With a fanfare, loads of fireworks and plenty of whooping we squeezed under the starting clock and set out on the 2010 Shanghai Marathon.
I’m not sure when we actually agreed to this but on Sunday, November 29th, Alex and I will wake up, have a bowl of porridge and go for a 4-5 hour, 42km run around Shanghai.
Well that wasn't so bad. 21km around the beautiful Hangzhou lake. A little more hilly than expected, we descended for 4km, passing the leaders on the other side charging back up. Then along the east side of the lake with a handful of hump-back bridges to roll with. I had enough energy at the end for a sprint as the rain started to fall.
12 km run
42 km cycle
4 km run
If you say the word 'expat', within 30 seconds someone will say 'city shop'. It's basically Shanghai's answer to Whole Foods and is full of western families, their screaming blond kids and their bemused ayi.
So, have been learning characters for a few days. It turns out there is some logic behind it, 70% of the time either the left or the right (or top or bottom or inside or outside) part denotes the meaning and the left (or top or bottom or inside or outside) determines the pronunciation.