We arrived in HangZhou on Thursday after spending the day in Shanghai with Will (one of two people who we know in Shanghai) and having some fun with the train ticketing system – a blog entry for another day..
It has been extremely cold since we arrived. Literally temperatures under 4’C and with lows into the minuses. This coming Tuesday is forecast to be a high of about 3-4’C and a low of –4’C! Luckily we packed for wintery conditions, having experienced the cold at New Years. We’ve had some fun times, getting thrown into the deep end and having to pick up Mandarin at an astonishing rate.
To date, this is what we’ve experienced without assistance from a friendly Mandarin/English speaking person:
- Ate at a restaurant
- Ate at a fast food restaurant (McDonalds, KFC)
- Shopping at a supermarket (Wu Mart)
- Explaining to a guard that we need to access a building
- Given a cab driver directions
This list might look a little bit trivial, but when you have a minor grasp of the local language it is really quite challenging! Even if we knew the language (and could understand what people ask us) we’d still have trouble with our pronunciation; we’ve still not developed the required tones.
At any rate, we’ve managed to acquire a lot of essential living items and are slowly working our way into a semblance of a routine. Keep checking back, I intend on completing a “China Journal” as often as the fancy takes to me 🙂
Cheers… Rob (“our man in HangZhou”)
hey what do they sell in the Wu Mart?? sounds good
Wu Mart is a bit of an "all purpose" supermarket. Sells food, electronics, clothes, homewares etc. A fairly broad range, with a few mainstream brands. We also might look at Century Mart which is close by also.