General tips

1. Get a city card.

These cards can be used on buses, the metro as well as on the sky train. Using these cards is not only convenient but will also give you a small discount on all journeys you take. Particularly enjoyable is walking past hordes of people queuing at the ticket machines on the Metro and making your way straight to the train (this is ruined slightly when you realise you have no money on your card and have to join the queue like a chump). You can top your card up at the metro station or in any Zhongbai Supermarket (of which there are hundreds around the city).

2. Hit the roof.

Admittedly this will not be applicable to everyone, but most apartment buildings will have an accessible roof. Generally there isn’t a great deal up there, but if you bring up some chairs, ipod speakers and alcohol it can be a fairly panoramic way to kick a night off (remember to bring friends as well though, otherwise you are just  a lonely alcoholic sitting on a roof).

 3. Join a group/team.

This one is fairly broad and could also be written as ‘get some Chinese friends’. Whilst there are not a great many clubs in Wuhan, many groups of friends will arrange informal games of football or basketball and getting involved in one of these kickarounds is a great way to get to know some Chinese people. Many badminton halls will have a club night, and again if you turn up plenty of people will want to have a game with you (I no longer think I’m good at badminton). Most Chinese people are very friendly and welcoming to foreigners and if you put yourself in a position to meet people on a social basis you will quickly make friends. This can happen anywhere; myself and some friends used to be members of a gym and got friendly with the staff who eventually invited us out for dinner and KTV. Despite the fact that only one of them spoke English and none of us spoke much Chinese it ended up being a great night – until we got way too drunk and belted out Savage Garden songs at the KTV, refusing to let anyone else have a turn. We just had the one night out with them in the end.

 4. Getting a haircut – be careful.

I don’t pretend to be fashionable, and my steadily receding hairline has meant that ‘hairstyle’ is no longer a word in my vocabulary, having said that I feel on solid footing when I say that the ‘cool’ and ‘hip’ hairstyles favoured by many young Chinese men are an affront to fashion. Worse though is that when you get your haircut by a Chinese barber they will inflict this upon you. Make sure you are clear with what you want, and be quick to stop them when the hairspray and comb come out. On the plus side they will wash your hair for you (twice) as well as give you a short head massage so there is an upside.

 

5. Supermarkets – they actually stock some decent stuff.

Confused and perplexed by the array of goods on offer at the supermarket in my first year in China, I invariably stuck with what I knew (coffee, chocolate, fruit). It is very much a case of trial and error, but there are some definite gems to be found. Frozen dumplings, baozi and instant noodles are fairly standard and are worth buying for those days when it is cold and rainy and you don’t want to go outside to buy food. Yoghurt is pretty decent and cheap whilst there is a porridge-esque cereal which you add boiling water to which makes a reasonable breakfast. Beyond that they have dried meat which is quite good for long journeys, and I can definitely vouch for the packets of duck neck (much better than it sounds). In terms of snacks they have a mushroom-shaped biscuity/chocolatey snack which is definitely worth buying as well as a very reasonable array of crackers. Probably give the pig trotters a miss though.