saying goodbye and travels so far.....

Well its been a while since I wrote, so here it is. At the weekend we went to Hangzhou, to spend sometime with Laura and Kate who work there! We did many things such as going shopping and we also went to a place called Westlake, which in theory is actually a death trap, I only say this because we decided it would be a good idea to ride a bike around the lake, I didn’t realise this would entail going actually onto the main road, baring in mind the traffic here is horrible and people just do what they want, also no helmet or protection in any way haha! It was so much fun, but terrifying at the same time!!! We also got onto a boat for a little ride, it was fun but again we just spent the first 10 minutes screaming because it was so rocky and then the guy rowing the boat felt the need to actually make it worse!!! People here also tend to see white people as money and will try to make as much money as possible out of you, so although the boat had a sign saying 80rmb, one of them tried to charge us 240rmb, which is about £24!! I no these people have little, but when you come to a country like this you have to realise you cant be taken in by the money factor. These people have little money, the prices of things over here are so cheap that really they don’t need that much, and although sometimes you feel really guilty, you have to haggle and not pay over the odds for silly things. When we arrived back in Ningbo on Saturday it was beccas birthday!!! We went out to the local bar where on of our new friends organise a cake and drinks for us all!! It was so good! After this we met some more English people who took us to a club! Well what you can sort of call a club. Here they play a game, I’m not sure what it is called but basically, you each have around 5 dice under a cup, then you shake them and look at which number you have under your cup, and how many of the same number you have, say if you have two number 3s under your cup, then you bet on how many of the 3s are under everyone’s cups, and if no one bets above you, you will win. If you say something they cant bet over and its wrong then you have shot drinks, which was an interesting game. Its also an easy way to get drunk for free as we found out, as you literally go around to any table who is playing the game and join! (Then just keep losing) I think we should have this game in England. We finally arrived home at 6am in the morning! Not good! Anyway the day after was spent getting ready for our evaluation! It was ok, we just mostly wrote things up and that’s it! Plus we were all hangover so it was an interesting day trying to get the work done! On Monday it was the big evaluation! It went well I think although we did have problems with the power points, think this was due to the fact the software on macs is better then PCs, so some of the pictures didn’t show up and also a lot of the time it took a good 10 mins to get them to work at all I think maybe jasmine wasn’t best impressed but there wasn’t much we could really do to prevent it! All in all it went well and at around half 4 we went back to rooms to pack!! In the morning it was an early one as we still had packing to do and also was off out for dinner with our supervisors! It was good and nice to say goodbye, but then it was off home again to finish the packing!!! When we eventually did, it was half 4 and we were getting picked up to go to the airport!! It was a 2-hour drive to the airport hotel and when we arrive it was time to say goodbye to tong tong! This was awful!!!! So upsetting!!! We were all in tears and she was worse then us!! We miss her loads!!!! In the morning we were up early for our flight, which set off at 7.40! Finally we arrive in Xi’an! It was around 12, when we got to the hotel and freshened up! So once we had done this we went to the Xi’an wall and rented a bike! This was good at first, actually fun, until I realised it was 8 MILES LONG!!! 2 hours later and very tiered I was ready for home, not to mention getting a little red as the temps out here are like 30 degrees! After we took a walk to the Muslim markets and saw the drum and bell towers! It was good as well as practising out haggling skills! Thee hostel really nice too!! They are really friendly and we are enjoying being here!! Today we went to the terracotta army! It was amazing!!! I would upload photos but the Internet isn’t good here so I don’t think it will work well!! But when I get home ill defo be uploading them all!! Only less then 2 weeks and I’m back in England it’s been a mad 6 weeks so far! Anyway tomorrow ill be going to Beijing I hope to post again but it depends on the Internet connection!! Anyway if not ill see you all when I’m back home!!! Toddle pip!!

the big fashion show and a sad goodbye....

