Blogs from Beijing, China, Asia - page 454

#15 Teaching at Taizhou Teachers College-Backpacking in Beijing - Streetlife

Asia » China » Beijing July 2nd 2006

This week I decided to take a quick trip to Beijing before I start out on my “Great Southern Adventure” into Guanxi, Guizhou and of course, Yunnan. An additional reason to go now is to avoid the huge summer crowds and the oppressive summer heat that arrive in July and August. Beijing is an easy 13hr train ride that leaves Taizhou Railway Station at about 6.30pm at night and arrives in Beijing the next morning at about 7.30am. Really “painless”. Train tickets are offered in soft sleeper, hard sleeper, soft seat (not often available) and hard seat. For the really unfortunate there are standing tickets as well! I booked a hard sleeper which consists of a 6 berth cabin arranged in 2 x 3 tier bunks and open to the corridor. As a larger foreigner it ... read more

A day to myself

Asia » China » Beijing July 2nd 2006

Beihei Park

bensimz

After the Great Wall yesterday, we didn't feel like finding another hotel since ours didn't have vacancies for the night, so we crashed with Edwin, Jerrell, and Laura at the Peninsula Hotel, the nicest hotel in Beijing. But we stayed out all night anyway at a bar watching the world cup games. For some reason the Taxis went on strike for a few hours that nigh, though, so we took a couple of tuk tuks. We agreed on a price of 20RMB per tuk tuk, but then halfway to our destination the drivers decided to change the price to 100RMB each. I told them to fuck off and left, then found a cab who would take us. First we went to this outdoor area where there was this HUGE tv screen with lots of people watching ... read more

It's the sky!!!!

Asia » China » Beijing July 2nd 2006

Tekla

It was the fourth of July here today! Well, kind of. It is really July 2nd, but the American Chamber of Commerce threw a big 4th of July bash for all of its members today. The BBQ was held at a resort located a half hour bus ride outside of Beijing. The event was filled with people that looked and talked like us, for the most part. We were even able to eat like proper Americans for the day. We were given food tickets that could be used at different food tents providing food from McDonald's, Hormel, Papa John's, and Budweiser. I never eat McDonald's at home, but greasy french fries, apple pie, and an ice cream sundae from their tent really hit the spot. Besides the familiar food, there was also a band performing good ... read more

Brian has landed!

Asia » China » Beijing July 2nd 2006

DeniseBrian

Just wanted everyone to know that Brian has landed safe and sound in Beijing, China. He said that they had Korean food for dinner last night! HELLO! When in China, don't do what the Korean's do! It is 5:09pm here in California and to figure out China time, you add three hours and flip the am/pm. So in China it is 8:09am on Sunday, July 2nd. He woke up at 6:00am in China and when he called me at 7:00am they were heading down to breakfast. That's all for now. Denise for Brian. ... read more

China Day 5 - China Life

Asia » China » Beijing July 1st 2006

Temple of Heaven

Harryh2

Today we when to the Temple of Heaven followed by a rickshaw pedicab ride trough the Hutong (Chinese alleyway). The highlight was the opportunity to visit a family in the Hutong and browse the Hutong Village (very much like Venice Beach, California). For dinner we had a Peking Duck Dinner Party. Most of us were not impress with the Dinner this night.... read more

Shopping with the girls

Asia » China » Beijing July 1st 2006

Tekla

Today I went out with some girls from work. I met Kitty and her friend (I don't remember her name because it wasn't an English name) this morning at the subway station and we took a taxi to HoHai park. I had been to HoHai park the first week I was here, but during that visit we just walked straight through to familiarize ourselves with the area. So this time we walked through the whole park. We even took a rickashaw, definitely a cultural must. We spent most of our time at Prince Gong's Palace, which consisted of various pagodas and gardens. The intricate paintings on all the buildings are beautiful and all the myths were hard to comprehend. From what I got of the tour given by my friends, whose English is broken, the palace ... read more

Day at the Great Wall

Asia » China » Beijing » Great Wall of China July 1st 2006

The Great Wall

bensimz

Last night we went to a beer garden to watch the World Cup game, but I was too tired to stay out all night after the train ride the night before that left me mostly sleepless. I forgot to mention that we met a racecar driver on the train who offered to teach me and Chuck how to race when we get back to Shanghai. We talked to him at about 5am when we got out of bed - about two hours after I managed to finally fall asleep. I made it to the Great Wall today, despite a few setbacks. Our tour, which was supposed to start at 8:15, was leaving from The Peninsula Hotel. Unfortunately, the cab drivers didn't know what that was, so after about 40 minutes of trying to figure it out, ... read more

A sprint through China

Asia » China » Beijing July 1st 2006

Handsome young man

Iona

With only a week to see China it really seemed like doing the travel equivelant of the 100m trying to keep up with Linford Christie. After another long and painful midnight border crossing on the trans-Siberia train we were in. Our first taste of China was wandering around the train station supermarket at 1am in our pajamas strarving hungry. The up-side of this was we discovered these amazing lemon and custard pies - pure heven after Mongolian mutton hell. Our China sprint consisted of 3 days Beijing, 1 day Chengdu, 2 days Gulin and 2 days Hong Kong. In that time highlights have included: The Great Wall in 40oc heat, Chairman Mao's dead body preserved in plastic, Giant Pandas munching bamboo, paddy fields and amazing limestone scenary in Gulin and the best light show on earth ... read more

Picking up the accent

Asia » China » Beijing June 30th 2006

Tekla

We had our second day of language class today. Our teacher today took more of an approach of answering all of our language questions as she went along instead of trying to teach us every single letter and word in the Chinese language one at a time. While we were learning how to say useful phrases such as "I am American" or "Where are we?", it came up that what we thought we were hearing Chinese people saying was slightly different than how are teacher was pronouncing words. It turns out we are not just incorrectly hearing things, but that the Beijingers have a problem like the British. Apparently they feel the need to put r's on the end of certain words. I thought it was neat that we have been learning from the taxi drivers ... read more

Final 2 days of Beijing

Asia » China » Beijing June 30th 2006

muzzaa36

And the time to go to Harbin has finally arrived. The past two days have been low key, just walking around the city. Got the Harbin ticket yesterday, and then saw the acrobats. Did some walking around the downtown after the show, very nice neighbourhoods. The rain here has been coming every night, complete with a light show. Today, I just walked around the town, making it to a park that had the temple of heaven. I found a couple other parks and a nice walk along a canal. They have tons of green space here, I think that is one thing that helps the city stay livable. Trees line the streets everywhere. I am looking forward to my train, but I am leaving a city with much more to show, it is definitely a repeater. ... read more

Brief history of China

For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. A...more history

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