View of Ningbo from a suspension bridge
DongQing Lake banner (from the side)
Olivia, the non-English speaking dude and me
The steps that lead to the stone boat, into the underworld
Erik and me near the waterfall (See background)
Walking over a bridge with boat shed over shoulder
The boat shed
The stone ship that sails into the west
The turtles: signifies a slow, long life 
Statue of Kwan Yi (1)
Statue of Kwan Yi (2)
DongQing Lake, view of the foggy lake
Tian Yi Square water springs at night
Two kids on a crocodile! 
Chinese firework shop!
Moon Lake (1) 
Tian Yi Square 
Moon Lake (2)
Moon Lake (3)City - Ningbo (North eastern Zhejiang province)
Country - China
Est Population (Ningbo) - 5,681,000 (2008)
Currency - please refer to Beijing post here
As you have probably read from Shanghai post I missed my original train to Ningbo, should have arrived at about 14h30 but instead got there around 18h20. Didn't make things easy on myself further still when I just wrote down the hostel name. There is next to no English in Ningbo. Took me about 2 hours to find the hostel and in actuality it was only about 7mins walk from the train station!! C'est la vie. Didn't do very much when I eventually got to the hostel as it was after 21h00 so I just got some food and hit the hay..
Tuesday I got some Chinese dumplings at the hostel and went out to explore the city more. It was bizarre. There are so many people in this "medium" size city, most were still on holidays for the new year. Everybody was staring at me! Ningbo is not a tourist city at all, in fact during my entire stay here I only saw about four caucasian people, some of which were staying at the hostel. This day was going to be low key, I partied so hard in Shanghai my body needed a rest. Took some lovely walks over bridges and just thought about travelling, how much I love it, where I want to go - that sort of thing. Funny to walk around for five hours, singing and whistling songs, saying Nihao (hello in Chinese, phonetically: Nee-how) when I got the accustomed stare.
Went to find some street food after so I walked around near Tian Yi, the main square. Ended up not having street food, found a wonderful place to eat instead. Had a big bowl of rice with a dish of pork and vegetables. Green tea as well, good for the body. It was unbelievably. The waiters/waitresses kept sneaking a peak at me because I refused a knife and fork and wanted to brush up on my chopstick skills. Was so funny, I was eating and playing Su Doku. Two Chinese guys came over as they wanted to speak some English. They hadn't played the game before (Su Doku) so I coached them how to play and they learned incredibly fast. The meal should have cost me 30 RMB but one of the two guys worked at the restaurant and would only take 20 RMB off me!
Wednesday was a slow day for me. The CFA results were coming out so I was anxious with anticipation and nervous to know how I did. The results were to be posted to the web at 09h00 EST (Eastern Standard Time, essentially Washington DC time) which in Ningbo was 22h00 and therefore overshadowed my day to a degree. So I mostly walked around during the day, smoked a few cigarettes to chill me out and read a book almost cover to cover. I went back to the hostel at about 18h30 where I met a Swiss girl (Olivia; Chinese name: Hu Aiwen, silent 'a') and a Chinese guy (Erik; Chinese name: Ye Zhe (pronounced Ger) Ren) on holidays and had a few beers at the hostel with them.
We hung out at the hostel common area til after 22h00, waiting for my results. We had decided to go to a bar that served Paulaner - before 20h00, buy one get one free. After 20h00 buy two get one free. I can get behind that Paulaner offer! Couldn't initially get the results, too many people across the globe doing likewise and the connection at the hostel was less than ideal. So Olivia and myself decided to head on out. The beers were great and we got back to the hostel at 02h30 after getting to the bar circa 23h30. Can't use the Internet terminal at the common area after 00h00 so Olivia got her great Apple laptop out and we were trying to find the wireless without going into the common area! The staff member was asleep in there and wouldn't have been impressed.
Eventually got the connection and the result of pass! Only 38% globally got the green light to move onwards to Level II. Went to bed happy, despite the bedlam of fireworks near the Moon lake, with it still being the spring festival and the 15 days celebrations. Acted as an alarm clock as well because fireworks woke me up at 08h30, crazy stuff.