Yesterday was amazing! I spent my last day at the company and what better way to send us off then the opening fashion show where all the businessmen from around china come to see how the company is working! It was amazing, I was so impressed and not just with the models, just all the work all the staff put into it and the way the actual building had transformed from a shell into this beautiful setting. They even had a red carpet. Their was also an American model there, have to say he was pretty handsome! (Maybe its because iv not seen someone like me in a while or maybe it just was because he was a beautiful man not decided yet) he was also very nice, me him and Caroline sat and chatted about things, turns out he and actor too so it gets even better!!! I watched the rehearsal and went backstage to see what was happening, it was very hectic and busy, similar to graduate in that sense. At 7.30 the actual fashion show started!!! It was so good! I filmed some of it, but there was another man with a camera I was ready for kicking by the end of it as he stood directly in front of me no matter where I was! Becca also came to watch, at the end we had to say goodbye to everyone! I was actually so sad to leave!!! I have to admit, I don’t think I would want to come back to china again if it wasn’t for that company, hopefully in the future ill spend some time back their! It has by far been the best part of the whole experience. The company was 100 times better then I expected, iv met some lovely people who im actually going to really miss and hope to meet again one day, and iv enjoyed the work. I also think this has reinforced the fact that I do want to be a designer and made me more confident of the fact I will enjoy my job when I graduate.

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shaoxing.....

Ok, so after a very tiring trip to shanghai then working again on Wednesday I had Thursday all to my self! It was amazing, well not amazing because all I really did was talk to jasmine our supervisor and do my washing haha! Still I got a lie in! At about tea time when Becca arrived back from work we went up to the third floor in the college canteen, its not the nicest of places, but we have found a few bits we like so it was the usual beef with peppers and rice, actually its all iv really been eating I think. After this it was another early night because I had to work on Friday at the company due to an unexpected trip to Shaoxing on Saturday with the collage anyway back to Friday now. Well I was at the company! It was good its interesting to see all head office building for the company coming together, when we first arrived, all the wall where white, their were little staff and it didn’t seem that big, but now the place is always busy and there must be a few hundred people in and out of the place everyday! It’s really interesting to see how they work, but thing have been difficult, simply just because of the language barrier! We were designing trousers again, which is ok, but without having any research or anything to get inspiration from it becomes difficult. I now understand why at university we do things the way we do, its impossible to come up with any innovative ideas without any source of research. It’s a good company though and the owner knows how to make a success of a business with him owning 11 other companies so I can see Intrex being a success in the future. When we arrive back home after work, we went again up to the 3rd floor for some food, this time we were very please to see we have found sweet and sour chicken! Amazing!!!! Finally we could get off to sleep, ready for a long day and our trip to Shaoxing! Saturday was another early start, we were up at half 7 to get ready in time to meet our supervisor and go to Shaoxing! The trip was around 2 hours with 3 of us packed into one car and the other two in the other. After we arrived we went to our rooms that were free! Think it was a sort of treat for us due to the work we have done while we were here. They were really nice as well!! Then after unpacking and getting things sorted we headed to the fabric market, which was amazing to see! It had such as variety of different fabrics, some good and some not so good. I bought some nice fabric, which would have cost loads back in England. After this we took a taxi ride to the old town, the min we arrived we took a boat along the river, turns out I’m a little scared of water, we got in and as soon at we set off Kate decided it would be a good idea to get a picture in which she attempted to move to the middle of the boat, well my face said it all! I looked like id just seen a ghost! The boat nearly tipped over, and this water wasn’t blue and sea like, it was a dirty green colour, haha! Was funny really but at the time I panicked like mad, to the point of shaking! We attracted a crowd as well when we were getting on the boats so when this happened all we had was a women shouting be careful, over and over again. I think Kate and Caroline thought my face was funnier then the fact we nearly ended up in the river! The ride on the riverboat was beautiful! Got some good pictures and videos! After been dropped off under some not so nice pigs trotters, we had a walk around the old china town, the people were lovely and the there was some funny smells around the place, it was good to see and experience. After, we made our way back to the hotel where a little later we met out supervisor and the rest of the teachers for tea. It was nice, I think sort of our final meal together before we leave. To finish off the night all of us including tong tong decided a few drinks in a local bar would be in order. When we arrived at this so called bar, all we saw was a massive poster with a woman dress provocatively with the initials S&M….. This made us question weather it would be a good idea, but we went in to see what it was like. It actually wasn’t that bad… it wasn’t a strip club like we originally thought it was just a S&M themed night, there were still some questionable acts, but the atmosphere was good, and we all got up dancing, even tong tong! Have to admit though I was somewhat happy to get into bed! This trip has taken its toll on me and I think some of the other too! The day after we the college’s graduate fashions show! We were sort of excited but a little apprehensive too as we had seen some of the work before. It was good to see how they do their graduate shows in china and I must say it’s a lot different compared to England! The stage was ok, but it had sequins down the side of it, so actually maybe not, they stuck a sticker on the back wall which fell over just as the show started, all the projected backgrounds where on a PowerPoint presentation so you could openly see when they had problem or if they made a mistake, it was fairly unprofessional, but the actual teachers and audience seem impressed and happy so I suppose that’s all that matters. The actual work I have to admit wasn’t good quality, the sewing was dodgy and the models were wearing bright colourful underwear, instead of something nude colour or something that relates to the garment, they did look thrown together I’m afraid. Still the actual college was happy with it so I suppose that’s all that matters! We arrive back in Ningbo about 6pm, and again me, Caroline, Becca and Kate decided the 3rd floor for dinner would be a good idea! Again ordering our usual! After it was an early night for all of us, Caroline and me were up early in the morning again for work!

