A letter from China

Dear Mum and Dad,

sorry to not have been in touch i took my shaver charger instead of my phone charger..(: at least the personal grooming is at an all time high this trip! plus i had the most thorough ever haircut where they massage your head first and clean your face and ears, Mum you know you always told me 'If it doesn't feel right James, don't do it'.. well a man cleaning out my inner ear with his pinky felt wrong..

we're in Chengdu, 12 million people and i never even heard of it.. they like hiphop out here, but not as we know it- have to throw a lot of very obvious tunes in there that they know, not just do Beggars tunes, but we flip it up with some Roger, Noisia, Dam Funk, Wiley, Nirvana , keep it moving with beatbox/scratch interludes, and pav chatting chenglish.. they loved it

today it was the 60th yr independence celebrations... incredible.. next level nationalisation indoctrination going on.. everyone waving their flags and singing songs about 'beautiful land of china, with rivers of happiness flowing through the mountains of our resolution' etc etc..

its warm here, but you never see the sun- too covered in smog, but the airs noway as bad as in beijing, oh.. Zani just informed me 'its the topography of the nearby mountains influencing cloud cover'.

The mountains, and tibet are really close, we're going to see the biggest buhda in the world tomorrow, he's carved in a mountain.
still on uk time which is gonna make getting up at 6 in the morning, in 3 hours time interesting..

2 things Chengdu is most famous for; 1. they have pandas here, 2. Everything is served with a bucket of chilis. Pigged out on street barberque with Hakeem and Rachel from Djini.com.. at first hesitant at being handed a bloodied plastic basket, raw hunger took over... they have aubergine, mushrooms, tofu, veg, all the meats.. its just best to eat it and eat not think too much about what bit, or species it is (hold tight Zani with the duck feet), besides they cover it all in chili and spices. 3 hrs later the gut still feels firm though, hope it holds out.. this girl tonight told us about this place in sechuan province nearby where they eat live baby mice brains- im told they have the consistancy of toothpaste... and yes Mum they eat dogs too ):

being well looked after by Jennifer @chinaunlimited.. looking forward to Nang Jin in 2 days..

Hows the canal boating?

lots of love

James