Blogs from Tai'an, Shandong, China, Asia - page 2

David writes... I will include some pictures of Lynne's birthday gift from Dio in this one too. Well, we found it here, Yes it is a big deal! so get off my back! I mentioned we have been able to find coffee shops where we can pay 30yuan for a cup, today we actually found a shop with an espresso/cappuccino machine(GASP!), but today we ventured forth and found a coffee distributor. We woke leisurely after a hectic weekend of 8am to 8pm work this was because we held our Easter parties, yea i know it's early but hey, it's China so who cares. 100 kids per night and some activities and some chaos. Easter - In typical Asian fashion the kids are bustled around from room to room just going along for the ride, one adult ... read more

Watching TV in China, a news broadcast on the NPC & CPPCC meeting in the PRC was being broadcast on CCTV9 and we were wondering if CNN, BBC and the NBC were also broadcasting the show. This also begs the question what if the members of the NPC & CPPCC in the PRC wanted to go to the WC at the same time?... read more

There's a buzz in the air...a stirring in the streets...preparations for something can be seen around town but for what, we don't know. Is it just Spring? Maybe? Tourist season, perhaps? We see new stores being cleaned, painted and fill with merchandise. But what type of merchandise, do you think? Postcards? pots and crockery? or other paraphernalia with Tai'an or Taishan written on it. Beautiful pictures perhaps? NO. Most of these shops in the Lotus Supercentre (our local shopping centre) are filling their shelves with rocks. All shapes and sizes. But these aren't any type of rock. These come from the sacred mountain Taishan. In the parks there are large feature boulders with a giant bonsai type tree wrapped around it, smaller feature rocks on a pedestal or smaller still that are placed around a tree. ... read more

CHINA DAY 1 We have arrived! Our host met us at the airport with impeccable timing (You know just as we were looking like 2 stupid lost tourists). A brief chat and we find out that we are not off to Jinan (it was always on the cards) we are off to Tai'An. Tai'An is 1.5 hours drive south of Jinan. All the research we did on Jinan is out the window! Bugger! Miss Yen, the principal of the school, does not speak English....Does anyone else see something ironic about a principal of a private English teaching institution not being able to speak English?! Now off you go you have a long drive ahead. An hour later and we can see the sky for the first time....Not from pollution low cloud, even landing in the plane ... read more

This past weekend was one of the few long weekends in China so Trevor and I decided to take advantage of the extra day and took a trip to Tai'an where we would climb Mount Taishan, one of the 5 sacred mountains in China. It is both a UNESCO heritage site and a world heritage site, the first in the world. The mountain is in Shangdong Province, the journey from Beijing on the fast train took just under 4 hours. The ride was smooth and rather pleasant. Arriving in Tai'an we were not too sure what to expect but we knew we had to book a ticket back to Beijing right away, for some odd reason I was unable to buy a roundtrip ticket. Anyhow, it was such a struggle to communicate with the ticketing agent ... read more