Monday was again the usual, at the company this time designing t-shirts, the place was looking even more finished then before, and as its our last week there we are glad we will see it finished for the big fashion show on Wednesday. Anyway seem, as Monday was the same as usual ill move onto today. Well we had been told to just finish our work that was left to do then move onto a few new things, which were; 1. Finish all designs with fabric samples 2. Advise for brands and company 3. Take some photos of all of us and while we are working also all the team 4. Find some samples and pictures when we go back to England 5. 100 pictures of things we think could be useful to the brand. So we began by finishing all the work we had left to do then moved onto the 100 pictures, doing 50 today and 50 tomorrow. We were also told to dress up for photos, but as this morning the whole of Ningbo was nearly knee deep in water so that didn’t really happen! They still took the photos though which made me cringe so instead tomorrow at the big event we are going to get some really nice photos!!! I’m really excited, the place started off with no furniture, no paintings on the wall and nothing really inside it. But as the weeks have past its changed so much, and as tomorrow is out last day, I’m glad we will get to see the finished building and see the fashion show, plus we picked some of the models so it should be good! We have also been invited back to the company in the future if we wanted to! After work we came home and again headed up to the 3rd floor this time for a chicken burger, it was good but I’m miss home food now! Can’t wait to have a roast dinner when I’m back!

a few more shanghai photos!

ok so this is shanghai....

