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tristanandcharlie - journey to the east

We're travelling from the UK to China to take up a teaching post in Shandong Province from Jan-Sept 09. We leave the UK in November 08 and fly to Tallinn, Estonia. We then cross the boarder in to Russia and travel to St. Petersburg then Moscow where we'll set off on the Trans-Siberian Railway. At Lake Baikal we will head south through Mongolia; arriving in Beijing by Christmas. In January we will make our way to Zibo where we will be teaching English until September.

We'll try and keep our blog up to date. Hope you enjoy reading it!

Update: We have a new job and we're staying in China until Christmas.

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Joined on: November 9th 2008
Last Login: November 30th 2009

Blog Entries: 14
Photos: 159

TB Code: [blogger=98917]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by tristanandcharlie, order by Date newest first.

By tristanandcharlie
September 13th 2009

The most beautiful country in China Asia » China » Jiangxi » Wuyuan

Jane

We're still here... so the blogging continues.... After having been away from the UK for over ten months we thought that we'd want to go home in early September in time for graduate recruitment and university intake time of year. But instead we've accepted a great job offer where we will remain based in Zibo but will do bits of work in lots of cities around China. We couldn't miss the opportunity to travel more whilst still getting home in time for Christmas, avoiding rainiy recession autumn in England. We finished at school a few weeks ago following final exam week [View Full Entry]

Shanghai World Financial Centre and Jinmao Tower

By tristanandcharlie
June 11th 2009

'Better the scenery is more careful you should be' Asia » China » Henan

From the top of the mountain road

Last week we took a week of leave and went on holiday to Henan Province. Our Chinese friends and students were distinctly un-impressed that we had chosen Henan for our holiday over anywhere else in China. Especially as at first, when we were pronouncing the name of the province wrongly they often mistook us for saying Hainan, the beautiful tropical island province in the south (where very rich Chinese people go on holiday). When we put them right they were very disappointed! The province is really populous but, per capita, relatively poor. Our friends told us that some of the people [View Full Entry]

By tristanandcharlie
May 29th 2009

Laowai!! Asia » China » Shandong » Zibo

Getting mobbed in Zhujiayu
Laowai!! Laowai!! (Foreigner!! Foreigner!!)

So it's time for a long overdue update. We've now been away from home for two hundred days and I can't believe that we're still hardly missing it. The routine of teaching all weekend and three weekday evenings has meant that the time has zoomed by and now we have not much more than three months left in China. Having some visitors from home has helped of course. Summer has come to Zibo with a vengeance and so we're glad that we packed in masses of travel and sight seeing in before it got too hot. Spring never really happened as [View Full Entry]

The Great Wall at Simatai and Jinshangling

By tristanandcharlie
March 2nd 2009

I'm fine thanks, how are you? Asia » China » Shandong » Zibo

Lantern Festival fireworks

Lantern Festival is the last day of the Chinese New Year celebrations. For us it was a better night that new year's eve! New years is family time. People stay in their homes; only going outside for a few minutes at a time to set off fireworks. Lantern Festival is all about being out in the street with your friends and family. We went with three members of Brad's adult class to 'Government Square' to watch the official firework show. The streets were completely rammed with people all walking in the same direction, just like after a football match (or [View Full Entry]

By tristanandcharlie
February 6th 2009

Fortitude and hard work Asia » China » Shandong » Zibo

Decorations in the park next to school

Happy Chinese new year. Welcome to the year of the Ox. Apparently anyone born under the influence of the Ox will achieve prosperity through fortitude and hard work. Or, according to Moger (our manager) you can buy and wear red underwear (!?). We've been in Zibo for over a month now and everything's going great. The time's flown by and we can already tell that this experience is going to be just what we wanted. The weather's cold and very dry. We haven't seen any rain since Moscow. It's hard to tell the temperature because there's no frost but I don't [View Full Entry]

By tristanandcharlie
January 6th 2009

East of the Mountains Asia » China » Shandong » Zibo

School
It's on the 3rd floor. The big sign says 'Aston English'

Happy new year! We arrived in Zibo about a week ago- the final destination of our 'journey to the east'. This is the place where we're going to be living and working until the end of August! It's the second city of Shandong ('East of the Mountains') Province and it took us four hours to get here on a speedy and slick train from Beijing. Our apartment is fab. A gigantic lounge and two double bedrooms (would you like to come and visit?). The only disadvantages are plumbing (smelly), wiring (terrifying) and the fact that it's on the 6th floor (no [View Full Entry]

By tristanandcharlie
December 26th 2008

A little bit about Christmas in China Asia » China » Beijing

Biker Charlie outside the Forbidden City

I hope you all had a brilliant Christmas! We had a fantastic day. I was a little bit sad in the morning when I read letters from my Mum and Dad but the rest of the day was great. We were able to talk to both sets of parents and siblings on the phone which was lovely. We spent most of the day at the Great Wall- one of the restored parts quite close to the city. It's amazing to see it snaking over the mountains for miles and miles. We hiked on it for about 3 hours. Most parts [View Full Entry]

By tristanandcharlie
December 22nd 2008

A Christmas message from Beijing Asia » China » Beijing » Tian'anmen

The Black Market

It's nearly Christmas and we've arrived in Beijing on schedule. We got here a couple of days ago after a 30 hour train ride from Ulan Bator. We were really sad to say goodbye to Mongolia and the family that ran our guesthouse. We spent quite a while in U.B.- partly because there are only 2 trains a week to Beijing. It's a brilliant city- despite having miainly Soviet architecture- it's got loads going for it and has lots of cafes and bars caterinfg for ex-pats (there are lots of them- mining industry maybe?). We spent one afternoon at an enormous [View Full Entry]

By tristanandcharlie
December 14th 2008

Land of blue sky Asia » Mongolia » Gobi Desert

View from near our first ger

We're back in Ulan Bator after our adventure in the Mongolian countryside.... We spent every night of the trip with nomadic family. This country is incredible- 50% of the population are nomadic or semi-nomadic- living in round felt 'gers' (yurts) and moving four times each year with the seasons. The rest of the population lives in U.B. which is really weird as there are basically no tarmac roads in the country apart from in and around U.B. and the government has no money so regional development is impossible. There is a problem with rural-urban migration because everyone wants to move to [View Full Entry]

By tristanandcharlie
December 4th 2008

From Russia.... to Mongolia Asia » Mongolia » Ulaanbaatar

Dumplings at Central Market, Irkutsk

Hi again pals, We've arrived in the coldest capital in the world and its living up to the reputation. Yesterday is was -20 and i think it's the same today. I'm wearing every item of clothing I have and I can still feel it. It's making our noses run so much but we have to be on the ball with tissues because if we let it drip it freezes! Tristan has sneakily bought more base layers than me but it's OK because I've bought a new hat so I'm now doubling-up on headwear which makes a difference! We had a [View Full Entry]

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tristanandcharlie - journey to the east

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