Latest Blog Post

Hangzhou was my favourite city in China and is about 500km South of Shanghai.

It’s closer to the East coast and it’s warm and it’s young and vibrant. If I was choosing one place to live, out of the five places I was in visited in China, it would be here.

This city is vibrant. There are loads of lights, loads of brands that you know (there is familiarity in those brands when you’re somewhere else) it has a lovely feel about it and it’s warm.

Earlier in the afternoon I have been taken to West Lake which is a UNESCO world heritage site of natural beauty and a large lake outside of Hangzhou. We go across the lake on a little boat with a guy at the back paddling and then we walk around the side of the lake. There are choirs of old people singing and dancing and young rock bands, street performers and little cafes and shops. It’s very beautiful.

The guys from Geistlich promise to take me for a high tea in a special place. As we approach the special place I laugh out loud.

The special place is Costa!

Costa is the second most popular coffee shop in China behind Starbucks, I had no idea Costa was even outside Britain until I got to Dubai airport on this trip.

The branding thing is bizarre because, as I said above, you feel safe in the brands that you know and I’m sure, even at home, that this is how branding works. Once you’re familiar you’re comfortable and it becomes like a blanket, like a duvet, like part of ‘your club’.

They reassured me on arrival at Shanghai airport, because being the total novice that I am to travel in this country, I suspected that after my fingerprints had been scanned and linked to my passport (they do this for everyone between the ages of 14 and 70 – it’s a great idea) I would walk out into a baggage hall which was surrounded by pictures of communist China and propaganda and messages to behave yourself. Instead I walked out to a baggage hall totally adorned by large photographs of Lewis Hamilton advertising Tommy Hilfiger clothes.

The Shanghai Grand Prix had just happened at the weekend and the ATP world tour tennis was just about to start.

There’s so much about this country that’s so similar and so much which is so different. The cows stomach, the goose intestine, the fish heads and the hot water served at the table are all quite bizarre to me in my little British bubble but so many fundamental things are the same.

There is a massive and mushrooming Chinese middle class which, by my assertion (and I’ve only such a limited view) is one or two generations behind what happened to us in the 1980s and 90s.

In those days, to push yourself up the ladder, both husband and wife worked really hard and sometimes the kids were looked after by Grandparents or someone else.

Nowadays it’s less common (although still common) for both partners to work full time and crazy hours but in China it seems to be the norm for at least the people I have met.

The Head of Education for China is a lady who calls herself ‘Maggie’ – her British name. She has a two and a half year old boy called Chou-Chou.

In April, she was at home for one day.

Regularly every month she is away for half the days and Chou-Chou is looked after by his Aunt. This is because the middle class youngsters in China want to push themselves to a better place and they see examples of this ahead of them in the guise of people like Mr Wuan who is the Head of Geistlich China.

I don’t know where he lives or how big his house is (he may live in an apartment) but his driver collected me from Beijing airport in a Tesla and took me on a tour around the Bird’s Nest Stadium and the Water Cube which was a massive highlight of the trip.

I have never been in a Tesla before, in fact i’ve barely seen any, and I was massively impressed, but more massively impressed by the fact that somebody in China had a Tesla, even though I didn’t even think I could get my hands on one in the UK.

Why was I ever so arrogant to think that wouldn’t be the case?

I guess there is a theme to these blogs and the theme was my utterly unperceived arrogance at where I was in world order and society order before I came here.

Everybody wants the things that we have or the things we want. People in their 30’s in China want branded handbags, trainers and watches, holidays and cars and houses and education for their children.

Chinese people love their children (at least from what I have seen) and that’s what prompted me to write this little piece.

So after West Lake at Hangzhou and high tea at Costa (I had a flat white and a muffin because I had had enough cow's stomach!!) we set off with the driver to the airport.

The driver today is Mr Peng and he’s older than me but he’s cool.

His hair is shaved all around the sides and on top it’s like a crew cut but it’s grey and he has a jacket on which is like a little waterproof running jacket with jeans and trainers. He looks cool.

His car is a Land Rover!

So we’re passing over the bridge beside the station in Hangzhou (this is an absolutely enormous bit of work this station) and we’re stuck in a traffic jam, sat in our white Land Rover with leather seats listening to rock music on the radio as Mr Peng wants to take a selfie with me and him both making a ‘V for victory’ sign with our fingers because, seemingly he things I’m cool for some reason (big mistake mate)

I look right out of the car and on the railway bridge looking down at the trains coming in and out is a Grandfather and his Grandson.

They’ve stopped to watch the trains.

The Grandfather rides one of the electric bikes that are everywhere in China. These are like little motorbikes but they are all electric, in fact they’re not allowed in cities to have petrol motorbikes. He’s propped the bike against the edge of the bridge and the little boy is sat on a platform. We’re stuck in traffic so I watch them for minutes. The Grandfather can make the little boy, who is probably about three years old, laugh at the drop of a hat.

Whatever the Grandfather does or says the little boys laughs uncontrollably with the delight and sheer joy of someone laughing like it seems so long since I have done.

They look at each other and they love each other unconditionally and totally and they watch the trains and the little boy is alive with curiosity.

Chinese people eat fish heads and cow stomachs and their driving is utterly insane, I might write a blog about this later but it’s utterly crazy.

But Chinese people love their children and they work really, really hard and the Grandparents look after the children.

This society works hard and grows and gets better.

Perhaps consumption will kill the planet, perhaps all the plastic bottles I’ve seen will clog the seas and future generations will all be dead.

But I wonder, I wonder whether these guys and people like these guys will find a solution because they work so hard because it feels like anything could happen here.

Blog Post Number: 1803