Be ready for a good hour of reading i'm pretty sure this could be a book... Well on Saturday I spend the day getting ready for shanghai!! :)! I was too excited! Couldn’t wait to just get going! We got on the coach at 7.20; it was a 3-hour drive to Shanghai. When we arrived at the hotel, we were all surprised that it was really nice and clean, for £10 a night! Anyway we were all pleased and just getting ready to go and explore the Bund for the first night, when all we could hear was shouting, in the corridor a couple were having a domestic, well so we thought. Next time we looked out of our bedroom door the man had emptied his wife’s bag all over the floor and was shouting at her still. This was sort of when we realised this argument wasn’t going to get much better, as they shut the door, it was horrible, all we could hear was screaming, thuds and shouting. We also heard glass smash, which we couldn’t work out weather it was the lamps or maybe a mug, but it was just horrific, we called the security guard who was nothing better then a scrawny old Chinese man who stood outside the door and basically listened. It was horrible to hear, her so-called husband was literally beating up this woman and we could do nothing but listen. The laws are so different over here, if we had interfered there was nothing stopping him starting on one of us, which wouldn’t have been a good start to our mini holiday. The laws over here basically state that if you marry someone you give up any rights you have, hence us not calling the police, as if this couple were married which I take it they were, then they wouldn’t have done anything! This girl could have been killed and this isn’t an exaggeration, the screams where awful, you could hear them all the way down the corridor but no one else even flinched! Out here what happens to you if very much your own business and you do not involve others. This is a big problem I think in china; it causes so many problems because no one will speak up about anything! They could walk past someone being murdered and they wouldn’t even admit to seeing anything. I can see why they do it, but it literally will just take one person to start having their own mind and people will follow. Tong Tong said that domestic violence happens all too often in china and because of the sort of unwritten marriage rule, nothing is ever done. It was also surprising how this women didn’t even try to get out of the room, maybe he was against the door or something, but there women especially out here don’t seem to have minds of their own. They are brought up to not question men and their authority, even if it does mean them getting hurt. I makes you realise how lucky you actually are to be English and live in a fair society! This sort of put a dampener on our night, but we still wanted to go and see the bund at night! Unfortunately it wasn’t lit up as it was too late but it was still good to see!

