A week in review

It's been almost a week since I left Sweden and it's finally time to write a little about what's been happening so far.

First of all, it seems as if I can't access my own blog. Blogger's mainpage loads fine but the blogspot subdomain doesn't work. This means I can't read any comments. Please leave them anyway, this might be a temporary problem. :)

The plane from Copenhagen was two hours late, meaning that I first landed at Pudong Airport, Shanghai slightly past noon. Walking outside, the heat was stifling - like walking into a (slightly more humid, slightly colder) sauna fully dressed. Airport observation: the toilets don't provide toilet paper, something which apparently applies to most public restrooms.

Travelling north towards Nantong by car, we eventually left Shanghai and entered an area ripe with industrial plants on the way to the south banks of the Yangtze river. This is where the first real culture shock occured. While we were waiting to drive onto one of the ferries people in straw hats appeared, offering to sell corn as snacks - as well as live turtles. I never figured out if they were intended to be eaten alive, cooked on the engine block or used as pets...

Entering Nantong, where I've been located ever since, I was positively surprised by several things - the living standard, the cleanliness, the sheer ambition of the goverment in developing ultra modern cities along China's coastline. This is a small town, only 700 000 inhabitants, making me anxious to see what they've accomplished with Shanghai. (Hmm, wonder if pro-China comments will allow me to access my own blog? :) )

There are lots of things to do without having to travel to Shanghai. Eating certainly takes first place however. The first dinner was quite exciting: 20+ dishes, 20+ dinner guests and countless toasts. This pattern has since then been the norm for most meals here, including breakfast.

I've tried to eat everything they've offered me and most of the dishes have been delicious. Take these crayfish for example:



An explanation regarding the colour of my shirt follows in a few paragraphs. First a few more words about the food. Before coming to China I heard expressions about Guangdong people's eating habits, such as "everything with legs except the chair, everything that flies except airplanes". Jiangsu people (Jiangsu being the province I'm currently in) apparently eat everything from the sea except possibly oil rigs. I had to draw the line at some kind of snails though, trying them once was more than enough.

Inbetween meals there's usually some time for sightseeing. This is nearby a quite nice park. The picture was taken mere moments before my sweating became so intense that wet spots appeared all over my pants.



The weather can be quite devastating but the last couple of days have been quite OK. Here's me acting all faux Sinois in a shirt that was given to me before a visit to a Buddhist temple atop the nearby Wolf Mountain.





People are very hospitable. I'm beginning to worry that I won't have enough room in my suitcases for all the gifts, despite them being half empty on the way here. Hence the pink shirt by the way, not a colour that would be among my first choices back home. Here it doesn't really matter, I could probably show up dressed as someone in Village People without causing more commotion than I already do on account of being a westerner (of which I've only seen two others since leaving Shanghai airport).

So far the overall impression is definitely positve. The schedule for the upcoming week includes visits to the southern towns Suzhou and Hangzhou, said to be among the most beautiful in China. More pictures (and quite certainly a lot of text, including some minor nuances I didn't deem necessary to mention right away) will definitely follow!