Woke up on Saturday with no hangover....yippee. The horrible looking but tasty kebab I had on the way home must have sobered me up. Jeremy, our friend, we met a few weeks ago, took us out sight seeing around Ningbo. We met in Tiyani square and walked through the old are of Moon Lake, where there is a beautiful park and big lake in the heart of the city. In stark contrast to this we walked through some historic areas where they are renovating the property. Although the buildings marked with 'X' will be sadly torn down, you will see one on one of my snaps.
The walk was really interesting and was nice to experience a different side to Ningbo, as so far we've mainly just been to shops and non chinese restaurants. After a lengthy stroll we found ourselves at Tianyige Library. This is the oldest library building in China. It is famous for its collection of rare books dating back to the 11th century. It was built in the Ming Dynasty during the reign of emperor Jia Jing. At the entrance there was a chinese family having their picture take, we cheekily jumped in and wow they were excited to see us.
The library was truly spectacular, the architecture and the carving were beautiful. I really felt like I was transported back in time. The library holds a vast collection of books, Jeremy told us that these are all under climate control to protect them from decay. The library doesn't look like a typical library as it's home to beautiful gardens and was someone's home. There was also an incredible stage area for plays. This was incredible.
Dinner time soon approached so we went to Papa Johns for pizza. Delicious. The only annoying thing about China is that nowhere understands the difference between starter, main and side order so you literally get everything when they decide to bring it out. It didn't matter to much as I was starving.
The majority of us have been suffering with colds and chesty coughs, and this isn't helped by having cold showers in our dormitory. When there is no sun, the solar panels don't work and hence the cold showers which are grim. Jeremy suggested we should go and have our hair washed at a salon he'd said it was something we must experience in China. And my golly gosh it was. 70 rmb which is about £7 for a shampoo, rinse, 30 minute massage, and blow dry is unreal. Luckily Jeremy speaks chinese so he was able to explain just a wash and dry so no scissors would not be involved. Once towelled up a man wearing a surgical mask started squirting shampoo and water and massaging my head, this lasted for about 15 minutes I could feel my eyes closing. After a quick rinse we were whisked back to our chairs for a head, neck, shoulder, arm and hand massage. This was quite intense but enjoyable. I'm quite funny with how people blow dry my hair and like it to be dried with a slight curl so I showed the man a picture and wow he got it right. So happy and yet so tired, no Saturday night drinks for us. An early night was on the cards.
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