Linhai

By Katy

So we finally got permission to leave Hangzhou this weekend. Hooray! So we decided to go to Linhai where you can see the wall. Well, the Southern wall rather than the Great wall but it looks exactly like you imagine the Great Wall to look.

So we arrived on Saturday. Getting to the hotel took longer than expected as we were required to register because we are ‘waiguoren’ ie foreigners. Now the first time this happened it was mildly annoying but not unexpected. However, this or similar things happened at least 3 more times on the trip. When getting tickets to go to East Lake/the Wall, on the train, getting back home. Each time we found the page in our passport showing them we have been here since the 14th of March. I would not call it racism as the people required to do this are just doing their jobs. But it is confusing that people do not seem to know that the borders were shut on the 28th of March. We could only conclude that it is a kind of laziness where they just have not bothered to change the rules. It’s fair to say that by the time we were finally home I was getting very annoyed at the shouts of ‘waiguoren’. For some reason Chinese people seem to think that just because you don’t understanding everything they’re saying you don’t understand some of what they’re saying. Particularly very common words like this. I would not say it makes it impossible to travel, just very frustrating.

On the plus side I had some of the best noodles I have had in China so far.

Generally the food was incredibly cheap in Linhai, cheaper than Hangzhou. I managed to ask for a bowl in Chinese which made me happy. Generally we understood much more Chinese this trip. Frustratingly we cannot always communicate what we want due to tones. Even a simple word like ‘fourteen’ although we did get across ‘March’. But we could understand how to fill in the registration forms so at least we’re getting somewhere. For those not in the know Chinese ‘tones’ change the way you say something but also the meaning. The most common example I know of is ‘ma’. Of course context is important but some Chinese people are unwilling to try and understand foreigners unfortunately even when the context makes it obvious what you are trying to say.

We also went to the old street and to the Pagodas on Saturday. Again this was much prettier than we expected and felt more authentic than Hangzhou.

So on Sunday we went to both East Lake and the Wall. East Lake was rather amusing for us as it is the poor cousin of West Lake in Hangzhou. But actually we both really liked it and its small size made it feel much more peaceful and it was certainly less crowded than West Lake ever is!

The final highlight was walking along the Southern wall. Not the Great wall but pretty much the same thing. Very pretty but lots of ups and downs. Hector was particularly tired.

Until next time!