Jimi and Mazzy Adventures

Up at 5am today and checked out of our hotel. Into a taxi and off to the train station where we somehow managed to navigate our way through complete Chinese maze and bought tickets for our train to Shenzhen. As we are in the Southern area of China during the start of Summer it is very hot and incredibly humid – and the underground train stations are like saunas!

Tired, hot, sweaty at 6am on Tuesday morning!

We had a relaxing train ride for almost 2 hours. Some sights out the train window – sorry they’re blurry!

We arrived at Shenzhen Louhu station to a warm welcome from the staff of Hyledar International Kindy.

Shenzhen Airport view from the plane.

And off we flew to the northern Shandong Province and the city of Jinan.

Helloooooo Jinan

Today we had a gentle start with breakfast at the hotel. And then we jumped into the car that had kindly been sent for us by Toppan Leefung Printing. This was a fantastic way to see a lot more of Guangzhao as we sped along (and sometimes sat without moving) through the city and out to the countryside and through various towns. It was hard to get good photos from a moving vehicle!

A quiet moment on the road!

Just a few bikes here and there!

Crossing one of the many rivers in this region/province.

The driver was excellent and remained totally calm and unfazed by trucks, cars and all kinds of motorized bikes just suddenly changing lanes or cutting in. Let’s just say that horns are a big deal over here! We’ve heard more horns rooting in one day than I’ve heard in a year in Adelaide!

This is Nicole with Liya our contact that I have been emailing in China for almost 5 years and now I’ve finally got to meet her! (I will put up a pic of me as soon as I get them off Nic’s phone!) We had a beautiful traditional Cantonese dim sum lunch – yummy!

A business meeting and a tour of the factory took us a few hours.

Than back in the car with our patient driver for the one hour drive back to our hotel…
So here’s a few snaps – again from a moving car. Lots of construction going on amidst banana palms and tropical gardens.

Aaaaand back to the big city…

Toll or some kind of checkpoint…

Yep that’s an ancient cart in the middle of the city loaded with scrap metal. Lots of these everywhere!

After a quick rest we went out for tea and grabbed a few supplies from a corner shop/mini supermarket. Some pretty funny products had us either mystified or laughing!

Bread without crusts…

Dried ‘stuff’

Drinking yoghurt

And more yoghurt…

Last pic is of the skyscrapers lit up in the pouring rain. We got totally drenched!!! On arriving back dripping wet in the hotel foyer the staff rushed to us with tissues and towels to help us dry off.

So that’s Day 1 – all great!

Cheers
Bindi

Well after a good flight (9 hours) which went very smoothly we landed in Guangzhao. Flight had a few funny moments – for e.g. being told one of the meals was chicken it wasn’t, it was fish! It was fine though. Nic ordered a tea with milk and got green tea with milk… hmmmm. Airport was busy not unbearable. And our Visa’s worked! An hour and a half after landing we were out and searching for a cab.

The taxi ride was the funniest ride I’ve ever had. The driver had no English at all. Luckily Nic had prepared notes with the address of our hotel written in Chinese. He put my suitcase in the front passenger seat however the door of the car was broken and wouldn’t close! So he tied it shut with the seatbelt and some packing plastic straps!!! So off we went and at the first corner the door swung wildly open threatening for my suitcase to go flying out the car! Luckily he pulled over and tied it all in a bit tighter. And we were off again – with Nic and I sitting in the back which had no seatbelts, with my suitcase tied into the front, while he drove along typing frantically into his mobile phone and had another hand holding onto my suitcase incase it fell out the door around corners. Nic and I were laughing so hard we had tears down our faces!

But now for pictures! It’s a bit hard as these were from arriving at night.

Besides the crazy taxi ride Guangzhao is an amazing city which in many ways reminds me of Sydney or Singapore. The outskirts looked a little poorer but the inner city has very modern buildings surrounded by lush mountains and a large river through the city. The streets are immaculately clean and beautifully kept with trees and flowers. Cyclists ride everywhere ringing their bells and wearing no helmets – but riding right alongside the cars that seem to make up their own rules at times. The weather is very warm and humid – temp was 30 degrees on arrival and didn’t drop much. It’s super humid and very cloudy.

Overall we have had a great start and feel very welcome. The people are lovely and very eager to help.

The hotel is sensational and quite posh! Thank you SA government delegation for staying at the best place in town!

After checking into our hotel we went for a walk to find food and have a look around. We nearly ordered live sea snails/shrimp for tea but luckily Nic checked and averted disaster!

However we were both getting really tired and after a walk and a quick meal we headed back to our hotel.

And a few more…
View from my hotel room, on the 26th floor! Looking towards the river.

This one is for you Leigh… a craft beer bar called “Beer Hardcore”!

Stay tuned for more adventures. On Monday we visit our Printer Toppan Leefung for a tour of the factory and to discuss our printing.

Bye for now
Belinda

I’ve arrived!!! View from the hotel…

View from the hotel!

Boo!

Sent from my Sony Xperia™ smartphone

Jimi polished off his first ever curry.
Well done son. Before you know it, you’ll be sinking a few ales too.