Gold for China

Friday 12th January 2007

China is bound to sweep the board in Beijing 2008. The Olympic host country always seems to do that (until 2012, probably!). Last night, we decided that if we were betting people, we would put money on them taking every gold medal in the gymnastics. We went to Circus World, which sounds a bit naff and is probably Shanghai’s attempt to sound Western, but we saw the best show of its kind either of us had seen. It was a sound and light spectacular but what made it special was the quality of the acrobatics. None of the oo-ing and aaah-ing coming from our seats was put on. It was incredibly exciting and skilful.

Earlier in the day, we had ‘mopped up’ the last bits we wanted to do in Shanghai – walked up the Nanjing road to buy trainers for me, walked around Remin (People’s) Square and through the old city (wonderful contrast to what Shanghai has become in just 10 years, from nothing to the whole Pudong skyscraper area) to the Yuyuan Gardens (interesting and restful in the heart of the old city) and booked the acrobatic show for the evening through the concierge at the Peace Hotel – best English speaker we’d met in China (apart from people from other English-speaking countries, of course). We obviously failed to make ourselves understood at our hotel because when we asked about getting tickets, the receptionist said something akin to ‘no open to March.’ Still even that was better than any Chinese I managed! But the real success of the day? Finding the Post Office, only 10 minutes walk from our hotel, choosing a large green box from the many different sizes on display, and sending home (to Stephanie) 10kg of ‘winter warmer’ clothing. It was so easy and relatively cheap to do and has made space in our cases for the rest of the trip. Here’s hoping we see some of it again in the future. This is one instance where delivery really is more important than strategy.

On the second flight of the night now as I write this, (early Saturday) from Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh. Currency should be interesting. £1 = 31,348 dong. Yes, that is thirty-one thousand. Sid said something helpful like, ‘Just think in lire’, ‘abandon money belt, buy money suitcase’.

We took 2m (yes, 2m) Dong from the cashpoint at airport. But it’s only £64 by my reckoning. Now in hotel in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and what a contrast to China. Busy, noisy, quite dirty and very hot. We’re only in this hotel for one night and move to the cycle tour hotel tomorrow. We will meet up with the rest of the cycling group (14 of them, I think) tomorrow evening We have gone from -8o in Beijing to around +10o in Shanghai to around +28-30o here. Fortunately the air conditioning is very strong in the room. Off to eat nearby and catch up on some sleep from last night.