We also went to a salsa bar, well this was accidental, we all needed something alcoholic after that and this was the place we sort of stumbled upon! Was very amusing to see all these Chinese couples salsa dancing; some of them were actually good too! Although maybe they needed to tone down the body rubbing and inappropriate touching but if they did that, I’m sure they would be good salsa dancers… (Maybe) eventually after a long day and evening we went back to the hotel and tiptoed to our room as not to wake up the big scary man from across the hall way. I was glad to be back but it was still a little off putting to know what had happened there earlier! Lucky on Sunday morning they were leaving! We didn’t see either the man or women, which im glad about as I think I would have wanted to hit him around the head with something such as a fire extinguisher, plus I wouldn’t have wanted to see the state of the poor woman after all that. Think that I may have been in tear had I seen her. Anyway onto something a little more pleasant after such a bad start, shopping! We had heard about a couple of good markets to visit for some good china fakes, yes fakes. And they are more a less exactly the same as the real ones! Amaze! These markets are so good you can find some good deals and for very good prices, think we became experts at haggling on Sunday, the store holders seems to start off at really high prices like £150, for a fake! But as long as you start very low your guaranteed to get the price you want, if they don’t seem to be budging on the price you simply move onto the next stall, where either the guy from the other stall will follow you and keep bringing the price down, or you will find the same thing on another stall and find someone how will let you have It for the price you want! Its actually fun! After finding a few bargain in the market on Nanjing road number 580, We went onto another market after meeting Jeremy who has become good friends with Laura over the past few weeks, this market was called pearl markets, which as you can guess by the name, had a whole floor dedicated to pearls and jewellery. It was ok but not as interesting as the first market on Nanjing road. Was also went to look around people square which is centred in the middle of shanghai city centre, with all the main shopping department stores around it! So as Sunday was shopping this is what we did! After the markets we moved onto the store, it was good, but my feet felt like they were the size of bricks and when it got to 11 hours of shopping, we decided it was about time to go and get ready for a late tea! In which Jeremy took us to a Japanese restaurant. Have to say if that was like typical Japanese food, I prefer that to Chinese! Really enjoyed it in fact! I tried seafood for the first time too, think this was because id have a little too much rice wine, it wasn’t even seafood someone would usually try either for the first time, it was oyster, turns out it was ok, still wouldn’t chose to eat fish or seafood if I had an option, but it was ok, I could eat more if I had to. Then after a long day and my feet ready to drop off I was ready for bed! And it was actually a nice soft bed!! Never slept so well in my life! That one thing I really miss from home! My comfy bed and cosy pillows…. On Monday, we visited a few places, firstly along the way to a street Tong Tong wanted us to see, we came across a park in the middle of the city, in the park was numerous people doing dancing and tie-chi, it was so interesting to see, Caroline even joined it, we filmed it so you will all see it at one point but I cant upload videos onto here so you will have to wait till I’m back in England I think to upload it onto Facebook. It was so funny, Caroline Irish dancing and this man doing some other sort of dancing then someone else tried to join in too!!! To get to the writers street, which is a place dedicated to famous Chinese writers, we had to walk down a street that basically was a typical Chinese slum. The houses where tiny, mostly as far as we could tell didn’t have electric, and maybe just 2 or 3 small rooms. It was amazing to see, and to watch what they do in day-to-day life, it was also upsetting and makes you realise how lucky you really are. When we arrived at the street, it was literally just meters off the slum yet it was such a difference, the building where beautiful and cultural, there was motifs on the walls and carvings of the famous writers and statues. Further down there was some shops sell so called jade and other precious stones (bare in mind china is the number one country for producing fakes) we also stumbled upon a little shop where a man was patiently sat outside painting, although this was painting the inside of glass perfume bottles, it was amazing to just watch him, he had a paint brush, but the bristles where glue together into a sort of point 90 degrees to handle, he’s get some paint put the paint brush into the bottle and start working, the amount of time these must take is unreal! I had to have one they were far too pretty to not!! After this we took the tube, which was an interesting experience, to People Square where we went into the urban planning museum. Here was all scale models of things to see in shanghai, it was amazing and on the 4th floor was the main model of the full city! It even had things in it that were still in production, such as the soon to be tallest building. It was really interesting. After this we decided it was time to move onto a temple, which I have to admit was one of the main things I was looking forward to seeing! It was called Jing An temple, it was beautiful! The minute we walked through the gates, there was gold and silver everywhere!! They had a ritual, in which you buy some incense sticks, set them on fire, then place them on like a big well sort of thing is the only way I can explain it! It was interesting to see and do, and see all the local Chinese people worshiping the Buddha in the temple; there was also a huge solid silver Buddha!! After the temple we split into 2 groups, Laura and Becca went back to the hotel to get change, and me, Kate, Caroline and Tong Tong, all got onto the tube to the bottle opener! It was sort of a treat for Tong Tong to say thank you for her help so far throughout this experience! The bottle opener (World Financial Centre) is basically a skyscraper, but as of yet the biggest in shanghai, you know its high when you go up in the lift and your ears pop due to the pressure change! The bar is on the 91st floor, actually part of the Park Hyatt hotel, which was Beautiful. The bar was nice, but the staff where pretty much rude to say it was a top hotel. Also the bar had a minimum spend which was £12! This is classed as very expensive in china! I had a coffee then a cocktail, it would have been a better experience if it weren’t for the smog that covered all of shanghai basically. Now and again you could see the lights on the buildings but not often, it was still an experience just a shame the view wasn’t clearer! After this we went for dinner at hooters! Which surprisingly was the same as in any other part of the world, all the girls had next to no clothes on! (Very surprising considering china finds these things a little controversial) The food was good though, and I think we were all very grateful to sit down after such a hard day of walking around! Finally it was bedtime, as I had to be out of the door for half past 7!

