget

200 baht for a taxi from the ferry to our accomadation

100 baht for a taxi to Ark bar as we got lost on out walk

150 baht for food, I had Thai red curry and a coke

350 baht a night for the accomadation

100 baht for dinner - chicken cocconut soup

250 baht  for my new monster sunhat

20 baht for street pineapple

300 baht return taxi to Big Buddah beach

70 baht for food - pad thai and water

450 baht for a taxi and ferry to Koh Phangan 

Speak soon,

HanHan xx