Blogs from Hefei, Anhui, China, Asia

Actually, I haven’t learnt a whole lot about education but having talked to the teachers there there are some interesting facts. Our experience has been in private language schools, and there are some common threads. Most of the teachers are women, young, in their twenties. It seems that all of the private language schools have cctv in the classrooms, and the parents can watch what goes on from the reception area. The grandparents are the worst, asking why the teacher isn’t asking their offspring more questions or showing them more attention. Kids learn English in school but the lessons are very boring and the teachers use Chinese all the time, probably due to their own level of English. They do sport, football, badminton, table tennis, volleyball, but after school the emphasis is on homework and they ... read more

So today I checked out of the hotel and expected to be able to get a taxi from the concierge, no problem. I had to go to Shanghai Train Station, not the one I arrived at near the airport, thankfully, as this one was really near where I was staying, It almost looked walkable, but with my luggage and the heat I decided against it. A wise move. But getting a taxi wasn’t easy. They looked a bit abashed and said it could take 20 minutes. There were others also waiting. Luckily I’d allowed loads of time. After 20minutes the guy said he’d ordered me an uber instead, or the Chinese version of it, and I paid him (20RMB) and he gave me a receipt, so I didn’t have to pay the taxi directly. Fine by ... read more

It was a very interesting day. After breakfast we took a cab to the Anhui Museum. The Anhui Museum is one of the first museums in China, according to the signs at the museum. It was rather interesting and featured a locally born artist, Pan Yuliang. I liked her painting of scenes but the portraits did not connect with me. The museum is all the way across the old town of Hefei. We started to walk back. Of course I took some breaks but pretty well kept up with Kate and Lizzie. After two hours of hot, humid walking we could see the Holiday Inn Hotel. We went into a Starbucks and it was beautifully air-conditioned. I asked Kate to get me an American coffee. She asked “What Size?” I said large, because I was staying ... read more

Tunxi – Relaxation and hiking or as it turned out just relaxation. After the amazing hike up Mt Hua Shan near Xian I decided I had a taste for more hiking and getting away from the cities for a while. So following a recommendation from a friend at the hostel I decided to head to a large city called Hefei and then onto Tunxi to climb “Yellow Mountain” or as the locals call it Huangshan. After a very entertaining 16 hour train journey followed by a 5 hour bus ride I arrived in Tunxi. The hostel was pretty cool and the city was very relaxed with only one small touristy area to speak off. The train journey was really very comfortable and being with 5 Chinese guys in a small cabin was very entertaining, well it’s ... read more

Hello. This past weekend I went to visit a friend from Colorado China Council who is teaching English in Hefei at the Anhui Medical University. Hefei is like a bigger version of Ma'anshan with no giant steel company. It's the capitol of the Anhui Province and is home to 1.5-1.6 million people. It has a really similar feeling of a big dirty, polluted, bustling city - where old women stiff arm you to get a better placement on the escalator. There are probably twice as many expats and a lot more English speakers than in Ma'anshan (but they just say the same things over and over again - like my Chinese I guess). I managed to get there about 9:30pm on Friday after one of his classes was ending. The bus ride takes about three hours ... read more