Author Archives: admin

I don’t often go to Auchan Supermarket but I shall be going a lot more now I can buy 100% disposable plastic bags.  I’m sure that’s not what they mean but it makes me smile anyhow.

I wouldn’t have agreed to go to Nantong if I had known there were no fast trains serving the city. I had already agreed to give a one hour at the city’s best middle school when I decided to check the train times. The fastest train takes 4 hours and stops everywhere and in any… Read More »

One of the enduring wonders of life in China is why the Chinese consider chicken’s feet edible. They come in all sorts of ways; boiled, fried, crunchy, soggy and of course raw, so that you can make them them to your own taste. DeJi Plaza is the largest shopping centre in downtown Nanjing and BHG… Read More »

I don’t often take the train from Shanghai Hongqiao Station but as I hadn’t got a ticket, and because there are plenty more fast trains from there to Nanjing than the old station, I thought I’d ring the changes. The ticket office is, thankfully, inside the station unlike other ticket offices (Nanjing and Shanghai old… Read More »

Lynn had her driver for the day and Mahjong had been cancelled so she was kicking her heels. I suggested she come down here, pick me up and we could go across to the island on the river where I had never been but often wondered about. It would be hard to get there without… Read More »

Spring came for a few days last week and hoards of people headed up to the Purple Mountain to see the plum blossom. Lynn and I decided to join the crowds but luckily she had her driver which saved a lot of logistical arrangements and walking.  Even though it was a week day there were… Read More »

The sky is on fire, the streets are crackling and the cats are making a yawling noise and hiding under the sofa. It must be New Year again. I thought it might be quieter down here at Tressie’s house but it looks out onto a bridge over a lake and it makes an ideal launch… Read More »

My friend, the mad maths professor Zhemin, and his wife invited me to lunch in a nice hotel in Shanghai on Tuesday. As they they had mentioned Nanjing salted duck several months ago I thought it would be nice to take them one for the Spring Festival. I got it from the market for £2… Read More »

 Unusually I was invited to do some work down in Hangzhou and it was handy as I had already decided to go there for a few days to give my lungs a break. A few nights in a plush hotel with a suite including kitchen, washing machine and more, was just what I needed.  I… Read More »