http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Tianjin/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , China , Tianjin en-us Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:41:39 BST Tue, 14 Oct 2008 17:41:39 BST Comprei hoje o meu bilhete para voar at ao Japo na prxima segundafeira. Inicialmente pensei em atravessar o Pacfico num cruzeiro... mas passar duas noites num barco pareceume uma ideia demasiado cansativa ento hoje o Feifei colega chins que estuda portugus l nos deu a excelente notcia de que tinha conseguido um bilhete em promoo de 3200yuans o que me deixou toda contente pois p http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/blog-330140.html Hoje foi o dia nacional da China 1 de Outubro dia da Fundao da Repblica. Por isso fomos 21476259912127034903 guwenhuajie rua da cultura para assistir s festividades. Uma das representaes mais presentes no desfile chins prendiase com o clssico da literatura chinesa Journey to The West. Originalmente publicado em 1950 durante a dinastia Ming em pleno anonimato a sua au http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/blog-329769.html As aulas tm corrido bem. Inicialmente depois do exame de nvel fui colocada num nvel bastante alto de chins e estava a ter dificuldades em acompanhar as aulas portanto decidi descer de nvel para consolidar mais as bases e para ter tempo livre j que passar o tempo a estudar no dormitrio todas as tardes no estava a ser assim to benfico como possa parecer Claro que no me vou desleixar http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/blog-328007.html O diaadia na China tem sido uma coisa curiosa. Por exemplo outro dia l fomos ns filmar um anncio de TV para uma marca de telemvel chinesa. Eu com a minha mui distinta cara esbelta de ocidental que paga a 2euros por hora e come trs folhas de alface l fui com um mui esbelto vestido roxo fluorescente e muitos folhinhos gritar para o meio de umas escadas o nome da milionria chinesa que s http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/blog-325451.html O ttulo uma referncia a Lus Fris porque o post pretende ser um relato linear e factual de culturas comparadas... quem leu Lus Fris sabe do que estou a falar Ento aqui fica Nas estradas de Tianjin o cdigo de estrada algo de subjectivo O vermelho para os carros no necessariamente para parar Os chineses andam sempre devagar nas estradas Os chineses de bicicleta costumam usar p http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/blog-320149.html From Beijing I took a highspeed train to the port city of Tianjin. The new dedicated highspeed train line had only opened a few weeks earlier on August 1st 2008 and is currently the fastest operating train line in the world reaching a top speed of 350 km per hour. The trains and the signalling of the tracks are supplied by Siemens whom my friend Li works for in Beijing but the Chinese govern http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/blog-315189.html Well I had to go to Tianjin to take care of some visa business but i also had time to wonder around the city for a few hours and get a little preview of where i will be living this fall. Hope you enjoy the pics...John http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/blog-305450.html ATTENTION this blog post is more or less for fellow people coming to China who may encounter similar dilemmas to mine in regards to the Chinese VISA. I hope my experiences can help you get an idea of how to handle these rather frustrating situationsMy Situation I am spending about six months in China. I am doing to two study abroad programs one in the summer and one in the fall. When i applied http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/blog-305420.html Good morning to each of you as it is 645am China time Tuesday morning 645pm Buckeye time Monday evening.I know you must be receiving the blog now as some of you have responded. It is always nice to hear from home If you have sent a message I will be sharing it with the entire group each morning at breakfast which is in about 45 minutes. Remember the blog is public I thought I wou http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/blog-288201.html Hello Everyone This is actually Travel Blog Entry 4...Monday June 16 115pm China Time 115am Buckeye Time...For the first time since we have been here we finally have computer access Hopefully all the parents have heard from their children and know they are safe sound and seem to be having a great time.I told all the kids I would send a Happy Father's Day to their dads but Matt http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/blog-287887.html The Chinese customs officer is reviewing my exit information carefully. I fidget hoping he won't notice my answer to question 12 the last question but when he gets to it he goes rigid and slowly looks up at me staring me directly in the eyes. It says here you have not hiked any section of the Great Wall of China. Is this true he asks.Well I intended to I assure him friends and famil http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/Huangyaguan/blog-282770.html I remember thinking about how nice it would be to move to China and be free from our many commitments back home. Teaching in the private system should allow me more time for my personal life more time for leisure. I guess the answer is that Craig and I are workaholics. If the school doesn't fill up our time we will find other ways to make ourselves busy. This story will end with my completel http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/blog-232740.html I want to get back into the habit of documenting each week's adventures. I have a hodge podge of miniadventures from the month of October to share with you and then next week we should be back on track So I apologize if this blog is all over the map. Thanksgiving We did celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving at The Parrot a Western Restaurant. Its buffet style but they actually put full turkeys http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/TEDA/blog-216518.html Oh the ferry story...I was supposed to wake up at 7am. I was all planned and ready to take a shower and ship out. However when woke up in the morning I realized that I had overslept. My coteacher in Japan Kerin bought me a really cool alarm clock which I foolishly thought was clicked to 'on' when in fact it was plainly still in the off position.Whoops I pulled on my pants forgot 17 thi http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/blog-212721.html The bonus of the service component of my job is that I get invitations to community events. The first event Craig and I have been able to attend was last Monday September 24th 2007 The MidAutumn Day Tea Party.This was Craig's first time out with me representing the school in the