Well guys today is my last day in China. Tomorrow it is back to the UK.
I was feeling very unwell earlier today. My cough is gone but then my stomach went bad. I suspect the bottle of Chinese red wine I drank last night might have killed off my good bacteria and let the bad ones overwhelm me. I am thankful for the stack of immodium I took with me. Standards of cleanliness here are poor. Babies shit in the streets, there are chickens wandering around and vegetables are washed in the same dirty streets that the babies shit in and people spit all over! Brothers, take care with what you eat here, although I am probably not the only brother to suspect that it may be safer to eat in Chinese restaurants rather than Western places. Good luck ordering food though ha ha ha.
I am not as distraught as I was yesterday. Leaving my lady was horrendous and I maintained my stiff upper lip until my lady appeared on QQ and I couldn't take the heartbreak anymore. The thought that she was not here was just too terrible to contemplate.
I was unsure as to whether my lady was as sad as I was when we parted, but I looked again at the last photo I took of her and her expression is clearly one of sadness.
As soon as I saw my lady's profile on chnlove I knew she was different from the rest. She used natural photos, and looked quite geeky. Wow, I must be a good judge of personality because I was spot on. She is even more of a computer geek than I am. She has a very nice computer at home, and has a massive monitor. I do find her character quite puzzling though. She is very outgoing and has no problems ordering me or other people around. Despite this we haven't yet got emotionally close. I can make her laugh and stuff, but that is all. I guess I am worried that she doesn't love me. Maybe I haven't impressed her enough. Perhaps the problem is that she is very inexperienced at relationships with men and I am the same with women! I have told her this is something we need to work on. Maybe my brothers can assist. She also told me in an EMF that maybe I could have been more humourous. Hmm, it is difficult to be humourous when you are sick, jetlagged and in a very strange place. I guess she also doesn't know about the Englishman's need for substantial quantifies of alcohol when entertaining. I could not imagine an English guy enjoying KTV when sober.
I am not sure what the Chinese relationship with alcohol is. But it doesn't seem to be at all like the Japanese relationship with alcohol. My lady say it makes her face go red, and I have seen photos of her friends who all have red faces! Mr Wu gave me half a can of beer to drink. Mrs Wu drank a tiny amount of red wine. I haven't seen much in the way of pubs or bars like we have in Europe. I am not really liking the room temperature beer they often give you out here. Pah, it's like 1970s England.
Despite this we seemed to have got on really well. In Wuhan we had a great time at Wuhan Zoo and the Yellow Crane Tower. I scored a major hit with my choice of the zoo as being a good place to visit. We also had a fantastic day out on the barmy Chinese boat/coach tour of gift shops and the 3 Gorges Dam. Walking through the phosphate rock stockpile to get to the boat will probably be my second funniest memory of China (the funniest by far was going to KFC and finding they had run out of chicken, so we had to make do with beef and fish).
I have sent her an EMF outlining the way forward for our relationship. My lady loved the letter but is too busy to fully reply yet. She also needs to talk things over with her parents. Actually, last week my lady was on the phone to the translator discussing my latest EMF - sometimes they call the lady and the lady will dictate a response. They were on the phone for ages, so rest assured good agencies will take time to explain your letter fully.
My lady is happy with the idea of moving to the UK. I think she will like it there, as she admits that life in China is hard and competition for jobs is intense. I have noticed that I have not got homesick on holiday at all this time. I am now of the opinion that home is where your lady is. If my lady thinks the same then her moving to the UK will be pretty straightforward. Is this what my fellow brothers have found?
I need to think of a career for my lady. She is intelligent, is learning English rapidly and is very good with computers. Her English is easily good enough to get a basic immigrant first job in McDonalds or something, but I think she should aim higher. If she is talented at languages then there should be no problem finding a job. I did a little research and although there are nearly a million Chinese in the UK, the overwhelming majority are Cantonese. Mainland Chinese (apart from students) are rare in the UK.
My lady's family is fairly happy with our situation. As it is her 30th birthday soon I guess marriage options must be dwindling. Although my lady is good looking, competition for good husbands must be intense in a city where pretty much every woman has a perfect figure and the beauty of many of the women is simply extraordinary.
