People do recognise and celebrate this end of year festival in China, but not quite in the same way or with the same amount of marketing fervour. Christmas lights get put up everywhere; shop windows, big malls, across high streets and in the windows of apartments and houses. However, there are no adverts informing us where to buy our presents from or shops trying to ram their products down our throats by suddenly devoting half the store solely to festive goods. There are Christmas trees put up outside malls and people queue up (young and old) to have their photos taken with ... a penguin (well, not a real one, but a grown man stuffed into a big fluffy costume). There is no sign of a jolly, white bearded fat man clad in red anywhere. In his absence, people jostle and push (the Chinese do not queue) to buy tickets so that they can stand by a huge and lavishly decorated tree and be photographed with the flightless bird. Well, at least penguins exist ...   more »

Last weekend, Hannah and I decided that we fancied a trip out of Beijing to see other parts of China; less cosmopolitan areas where there are no western faces wandering importantly around. Looking at various train timetables we came across a place called Tianjin that was only one and a half hours away. That's positively next door for the Chinese, who will happily travel overnight in the most uncomfortable hard sleeper trains if it means they can buy some new shoes and a pair of mittens connected with string through their jacket sleeves ...   more »

Recently, Hannah and I were eating at our favourite restaurant (well, favourite until we eat at any of the other many and varied restaurants near where we live and discover an alternative) when a spot of trouble broke out. We were enjoying stuffing our greedy little western faces when we heard the unmistakable sound of something smashing in the near vicinity. Looking round we saw a local sending a volley of harsh words into the corner of the establishment (well, I assumed they were harsh, especially given the response he received). Some screaming followed his words, as did some more crockery, shattering just over his head. Foolishly he decided that the best course of action was to make immediately for the trouble spot and see if he could sort things out ...   more »