Thursday I met Erik downstairs at the common area, he was too tired to go out for drinks with Olivia and myself the night prior. Erik told me of this lake he was going to visit and asked to join him, which I happily did. Great call on his part. Even though it took 20mins in a taxi to Ningbo south east bus station and an hour on a bus it was worth it. The bus only cost 2 RMB each way, next to nothing really. DongQian lake was spectacular, a truly surreal paradise in my eyes. Words can never express what my heart felt being in this undeniably beautiful haven. The pictures will tell the tale better than these weak words can.
Country - China
Est Population (Ningbo) - 5,681,000 (2008)
Currency - please refer to Beijing post here
As you have probably read from Shanghai post I missed my original train to Ningbo, should have arrived at about 14h30 but instead got there around 18h20. Didn't make things easy on myself further still when I just wrote down the hostel name. There is next to no English in Ningbo. Took me about 2 hours to find the hostel and in actuality it was only about 7mins walk from the train station!! C'est la vie. Didn't do very much when I eventually got to the hostel as it was after 21h00 so I just got some food and hit the hay..
Tuesday I got some Chinese dumplings at the hostel and went out to explore the city more. It was bizarre. There are so many people in this "medium" size city, most were still on holidays for the new year. Everybody was staring at me! Ningbo is not a tourist city at all, in fact during my entire stay here I only saw about four caucasian people, some of which were staying at the hostel. This day was going to be low key, I partied so hard in Shanghai my body needed a rest. Took some lovely walks over bridges and just thought about travelling, how much I love it, where I want to go - that sort of thing. Funny to walk around for five hours, singing and whistling songs, saying Nihao (hello in Chinese, phonetically: Nee-how) when I got the accustomed stare.
Went to find some street food after so I walked around near Tian Yi, the main square. Ended up not having street food, found a wonderful place to eat instead. Had a big bowl of rice with a dish of pork and vegetables. Green tea as well, good for the body. It was unbelievably. The waiters/waitresses kept sneaking a peak at me because I refused a knife and fork and wanted to brush up on my chopstick skills. Was so funny, I was eating and playing Su Doku. Two Chinese guys came over as they wanted to speak some English. They hadn't played the game before (Su Doku) so I coached them how to play and they learned incredibly fast. The meal should have cost me 30 RMB but one of the two guys worked at the restaurant and would only take 20 RMB off me!
Wednesday was a slow day for me. The CFA results were coming out so I was anxious with anticipation and nervous to know how I did. The results were to be posted to the web at 09h00 EST (Eastern Standard Time, essentially Washington DC time) which in Ningbo was 22h00 and therefore overshadowed my day to a degree. So I mostly walked around during the day, smoked a few cigarettes to chill me out and read a book almost cover to cover. I went back to the hostel at about 18h30 where I met a Swiss girl (Olivia; Chinese name: Hu Aiwen, silent 'a') and a Chinese guy (Erik; Chinese name: Ye Zhe (pronounced Ger) Ren) on holidays and had a few beers at the hostel with them.
We hung out at the hostel common area til after 22h00, waiting for my results. We had decided to go to a bar that served Paulaner - before 20h00, buy one get one free. After 20h00 buy two get one free. I can get behind that Paulaner offer! Couldn't initially get the results, too many people across the globe doing likewise and the connection at the hostel was less than ideal. So Olivia and myself decided to head on out. The beers were great and we got back to the hostel at 02h30 after getting to the bar circa 23h30. Can't use the Internet terminal at the common area after 00h00 so Olivia got her great Apple laptop out and we were trying to find the wireless without going into the common area! The staff member was asleep in there and wouldn't have been impressed.
Eventually got the connection and the result of pass! Only 38% globally got the green light to move onwards to Level II. Went to bed happy, despite the bedlam of fireworks near the Moon lake, with it still being the spring festival and the 15 days celebrations. Acted as an alarm clock as well because fireworks woke me up at 08h30, crazy stuff.
