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Published: December 19th 2010
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Kite Seller, Pingshanting Lu
Yet another local entrepreneur Photos:
as usual you can click on the photos in this blog to enlarge them.
…..Peter insists I go to jam at music shop, near the Da Run Fa. Reluctantly I go to join a band of young Chinese guys practising a bizarre collection of western songs, including “I'll be watching you”, (Sting), “Country Roads”, (yes, THAT song), Nirvana, Metallica & Xu Wei. We all get along well. I don't know whether I really want to commit Saturday evenings, even for 3 hours or so, to it, especially as I have three students to tutor on Sundays.....
…..still no firm plans made for the Chun Jie or Spring Festival, coming up very quickly. Actually in the middle of winter this year our holiday is from mid-January to mid February. It is of course notoriously difficult to organise transport in advance in China (unless you are flying). I should make some effort to organise accommodation (in the hope that I can arrive to make use of it). It's often possible to book a hotel or hostel in advance over the phone without a deposit.....
…..no, I'm not heading north for next year's Spring festival. I see
Daming Si, Yangzhou
A magnificent wood framed structure built in the 1930s a report on the China Daily news as I log onto QQ that the temperature in the town of Genhe, in Inner Mongolia dropped to -45°C this week. There's a line to be drawn & that sort of temperature is far away on the other side of it.....
…..even in Yangzhou we are finding it cold. The first flurry of snow today, hardly anything really but enough to emphasise the icy wind. The teachers' office mercifully has heating but with classroom doors & windows open & no heating there, I'm wearing my beanie to work.....
…..synchronicity! A call from Miss Piggy tonight on QQ, reiterating the offer to spend the New Year with her, her boyfriend & his family in Guiyang, Guizhou province. It's a couple of hundred kilometres south of Chongqing & a little further from Chengdu, both places on my list to visit. It would also be a detour of sorts on the way back from Hainan in the tropical south, if I end up going there. The holiday is fast approaching & no decision made yet. The Chinese way. I wonder what colour Miss Piggy will be wearing. Let me guess, maybe – pink?......
View from Daming Si
View from Daming Si (Buddhist Temple) …..I buy some very large chocolate coins in shiny, gold anodised aluminium foil wrapping as presents for A grade students in the recent test. It's not a huge expense. So few students made it to a grade A (or B, for which I have a few erasers & lollies as gifts). They are well received, except in class 3/9 where no one even reached a B grade.....
…..I offer to shout dinner for the Chinese teachers in my office this week. They agree on Tuesday evening as the time when the greatest number will be available to go. Their workloads preclude all being available at the same time. On the day it's deemed too cold to go out in the evening. I'm surprised but don't yet know the Chinese words for, “piker”, “wimp” or “wuss”. I'm not even sure about the spelling of the latter.....
…..having managed to break the aluminium framed circular chair I bought from the Da Run Fa less than a couple of weeks ago, (the aluminium frame got bent), I return it to the Da to see if I can get a refund. They return my ¥189 without question. I decide to look elsewhere
View to the North, Daming Si
View of Yangzhou from Daming Si (Buddhist Temple) before getting a replacement but, on on going inside & seeing the same chair on special this week at ¥149 I just can't resist.....
…..I shouldn't single out Americans when many Australians are so wasteful with resources but I have to say they take the biscuit when it comes to profligacy here. I knock on doors & wait for an answer but, despite the lights all being on & often a computer & heater too there is no reply as they are not in. I am reminded of how we westerners generally are not as conscious about conservation as the Chinese. One Saturday a small group of foreign teachers walking down Dongguan Jie, the street with all the craft shops. We decide to stop for a drink & maybe a light lunch. The place behind us appears to be open but it's dark inside & there doesn't appear to be anyone in. No sooner have we taken a couple of steps to find another place when the lights are switched on by the proprietor, who has been watching us all the time. We don't go back after our drink to check but are sure they are switched off again
View to the West, Daming Si
Typical apartment construction in the near distance when there are no customers around. You're probably thinking it's too extreme but we may all have to do it before long.....
…..on a generally grey, overcast & very cold week, when one class is disrupted by my students flocking to the window to watch the first, tentative fall of snow, Friday dawns clear & bright. The icy wind from the north or northwest as eased off but seems to have cleared most of the smog & it's one of the clearest days I've seen here. It's still hazy by Australian standards but I'm not complaining.....
…..despite numerous cranes being dismantled as the shells of new building projects, mainly apartments, near completion, new projects are being started all the time & at a rate that is inconceivable anywhere else I've ever been. Without counting the cranes I know are there but can't see because of new buildings in the way the count from the New Bridge is now well over fifty! Compared with other areas of Yangzhou, or other cities in China, this is not even a remarkable level of new construction.....
…..another call from Miss Piggy. She is getting wound up about the Spring Holiday. I
View to the City Centre, Daming Si
Looking south from Daming Si on a particularly clear day am invited by her boyfriend's family to stay with them & my initial suggestion to spend three or four days in Guiyang is met with derision. “Too short time. You must stay long time”. I should start doing some serious planning.....
…..I have managed to find more material to help me (& the other interested teachers), sort out the vocabulary we need to stand a chance in next year's HSK exam. It's a lot of vocabulary. I know quite a lot of the one thousand plus words required but learning to read (& write) the characters is another thing altogether.….
…..it's Saturday morning so George & Mike go on their regular excursion to Starbucks at the Jing Hua Cheng (Living Mall) in West Yangzhou. I don't usually go but decide that I might join them this morning as we all need to go to the Blue Market & get some small, token gifts for our special class &/or tutoring students. They don't have bikes & so go by bus. The day is just too beautiful to waste a bike ride so, after finishing off what I am doing, making a phone call, taking a few photos on the
View to the East, Daming Si
Monastery buildings in the foreground, the power station near the school in the distance way, I get there before they do. It's a good way to get warm on a cold day.....
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Tony Schick
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Spinner Guy!
Love the spinner guy, Dave!