Background: For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. After World War II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established an autocratic socialist system that, while ensuring China's sovereignty, imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. After 1978, his successor DENG Xiaoping and other leaders focused on market-oriented economic development and by 2000 output had quadrupled. For much of the population, living standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal choice has expanded, yet political controls remain tight.
May 13th 2008Asia » China » Jiangsu » Zhangjiagang hey, just letting you all know that we're all safe from the earthquake here in zhangjiagang. I actually found out about it on msn, around 4:30 yesterday after my classes. the article on msn said that ... [full story]
May 9th 2008Asia » China » Jiangsu » Zhangjiagang hey! I brought the letters my 6th graders had written to their penpals this morning to read while I was eating dinner tonight, and omg I was actually laughing out loud! I'm gonna look through them now ... 12 photos[full story]
April 30th 2008Asia » China » Jiangsu » Zhangjiagang here are some more ktv pics! just realized i actually could have just added them to the other post, but whatever. oh and here's the link to the videos too
tomorrow's may day so we don't have schoo ... 14 photos[full story]
April 23rd 2008Asia » China » Jiangsu » Zhangjiagang heyy, just figured I'd update with news from the the last few weeks...
First, I went to Fen Si Jia's house the past 2 weekends which was fun. The first weekend me and Candice went out to dinner wit ... 18 photos[full story]
April 1st 2008Asia » China » Jiangsu » Zhangjiagang it's been a while! everything here is good though, and I finally have a some pics and videos to upload :)
my kids are all still crazy as usual, as you can see from the pics! lol, but i have managed ... 27 photos[full story]
March 4th 2008Asia » China » Jiangsu » Zhangjiagang heyy!
so, not much has been new since we got back to school..my kids quickly got back into their "normal" routine of being absolutely insane!! lol, but whatever..haha. today one of the 2nd grade clas ... [full story]
February 21st 2008Asia » China » Jiangsu » Zhangjiagang ..and we're back to school!
we started teaching again on wed, so it's only been 2 days so far but its actually going surprisingly well, haha.
I think that a big part of it is that i'm actually expec ... 4 photos[full story]
February 14th 2008Asia » China » Jiangsu » Zhangjiagang that's happy new year in chinese! the actual new year's day was a week ago now..but the holiday is still being celebrated here. well, not even celebrated really..everything is just closed!! haha, its ... 23 photos[full story]
February 1st 2008Asia » China » Jiangsu » Zhangjiagang finally made it back! :) ..well actually i've been back for 3 days now, but haven't gotten around to writing on here cause its freeezing in the room of my apt that has internet, lol. i got a space hea ... [full story]
January 9th 2008Asia » China » Jiangsu » Zhangjiagang wow, it's been a crazyy past week!
i'm gonna go backwards so..
#1 ..not sure what i last wrote on here about my plans for our 6 week vacation, as it's changed a million times over the past few we ... 16 photos[full story]
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