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.
June 17th 2008Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An First off, let me say that I miss you all dearly on my birthday...I wish you could be here with me celebrating! But since I'm nowhere near wealthy enough to fly you out to China for the weekend, I'l ... [full story]
June 16th 2008Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An This past weekend, Lu and I made a discovery: we like event planning. This isn't to say we're going to major in it, but we've taken quite the interest in planning out sightseeing activities and birthd ... [full story]
June 4th 2008Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An Nee hao,
So I'm at my cubicle at the GreenTree right now :) We just went through 3 hours of training (oy vey!) and then had a lunch break and then 1.5 more hours of training. The most exciting ... [full story]
March 24th 2008Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An Urgh, I have so much to catch up on and I really cannot be bothered writting about it all. It has been two weeks since I last wrote a blog so I am going to start at the weekend before last. This was t ... 25 photos[full story]
March 28th 2008Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An So, here we are once again back in Shanghai. We had an amazing time seeing the Terra-Cotta warriors in Xi'an, China. We were in Xi'an on Monday. It turned out that we got a really good deal on plane t ... [full story]
March 22nd 2008Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An For those of you who have not been able to have the experience of taking a 10 hour over-night train ride, let me tell you. It's quite the experience. Our adventure started as we were dropped off at th ... [full story]
March 19th 2008Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An Hello All,
Well, we finally made it to Shanghai!! Here we are! Yup... As we stepped off the airplane onto this new land, we thought to ourselves: "Hmmmm, it looks baren. We must civilize!" After a ... [full story]
March 18th 2008Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An Our national guide has taken the english name of "snow". He comes from the south of China where there is not snow. He figured the name would make him stand out -- ane be "cool". Nick is our city gu ... [full story]
March 17th 2008Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An I spent most of the plane ride practicing "Where is the toilet" and "I need to vomit. Stop" (Ting. Ting. Ting. Ting). My seatmate, Teri, was from Hong Kong though she now lives in Vancouver and goes ... [full story]
March 14th 2008Asia » China » Shanghai » Jing An Last week I had my first taste of dog meat. It had the texture of tender beef but tasted a little but like chicken... I'm guessing it was labrador or golden retriever judging by the thick blonde hair ... [full story]
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