I’ve seen this happen before but not on the same scale as last Friday.  Lots of police, probably one on every street corner. Roads closed.  It can mean only one thing.   

Some government officials were coming to town and so In true Chinese style everyone else has to stop what they are doing to allow them safe unobstructed passage to their destination.  A huge motorcade probably at least 50 Audis and 4x4s, lights flashing, sirens blaring driving at high speed.  It’s funny, I’ve never seen so many policemen in Changchun before!  I guess it giuves the officials the chance to look out through their tinted windows and say to themselves ‘look at all the policemen doing their jobs’

When seeing this, I couldn’t help getting the feeling that the government must be terribly afraid of the people.  I understand the need for security, and the need for people in government to be able to go about their business.  But for officials travelling to a economics conference, to inconvenience everyone in the friday rush hour…    In the UK this would only happen if the Queen or the Prime Minister was coming to town.

So I’m on holiday for 7 days.  

The move is complete! Finally took 6 strong men about 5 minutes flat to move everything from the 6th floor to a blue three-wheeler pick-up truck parked outside the gate to my apartment complex.  It’s quite amazing watching the guys lift the heavy bags onto their backs, strapping them together with ropes and using gravity to keep the bags from falling.  It really makes sense when carrying heavy things to use your back, you can carry a lot more and the load is more spread across the body.  Cost only 80元 and I got a free ride in the back of their open truck.

The problem is that for the next week or so I no longer have internet access and when they finally do get around to turning it on, I will be on the dreaded campus network connection.

   Unlike at a UK university the internet connection on campus is pretty slow and most foreign websites are firewalled. I might buy a new keyboard as the F5 (refresh) key is in for a hammering!   However if I go down the road to my local internet cafe, the connection is fast and 99% of stuff I want is available!   I believe it’s a question of the universities simply saving cash, spending it elsewhere on more important things  – luncheons, banquets, gifts etc… 

Maybe that’s a little cynical but I think it’s not too far from the truth.  Anyway I now live in a place that I previously said I would never live in – a ‘Foreign Expert’s Apartment’.  It’s a nice enough apartment, has everything that one would want except any sort of cooking equipment!  They expect me to buy it for myself which is no problem as I already have the stuff from my last place. The biggest advantage of living in such a place is that there is a never ending supply of hot water – the 30 minute shower is no longer a thing of the past!

The downer is that my movements in and out of the building are probably monitored and that they close the doors at 10.30.  If i want to come back later I have to wake-up the man downstairs.  It seems to be okay though.  The guy downstairs is pretty relaxed about things, and I think that as long as I don’t hold an all-night rave or something, there should be no problem.