The Cotswolds, England

We left London in our hired Vauxhall, passing Big Ben as we crossed the Thames River.  Five minutes later, to our surprise, we found ourselves passing Big Ben again as we crossed the Thames a second time, over the same bridge.  And then a third, 15 minutes later!  The tension in the car was rising but we didn’t make the same mistake again, and within two hours after jaunts along the M4, M25 & M40, we arrived in the Cotswolds region to the north west of Oxford.

Think English storybook village scenes – think the Cotswolds.  Few places on Earth are as beautiful as these timeless centuries-old villages, most of which sport intriguingly quaint names like Chipping Sodbury, Upper Slaughter, The Rissingtons, and Moreton in Marsh.

We checked into the excellent Over the Bridge B&B in the serenest village of them all, Bourton-on-the-Water, through which the shallow River Windrush silently glides to the satisfaction of the local ducks and trout.  Fortified the next morning with a large hot English breakfast, we set out to see and stroll in a few of the nearby towns and villages.  Our favourites were Chipping Camden, Broadway, Stow on the Wold, Lower Slaughter and Bourton-on-the-Water.  But they’re all beautiful, each possessing its own unique character.

We stopped for a late picnic lunch in the characterful graveyard surrounding the 13th century Saint Eadburgha’s Church at Snowshill above Broadway.  From there it was a short journey along narrow tree-lined roads back to Bourton, the last of the day’s sun rays flashing between the hedges.  But there was no need to look out for kangaroos, and the Vauxhall was more than a match for any pheasant thinking of making a dash.

London, England

Ah London.  Is there a more interesting city anywhere? - we doubt it.  And with Will & Kate’s nuptials looming too, who could resist?  So we hot-tailed it from Qingdao, stopping en-route for a night or two in Hangzhou and Kuala Lumpur.  In London we settled into a hotel in Westminster and began to ready ourselves for the big day.  But with time to spare we also took in a few of the sights and experiences of the city.  The highlights for us were the eclectic treasures of the Victoria & Albert Museum, the National Gallery, paella and beer for lunch at the Covent Garden Sunday market, strolling around the boating lake in Regent’s Park on a sunny afternoon, and seeing Blood Brothers at the Phoenix in Soho.

Coincidentally it was Easter when we were in London and while this added a lot to the holiday atmosphere across town, there was a downside – many of the shops were closed, with the result that come Monday Lee Tuan still had “nothing to wear” for the big day.  And for my part, the prospect of rubbing shoulders with Posh, Thorpedo and Lionel Ritchie was losing its sparkle.

“The wedding’s off!”, we agreed, and headed for Scotland.              

Qingdao (Tsingtao), Shandong, China

We flew to Qingdao for the weekend, mercifully not long before an onshore wind swept in to clear away the thick air pollution that had graced our arrival and left us with sore eyes and throats for a day.  A prosperous east coast city between Shanghai and Beijing, Qingdao was the location of the 2008 Olympic Games’ yachting events.  But it’s much better known for its colonial German heritage and as the associated birthplace of China’s favourite beer, Tsingtao.

The Germans muscled their way into Tsingtao in 1898 following the killing of two German missionaries in the area, and stayed until World War 1.  During their time here they built a substantial German town, many of whose buildings survive today in varying states of repair, and China’s first beer brewery.  Modern day Qingdao is pleased with its German heritage and promotes it heavily in its tourism marketing.

We checked into the Oceanwide Elite Hotel on the Qingdao waterfront, next door to the former Prince Heinrich Hotel, and from our 3rd floor window watched hundreds of people walk up and down the Zhan Pier, and at the end, around the Huilan Pavilion whose image appears on the Tsingtao beer bottle.

It was easy to spend a couple of days strolling around the old German quarter, and the newer, modern city centre a few kilometres to the East.  Between them are several excellent sandy beaches lapped by clean ocean water, and along the esplanade, wide promenades busy with families out for a walk, a spot of fishing, or to fly their kites.

Feet up in Shanghai, China

We stayed a week in Hangzhou, then flew on to Guangzhou in Guangdong province in the far south of China for my third and final class this visit.  The class was actually held in Qingyuan, a green sub-tropical city 50 km to the north, just above the Pearl River Delta that drains into the South China Sea.  Much of the taxi service in Qingyuan is provided by men on motorbikes, so we soon found ourselves criss-crossing the city centre as pillion passengers on bikes weaving adeptly through the traffic, delivering us to Cantonese restaurants much more quickly than would otherwise have been possible.  After class one day we visited the “Golden Phoenix”, the new Qingyuan People’s Hospital.  It was a huge, modern complex with the latest equipment – the Outpatient Department alone occupied a floor area of five hectares!  Another evening the class chartered a multi-deck sightseeing boat to take us all down the Bei Jiang (“North River”) – the anchor was dropped midstream at sunset and we enjoyed a dinner of fish, eel, shrimps, chicken and vegetables, all caught or grown within a stone’s throw of here.  At one point we passed under a high, narrow concrete bridge as the 350 km per hour fast train to Wuhan streaked overhead.

While I was teaching in Qingyuan, Lee Tuan took a train to Hong Kong for the weekend to visit her cousin and new baby, and other relatives who had flown in from Singapore for the baby’s one month old “Mua Guek” celebration.  We met again at the Guangzhou International Airport on Monday morning, my work now completed, and from there we flew north to Shanghai to take a few days’ rest.

Shanghai was at its best.  The sky was unusually blue and bright and the air perfect for walking.  Since our previous visit to this most vibrant of Chinese cities, the subway system has been extended to both the Pudong International and Hongqiao Airports.  From the latter, where we arrived from Guangzhou, it was only a short 30 minute ride on Subway Line 2 to the West Nanjing Road stop in the city centre, close to the JC Mandarin Hotel where we checked in for a few days.  At night we walked along the recently redeveloped Bund, the riverside precinct along the Huangpu River and location of the 2010 Shanghai International Expo.  It’s a great place for an after-dark stroll – the Pudong skyscrapers sparkling along the river’s eastern bank, the old restored British colonial-era buildings glowing on the west.