I have safely arrived in China.
The last 24 hours have been fairly smooth - today I took a long walk around the city. It was meant to be a little walk but I've just calculated that I covered 8 miles of Shanghai today all because I was navigating by a distinctive tall glass building with a big red sign on it. I now know that there are two of these tall glass buildings with big red signs on different sides of the city- not so distinctive after all. Still, the pavement pounding was good exercise...
I am surprised at the number of parks and open spaces here - loads of lovely bamboo, willows and Spring buds appearing on the trees. Apart from the four lanes of traffic that encircle the parks, the greenery could be straight out of a classical Chinese painting. I also went to a tea house where the Queen has been, and Bill Clinton, and Jackie Chan. No famous folk there today - not even someone from the Bill or Hollyoaks - just me and about 100 other people hoping to do some star spotting.
I watched an older couple practise qi gong in a park, and listened to a man play his er hu (a traditional Chinese instrument) - it was all very stereotypically Chinese.
I am managing to play my part as stereotypical foreigner - today I thought I had started an international incident in a restaurant...I had managed to order some veggie food in Chinese so was feeling quite pleased with myself, and quite grateful to the patient waitress. She bounded away and talked to a large family group sitting across the room. I'm not sure what she said - but they were soon all turning around to have a good look at me. Lots of smiling and waving ensued - and after a few minutes, a small boy was pushed in my direction, egged on by his family. The little boy came to sit with me - "perfect" I thought, I can ask all the 'getting to know you' questions from my phrase book. After a few minutes, I had introduced myself to my new friend - Little Han who was 4, I had told him that his mother was very beautiful (which she was) and that his dad looked very strong (which he didn't but I couldn't think of another word to use!). Slowly, my little friend warmed up and we played a lovely game where Han would point at something and tell me what it was called in Chinese, I would repeat and he would laugh. All very good - Little Han then gets a bit fresh with me and pokes me in the cheek. His family find this hilarious and he pokes me again, laughing hysterically. On the third poke, I start to think about how I can avoid this happening all the way through lunch. On the fourth poke I came up with a top idea. On the fifth "hilarious" poke - the other diners and waiting staff are watching now - I let out a loud roar and pretend to be a ferocious lion. Funny, yes? Well not if you are little Han, I scared the poor soul silly. He fell of his chair, hit his head, started to cry and had to be scooped off the floor by his Grandma who gave me the evil eye. I then noticed that the whole family were scowling at the nasty foreign lady who had spoiled the game. I had to eat lunch with my head firmly stuck in a book until the tutting and teeth sucking subsides and wimpish Little Han had stopped snivelling. What a baby!
I will try to stay out of trouble. No more playing lions with little boys.
