Rain!

Deep down I knew that winter (mid-February) in China would hold different weather conditions in store than winter in South-East Asia. After all I was prepared for cold weather having carried what seemed like a hell of a lot of kilograms of warm clothes all around Thailand and Laos, but I was expecting proper winter: sub-freezing temperatures and snow.

Unfortunately I was welcomed into China with technically above freezing temperatures but with relentless icy cold rain that would dampen the spirits of even the most avid sightseer. I arrived at midnight and it was cold and raining and then it was also raining the next day and the day after and the day after and the day after...

I´m led to believe that Hangzhou is a very picturesque place featuring a giant lake in the middle of the city and numerous parks and gardens from which to view the lake and its thousands of years of history. It's hard to say really if I agree. There is definitely a body of water there, but whether or not there is any of that other stuff remains to be seen - at least by me. It was so rainy and cloudy that I could barely tell where the sky ended and the horizon or the lake began.


It wasn't just the rain mind you, it was the cold and the damp or probably the triple combination that really caught me off guard and had me shivering to the bone. In fact, much to my disappointment the weather was probably the most surprising part about China.

I was expecting and hoping for some serious culture shock but, other than the insurmountable language barrier, I found Chinese cities to be pretty much the same as any other cities. This was disappointing from the perspective of an adventurous traveller, but from the point of view of a freezing cold, soaking wet tourist I didn't mind so much and when I saw the familiar green and white letters,


I knew where I would be spending the rest of the afternoon warming up:

It wasn't just Starbucks that lent an air of familiarity to China (though given the conditions it was the most welcome). Western culture hasn't been merely embraced by the Chinese so much as swallowed whole without even a hint of chewing. Consumer culture is everywhere.


From KFC which is seemingly on every street corner the way Starbucks is in London, to high end shopping malls that I can't afford to shop in and feel out of place peering in the windows and to well, ya, the real deal:

And it wasn't just because Hangzhou is 2 hours or so from the financial centre of Shanghai. All the cities* were like this and I really wasn't expecting it. I was expecting, and hoping for, an experience a little less familiar.

One thing that wasn't familiar was the city called Huang Shan City.** I did know it was near Huang Shan (which means yellow mountain, also sometimes called the misty mountains - see future blog about my trip there) but otherwise it literally wasn't on my map.

I found it quite weird that a city of over a million people would not be noteworthy enough to include on the map. (One other thing I found out is that just when you think you understand how to pronounce a seemingly straightforward place name like Huang Shan - think again because you are waaaaayyyy off.) I guess when your country has over a billion popuation then a million here or there isn't really a big deal. Quite a bit different from where I grew up though where going into "town" of 30,000 was pretty important.

One thing about Huang Shan City that I found noteworthy, other than it's proximity to one of China's most famous mountains, was that it had a district called Old St.***

As you can see it's nothing like the Old St. in London but the sign is a lot more interesting. although the surrounding area wasn't nearly as much fun. It was raining though.


Speaking of places that it was raining it was also raining in Nanjing where a 16 year old kid acted as my guide after I got turned around exiting the metro and started off in the wrong direction for my hotel. The next day, instead of going out to the Ming Dynasty mountain monument after a visiting the drum and bell tower, I became fed up with sightseeing in the rain and so instead went to the movies.


Transporter 3 was the only one in Engish with Chinese subtitles. I would have preferred watching a local Chinese movie with english subtitles but there's not really much of a market for it. It was ok. Warm and dry in the theatre. The movie itself was pretty much the same as another Jason Statham movie that I had previously seen which may or may not have been Transporter 2.

I did get enough of a respite from the rain in order to take a few decent night photos though.


Even though the rain had dampened my spirits a bit I was sure that it would eventually stop raining. The last time I checked, Xi'an and Beijing were on the fringes of the Gobi Desert so there couldn't be much rain there could there? Could there?

Photos 1) Chinese character for rain. Not so much a photo as a graphic but whatever. 2-3) Dave in the rain in Hangzhou 4) West Lake. Hangzhou's "picturesque" lake 5-6)mmmmm Starbucks 7-8) High-end shopping 9) The gates to Old St. in Tunxi in the rain10) Nanjing's Bell tower in the rain 11) It seems not many people go to the movies on Sunday afternoons. Or at least not this one 12) Nanjing at night. Note not raining in this photo!

*The cities I went to anyway, Hangzhou, Tunxi, Nanjing, Xi'an and Beijing.

**Also known as Tunxi - although it took a while for me to figure out the two name system, especially when the names are in Chinese characters!

**Depending on the translation it is also sometimes referred to as Ancient St. but Old St. feels a bit like home and it's my blog so Old St. it is.