Blogs from Jiangsu, China, Asia - page 115

You all know how much I love big cities, but I am finding that Shanghai is testing my limits. I have decided that I much prefer a smaller city of, say, 12-13 million. Traffic here defies imagination--I can't even think of a word to describe it (and when I can't think of a word, that's a problem!) because not only is it congested, but it is different. Pedestrians having anything near the right of way? I don't think so! Bicycles are like cars and they just drive head on into the throngs of people crossing the street. The other day I almost got hit by a motorcyclist driving on the sidewalk. Maybe I should have looked a little closer into that travel insurance idea I blew off. So yesterday, Emilia and I took the bus to ... read more

the weekend for the trs were spent exploring the first water village - the beautiful Zhou Zhuang - which coincidentally is the hometown of our hosting school principal, Mr Shen. He personally showed us around the town and along the way i get to know lotsa chinese history and culture...hmm...n inevitably practising my chinese... in fact my listening compre has improved tremendously...*grin but there again..my ego was busted when my colleague told the truth...that i still have a limited repertoire of chinese phrases...okay...i got that..teresa...i would i improve my mandarin :) we also visited "Hu Qiu" - which literally means tiger hill..and guess what..it has a leaning tower - like that of Pisa, Italy...all thrown in foc...so u get to see a hill, a tower, a special pool that is called the "Jian Ci" - which ... read more

we stumbled across this factory and found it to be pretty educational..some pix on the process of making the silk blankets...which is supposed to be cool in summer and warm in winter... http://www.1st-silk.com/index.htm hey i'm not advertising for them..but thot it is good to share with u:) ... read more

We are attached to SISS for 3 days during which the girls get to do the following fun: Tour the new school campus; attend music recital, english creative workshop; sports challenge..now that's a fun one for them as they get to play soccer...seems that soccer is an all time favourite in china; today we visited Zhuo Zheng Yuan" or in English, "the humble administrator's garden" - a famous tourist sport in Suzhou, being rated AAAA (National Tourist Atraction Grade) in China. It's also on the World Cultural Heritage map. Built as early as the 4th year of the reign of Zhengde under the Ming Dynasty (1509 AD), the area is extremely large, covering 5.2 Ha and is one of the four most famous gardens in China. It is divided into the eastern, middle and western parts. ... read more

Gee..it's almost a week sharing a room with my colleague, teresa..n thankfully there's no fights, quarrels...etc BUT...it's always a challenge to be the first to be out of bed...for our own professionalism..part of our SOP includes the nightly duty of : -charging the batteries for the camera, phone (it's sms for me n teresa to check on the girls and also for them to reach us) - setting the alarm...yep...they are the bane of our lives but a real necessity... - airing our underwear...hmmm..sorry..beyond this, is censored as i'm sworn to secrecy about what she wears to bed :) here're some snapshots of what we do.. have fun.... ... read more