I found it encouraging that they gave me some green tea for my family and some Pinyin books for me. Hubei province is renown for its excellent green tea (as well as oranges and phosphate and tobacco). My lady tells me that I should have made more of an effort to learn the language so I could say simple greetings. But to be honest I am not getting on with this language at all. At home I will start my Mandarin course though, so hopefully I can improve on this. Maybe I could also have been more respectful in their presence. But going to China for the first time is a daunting experience, and as some my brothers can attest to, visiting your lady's home is a scary thing to do. I also found it very hard to judge their body language. Mr Wu was a man of few words. Hmmm, this generation of 20-35 year olds is very different from their 50+ parents. My lady's parents had to learn Russian in school! My lady's generation learn English, and they eat at KFC.
My gifts to my lady and her family were a bit hit and miss. I am not sure if they will drink the Indian Green Tea I got them from Fortnum & Mason, but I'm sure they will use the tin for something. Hmmm, the way the Chinese drink tea here is very different to anywhere else. I am not sure they will use the Colman's mustard or Maldon sea salt I took as gifts from my province of the UK, but at the end of the day it's the thought that counts. The things they were most fascinated with were a Coca Cola screw top can that you can normally only get in Japan, and blue toilet paper. "Here, only white" is what my lady says.
Another problem I have is that I was convinced my soulmate was in Japan. It turns out I was looking in the wrong country. I am much more familiar with Japanese culture as well as the language.
Oh well, when I return to the UK and my lady catches up with her work backlog them we will have plenty of time to discuss our time together. I do find that she is reluctant to discuss more personal issues. I also know that she was embarrassed talking about intimate things via her translator. Brothers, that's an important lesson!
Onto other things...
Despite feeling rough, I put my travel photographer head on and I have been for a couple of walks around Wuhan. This is the most interesting place I have ever been to, and given that I have been to Japan, Hong Kong, New York and most of Europe that's saying something! Even my lady thinks this city is mad. My goodness for anyone interested in street photography this has to be the greatest place on earth. Seeing China undergo its transformation into a 21st century superpower must be as amazing as going to 1920s New York, or 1930s Shanghai. When I get home I'll upload my best shots to flickr. I took about 900 pictures while I was here. I am quite impressed with my new camera (a Canon G10). It's great in that it fits in the pocket, so I don't attract too much attention by walking around with a camera. I do wish I had my SLR and pro lens though as I could have got some amazing shots with it.
I am staying in a 5 star Novotel hotel (and very nice it is to). The gulf between rich and poor here is immense. Near the hotel is a shopping mall where even I cannot afford to shop. But less than a block away there are chickens roaming the street and people cleaning shoes for 2 yuan a go. I haven't seen the absolute poverty here of the type you see in the India. But life at the bottom here must be grim, especially for the shoeshiners and farmers who cycle into town to sell their produce.
I am not sure if Wuhan is representative of the rest of China. But I suspect it is one of the main magnets for immigration from the countryside. My lady was showing me photos of Shenzen and Nimbo, and both cities looked a lot cleaner than Wuhan does! I bet the residents still hang their washing on the trees though.
This afternoon I got very brave and walked around one of the gated communes you see here. My goodness it was an extraordinary place. The old folk were sat around playing board games and exercising in the little park. There were chickens roaming outside shops. I found it difficult to take photos there, but it is a memory that will stay with me forever.
I was pleased to find a CD/DVD store while wandering around, so I have packed my case with Jolin Tsai goodies. If proof was needed that China is a conservative country, then a look around such a store gives you confirmation. Hmm, Hong Kong's stores are much less repressed, and as for Japan, well anything goes!
So all in all I have had a fantastic trip to China. I have been to one of the less touristy parts of China. I have met a beautiful lady who is a very good match for me. Like all couples we have some rough edges to resolve. But I go home safe in the knowledge that none of my friends and family will never be able to outdo my photo album from this trip!
P.S. Willy - my cough has pretty much gone now. The air in Wuhan is pretty bad. But in the countryside it wasn't much better, I think this is due to the farmers burning rice stubble.
