Blogs from Shanhaiguan, Hebei, China, Asia

Breakfast was served in the hotel restaurant until 9 am, so I made my way there around 8:30. There were a few other tables taken, but it wasn't too busy. I was shown to a table and after a short wait my breakfast arrived. I was given a huge wooden box that was divided into 9 equal sized squares. Each one contained a small taster of a different dish. It was really beautifully and imaginatively presented. The box contained: corn and pumpkin, a beef, potato and carrot stew, a sausage and onion dish, onion and peppers, celery, lotus root, greens and peanuts, Chinese pickles with chilli paste, and watermelon. I was also given a bowl of millet porridge, a hard boiled egg, a mantou (Chinese steamed bread roll), and a meat filled baozi (bread dumpling). There ... read more

This weekend, I decided to stay in Luannan (at the school) and catch up on some lesson planning and rest. Three days is a long time to do nothing, so I looked up some Hebei Province sights, on the off-chance that one of them might be close to the school. I discovered that the end of the Great Wall was about 2 hours away by car. The Great Wall of China starts at the coast, running right out into the ocean, and then winds 5,500 miles inland. I asked one of my co-workers for some insight as to what the best way to get to this area would be. It's not in any major city, and the bus system is pretty difficult to navigate. Bringing it up to her ended up being great because there is ... read more

It's been a week since I posted anything, and it's been a jam-packed 7 days. Got a lot of creative writing/reflection/picture-taking done too, but don't have time to include that here. I'll post a link to pics, and just ask if you wanna know more about the personal writing efforts. 9 p.m. an already tired so let's get this started... RECAP written on bus 6/27...Late Monday currently listening to: Starlight Mints Drum & Bell Towers were interesting & informative. Background: During the day, the Chinese would play the 24 accompanying drums and large 25th main drum once every 2hrs, same for the Bell but it was rung at night. They're stored in adjacent facing towers seperated by a small courtyard. They were used as time-telling devices for the whole of Beijing in the days before roman ... read more

Vrijdag 6 juli. Omstreeks 7u30 nemen we in het hotel het ontbijt. Er is uitsluitend Chinees ontbijt d.w.z. twee soorten gepekelde groenten en twee soorten soep , rijstwater en gierst, een ei gekookt in thee en gestoomd brood. Vandaag brengen we een bezoek aan het fort of de ommuurde stad, een wandeling op de grote muur en het museum over de Grote Muur. Shanhaiguan is een meer dan 3000 jaar oude kleine ommuurde stad ten noordoosten van Qinhuangdao, aan het oostelijke eindpunt van de Grote Muur. De stad is in de 4° eeuw van belang vanwege haar strategische ligging op de grens van het Chinese Rijk en het grondgebied van de noordoostelijke (semi)nomadische volkeren. Met de bouw van de grote poort in 618 om de grens te bewaken, is haar naam veranderd van Yuguan naar ... read more