CHINA 2010 FRIDAY 17th SEPTEMBER
NANTONG WEEKEND
At noon we made our way down to the foyer to await the arrival of Helen and Mr. Zheng who would drive us to the airport for our flight to Shanghai where Mander would be waiting for us. We will then travel by road to Nantong, a city situated on the Yangtze River.
Our flight was due to depart at l.30pm and we boarded on time but after we left the gate we sat for another 30 minutes until the pilot received instructions for takeoff. During this time we were issued with a bread roll and a cup of water for those that wanted it and when we did get airborne our lunch was 2 bread rolls, a piece of Maderia cake and an individual snack size packet of pickled vegetable, plus a drink. I ate the cake and drank more water! As we made our approach to Shanghia Hongqiao Airport the young man sitting next to me by the window practised his English telling me he was a salesman for Sharp in Shanghai and his home town was Guanzhou and we should visit. 30 minutes late we met up with Mander and Mr. Liu, the Manager of Hailong Manning in Shanghai, who had met us on our arrival into China many moons ago, and we set off for a long drive to Nantong.
We hadn’t travelled very far on toll roads before we were in the countryside with lots of greenery and detached houses but some of the traditional style buildings had added solar water heaters spoiling the roof tops as far as I was concerned. We also passed a Temple area with a large gold Pagoda standing out amongst the countryside as it glowed in the sunlight.
Arriving in Nantong we made a stop at the Maritime College where the students were occupying the road rather than the pavement. There are around 10,000 students in this college and those dressed in blue, grey and black camouflage were freshmen, some of which would be attending Keith’s presentation. We left Mander and went on to our hotel with Mr. Liu.
The hotel was not far from the College and on the edge of what will eventually be a large complex with many restaurants and night clubs and a very large garden area, part of which had already been constructed and being so close to the Yangtze River had water running through the grounds with walkways alongside. As it got dark the area became illuminated with lights threaded through the trees and on the outer roadside trees with pendants of lights changed colours as the light dropped from top to bottom. The building across the road from our room, which is on the 6th floor, was opposite the oldest restaurant in the area and again built in traditional Chinese style. By the road was a freestanding ornate wall of Chinese scenes and gold lettering concealing the parking area. Getting to our room had been a bit of a hike going up to the second floor, walking along a not too clean carpet, exiting across an open walkway, through a building site of open space and into a lift to get to the top floor. As the lift door opened we saw this was a vast improvement than the second floor as the carpet was clean and glass beaded curtains hung three quarters of the way down narrow parts of the corridors almost in front of picture windows where there were no doors. We had a very large boutique room split into 3, a glass shower room, business suite and our bedroom where a huge TV screen was only feet away from our faces! The business suite was a failure as the desk and 3 leather chairs had been placed on the opposite side to all the plug sockets so once all the wires from computers and modems etc. had been inserted there was no access to the bathroom or the door! As Keith looked in the desk drawers he discovered a previous occupier had used one of the large ones for rubbish when there was a metal waste bin already provided at the end of the desk!
Time to eat and Mr. Liu took us along the road, which he explained would be a ‘walking road’ once the area was complete, to a lovely restaurant where we were joined by two cadets from the College, Mr. Tu (Deck) and Mr. Sun (Engineer), once the staff had found our booking. The food was beautifully presented but we had no meat as Mr. Liu is a vegetarian. We did enjoy a hot dish of prawns served with chunks of dragon fruit and celery, and the fresh tomato soup contained large bones with a little meat clinging to the surface but I ignored them and collected several pieces of sweet potato along with the juice when ladling it into my small bowl. We sampled a delicious cone made of puffed rice filled with spicy sweetcorn and other small crispy vegetables and wondered how they had ‘glued’ the rice together. Time to leave but not before another young man, Mr. Hao joined us. Also Engineering cadet he was to help our driver, Mr. Nee find his way into the city centre so we could take a boat ride that Capt.Mao had organised for us.
It took quite a time to get into the city due to Friday night’s traffic and find a suitable place to enable us to take a boat on the scenic Haohe River. Whilst small boats were available for the public to hire we stepped down into a larger electric boat with 8 individual seats on each side so everyone could have a good view through the sliding windows of the illuminated buildings and bridges alongside the river. The length of the river is 11km but we only travelled 6 in a figure of 8, which was a bit annoying as I had hoped to take photos of some of the sights on Keith’s side. As we travelled along going under many bridges and passing people walking alongside illuminated walkways the Students gave us information about some of the buildings especially a very large impressive one which was a 5 star hotel. Our boat driver had given a running commentary and spoke slowly so if we did know Chinese we would have been able to understand him, but we don’t so Mr. Liu did most of the translating for us. All too soon our journey was over and we returned to the car to be driven to another part of the city where we briefly watched people rehearsing a play in the open air theatre by the river. On a higher level a man was showing off his skills at line skating by speedily weaving on one skate through a row of small cones, whilst sat around tables were small children with their mothers painting and using plastic containers with fine nozzles of bright colourful paint to fill in their pictures instead of using brushes. Under a long canopy people were having neck massages, whilst other people were just happy to sit and watch the world go by with music playing in the background. Time to return to our hotel and get the young men back to College as at 10pm the dormitories are checked to make sure everyone is in their room by that time but first our driver stopped at a convenience store so Mr. Liu could buy cans beer and cola for Keith and I.
