We’ve been into Pingxiang a couple of times now to get various things we need (such as oversized house plants, floor cleaner and tiger-shaped speakers) so I thought I should describe what the city is like. Pingxiang has been developed quite rapidly so although it qualifies as a city now it probably wouldn’t have just a few years ago.
It’s easy to get to the city from the college campus – there are loads of buses and fares are 1 yuan (about 10p). Of course you have to put up with a lot of staring but then even as we were walking to the bus stop from our accommodation a truck driver almost ran Chrissy over trying to stare at her whilst turning a corner, and then crawled along beside me for a few minutes until I turned around and went the other way for a bit.
Here’s Terry on the bus. With his newest purchase, a flowery bin with loving Chinese messages on it. There isn’t an awful lot of room, as you can see.
This is one of the central urban areas of Pingxiang. And a photo of a street I took yesterday.
Don’t be fooled by the rain on the ground, the streets are really dirty. But the city has most things you need – supermarkets, pharmacies, mobile phone stores, even a KFC! Supermarkets and department stores are a little noisy and stressful but you can buy everything you’d find in England and much cheaper. Except they actually don’t have any chocolate, which will be distressing once my extensive British supply runs out... We bought cheap Chinese mobile phones to use for the year and our Chinese friends bargained down prices for us where they could. I still don’t fully understand what I’ve paid for but I seem to have stacks of free credit and a free gift thrown in when they didn’t want to take the price down anymore.
The roads in the city are literally TERRIFYING. There are zebra crossings but they don’t mean anything. According to Fiona, one of our Chinese co-teachers, they mean ‘slow down’ but all that means if you should prepare to be run over slowly. You can’t predict where the cars are coming from so traffic just goes wherever there’s space. Chinese driving tip no.2: Cars drive on the right here, so turning left can be a bit tricky. But don’t worry, all you need to do is beep your horn really loudly as you swerve quickly into the stream of oncoming traffic on your left. If the car approaching you is coming at you too quickly, just beep louder and he’ll dodge round you wherever possible.
Chinese driving tip no.3: If you’re not sure where to go, just use the other side of the road. Sure, you’ll soon meet traffic head-on, but that’s their problem now.
We took a few more buses round the city and had a stroll through a little park in the centre. I didn’t expect there to be much greenery in Pingxiang so it was a nice surprise. There is a river that runs right through the city so the areas that havn't been fully ubansied are quite pleasant.
I’ve spent some of this evening beginning to plan my lessons since I start teaching on Monday and have had absolutely no training or guidance. Luckily we’ve been given textbooks for each year group but they only really work for the freshman and sophomore groups as the 3rd years are doing a writing course and my ‘teacher’s guide’ is almost entirely in Chinese. So that’ll be interesting.
I’ll finish with my favourite sign in China so far. There are quite a few intriguing translations around, known as ‘Chinglish’. The Chinese for this one reads ‘Please keep off the grass’. I guess they got the gist.
