Blogs from Jiangsu, China, Asia - page 114

Contemplate the names of gardens such as: Garden of Harmany, Lingering Garden, Forest of the Lions Garden, Garden of the Humble Administrator, Garden of the Master of the Fishing-Nets, Pavilion of the Blue Waves, etc., add another 100 Gardens, and no doubt, you would find yourself in the city of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province, China, an hour from where I will be teaching. My trip to Suzhou was an excursion with my very dear friend, Arthur Lee, who would, daily, plan such memorable adventures. We spent one glorious day in this very intimate city, whose tradition of fine gardens has been praised in its status as " A World Heritage Site". It is said, "In heaven there is paradise, on earth there is Suzhou". The gardens are often hidden behind high walls and were created ... read more

Today I received the documentation from my friend Arthur Lee, the Foreign Affairs Director for Taizhou Teachers College, needed to apply for the "Z" Visa. It is the one-year visa, designated for foreign-expert-status, and is issued by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, P.R.C. It is an impressive looking document, with the required red signature-stamps. It will permit me to visit the Visa Agency, which is helping me with the process through the Chinese Consulate in Houston, Texas. There might be some additional red-tape, such as a medical-physical and some vaccinations. For those who are interested, I will continue to post the process of the efforts. Until the certainty of the Visa, I am still somewhat hesitant about the travel arrangements. The freighter from Miami to Hong Kong is still on top of the ... read more

Food, one of my favourite topics! None more so than when I am travelling through, and in this case, living in, a new and exciting place. Taizhou is located on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, about 3hours NW of Shanghai, one of the most fertile and productive regions of China. Consequently there are always lots of fresh ingredients available. The cuisine here is generally considered to be of the “Eastern School” although with the variety of fresh ingredients and condiments and the increasing mobility of China’s population, many styles of cooking are gaining popularity. In my short time here I have been given the opportunity to try a wide variety of local dishes. Surprisingly, peanuts seem to be a very common ingredient, usually fried whole. They are not only used in appetizers but other ... read more

We only had a few days in Nanjing but managed to see some nice things (inluding England destroying Wales at rugby!) The nearby mountain Zijin Shan is home to some great parks and cultural sights. We saw the botanical gardens; which were made stunning by the twenty four hours of snow we had on our first day, and the Mausoleum in honour of Sun Yatsen who created Chinese democracy (didnt realise there was such a thing) back in the 1920's. As a precursor to the imminent great wall we caught the impressive remains of the city's Qing dynasty walls, which at 13 metres thick and 33 kilometres long reiterated ancient Chinas love of a good wall. We saw the Western gate which with its four garrisons provided nice chinese architecture and a glimps into the world ... read more

i spent the last 3 dasy in Nanjing and it was certainly an adventure. We went to Nanjing to visit Josh, a friend from High School. But on a more selfish note, it was getting very cold in Beijing and we wanted to escape as far south as we could get and that was Nanjing. Almost ended up being too far because it's the end of a country wide vacation and everyone was trying to get back to somewhere... we almost ended up not able to get back to Beijing. We didn't have our passports so flying wasn't an option (good to know). But Josh worked his miracle and got us tickets on a sleeper train back to Beijing so it was on to exploring Nanjing. We started off with lunch at which Caroline bravely ordered ... read more