Blogs from Shaoyang, Hunan, China, Asia - page 2

Hi All, So with us being home early we decided to go out and do a recce mission for when my family come over next month. We've been meaning to visit this place for a long while but I think it rained when we planned it last time. Getting to Xiaoshajiang is not exactly hard but it is uncomfortable. It's a total of about four hours but the roads high up in the mountains are shale and a little bit scary but believe me it's worth it. The road goes through rice terraces, bamboo forests, tea plantations with some of the most incredible scenery I think I've ever seen. Xiaoshajiang is not how I imagined it would be. After visiting the other minority groups there was a certain amount of tourism, whereas here there appeared to ... read more

Hi All, Wow is it getting hot here really hot! With that in mind we went out early this morning to go out and look for some walking shoes for me. As we were walking to the city centre we passed through the main park and there was a show going on with children dancing and people singing. It was all part of the celebrations of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. This came as rather a surprise as it was only 9.30 in the morning. The photos at the end are of some children that made triends with Dany. Enjoy the photos and Jah Bless... read more

Hi All, Bit of an unexpected trip this one. My students had told me about Langshan but I had no idea what was there. I knew it was a mountain range and that was it. So it was a suprise to get a call from our FAO Shirley and she asked if we would like to go. We were invited by the Shaoyang Personnel Bureau, a part of local government I think. So it was a freebie. Well they say to never look a gift horse in the mouth so we said "yes". We left Friday afternoon with Brandon, in the photos he has a shaven head, and Sandy our contact Chinese teacher. We went to a place in the centre of Shaoyang and met two other foreign teachers who worked in another town in Shaoyang ... read more

Hi All, Homeward bound! 7 1/2 hours to do 250 kms. There was everything but the kitchen sink on the road home. People, motorbikes, threewheeled rickshaws, oxen, buffalo, ducks, dogs, old uncle Tom Cobbley and all. What amazing scenery. Mountains, ravines, valley, plains, paddy fields, peasants ploughing with buffalo or oxen but after 5 hours I'd had enough and wanted to be home. A few photos from the bus. Jah Bless... read more

Hi All, Been a while since I've made an entry. To be fair the weather has been pretty awful, rainy and cold. Yesterday, however, was a beautiful day so we went off to see if we could find the North Pagoda. This was our first trip across the river. So we hopped on a bus and crossed the bridge onto the north side of the river. We had to walk quite a distance before we finally found it though. We had a lovely walk along the river and through a small community. A lady appeared with a key to let us into the pagoda and promptly asked for 5 yuan each to climb it. There's nothing really of note inside but it is a pretty building from the outside. It was all worth it as we ... read more