Blogs from Heilongjiang, China, Asia - page 6

Well, I can definitely say that this trip was the most boring and annoying trip I have made in China. Probably Heilongjiang province is just not the best province to travel to and in. On Wednesday night, I took the night train from Harbin to Heihe, a town north of Harbin and border town with Russia. I arrived around 7 in the morning and bought my bus ticket for the next day to Wudalianchi, because that was the main reason of my travelling. Then, I took a taxi to bring me to the only place in the LP which was written in Chinese. A taxi driver said he would bring me there for 5 yuan. I thought okay, but later I noticed that it wasn’t a legal taxi. Not really smart to get in, of course. ... read more

H1N1 flu is serious and dangerous and very very scary. At least, that is how most of the Chinese think of it. Where you already could see people with a mask a few months ago, nowadays they are everywhere. Since a week, even the ladies at the desk of the dormitory are wearing the mask. Sometimes they put it off, but when you approach them, they put it back on immediately. Like you have a deadly disease! When I was in Hong Kong, there were everywhere antibacterial soap dispensers and the elevators where disinfected every hour. I didn't see this in mainland China. However, since two weeks Harbin is very scared of the flu, since in the Heilongjiang University 7 students were diagnosed with the flu. Immediately they stopped teaching in that university and people could ... read more

Because all the trains were booked, I had to take a plane to Harbin. With one hour delay, I arrived in Harbin in the dark. But of course, there were some friendly Chinese that helped me find my room. The instructions were not correct, but after a while I had a room and bedding etc. I share the room with a still unknown person and the kitchen without any appliances and the bath room I share with two Korean girls. Unfortunately they don't speak English, what I find a bit strange because I heard that even in primary school English is taught is South Korea... luckily my roommate turned out to be German, so I can communicate with her! The next day I met some of my classmates who already arrived the day before. During that ... read more

Our Journey So far So, from the beginning. On around the 7th May 2009 we received confirmation that we had a job waiting for us with Joy Children's Language School in Daqing, China. After a week of rushing around preparing our belongings and making trips from Toowoomba to Brisbane to secure our documents we finally received our Visa's on the 12th May. On the 13th May we flew to China. After a 8hr flight with Singapore Airlines we arrived in Singapore. Each seat had it's own TV screen and remote. You could watch movies, play games, learn languages, look at exactly where you were flying and at what height. I had beef stew (which had red wine in it for lunch and salad) and a chicken something pie for dinner, as well as refreshments the whole ... read more

Hello all, We are not living in Harbin but our city is not on the map so Harbin is the closest they had. Daqing is our hometown. We have been living in China for a year now as ESL teachers. Our stay will end on June 23rd. China has been great we have been to Beijing, Shanghai, Inner Mongolia, Harbin, back to my old town of Yan Cheng to see an old friends wedding and to a new friends home town. China has been so great, we have learnt so many things and have seen so many great things like the great wall. The biggest changeling for us over here would be the cultural barrier. I know they say that North China is the last great communist front but what I really did not know was ... read more