Blogs from Dongbei, China, Asia - page 2

When I booked this cruise, I hadn’t heard of the city of Dalian. Now I’m here and I find that it is the fourth largest city in China with a population of about 7.8 million and operating at a much easier pace than Shanghai and Beijing. Dalian is an ice free port in the north of China that was occupied by both Japan and Russia during the early 20th century and architectural influences of both occupiers remain. Dalian is on the Yellow sea and has nice looking beach areas even though it is so far north. Interesting neighborhoods are apparent and make this look like a very livable large city. One of the highlights of the tour I was on was a visit to an elementary school with exceptionally talented students. The ages were from five ... read more

Heading into the month of November, we are thinking of snow, wind, long underwear and heavy coats. Oh for the bliss of first year when we didn’t know what faced us in winter! But, compared to current temperatures of places that the people we love, we are in a heat wave in the low teens. Blizzards in the Maritimes, frigid temperatures in Peace River and skiing in Whistler makes us grateful for the prolonged fall that we seem to be having. On top of that, there is actually heat in the apartments! Heat is a relative thing though; with no control over thermostats, we take what they give us and have our own heaters going most of the day and night. Geoff’s place on the girl's campus seems to be nice and toasty without heaters still. ... read more

The plan was to start the day at 5am and get moving for the Dalian City Marathon. everyone except Uncle Leslie was off to run a Mini-Marathon 3 miles. They volunteered to lead legally blind people who wanted to walk/run a marathon but needed help. The plan was to leave the house at 6am but time passed on and on and on so we ended up leaving at 6:40. The traffic was heavy so we finally made it to the start line with the 30 other volunteers at 8:00 am which was the start time of the race. The Intel group were nice enough to wait on us so we could still run and find the right location. God worked it out but the next day being late caught up with us. So at the start ... read more

As accommodation was so expensive in Shanhaiguan, I decided the next day to head on to Beijing, where I'd meet up with Pete, Hannah, her boyfriend, and Pete’s elder brother Simon. Beijing was actually really nice, I only spent a day there, so didn't get to do all of the cultural shizz that I'm sure will be around forever. I'm sure I’ll see it sometime in the future! Instead Pete, Simon, and I went exploring, and due to some conveniently open doors we got onto the roof of a skyscraper in the centre of the business district, and got some rather lovely piccies! However, it was getting chilly, so we got some food and headed back to our hostel where we started packing for our snowboarding trip! This involved some quite dodgy transport connections, and ended ... read more

My six hour train ride from Beijing to Datong was not like the Shinkansen. Cramped, dirty, and crude, it brought me close to the heart and people of China and I loved it. I was glad to escape the city and travel through the vast and beautiful countryside. I ended up sitting with a family (son, daughter, and mom) and began chatting with them. Heading inland has added linguistic complexity to my travels. China's provinces are home to a variety of diverse dialects. From time to time, mom would speak to daughter in Datong dialect. Though differences in pronunciation and vocabulary made a lot incomprehensible, underlying Mandarin structure allowed me to get the gist of their asides. Basically, mom was very frankly discussing the prospect and advantages of marrying an American. My friends and I (Tony!) ... read more