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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.

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By carriebaron
October 5th 2006

Ploodway in Rainy Weather, Don't Don't Dabble the Water!

Asia » China » Shandong » Qingdao

The cutter

MOUNT LAOSHAN!!!!!!!!!!!!! (which in Chinese I guess translates to Mountain Lao Mountain. They just say Laoshan. Lao Mountain.) Today we woke up at 6am to catch the #304 pubic city bus to Laoshan. It was mad crowded, and took and hour and a half, but luckily everyone got a seat except Jeff. (sorry Jeff, but you gotta learn to be more aggressive.) We arrived at the "foot" of the mountain at about 9am, but getting the tickets to the "Laoshan Scenic Area" and moving the bus further up the mountain was a time consuming ordeal. First they had to stop the [View Full Entry]

By carriebaron
October 4th 2006

&+$#@#ing Brides

Asia » China » Shandong » Qingdao

BRIDES!!
I'm telling you, they were all over the place. You'll see.

WEDNESDAY According to her Canadian SOS doctor, Amanda was to stick to a diet of apple juice mixed with water, pear soup, and plain porridge on her first day. We found a Porridge place Taidong, a walking street not too far from our hotel. The walking street is a very popular place; it's home to Qingdao's Walmart. Yep. Walmart. Sad, isn't it. The street is cool, though. Many of the buildings are covered with murals done by famous (and non-famous) Chinese painters. The stores weren't that exciting though. But anyway, there is a porridge place on this street. Amanda ordered plain, [View Full Entry]

By carriebaron
October 2nd 2006

Monday Tuesday

Asia » China » Shandong » Qingdao

Buddhist Temple

Monday we set out with the agenda to reach the Buddhist Temple in Zhongshan park. We could have been there in 20 minutes, but it ended up taking about an hour and a half. We FINALLY found it, though. We couldn't go inside, and for many parts of it, there was no photography allowed. There were insense altars all over the place. One building had about twenty people sitting on the floor, chanting. It was very cool, but I felt like I was intruding. It was a very private space, and praying seems very personal to me, and yet there were [View Full Entry]

By carriebaron
September 30th 2006

Day 1 Qingdao

Asia » China » Shandong » Qingdao

Beer Street
Here are some beer bottle sculptures outside the Tsing Tao Brewery.

Advice from Richard's crazy student Joey (girl) about going to Qingdao: "Don't accept drinks people give to you. They might put something in to make you sleep, and then steal your computer." We got to the bus station early, and thank God! I had brought Ling to help me buy the tickets a few days earlier, and she thought we were going to BEIJING. oooops. We ran around like chickens and got the problem solved surprisingly fast. It only took about ten minutes. It was so weird, considering how packed the station was. There were lines out onto the street. So, [View Full Entry]

By carriebaron
September 29th 2006

Off to Qingdao

Asia » China » Shandong

fresh meat
Here's half of my Friday freshmen class.

Well, tomorrow I go to Qingdao for the week. I took some random pictures this week, and I figured I'd get them up before I go on vacation and forget all about them. [View Full Entry]

By Munerz
September 26th 2006

ABC simple as 1 2 3

Asia » China » Shandong » Qingdao

Three Amigos!
Left To Right: Steven, Tom and James. These boys were keen to have a kick of the sherrin so we went down to a dusty park. Literally dusty!

Hi everyone! Sorry its been so long between entries, been ridiculously busy the past week and a bit since i started actaully working. The last time i 'logged off', was the Sunday before my first class. If i can borrow a quote from Simmo, i was more toey than a roman sandal! Many punters had shared their thoughts and voiced their queries regarding my trip before i left, and i have to say that i received nothing but the best of wishes! However the same questions/statements were prominent. "Do they speak english..?", "Have you taught before..?", "shit....thats pretty keen mate". I [View Full Entry]

By carriebaron
September 25th 2006

Laundry is for the weak.

Asia » China » Shandong

Facial
The braiding service came free

And I am a weak person. Not much to report, not like Beijing anyway. Let's see, friday I went and got a facial with Jessie and Chelsea, who is here from Thailand for a while. Oh wait, first Jessie got a tattoo. The facial was much more relaxing than the head massage. Not the same brute force. She still did the ear thing though. MAN. The girls were are really sweet though, fascinated with us. Jessie and Chelsea are Canadian, and the girls commented that my American skin was different from theirs. I didnt' really feel like getting into it. I [View Full Entry]

By Canucks in Asia
September 25th 2006

Blog #5: Tai Shan

Asia » China » Shandong » Tai Shan

Sea of Clouds
Mountains breaking through the sea of clouds.

Because we are nearly finished the school decided for our going away they would shut down for two days and take a trip to a nearby mountain named TaiShan. It is touted here as the most famous mountain in China, and I have read that it is the most climbed mountain in the world. (Wich doesn't suprise me after seeing the amount of people going up and down while we were there) All the way up the have build an 8Km walking path, made mostly of stairs, and along the way there are shops, stalls, rest stops, and very cool very [View Full Entry]

By Preston_66
September 22nd 2006

It's not easy being green.

Asia » China » Shandong » Qingdao

Monkey

It was Kermit the Frog who once said "It's not easy being green". And though he was refering to the fact that he was so very lonely we all at one point could probably relate to him. But this blog isn't about lonelyness and so on. Its about "its not easy being an Animal in China." On our weekend off we decided we needed to check out more of Qingdao like any other new residents in a city. As we looked on the map of Qingdao we realized that we haven;t seen the zoo. So we packed up our gear and [View Full Entry]

By MichaelnFaye
September 18th 2006

Tai Shan - Stairway to Heaven

Asia » China » Shandong » Tai Shan

Dai Temple
Flags blowing in the wind on the walls of the temple!

Day 1 We arrived in Tai’an (the town at the foot of Tai Shan) at about half six in the morning, bought tickets for our onward journey to Beijing (still no sleeper’s available, but we managed to book seats this time) and headed off in a taxi to find a hotel, we were taken to a hotel too far out of town but using my phrasebook I managed to talk the driver into taking us to a hotel nearer the centre of town and nearer the start of the trail head for climbing the mountain. Our plans were to climb the [View Full Entry]