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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 Munerz
September 17th 2006

Â“‡¯Šúˆê (Qingdao Week One)

Asia » China » Shandong » Qingdao

Qingdao Daxue (university)
The gates i walk through everday on my quest to shape impressionable young minds, or just dictate to students... either way

Ni Hao, thanks for joining me on what proves to be a rather large third installment of my China travel blog.... And what a big week it has been on the east coast of the PRC! Before i go on i must vent some steam as this is the third attempt i have had at writting this troublesome addition! Computer didn't want a bar of me on not one by 2 occassions! Mad as a hatter! Anyway, with that out of my system i must continue to squeeze this entry out as i can feel my creative juices fast depleting rapidly. [View Full Entry]

By Preston_66
September 12th 2006

The Wall that was Great

Asia » China » Shandong » Qingdao

Britt Checkin the View
You can see the wall fork where it starts to surround a village. I'm not sure what the village was for. Mabey for the warriors and what not

The day began with the usual wake up and discussion about what we should do for breakfast and what not. As we made our way down the street checking out what was breakast worthy we noticed there is a KFC on every street corner. It is deifently apparrent that there are far more KFC's than McDonalds in China. Which is odd becuase you would just assume that McDonalds would be like the west and there would be one everywhere including your living room. Becuase of Britts understandable craving for pancakes we decided to hit up McDonalds for the first time in [View Full Entry]

By Munerz
September 11th 2006

Peoples Republic of China

Asia » China » Shandong » Qingdao

Greetings all, its your Asia corresspondant back to redeem himself after a somewhat shakey opening blog. So yeh... im in China and what a big few days it has been in the PRC. I left you last as my Japan Air flight was decending upon the Chinese seaside (Daniel) metropolis known as Qingdao. Qingdao is a city located on the east coast of China in between Shanghai and Beijing. Mostly renowned for its world class sea food and producer of the most popular beer in china, Tsingdao Beer. After strolling the city for the past few days i would best describe [View Full Entry]

By carriebaron
September 10th 2006

CHEESE FOR MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Asia » China » Shandong

Cotton Candy

Oh my God! Kara got me a huge honkin' block of sharp cheddar cheese for my birthday! It took an 11 hour bus ride from Beijing to be with me. It was the best birthday EVER!!! I'm going to make it last, and last, and last..........and last and last and last, through at least next week! So anyway, I turned 25 on the 9th, and it was great! I slept in late, and then went to North Gate with the boys for lunch. And, low and behold, there was a guy selling COTTON CANDY!!!! (see picture for proof of purchase.) It [View Full Entry]

By Preston_66
September 8th 2006

Lets Park it, Eat it, and Fight

Asia » China » Shandong » Qingdao

Botanical Park1
This is someones house in the middle ofthe park. Small but beautiful view

Hey hey, ANother great day checking out the beautiful veiws in one of many parks in Qingdao. This park was more geared towards children and tourist due to the fact that there were fair like rides and activities for you to do. But if you looked around hard enough you could catch a couple good shots. I won't write much bout the park but i will tell ya story bout our favorite restruant in town. If your looking for the best meals in qingdao you gotta go wayy over to the taidong area and find this muslum place. Man best food [View Full Entry]

By carriebaron
September 8th 2006

Meet the Expats

Asia » China » Shandong

Dylan, Alex, and Mel

Say hello to Dongying's expat community! Here are most of (but not all) the foreigners in the city. [View Full Entry]

By carriebaron
September 8th 2006

Lollapalooza

Asia » China » Shandong

Collin, Wayner, and Zack
Wayner is one of the funniest Chinese guys I've met so far. Zack gave him his English name. I still don't get it.

Last night's Lollapalooza extravaganza was a success, as expected. Not as many people showed up as I had hoped for, but that didn't dampen any spirits or make the night any less rowdy. Everyone had a good time. The walls are slowly growing into quite a work of art. I got my name in a fancy little corner. Richard and I got back to the hotel around 2:30am, (getting Greg home was hopeless) but the doors were locked and we had to ring the bell. and ring the bell. and ring the bell. and ring the bell. Finally some security guards [View Full Entry]

By carriebaron
September 6th 2006

Western Culture Class

Asia » China » Shandong

Squid
Squid at the market. yum yum yum.

Today I had my first Western Culture class. It has 60 students, about 45 of which are girls. Many of them have chosen fairly standard English names; Joe, Norman, Jack, Sally, Amanda, Penny, Jessica. Others names are less common, such as Ivy, Selma, Cherry, or Winter. Then there are the far out names; Shuttle, Easy, Twinkle, Fighter, Greeting, New River, Coca, Stone, Danger, Volcano Ice, and Jane. I was a little dumbfounded by these names until I discovered that many of them are direct translations of their Chinese names. Although.......Danger? Easy? I gave them an in-class writing [View Full Entry]

By Preston_66
September 6th 2006

I love Stewardess's

Asia » China » Shandong » Qingdao

Camera Man
Filming for the the Soap.

Awoken by a very early phone call was an offer to be an actor in a Chinese soap opra Named "I Love Stewardess's! Of course i could not turn this down. I arrived thinking it would be a man holding a handheld camera and four actors but it was actually a pretty big operation. There were bout 30 extra's and the director was behind the play back monitors and theres people running around doing makeup and setting the lights perfectly. After seeing this I was excited to here how we were going to be apart of this. We were told that [View Full Entry]

By carriebaron
September 4th 2006

First Day

Asia » China » Shandong

Facing the class!
So, here they are! My first class!

So my gastrointestinal system woke me up this morning at about 5:45am. Super. Bad food or just nerves? We'll never know. At 6am the speakers outside started blasting orchestral military songs. Then some guy came on over the music and started drilling out marching steps. It was still going when I left for class at 7:10. 6am. Everyday? I'm so excited to find out. I arrived at my Oral English class around 7:25. I took a picture to give you all a visual image of what facing the class for the first time was like. (Picture to the right.) They were [View Full Entry]

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