I'm cold. Very cold. For the past two weeks China has been experiencing the worst winter in fifty years. Much of the country has been covered in snow. Living in the relatively warmer climates of Southern China you would expect winter to be a mild affair. Last year it was, but this year the temperatures have dropped to around 4 degrees (daytime). Now this isn't such a low number when compared to other parts of the country, but the important factor is that the South is completely unprepared for such weather. For example, the building I live in has absolutely no insulation, the windows have gaps along the edges, the door leading to the balcony is an interior door, and there is no heating of any kind. The building itself is made of concrete and this only seems to intensify the exterior temperature. I can safely say that this is the coldest winter I've ever experienced - cold, damp, and miserable. Prague seems balmy in comparison.
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After two years in China I finally managed to do something I've been planning to do for a long time, namely visit Beijing. As Southern China is such a very long way from the North, Christmas seemed as good a time as any, and after some last-minute clicking I had a flight and hotel booked to see me through the Christmas period.
Not only is Beijing geographically distant from Guangzhou, it's also different in most other respects. The people look different, they behave different, they eat different, and they speak different. It would be easy to convince yourself you are in a different country entirely.
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It's that time of the year again in Asia when the much revered and reviled fruit, the durian, is in season. If you've never come across the durian, it is a large spiky fruit somewhat resembling a bulbous cactus.
The taste is certainly very unique, being both appealing and slightly repulsive at the same time. It does make a great filling for a dessert, especially when cooked in durian tarts or inside pancakes. Raw durian can be very strong, and is equivalent to eating garlic - it's a taste you'll find repeating on you throughout the day.
On first tasting it I thought it like the flesh of some animal in a state of putrefaction.Henri Mouhot, French naturalist
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China is an old country with a lot of history and, to an outsider looking in, with a lot of strange and alien customs.
Recently I was invited along for a foot massage at a local spa. This industry is well established in China, and they've been practicing these treatments for thousand of years. While having my feet massaged (which for just under one pound was a bargain), one of my friends suggested I try Ba Guan treatment. They described it as something where glass jars are attached to the back, removing moisture from the flesh. There are many reasons why someone would have this done, one being that it helps people with a, for want of better word, dodgy stomach. Aha! Sounds great, I thought, I have that.
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I wrote recently about catching the Muse concert in Hong Kong, and here I am on the other side of that, somewhat tired, but pleased nonetheless.
Hong Kong rocked far harder than I could have imagined, and it was good to see that alternative music is alive and well there. The Asiaworld Exposition Hall is a monstrous building just past Hong Kong Airport, and the industrial grey concrete seemed befitting.
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It was Chinese New Year a few weekends back and amongst the celebrations Guangzhou had its New Year Flower Fair. This is a local tradition going back over 500 years to the Ming Dynasty. I decided to check it out in the evening and went to one (of several) locations in the Beijing Road area of the city.
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It's funny how the world works. Only the other day I was complaining to a friend about the lack of musical events here in Guangzhou (or, at least, musical events I'd want to listen to) and that if anyone did come over and play, someone such as Muse for example, I'd buy a ticket in a heartbeat. A couple of weeks later and I'm watching TV when an advert comes on for a concert... Muse are playing in Hong Kong - just two hours away. That's close enough for my prophecy! It took more than a couple of heartbeats, but suffice to say that I'm already booked in and feeling pretty pleased.
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I spent the whole of December in Europe. Two weeks of this was in Bratislava, Slovakia, and the rest with family for Christmas in England. After a year in Asia it was great to go back home and be able to go about my business without being a cause for curiosity. It would be very trite of me to say that nothing had changed. It would also be quite untrue. A lot of things have changed, and none more so than UK airports, which can now be summed up very succinctly: a royal nuisance. Long queues and over-zealous security made every journey an extreme test of patience. Even leaving the train at the airport's train station was not simple, and security were unhappy that I'd thrown my ticket away between leaving the train and exiting the station.
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One major frustration I find living in China is that the internet is not nearly as useful as in the West. What little information is available is hard to find, hidden deep in forums, or is covered in annoying animated pictures (a predilection of Chinese web-sites, unfortunately*).
Anyway, with this in mind I've been busy helping to put together a 'Best Of' website for Guangzhou, the city in which I currently live. It's not complete yet, and there are big holes in the information, but it tries to give some real information (or at the very least, information that I would find useful).
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So far I can describe my summer in Guangzhou with one word: wet.
It may just be the tail-end of typhoon Chanchu which, after having devastated the Phillipines, messed up much of South-East China and came very close to Hong Kong. Or this may be perfectly normal.
Friends tell me that I should expect the summer to get hotter and stickier. All very therapeutic I'm sure, but now I understand exactly why there is always so much washing hung out from Chinese windows.
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