Radio86 journalists Asa Butcher and Iona Orbinski-Vonk are travelling in China for the first time in their lives. Their destination is the fascinating Sichuan province - the home of panda bears. In this blog, Asa tells our readers how an Englishman is faring in the Middle Kingdom.

Click here to read Day Five...

Day six, the halfway mark, and I have finally been able to hone my research into one particular aspect of Chinese culture, courtesy of a two-hour traffic stand-still for absolutely no reason tonight. An hour

of this wait was spent leaning against the car, inside a road tunnel, marvelling at the sonorous acoustics that accompanied every HUURRRGHHH-SPLAT.

Spitting is almost an art form here in China, with some of the participants pushing for a future place on any Olympic Team, should Phlegm Hurling be added to the Games' roster. I wouldn't be surprised to see some people able to loop-the-loop with their spit or even covertly hit a small child from a few metres away.

I once believed that spitting was one of the most disgusting acts people do in public and it did grate upon my very moral fibre every time I heard HURGH-HUURRGGH-HUURRRRGH, but I can now easily state that spitting has been knocked off the top spot.

There is a new number one and it involves emptying your nasal cavities directly on to the street – I even involuntarily shuddered when I typed that. Spitting is disgusting, but witnessing two shots from a double-barrelled nostril rifle is in a category all of its own and, again, if there was a World Championships the Chinese would be pushing for gold.

Let me state that not everybody spit or vacates their noses without a tissue and the two acts are being discouraged. However, when either of these acts occur it does seem to inspire some-sort of relay event in which the act is repeated by others close-by, probably hoping to also impress any talent scouts that maybe watching.

I'm off to bed now; it is rather late and we have a visit to an irrigation project tomorrow. I might ask if there is any way for China to harness the nation's spittage and perhaps use it as an alternative irrigation program... remember, you heard it here first.

Click here to read Day Seven...

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