Thursday I met Erik downstairs at the common area, he was too tired to go out for drinks with Olivia and myself the night prior. Erik told me of this lake he was going to visit and asked to join him, which I happily did. Great call on his part. Even though it took 20mins in a taxi to Ningbo south east bus station and an hour on a bus it was worth it. The bus only cost 2 RMB each way, next to nothing really. DongQian lake was spectacular, a truly surreal paradise in my eyes. Words can never express what my heart felt being in this undeniably beautiful haven. The pictures will tell the tale better than these weak words can.
The lake was huge, we only tipped the top of the iceberg. There was a wondrous statue of Kwan Yin, the mother of the west. In Buddhism they believe you cross over a bridge - which represents you passing out of this world into the underworld - after which you climb up steps and board a stone ship. The ship sails into the west, the phrase used for passing into the Buddhist afterlife. It was so great that Erik could explain this to me as there wasn't really any English to explain the significance of the layout, the mystery of which would have been lost on me without Eriks instruction.
We went to a few temples nearby and, due to Erik explaining, there are no pictures of this. Out of respect for the monks Chinese people do not take pictures at temples. A place of prayer and meditation. Therefore, I followed suit and did likewise. I cannot utter the emotions I felt as I walked candidly around in wonder. This is a truly special place and will not be forgotten by me.
After spending much time wandering we took some pictures that flowed into the lake and then had to make our way back. It was almost 16h00 and Erik was leaving at 18h30 from the hostel. We got back to the city centre and went to a famous food market that had all sorts of Chinese delicacies, my tastebuds were thanking me!
We went back to the hostel thereafter and had a drink before Erik had to depart. After that I just sort of hung out at the hostel with Olivia and a Chinese dude who couldn't speak any English. He appreciated it when I bought him three beers at the supermarket and in return, back at the hostel, he gave me a large glass of cognac! Was happy about that and sipped on it for quite a while! As the evening wore on a few Chinese guys arrived, I was sitting on my own and they came over and asked me a chess question: "Which has all the power, the King or the Queen". An obvious answer for anyone who knows chess. After that I watched a bit and then played the next game. Four Chinese guys against me! I ended up losing but it was pretty funny. Went to bed at about 00h30, had to get up at 08h00 to prepare for the two trains the next day.
Not much to report on Friday. Left Ningbo by train back to Shanghai at 09h50 for a connecting train to Kowloon in Hong Kong. Luckily with the backpack and the mini-bp on the front of my body the train station was within easy reach. Arrived in Shanghai at about 13h30 with my next train onwards to Kowloon at 17h09. Leaving mainland China to enter HK requires immigration control. Haven't had to do that in quite a while (not since going through Slovenia to Zagreb, Croatia, August 2003).
The 20 hour train ride was mostly uneventful, just read a book and kept to myself. Not speaking Chinese makes that rather easy! The only thing worth mentioning was that I didn't manage to sleep in the soft sleeper beds (2 beds on either side of the cabin, softer beds obviously), when I made my train ticket bookings they were already sold out. Instead I had to sleep within a hard sleeper cabin (sounds worse than it actually was). There are three beds either side and less space. Unfortunately for me I had to sleep on the very top bed. Was annoying trying to get up and down!
Train arrived at HK circa 13h05 and luckily didn't take much time to locate the hostel. HK post will be hopefully jotted up within the next couple of days. Peace out.
The 20 hour train ride was mostly uneventful, just read a book and kept to myself. Not speaking Chinese makes that rather easy! The only thing worth mentioning was that I didn't manage to sleep in the soft sleeper beds (2 beds on either side of the cabin, softer beds obviously), when I made my train ticket bookings they were already sold out. Instead I had to sleep within a hard sleeper cabin (sounds worse than it actually was). There are three beds either side and less space. Unfortunately for me I had to sleep on the very top bed. Was annoying trying to get up and down!
Train arrived at HK circa 13h05 and luckily didn't take much time to locate the hostel. HK post will be hopefully jotted up within the next couple of days. Peace out.
All the best,
Liam O'Connor, travelling hobbit
Liam,I am coming,your blog are very perfect !very details.I wish your blog can attract more friends to see!
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