Matthew's Website

A joke that is often made about Japanese is that they don’t have a word for no but just say hai in an uncertain manner. They actually do though: ie (pronounced ee e). Now one of the very few things I’ve learnt with my very limited Chinese* is that the Chinese actually *don’t* really have [...]

Note that the title of this post is untrue, Xi’An is actually really good aside from the terracotta warriors, I was worried there wouldn’t be enough to do for more than two days and it’s simply untrue. There are another 3 full day excursions I could have done as well – and I spent nearly [...]

After catching the night train from Shanghai I arrived into Xi’An – First I went to my favourite restuarant (McDonalds) for breakfast. After that I made my way down to the south gate to look for some accommodation. I found something right by the south wall which was good and cost ¥40/night. I found later [...]

On my final day (Monday) in Shanghai I first had to buy some new shoes. My “bargain” shoes from New Zealand which cost NZ$25 (£8) turned out to be not so great and they were still so wet in the morning that I had to borrow the orange plastic flip flops from my hostel to [...]

On my second last day in Shanghai I headed over to the gardens of Suzhou. I left on the 10.30am train after getting my Xi’An ticket and sitting around for the requisite amount of time. I got to go first class as well which was nice but unnecessary. It was my own fault though as [...]

I arrived into Shanghai on Thursday afternoon and then headed to my hostel on the metro where in the evening I settled into my hostel. I met up with a canadian and we went out to buy some (fake) designer fake leather belts – I needed a belt to hold up my trousers so I [...]

Note that £1=¥9.71, $1=¥6.84 On Thursday I relaxed in the morning in my private room – the first since Cambodia and the last for the rest of my trip before catching the train to Shanghai. For breakfast I had a “British breakfast which consisted of fried eggs and tomato and orange juice and tea which [...]

I woke up moderately late on my first (and only) day in Hangzhou. I had a fairly cold night as I didn’t figure out how to get the AC to heat my room but otherwise it was fine – after all the dorms it was nice to have a private room, though at ¥140 it [...]

I flew into Hangzhou, China tonight. The airport and the airport bus into town went very smoothly. The AirAsia flight was fine though a little boring as the entertainment was extra and I was too cheap to spend the £4 to get it. I have a few first impressions of the language to give. Firstly [...]