community so I think it gave him a taste of some of what I have been experiencing. You walk into such an event ha http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/TEDA/blog-206821.html Our anniversary fell one week after we arrived in China. We were still jet lagged had been in our apartment only days and I had caught a nasty cold. We made the decision to postpone a celebration.This past weekend we finally felt settled in enough to venture away on our own for the weekend. It was actually crazy to have so much time to just the two of us as most adventures here are group eve http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/blog-206278.html When our IT Manager Mike sent out a mass email inviting everyone from work to his wedding a number of us thought we should decline surely he didn't mean us newcomers...he didn't know us well enough We were soon informed that just the opposite he would love nothing more than to have the school fully represented at the wedding. Chinese Weddings are large affairs. When we told Mike we would co http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/TEDA/blog-202957.html My Biggest Workout Since Landing in China Well Friday rolls around I'm tired from a week's work tense from sporting my backpack daily and well I think still full of kinks from the 16 hours on an airplane a month or so ago. It was time for my first massage. Yvonne another teacher at the school brought Shelby and I to her favourite masseuse.This is not like any massage I have ever had. It http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/TEDA/blog-201655.html Its been another exciting week just living my life in China. Every day offers so many funny stories that by the time Sunday rolls around I know I have forgotten a few gems. I knew as of Monday night I would have a lot of fun writing the blog this week. Good Morning So Monday night Craig and I decided to go for dinner at UBC Coffee a restaurant attached to Hymall the shopping mall. It http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/TEDA/blog-198169.html This time I will chronicle a few of the adventures of the past week. We will have a blog about school life soon. I am trying to keep everyone happy by balancing adventure blogs with daily life blogs. It should however be noted that since moving here our daily life and mundane tasks have all become miniadventures.Our trip into TianjinOn Saturday August 18th the group decided to take the li http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/blog-196140.html Woensdag 4 juli.Vanmorgen hebben we in ons hotel een westers ontbijt genomen. rsquot Is erg lekker en overvloedig brood koffie thee confituur ei hellipWe zijn een dag langer in Huangyaguan gebleven. De locatie is goed en na de verhuis van kamer is deze ook Ok. We hebben een mooi binnenpleintje tussen de paviljoenen. De kamermeisjes of gangmeisjes zijn vriendelijk maar eerder lui.We b http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/Zhunhua/Malanyu/blog-193410.html We are all slowly getting settled into our routines. You have to relearnrevisitrethink your old routines and discover what you can handle here. As requested in this blog I will try to focus less on the adventures and more on the basics of living here. The Apartment I think we really lucked out. We chose our apartment on our first jet lagged day in China. We had no concept of the layout of http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/TEDA/blog-192594.html Dinsdag 3 juli.Om 7u30 starten we de dag met een westers ontbijt in het restaurant van het hotel. Na de nodige voorbereidingen stappen we richting balie voor de ticketverkoop om de muur terug te bewandelen vanuit Taipingzhai. Dit is het deel van de Muur aan de overkant van de rivier waarvan de mannen gisteren het laatste stukje hadden gedaan. Dette en ik zijn onze toegangtickets van gisteren in d http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/Huangyaguan/Taipingzhai/blog-189965.html Maandag 2 juliWe starten de dag om 6u30. Martine en ik hebben de wekker GSM niet gehoord en worden door Thomas en Wim met geklop op de deur gewekt. Onze drie kamers zijn naast elkaar gelegen op een binnenplein van de site deel uitmakend van een groep van 16 de andere kamers zijn vrij.Het ontbijt wordt buiten voor onze kamers genomen aan een kleine ronde stenen tafel met zes stenen zitjes. V http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/Huangyaguan/blog-189883.html Hello and big hugs to everyone. We have arrived safe and sound in China. It has been quite the adventure already.We boarded the airplane full of excitement. We were seated beside a very sweet older chinese lady whose English was barely better than our Mandarin. She immediately wanted to make conversation and try to help us learn her language. The plane was huge and had all the bells and wh http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/TEDA/blog-188225.html Zondag 1 juli.De morgenstond heeft goud in de mond. Dat goud heb ik niet gevonden maar wel een wekker die zeer vroeg is afgelopen. De afspraak is om 6 uur aan het onthaal met pak en zak. Hier begint een stap in het onbekende.Er is zeer weinig informatie over de busverbinding. We nemen de taxi naar het treinstation om daar per bus naar Huangyaguan af te reizen. We vragen of onze bus er is en kr http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/Huangyaguan/blog-186927.html we be jammin' After more than 4 days of gathering thoughts and pictures since the last time I wrote it's time to do so again. This first of 4 weeks in China is being spent almost exclusively here in Tianjin the booming 'special economic zone' here on the northern coast. It's not major destination on the tourist circuit yet this time has been special because of all of this things we've had acces http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/blog-179868.html And the crowd goes wildBoogie nights in Tianjin IMPORTANT NOTE There are many fresh pics and a couple of videos on this entry to checkout DAY 1 Saturday was our first full day in China. I wrote about our breakfast and bike ride in ...and then we were in China... so let's pick up after that. I'm starting to appreciate the way this trip is beginning. Instead of hitting it fullon and try http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/blog-178787.html There's nothing like a bike ride in China to work off a delicious street breakfast and some jetlag.After 3 hours to Toronto from DallasFort Worth 3 hours in that Canadian airport around 13 or 14 hours in the air a couple more going through immigration customs and looking for luggage and a wee bit more waiting for a shuttle bus to take us the 3 hours to Tianjin where our friend James lives http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/China/Tianjin/blog-178163.html