Nine Million Bicycles in Beijing, but 10 Million and 1 in Shanghai!!

Still able to do photos!! Long may it continue.

The big news today is that I’m in my shorts!! It looks like spring has sprung, and the temperatures are soaring. It’s been above 20 degrees since Friday (for at least some of the day!). It’s so nice not to be huddled under my sleeping bag all the time. Now I’m feeling all guilty because all my great intentions of getting fit over the winter have come to nothing – and it’s too late now!! I think I must have spent the winter lying on the couch, so now I have pay (or come up with some more excuses!)

Spring is here - and so is the blossom.

Another of my great winter projects was to do the tour of the museums. Didn’t make much progress on that either! So on Sunday it was either go and do some exercise or visit a museum. Shanghai Museum is pretty good – and the shop is one of the better museum shops I’ve visited. OK, OK – so I bought a book – is anybody surprised?

So, the improvement in the weather means that I’ll be able to take my bike for a spin - or to be more accurate – Sheila’s bike. Yes, the same bike that I borrowed from her in 2002 – 5 years ago; the same bike that went to Russia, and is now sitting on my balcony waiting for me to take it for an outing. It has already had its maiden voyage in China, thanks, mum! As you might imagine – there’s a story here!!

My bike arrived here with all my boxes in November, the weekend before it got cold in Shanghai, so it’s spent the last few months wrapped up in bubble-wrap; sitting on the balcony. Well, a few weeks ago, I decided that I needed to get it unpacked, so I attacked the bubble-wrap with scissors, and eventually the bike emerged. So far, so good! As I had no idea if my stuff was going to be transported by air from Russia, I let the tyres down. Easy – just blow them up again and take for a test drive…… Hmmm. Front tyre – no problem, but the back tyre would do nothing. I eventually looked at the pump – and discovered that the bit that opens up the valve to let the air in was gubbed. Ahha! The pump is broken, so I can’t blow up the tyre. I lost enthusiasm for the project after that, and went and had a cup of tea.

All over China, there are little shops of bicycle repair men, and I’d found one not far from my place. So, I asked mum if she would take the bike to the repair man, to have the tyres blown up. Simple job, I thought – but this is China, and mum’s a bit weak on speaking Chinese. So, the first part went well. Mum got the bike into the lift – and then things stopped going smoothly. The lift stopped on the way down, and a man got in – mum was standing there holding the bike, but both of them ignored the fact. You can just see them standing in the lift, ignoring the bike – it makes me laugh every time I think about it!! Anyway, mum pushes the bike out to the road and then down the street, and turns towards the bike repair shop… and the gets distracted. The place I had seen (and pointed out!) was on the main road, but before mum got there, she walked past a little lane; looking down the lane she saw a man waving at her, but carried on for a bit, then realised that it was a bike repair man, so backed up to see the man was still waving at her – so away she went to speak to him about blowing up my tyres. It turned out that the back tyre was perished, so there was no way I could have blown it up! Mum sat on a handy wall while the bike got repaired (until the man went to get her a chair). To replace the inner tube, blow up the tyres, give it a bit of a service and take it for a test drive cost 30 yuan – 2 pounds. I was well impressed, and will be going back to get a bell and a stand fitted!!

By popular demand, I have posted a couple of photos of Koshka - do you remember when she was as little as the first photo?

She's grown up a lot now.........

It's her birthday tomorrow - she'll be 2!! Happy birthday, Koshka.

Rapid Changes in Shanghai

Things move fast here in Shanghai! Here’s a wee example from the last week. It starts off in Scotland, when I was home at Christmas-time. I was up visiting Wendy & Gav, and we were standing in a field, surrounded by sheep, chatting with their shepherd about ….sheep, and sheepdog trials. They’d been looking out for a watch with a stop-watch, but hadn’t managed to get one. No problem, said I, I live in the country of cheap copy-watches. So, a week past Saturday, while browsing down Nanjing Road with my mum, I came across the ideal watch. It came in black, blue and purple, so, of course I choose the purple! Mum took it back to Scotland, and sent it up to Wendy & Gav’s. Just the ticket – but maybe I could get another in black, or something a bit more conservative (for the heilan’ shepherd – I should have known better!!). So this Sunday, I went back to Nanjing Road, to the same shop – and it’s gone! It’s all boarded up, and the walls are being knocked down ……..but I was just there the week before! What do I do about a watch now??? I searched all over town, and there was nothing! How can that be? Did I stumble on the only suitable watch in China? Last night, I popped into my local supermarket for a pint of milk. It’s in the basement of the building across the road, and to get to it I have to pass through lots of stalls. Last night, I realised that the stalls were all selling…….watches. I was getting a bit despondent after looking at 20 stalls without an appropriate watch, but the last one – it was there! So, I got it and will post it off this week!

On the subject of the fast-changing face of Shanghai, I’ve discovered what they’re building across the road. 6 months ago, there was a row of restaurants, with houses behind, and then they disappeared – knocked down. They’ve been working on the site ever since – and the foundations are laid now. Well, a week past Saturday, just before mum & I’s stroll down Nanjing Road, we went to the Urban Planning building. It’s great! There’s a model of downtown Shanghai – it’s amazing to see. There’s a raised walkway all around, so that you can easily find your way around. I eventually found my place – and discovered that the building across the way will be one of the highest in Shanghai!!

On that Saturday, when mum & I were out exploring Shanghai – it took us an hour to cross the road!!! No, the traffic is not quite that bad! We were using the underpass and got distracted by a replica of a street from the 1930’s, and ended up sitting outside a café, under the false sky having lunch (borsch soup, believe it or not!). Back to crossing the road – mum developed a technique for crossing the road – similar to her approach in Rome (which was wait for a nun to come along, and cross with her – she never had to wait very long either). Her Shanghai approach was – get herself in the middle of the Chinese folk waiting to cross, and stay there until the other side – worked like a charm!

I'm back - complete with photos!!

Yes, I'm back! I've had a couple of blog-free months - sorry about that, but I had a few distractions: the Scottish flu bug, freezing in Shanghai and the nice distraction of a visit from my mum and a whirlwind tour of China. I've just tested the blog thingy, and it appears to work, so I may be back in technicolour. We'll give it a go.


This is one of the millions pf photos we took on our recent Spring Festival tour of China. This was taken on a very atmospheric (= foggy) trip down the Li river in Guilin.

Believe it or not - we took so many photos of the Terracotta Warriors, even I got bored looking at them!!! Our visit to Xi'an was amazing. The warriors are even better than I ever thought they would be!

I'll test posting this, and hopefully do another instalment very so, especially if it works!