At noon we made our way down to the foyer to await the arrival of Helen and Mr. Zheng who would drive us to the airport for our flight to Shanghai where Mander would be waiting for us. We will then travel by road to Nantong, a city situated on the Yangtze River.
Our flight was due to depart at l.30pm and we boarded on time but after we left the gate we sat for another 30 minutes until the pilot received instructions for takeoff. During this time we were issued with a bread roll and a cup of water for those that wanted it and when we did get airborne our lunch was 2 bread rolls, a piece of Maderia cake and an individual snack size packet of pickled vegetable, plus a drink. I ate the cake and drank more water! As we made our approach to Shanghia Hongqiao Airport the young man sitting next to me by the window practised his English telling me he was a salesman for Sharp in Shanghai and his home town was Guanzhou and we should visit. 30 minutes late we met up with Mander and Mr. Liu, the Manager of Hailong Manning in Shanghai, who had met us on our arrival into China many moons ago, and we set off for a long drive to Nantong.
We hadn’t travelled very far on toll roads before we were in the countryside with lots of greenery and detached houses but some of the traditional style buildings had added solar water heaters spoiling the roof tops as far as I was concerned. We also passed a Temple area with a large gold Pagoda standing out amongst the countryside as it glowed in the sunlight.
Arriving in Nantong we made a stop at the Maritime College where the students were occupying the road rather than the pavement. There are around 10,000 students in this college and those dressed in blue, grey and black camouflage were freshmen, some of which would be attending Keith’s presentation. We left Mander and went on to our hotel with Mr. Liu.
The hotel was not far from the College and on the edge of what will eventually be a large complex with many restaurants and night clubs and a very large garden area, part of which had already been constructed and being so close to the Yangtze River had water running through the grounds with walkways alongside. As it got dark the area became illuminated with lights threaded through the trees and on the outer roadside trees with pendants of lights changed colours as the light dropped from top to bottom. The building across the road from our room, which is on the 6th floor, was opposite the oldest restaurant in the area and again built in traditional Chinese style. By the road was a freestanding ornate wall of Chinese scenes and gold lettering concealing the parking area. Getting to our room had been a bit of a hike going up to the second floor, walking along a not too clean carpet, exiting across an open walkway, through a building site of open space and into a lift to get to the top floor. As the lift door opened we saw this was a vast improvement than the second floor as the carpet was clean and glass beaded curtains hung three quarters of the way down narrow parts of the corridors almost in front of picture windows where there were no doors. We had a very large boutique room split into 3, a glass shower room, business suite and our bedroom where a huge TV screen was only feet away from our faces! The business suite was a failure as the desk and 3 leather chairs had been placed on the opposite side to all the plug sockets so once all the wires from computers and modems etc. had been inserted there was no access to the bathroom or the door! As Keith looked in the desk drawers he discovered a previous occupier had used one of the large ones for rubbish when there was a metal waste bin already provided at the end of the desk!
Time to eat and Mr. Liu took us along the road, which he explained would be a ‘walking road’ once the area was complete, to a lovely restaurant where we were joined by two cadets from the College, Mr. Tu (Deck) and Mr. Sun (Engineer), once the staff had found our booking. The food was beautifully presented but we had no meat as Mr. Liu is a vegetarian. We did enjoy a hot dish of prawns served with chunks of dragon fruit and celery, and the fresh tomato soup contained large bones with a little meat clinging to the surface but I ignored them and collected several pieces of sweet potato along with the juice when ladling it into my small bowl. We sampled a delicious cone made of puffed rice filled with spicy sweetcorn and other small crispy vegetables and wondered how they had ‘glued’ the rice together. Time to leave but not before another young man, Mr. Hao joined us. Also Engineering cadet he was to help our driver, Mr. Nee find his way into the city centre so we could take a boat ride that Capt.Mao had organised for us.
It took quite a time to get into the city due to Friday night’s traffic and find a suitable place to enable us to take a boat on the scenic Haohe River. Whilst small boats were available for the public to hire we stepped down into a larger electric boat with 8 individual seats on each side so everyone could have a good view through the sliding windows of the illuminated buildings and bridges alongside the river. The length of the river is 11km but we only travelled 6 in a figure of 8, which was a bit annoying as I had hoped to take photos of some of the sights on Keith’s side. As we travelled along going under many bridges and passing people walking alongside illuminated walkways the Students gave us information about some of the buildings especially a very large impressive one which was a 5 star hotel. Our boat driver had given a running commentary and spoke slowly so if we did know Chinese we would have been able to understand him, but we don’t so Mr. Liu did most of the translating for us. All too soon our journey was over and we returned to the car to be driven to another part of the city where we briefly watched people rehearsing a play in the open air theatre by the river. On a higher level a man was showing off his skills at line skating by speedily weaving on one skate through a row of small cones, whilst sat around tables were small children with their mothers painting and using plastic containers with fine nozzles of bright colourful paint to fill in their pictures instead of using brushes. Under a long canopy people were having neck massages, whilst other people were just happy to sit and watch the world go by with music playing in the background. Time to return to our hotel and get the young men back to College as at 10pm the dormitories are checked to make sure everyone is in their room by that time but first our driver stopped at a convenience store so Mr. Liu could buy cans beer and cola for Keith and I.
posted by Pam at
16:58
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