A week in the country

I've just arrived back from Hunan and I'm in the cybercafe passing the time until midday when I can check in to my hotel and have a shower! I've got lots of photos but the cyber cafe I'm in doesn't have the right slot for me to fit my digital camera into! So, photos will come later (so keep checking this post!)

Last monday I got on the overnight sleeper from Shanghai to Changsha in Hunan province. The overnight trains are about 18 carriages long and are seperated into seating carriages and sleepers. I took the sleeper, there are about 60 beds per carriage, split into 6 per compartment. There were two girls from Shanghai in my compartment so we chatted until lights out (10pm!).

I arrived in Changsha the next morning and was met by a student from Zhong Nan Da Xue (Central South University, apparently one of the best in China, possibly the best outside of Shanghai and Beijing) called Xie Wei, and taken to the university. I met the professor who had organised everything for me (it turns out he is very famous, one of the 12 school teachers who's photo hangs in the library). He is the president of the 'Hunan Science and Technoilogy Association' which helped with the organisation and invited us to lunch with them which was at a very nice restaurent with our own room and attendents. The food was very tasty, and I ate lots - in fact, I was the last one eating at the end, although not least because Chinese people eat VERY fast. They also don't hang around after a meal, as soon as I finished, we left and headed to the farm that I and Xie Wei would be staying at, near Yiyang city about 45 minutes drive north of Changsha.

Our farm was about 6km outside of Yiyang, in a very nice little area with lots of rice, fruit trees and fishing ponds. There was a restaurent nearby that a lot of the local aspiring middle classes from the city escaped to at the weekend - we saw a lot of them wondering around (and met a few - see later!). We stayed in a small building that had two bedrooms, each "ensuite" Chinese style (if you don't know you can wait for the photos!). I thought it was great.

We called the farmer Uncle Tang (here uncle and aunt are used as familiar terms for respected older people. Often people will call their cousins or even their good friends brother and sister, which can be confusing at times). He seemed to be an admirer of the great helmsman, whose picture hung in many places throughout the building. He was also a dab hand at Chinese chess: Xie Wei and I played him many times, he only lost once (to me!!). (Chinese chess is a little different to international chess in the number of pieces, the way a few of them move, and the board is a slightly different shape, but a lot of the concepts are transferable. I got tought to play on my last day at Shanghai by one of the other students)

The next day we went for a walk around the surrounding area. Although there are lots of people, because it's not harvest season there is a massive surplus of labour so a lot of people get on the train and go to Guangzhou for a few months to work as labourers. Nevertheless, there were still lots of people about, mostly building things. There is also a power station being built in the background - one of the many new coal fired ones that China is having installed at such a rapid rate.

After our second night, we decided to go to Yiyang and explore the city. We took the bus (just like Shanghai it was 2RMB, or 12p UK) which was very quick and afforded good views of the surroundings. When we got there, Xie Wei suggested we find a cybercafe, which sounded ok to me to check emails etc. It was very funny at first, many people seem to camp in them (they are very cheap) all night and play video games. I needed about 20 minutes to check my emails and things and I was ready to go. Unfortunatly, that was when I discovered Xie Wei's passion for the internet. He trades stocks online. He told me and I think expected me to be impressed. Alas! I tried to explain to him that I'd worked for a bank and seen how much voodoo it all is but to no avail. Two and a half hours later I finally managed to drag him away!

Anyway, after that we had a good walk around Yiyang and had lunch at a middle of the road local restaurent. (I can't remember if I've said before or not, but eating at restaurents is much more common here than in the UK, and doesn't have the luxury associations. It's easy to find a relativly good meal for just a few RMB). We wondered around some streets and examined a local park or two. I've found it hard to find much about the city's history on the internet but from the look of a lot of the city I would say it was probably built up in the '50s during the 'russian' phase here, a lot of very drab tenements in the soviet style!

After a wonder, Xie was eager to get back to the internet bar so I went off for a wander by myself and found another buddhist temple here. I didn't go in: it was quite pricy at 40RMB and to be honest I've seen quite enough of them now!

This has reminded me that I in fact also went to see one in Shanghai that is quite famous before catching my train on monday, it's so difficult to put it all together in my head without the photos! I'll add that bit to this post later. However, midday has now arrived so I'm going to check in and have my first shower in a week that isn't pouring a pot of warm water over myself! You'll have to wait until later to hear the rest and see all the pictures.