(ok so ill upload the rest tomorrow way past my bed night night night) Tuesday arrive and it was our last day!!!! Time here goes far too fast! All the days seem to roll into one. After out very early start we took a taxi to the oriental pearl tower, which is I think the second highest building in shanghai after the WFC, in hope to see more of the city from the sky then what we did the day before, when we arrived we treated ourselves to a subway! Which was amazing! Iv missed it far too much. Then we went up the tower, firstly we went to the highest sphere, we couldn’t see much, maybe about the same as in the bottle opener, we also visited the space pod right at the top of the tower but again we saw little, then we moved down to another sphere (I cant actually remember how high this was off the ground, it had a 9 in the number anyway haha, I think something like 900 meters…. Maybe) at this point all the way around the viewing area was a glass floor, now before I went up I wondered if this would be a good idea, but I loved it, the one who got scared was Becca! Iv never had someone grabbing onto my arm in fear before. I got some good pictures but they don’t do the view justice I’m afraid! As it was a Perspex floor I think on the photos it reflected the above lights too much, so they are not as clear as it was in real life! I loved it! Such a good view! One the floor above this there was a small roller coaster don’t ask why, people here are very random at times! Anyway we thought why not, I soon regretted this as I was say next to Becca, it turns out she get scared before going on roller-coaster, so the minute we set off all I could feel was her gripping my hand, as well as screaming down my ear, funniest thing was after the 30 second coaster Becca was in tears with laughter, actually had tears running down her face, it took us about 10 minutes to get her off it then! After taking lots more pictures and visiting the museum about shanghai that was situated on the ground of the oriental pearl, me Becca and Laura went to meet Kate Caroline and Tong Tong near Yu Gardens! It Turns out this is a main tourist attraction, as the second you stepped out of the taxi you could barely move! Never mind traffic, the amount of people in that area was ridicules! We decided maybe lunch would be a good idea, so we stopped at Mc Donald’s. After we looked in some shops and eventually reached Yu Gardens after fighting our way to the bridge near the entrance, we arrived with all intentions of going in, this soon changed when we saw the amount of people queuing. The bridge was literally covers, you couldn’t really see the entrance and the thought of having to actually get to it with all the people just made us change our mind within seconds I think, its also the fact that when people are so close together, the chances of being pick pocketed at a lot higher too, so personally this was another reason I didn’t want to attempt to get in! It happens a lot here or so we are told, so I was extra careful with my bag in these crowds! After this we got a taxi to another street, were there was good architecture and some very cute cafes and shops! The buildings were beautiful! We also managed to have a rest in Starbucks, coffee managed to wake us all up a little. After walking so much half of us decided maybe going home earlier was a better idea, plus we would have to be up at 6.30 am the next day, so me Caroline Kate and Tong Tong went to the coach station in hope we could swap out tickets! We did, and finally arrived home by 9pm! I was so tiered it was more a less straight to bed! Back to work ☹! Ok so its not that bad but still would rather have been travelling around! Anyway yesterday was the same as any other day at work, we finished out designs then went home. The company building its self seems to be coming together, I will take some pictures before I leave, it’s even got its own Intrex wallpaper! The boss is quite strict though, he doesn’t like us having any time off, even if its for something jasmine has organised, it maybe because he doesn’t speak much English but he seems moody too at times! Anyway, once I got home at actually a decent time for once too! We went for dinner in the college canteen this place is questionable, we tend to stick to our usual which is either beef with peppers and rice, or a chicken burger, we dare not try anything else, plus they never have a clue what you are saying so if you order something else you could end up with something totally different to what you meant! Last night we had beef, peppers and rice, we also made a new friend too! A little girl who’s parents run the restaurant we eat in. she decided to follow us around while we looked at the other shops, she even chased Becca down the corridor. One thing that surprised me too was how well she could cope what we said! She couldn’t answer a question but she could repeat what we said very well! (Think she must have been about 4 or 5 years old) she was so cute! We did consider taking her home but don’t think we would have got away with it haha! After I spent the rest of my night writing this! It’s taken 2 days to finish! Far too much has happened since Saturday haha! Today has been amazing! We didn’t have work! So we got a lie in! iv spent today basically doing my blog, speaking to Jasmine about the weekend as we are off to another city to look at fabric markets this weekend, and washing clothes, for me and Kate as she’s in another city 3 days a week! Been productive really but nothing amazing has happened! We are currently just waiting for Becca to get back from work then we will set off to the canteen for dinner again, think it maybe a burger tonight! (How I have a healthy diet out here… not!) I’m working tomorrow now instead of Saturday, so another early night for me!