Blogs from Tianjin, China, Asia - page 4

Kung Fu As has become the norm during our time in Tianjin, we woke up at quarter to seven this morning to have Kung-fu lessons at seven twenty. For me waking up early to exercise is the best way to wake up, during my time at Tianjin my favourite activity has been learning Kung-fu from Master Li as well as a thorough workout Kung-fu requires constant mental concentration. As an overall workout I think that Kung-fu, as well as all martial arts, is unique in its requirements and benefits. Endurance, fitness, strength and spirit are just a few of the wide variety of aspects that are vital to the practice of any martial art. Mandarin lessons Today during Mandarin lessons we learnt how to identify and pronounce different types of money, and learned how to work ... read more

Wednesday was my first day of lessons in Tianjin. We got up early to do kung fu outside in the sports pitches. First, Master Ling gave a performance and he was amazingly talented. We weren't as good at it but we have 10 days - hopefully we'll learn! This is Master Ling, he's pretty awesome. Then we had 2 classes in the morning - calligraphy and mandarin. Calligraphy was fun, we got some pictures and I think I'm going to present my work at the closing ceremony. We also had mask making which was good fun because we got the opportunity to be quite artistic. They are masks that are used for the chinese opera - the way the mask is drawn reveals something about the character. My character was apparently brave because ... read more

We started the day early, ready to make our way to Tianjin. After an unusual Chinese breakfast we were all excited to experience the culture in Tianjin. Our Beijing tour guides dropped us off at the train station, where we got the chance to travel by the bullet train. Although it didn't feel like it, the train reached speeds of up to 300 km per hour and managed to get us there in 30 minutes. We arrived to a warm welcome from our hosts at the Tianjin Foreign Studies University. There was an opening ceremony where we were given dinner and a selection of pupils gave various performances, showing off their talents. This included traditional Scottish dance, martial arts and music. Jet lagged and exhausted we retired to bed for a busy day ahead of us. ... read more

I am on a mission to find new places to go in Teda where we live. I went to my Chinese writing class last week with Matthew but we got there 20 minutes early so we went for a little walk around. In this area there is mainly a large hotel, a building where I have my class and a few bars and restaurants and then next to one of the bars we saw a poster in Chinese but had a picture of a child on with armbands. We went through the small door and followed the corridor and found the biggest swimming pool we have ever seen!! The nice lady at reception showed us around and it looked great so we went back there today while William was at nursery to check it out. There ... read more

Today was Grade 1's "goodbye/good luck/happy holidays" party!! The class teacher Miss Derly is leaving this summer, going back to USA and a lot of the children are leaving to go back to their home country for good. So tears all round!!!! A bitter sweet day......Happy to start the summer holidays but sad to say good byes!! We had a lovely party though, lots of food......so much food, it's a Chinese thing!! The children were busy taking photo's and signing each others year books. Now we have 7 long weeks of summer fun!!!!... read more