一路顺风 Wishing you soft winds ...

My love for China began when I travelled to see my brilliant and beautiful sister, Jo, in the early 80’s.  She sent me the characters in the title above and they translate as “Wishing you soft winds to fill your sails”; a gracious and traditional bon voyage message in Mandarin.  Here she is when bikes ruled Beijing ...

This time, our first stop is Shanghai and I’m alive to how much things have changed in the last 40 years.  It’s now the third biggest city in the world, with a skyline which has a style all of it’s own. 

When I first came, I remember the dragon roof tiles; single storey, courtyard hutongs – the winter cabbage piled up on every street corner, with a duvet draped over, to keep the frost at bay.  It was Chinese New Year, so firecrackers spiced up the pathways and parks.

Jo was an academic at the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing, an expert in Peking Opera who brought Shakespeare to the street festivals of Beijing.  And yes, that’s me, made up for the role of the painted character – minus the flamboyant headdress and robes of a real Peking Opera professional, below!

It was my spirited sister, Jo, who encouraged me to go travelling.  She speaks elegant and fluent Mandarin and managed to teach me some little phrases to help me navigate a world where red-heads and English were rare.  A great fall-back phrase was “Wo shi ying guo ren” – or “I am a British person” and I’ve a feeling that could be just as useful today, to show that we are not American and have no part in Trump’s America, or his tariffs, which have caused some bad feeling here.  I’ve even pinned a little union jack onto my rucksack …

We’ve just arrived in Shanghai and have a little hotel in the historic French concession, it’s the place where all the different communist cells in China (including Mao Zedong) came together to form a Nationalist party, in 1921 - amongst other things!

Having left the beautiful blossoms and bluebells of Notting Hill, Katie and I are going for a wander to find some cherry blossom here.

I’ll post every few days – so I hope to see you again. All best wishes in the meantime 😊