Sunday, July 4, 2010

China Travels - Part 1


Day 1 - 20/06 Depart for Taiyuan from Hejin (our home city) at 8am for a 4 1/2 hour bus trip. Arrive safely and look for a place to stay for 2 nights.
Find a very average place for R100/room/night but we have ensuite bathroom which means we stay.

Day 2 - 21/06 We (Gareth, another teacher with our company from the UK is with us) leave for the medical exam centre around 09h15 to have our medical done.
We need this in order to apply for our Z-visa (work visa) and is the only reason we came to Taiyuan (the capital of our province, Shanxi).
The medical was harmless and Gareth leaves straight afterwards for his further travels. I Have a very average cup of Brazilian coffee for R31! One ride at the local
fun fare wasn't all that bad, but then again, I am hardcore (cant wait for Hong Kong Disneyland!!)

Day 3 - 22/06 Decide to upgrade to a hotel down the road. Super kif room (tripple the price but it was worth it). Met a Spanish architect who happened to be on our same flight to Shenzhen the next morning. Missed the SA vs FRANCE game but fluked the first goal on TV in our room (live).

Day 4 - 23/06 Checked out at 6am and left for the airport for our 8am flight. Got ripped off by the taxi driver. Chatted to the Spanish architect (Jorge) for a while and nearly missed the flight. Arrived at the hostel in Shenzhen around 12pm (ITS FREAKIN HOT HERE!!) and waiting for our room. Went to a theme park around the corner the afternoon which was good fun. Found a Star Bucks (stoked!) by accident while looking for a dinner spot later in the evening.

Day 5 - 24/06: Had a good nights rest. Met a Chinese guy at the hostel looking for work in Shenzhen (Eric) who we hanged with quite a bit today. Helped us buy our tickets to Xiamen for Monday (got the soft sleeper seats STOKED). Had a late lunch and met Eric again later for our 2nd round of Star Bucks

Day 6 - 25/06: Checked out of the hostel and met the Hong Kong crew and left for the weekend trip to Meizhou and 3 Rivers. Left Shenzhen around 14h30 with a group of 22 (the rest of the 22 came later that night) for a 6 hour drive which turned into 8 hours after an accident on the way (not by us). Arrived around 10pm and still had dinner with some locals. Sleep time quite late after watching some World Cup!

Day 7 - 26/06: Just so so rad to hang with brothers again - and pumoed up brothers too. Our first stop in the a.m is at a church nicknamed "Acts Church" because of all the radical stuff that goes down there. Quite a timid time since there has been a bit of a stair among the locals about the "charismatic" vibe and some material that has been circulated causing some resistance. Ryan Aitkin (sporting a recent tattoo on the upper/inner right arm) preached a ripper! Off to another church (quite a bit bigger than te previous one) and Candice preached and we prayed for healing etc afterwards. Bunch of healings but no salvations as the rain on the day caused only the locals to pullin.
Then lunch and end the Saturday with another meeting which was just as rad and leaves me exhausted but spiritually buzzing with the reality of the Kingdom in China and finally being part of it.

Day 8 - 27/06: The final day and we only have one meeting at a church Esther (the living legend Chinese lady) built and where Candice stayed with a mate for a few months a while ago. Amazing place and amazing meeting. 10 or so salvations and bunch of healings afterwards as well. The have some lunch and end with a meeting at a school that wants us to pullin for ongoing English teaching/training and gospel preaching combo relationship vibes. Blew my mind sitting in a meeting where a principal confesses his faith and welcomes us to teach in the morning and preach the gospel and heal the sick etc in the afternoons IN CHINA !!! WHAT THE STUFF !!!!

Loving these Hong Kong guys - fully free, free thinkers and not tied up in theolical insignificances (probably not a real word). Love Jesus passionately, believe 100% gospel, 100% Kingdom and know exactly who they are and what they're capable of in Christ. No man made traditions, and religious webs or fear of anything. Flippin love these guys. Still amazes me that anyone who loves Jesus and has His spirit can have anything against Rob and the Hong Kong guys, absolutely ridiculous I tell you.

Day 9 - 28/06: Worst day ever. Consists of getting ready for train trip, checking out, having lunch, having StarBucks (obviously), heading to main train station (via local tubes), train being delayed and therefore waiting in 2 other long queues to exchange tickets and go back home with ALL our luggage etc etc etc. AND it was FREAKIN HOT AGAIN. So not a great day, but we made it back to the hostel again to start the process over the following day.

Day 10 - 29/06: Better today since we actually made our train to Guangzhou. Waited at the station a few short hours and departed for Xiamen from Guangzhou around 19h00 for a 13 hour-odd trip. We paid RMB380 odd each for soft sleeper compartments. Consists of 4 beds in a closed off compartment and a relatively good bed (closed off to other compartments). WAY worth the extra bucks!! (If you want to save money you can go for a hard seat, soft seat or hard bed option, but not recommended for anything over a few hours)

Day 11 - 30/06: Arrived in Xiamen around 09h00 and got ripped off by a private taxi driver to get to the ferry (he reckoned 20 min’s away, only turned out to be 12, I timed it) A new town will often mean getting ripped off when they see the bags and foreign faces, so you learn quickly. Took the ferry to Paul and Tori’s section of Xiamen, and then a bus to their apartment. By the way, FREAKIN HOT IN SOUTERN CHINA!!!

Day 12 - 31/06: Paul and Tori have been hosting us magnificently (writing this in the past tense) and they are doing well. Tori is FULLY pregnant and they are in the process of confirming the date for the C-section operation at the hospital. They have aircon (bless their souls).

Day 13 – 01-03/07: Paul has coffee (roasts and grinds his own coffee, legend) and wifi setup with streaming TV so I could follow the quarter finals of the Football, stoked! GAAN HOLLAND GAAN!! Days spent mostly just relaxing indoors with aircon, movies, iPod (Chinese “studies”) etc. Our first real proper break to relax for a few days.

Day 14 - 04/07: Paul and Tori left today for the hospital and we have the place to ourselves until Tuesday the 6th. Used their portable splash pool on their veranda today (hope you guys don’t mind). Jan and I also seriously keen to study UNISA (teaching degrees) so were looking into the options. Not easy from China, but easier from Hong Kong, so we will see how the next few weeks and months unfold, EXCITING TIMES !!

2 comments:

  1. Wow Derik en Bettiekie!!! Wat n vol lewe! Wonderlik om te lees hoe veel julle dit geniet EN wat julle bereik. GELUK~ek is so trots op julle Mamma.

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