Since returning to China in August, I (Elyse) have been interested in learning more about the economy,rules/laws and culture of the PRC(People's Republic of China). I have been reading the weekly English magazine that our school receives called Beijing Review. I feel a little more "in the loop" of what is going on in this monstrous country, by size and population, after reading this since we gave our tv to another teacher. Let's face it, the 99% Chinese channels just don't do much for either of us. For those of you that know me well you know I have a strange way of remembering odd facts and love to learn about them. So here is my quick lesson on China for all of our friends and family back in the USA. I have thought that China ... read more

We ventured to our 12th province in China or should I be Chinese politically correct and say "We have traveled to 2 municipalities, 7 provinces, 1 autonomous region, 2 special districts(Hong Kong SAR & Macau SAR) and Taiwan. When I typed into Google search "How many provinces are in China?" this is the answer from Wiki answers == All together there are 34 province-level administrative units in China, including 4 municipalities, 22 Provinces, 5 autonomous regions, 2 special districts, and Taiwan, which is claimed as a province but is not currently under the administration of the People's Republic of China. Complicated China Huangshan translates to Yellow(huang) Mountain(shan) Its that time of year again when all the schools in China take a few days off of teaching and have a field... read more

This past weekend, Hangzhou Wanxiang Polytechnic celebrated its 60th anniversary and the school officials spared no expense on putting on a grand performance. We were made aware of this event shortly after our arrival to the school in August but at the time we were told it may conflict with our National Day break. We’re not sure why they would have told us that since the anniversary celebration was clearly scheduled 2 weeks after the fact. Plus, there was no way that Elyse and I would have forgone our honeymoon so that we could be apart of the festivities. We made it perfectly clear on several occasions that we are neither puppets nor mascots and had no intentions on ever singing or dancing. On the very few occasions that our last school in Shenzhen did invite ... read more

Initially, I thought that I would have to work hard in order to persuade Elyse into taking the 8 to 9 hr bus ride from Puerto Princesa to El Nido. To my relief she was on board for the long journey up the coast to the Northern tip of Palawan. After all of the research I had done on Palawan I had learned that most if not all the travels simply used Puerto Princesa as a point of arrival and departure to the island. The one exception is for the world class scuba diving spot 90 nautical miles off the coast, but even that requires divers to sleep on a boat for the entire duration of their stay at the reef. Also It is a significantly cheaper alternative than flying to the nearby island Coron ... read more

Leaving our front gate two hours before our train left on any other day would have been ample time to arrive at the train station in downtown Hangzhou. This particular day however happened to be the day before Chinese National Day and one of only two holidays in which Chinese people actually go places. The other is Chinese New Year. We opted to take the night train from Hangzhou to Shenzhen then cross the border into Hong Kong to get a much cheaper flight to the Philippines. When we first visited China in 2007, I remember looking at the flights within China and finding that on average they were no more than 30 USD, now they are around 100-150 USD each way. Inflation coupled with several years of 20% annual economic growth really has made China ... read more