Aaaaand she's back in town!

I have always used Virgin Atlantic to fly to Shanghai but I am finding it slowly getting worse and worse. I ended up moving 3 times on the flight to find a tv that worked as there was no way I was going to sit on an 11 hour flight without anything to do and I can never sleep on a plane. Luckily I got to sit in the escape exit row which gave me lots more space and since nobody was sitting beside me I could sit my chair back without feeling guilty.

Service wasn't so good as I recall before there would be night time snacks being served, constant drinks being offered, but instead there was nothing. You had to go to the kitchen area where there were some poured drinks and cookies. The food was quite awful and this was the first time I saw air hostesses "saving" food that hadn't been touched I presume to serve again on another flight.

Customs at Pudong was quite slow and painful and trying to get my heavy suitcases off the conveyor belt resulted in crushing my hand and a kind man helped me out. However, when I tried to get past quarantine I was pulled over and made to take the suitcases off my trolley on my own and place in the x-ray machine. Yep, not a single person to help and a lot of people behind getting frustrated I'm not moving fast enough...

 

Travel tip

A tip given to me was to go to the drop off at arrivals to get a taxi. The drivers there are keen to help and get back to Puxi and I find less likely to scam you than at the taxi rank. Driving along and it all felt so familiar seeing the same roads, same signs etc. I was a little rusty to respond to the driver but we got to my friend's house without a problem.

Seeing as I didn't sleep on the flight I was pretty tired but the humidity is so high here that I just wanted to shower at this point! We headed to the police station as it is stated that anyone arriving in Shanghai and not living in a hotel or school dorm needs to register for a temporary residents permit. From the last time I did this there wasn't too much of a problem apart from I needed the written permission from my landlord that I was living in their flat. But it seems the rules changed in Shanghai as of July 1st and it has become a lot stricter for foreigners. So the policeman was making so many excuses about documents I didn't have but I hadn't even enrolled yet. So I have no choice but to go tomorrow to discuss the case with my university to get some kind of form to say I was seeking accommodation outside of the university.

Later in the day my other friend joined us and we went to have dinner in a local place with really good bbq meat and huge urns outside which contains a steamed kind of soup. Tonight on the menu - fish head!

 

Chinese menu's are always amusing

I love these but have never seen them this long before!

Getting ready to leave again

On 31st January I returned to England and have neglected updating here (seeing as it is my blog about my life in China and I was no longer living there!).

I'm due to go back to Shanghai in a week's time so I can resume my blogging! I've also just purchased a new camera, a Canon EOS M in white! I'm very excited for it to arrive and to hopefully get some practice in before I leave England.

Application process

For anyone thinking of studying in Shanghai I can give a quick rundown of the application process as I recently had to do this all over again!

Firstly I chose to go back to Jiao Tong as I was familiar with this university and the area and it is one of the top universities in Shanghai. They have 2 websites, one for the Chinese students (or exchange students) and another for the international students where they have details for the summer course, long term Chinese courses as well as some Masters and Degree courses.

You are required to fill out the form although I found out now this can be done online if you follow the links on their website to various documents. I had a slight issue with uploading images to the website but if you email someone from the Jiao Tong website they are speedy to respond and ask you to email it to them with your login details and they completed the application for me.

The application fee has to be done and the remittance information to be emailed over ASAP.

The JW202 form gets posted to your home which can take 2-3 weeks so make sure you apply in good time. Depending on your country and the visa process it will vary. In UK you can apply online. After filling out the information online and printing the form, signing it and attaching a passport photo you need to make an appointment online to go to the centre. The centre has moved now to Bank but it is a really nice building now and I actually went early to my appointment and they didn't mind (although it depends how early as I saw somebody was turned away!). It was very simple to do, I hear if you have this JW202 form you will most likely get your visa. I forgot to sign a declaration form but it must be common and the man slipped one to me to quickly sign and hand back.

It takes about 3 days to pick up your passport but you can't pay with a credit card! Only cash or debit card.

The course fee will be paid at registration and you will need to bring all the paperwork including your address of where you will live (dorms fill up fast! So apply early or find your own place). If you aren't staying in a hotel or dorm you will have 24 hours upon arrival to go to your local police station to register where you will live.

When I rented before I was sent a copy of the housing contract but I was later told at the station I needed a letter from the person I was renting from to say I was living there. Also you can only register with your area's police station so you should look that up before you arrive.

