Blogs from Hangzhou , China, Asia - page 25

This past weekend we were invited to participate in an international dragon boat racing competition. To promote tourism in Hangzhou, the local government paid for our whole weekend: our transportation to and from Hangzhou, a night in a luxury hotel and banquets for all of our meals. We left Shanghai early Saturday morning and arrived in Hangzhou around 11:30 am. After an amazing lunch we headed over to the XiXi Wetlands where the race was to be held. There we met our teams and got our uniforms. Each team was composed of both Chinese and foreigners. My team had 5 CET students including myself and 5 Chinese people from Nanjing. The other guys on our team all worked together and were hilarious. They were very serious about dragon boat racing and were very happy to share ... read more

Hangzhou, a sub-provincial city southwest of Shanghai, is most famous for its historic and scenic places like the West Lake and Ling Yin Temple. It's a beautiful city - more trees, less pollution than Shanghai...and of course, lakes. Friday night, I had the opportunity to go out to a pub and hang with fellow interns, however, being that I'd have to be awake and coherent at 6a.m. Saturday morning, I chose not too go out. Lame? Maybe, but when my Peruvian friend, Bosco, practically crawled through the metro to meet up with the other interns at in the Shanghai South Railway Station, I felt a lot better about my decision. We took a bus from Shanghai to Hangzhou at 9:10a.m. and it was about a two-hour-death-defying extravaganza in the bus. It really should be a requirement ... read more

Kind of a crazy week! Just now got confirmation on our hotel in Hangzhou, and that our classes and clinics have been finalized. China's been hanging back because of the uncertainty over the H1N1 flu scare, but all seems well now. I've been working very hard to have this be my very last week of school, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. Looks like I need to put in another semester to get myself up to snuff for my school, and subsequently for the boards. Bummer... My whole summer is changing before my eyes, and I'm not sure what the impact is yet. But I am going to China on Monday, that's certain! All my 31 chicks are crazy excited, and I'm thrilled for them. Our flight leaves at 7:30am, which means we ... read more

31.5.2009- 1.6.2009 Tunxi... Day 46 Yesterday we took the 10.20am bus from Hangzhou to Tunxi and arrived earlier than expected after our hotel recptionist told us that the journey would take 6hrs whereas it actually took 2.5. Upon stepping of the bus we were mobbed by taxi drivers all trying very hard to get us to part with our yuan. We stayed strong until we discovered on the map that the hostel was beyond walking distance so we got a taxi at 10yuan to the International Youth Hostel. We opted for a shared two bed room as it was just 100yuan for two, cheaper than a dorm room in Shanghai. This hopefuly would allow an undisturbed nights sleep which hasn't happened while staying in any of the dorms so far on this trip. The room felt ... read more

A Birthday to Remember We had planned this trip before we even moved to China. My mom and dad had always planned to come to visit us in China before my dad got sick and he thought it would be really cool for us all to celebrate my 40th Birthday on the Great Wall of China. It was sad that my parents weren’t able to make the trip but we decided to make plans around the date of my birthday as my dad had wanted. They would be with us in spirit and I was taking enough photo’s to send to my dad so it would seem like he was really there!!! Our trip….. first stop on this vacation was in Xian, home to the Terracotta Warriors. We were staying at the “Hyatt” hotel in the ... read more