Shanghai and beyond

Right, so it's been a week and a day (or two)...
Anyway, around the end of November/ the beginning of December I was lucky enough to venture a little out of Shanghai

Dongping National Forest Park - Chongming

Bit of Chinglish

First trip was up north, to Chongming, an island that sits neatly above Shanghai, and yeah I had no idea Shanghai had an island. It was cold. Take note that at this time, temperatures hadn't hid sub-zero yet and so the fact that people were telling me I should wear 2 pairs of stockings was still ridiculous. My denial didn't last very much longer than that.

The group of asian women standing in front of the big rock are posing in tribute to a video that went Gangnam style viral in China, and was also aptly named 'Aircraft carrier style'. Have a look yourself.

Yeah... no clue.

Spent most of the only day I had up there on a rusty bike circling around the national park, eating (of course) barbequed things on skewers and trying to lure the stray cats to my camera (there are almost as many cats in China as there are in Morocco).

Wu Xi

Nan Meng being attacked by pigeons. They ain't shy!

Second destination was Wu Xi, about a 3 hours drive from Shanghai up north-west with the team I was interning with at Microsoft. Rose early to go see the Grand Buddha near Lingshan mountain nearby, bought some happiness, burnt some incense and candles and wrote a wish on the back of a wooden tablet I couldn't read. Apologies for my insensitivity to the Buddhist significance of the place but there were so many people and cameras it drained all the spiritual juju out of it for me. By then it'd hit near zero degrees in Shanghai, and I'd found a coat (thank you Topshop) and was starting to embrace the marshmallow feeling from wearing a minimum of three layers + gloves + scarf + beanie.

The last and only time I'd ever experienced real cold was at the age of 16 when I went on exchange in Dijon, France, and that was only for 7 weeks. Boy was my body not ready for this.

Both nights in Wu Xi were spent playing Mafia, and if anyone hasn't heard of this you should Google it because it's the greatest card/party game ever. It was on year 10 camp that I first played it with my group and I think it helped us get through the gruelling week of no showers, peeing/shitting in holes and leeches. I then played it in France (during the aforementioned exchange) but they call it 'Loups garous' which means 'Werewolves'. The concept is the same but with different roles. Then, coincidently, I ended up in China, playing 杀 i.e. 'Sha' or 'Kill' literally.

Over the past year the world has shown me how amazing and baffling life can be with chance meetings and perfect scenarios and the worst scenarios that turn out to be perfect anyway, basically how everything can link together so nicely in the most unexpected ways.

I'm not sure if I've said this before, but regardless, travel. Leave while you're young and don't have responsibilities, like bills to pay, a family, a mortgage, and experience true freedom. I have never been as exhilaratingly happy as I was while I was overseas.