My current visa is only an F visa so I need to change to a student visa. The university provides the medical checks or you can do this yourself on arrival. The medical report has to be handed into the university and you will receive some paperwork to take to the visa office to get your student visa.

So now I'm at the countdown with a week to go before I board that flight once more and dreading to endure the awful heat and humidity that I was lucky enough to avoid last year!

Photos of Guilin and Xi'an

I didn't have time to write a full update but in January I visited Guilin and Xi'an so here are a few photos.

Guilin (13-16 January 2013)

 On the Yangtze River

 Arrived in Yangshuo

 The Dragon Cave

 Elephant Trunk Hill

 Night boat tour

Xi'an (26-28 January 2013)

 The Bell Tower

 Beiyuanmen Street for street food!

 La Zhi Rou - specialty snack of Xi'an - like a hamburger

 Smashing peanut candy

 A type of bread

 Dumplings

 Dog fur =(

 

 Terracotta Army

 Most complex Chinese character

 That's what it is

 Emperor Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum

 Huaqing Pool

Man rides his bicycle with this giant telescope offering science lessons for 20RMB

Harbin 11-13 January 2013

After my exams I braved the cold with some friends and travelled to Harbin. We used Spring Airlines which is the budget airline company out here in Shanghai. The flight was at 7.45am from Pudong which actually has nothing opened until 7.30am or so which meant we couldn't eat or anything.

Spring Airlines is the cheapest for a reason (think Easyjet or Ryanair), seats are small and you don't get any free drinks or snacks. A small bottle of water will cost 5RMB. The flight was around 2.5 hours which wasn't too bad as most of us slept the way there.

Harbin is VERY cold. I did feel I prepared well and brought lots of layers (Uniqlo Heat-tech was a lifesaver!). From the plane we had to get onto a bus to be taken to the terminal building but along the way the bus stopped for ages as there was a plane landing so all traffic had to stop and wait.

We stayed at the Ibis again which was pretty much the same as in Beijing. We walked along Central street and found some Korean food to eat and just took a general stroll. The streets are filled with ice sculptures and actually the ground was quite slippery.

We went to a nearby park to see ice sculptures which was already amazing to see with all the lights - I could never have imagined what waited for us the next day at the main festival! Afterwards we took a taxi to Shangri-la hotel where they have a restaurant based in a cold room like an igloo where you can have hot pot. It was cool to see, much like the Ice Bar in London but obviously bigger and better! Prices were steep though and it was already so cold so we decided to go somewhere nearer the hotel. We found that restaurants outside of Shanghai seem to close early and already at 9.30pm we were being pushed out the door.

 

Inside the Shangri-la hotel

The next day we got up early and went to the Saint Sofia church which was very beautiful but inside was crazy crowded and costs 20RMB (10RMB for students) to get inside where people are crowding the entrance/exit buying souveniers, the walls filled with photos and the middle with model statues of the city, it didn't seem worth it.

Then we took a taxi to Taiyang Dao (Sun Island) to the Snow festival. Giant sculptures all made out of snow! It was very beautiful to see and so white and clean in the sunlight. The main lake was frozen over and a big castle built where you could slide down on rubber tyres, there were cars you could drive on the snow, sled dogs, people singing and dancing in costume too.

Afterwards we went to the Polarland which cost 130RMB to get in. I was surprised how much more was inside compared to Shanghai Aquarium. There were even polar bears, wolves, arctic foxes, and the opportunity to feed giant fish with milk bottles and feed the sealions. The main show were the beluga whales dancing to My Heart Will Go On.

We managed to negotiate a taxi to take us to the Ice and Snow Scultpure Festival and entrance fee cost 300RMB. It was so cold but worth it. It reached around -30 degrees that night! It was very busy with so many people and many sculptures to slide down. It was such a large scale I had no idea what to expect! Many times I underestimated the cold and my camera struggled to deal with it. There wasn't much food apart from instant noodles but later on we came across KFC which seemed empty of almost everything.

By 9.30pm it was empty in the park it was rather eerie but a good opprtunity to take some photos. I don't plan to go back again but it was worth it at least once in my life to go. I highly recommend wearing ski trousers, lots of layers, definately a hat. I wore double layer gloves, one layer being special ones for using my iPhone and a top layer which were fingerless. Definately wear boots and extra thick socks!

 

Angry Birds is so big in China....