Blogs from Yueyang, Hunan, China, Asia

After a good night’s sleep, I’m still getting up before dawn. I’m beginning to think that our decision to take an April trip to China was a pretty good one. There has been a bit of humidity, but so far temperatures have been nice and we can’t complain about the air quality. Arnold tells us that the monsoon season begins in May, and we wouldn’t want to deal with that. Both Sharon and I made our way up to the Sun Deck (deck 6) for the morning Tai Chi half hour workout with our Tai Chi Master Tom (not his real name). Due to the very moist outside conditions from the heavy fog, this mornings had been moved inside to the Lounge on Deck 5. When we arrived Master Tom was warming up with a demonstration ... read more

William, one of our students, has an image of himself as a master businessman. About two months ago, he decided to set up a school, in the town his girlfriend's father lives. He offered us places as teachers, 10,000 kuai each a month, for two months. Apartment, flights paid for, the works. Wow, says us. This sounds like a fantastic plan. Making loads of bucks, seeing a different part of China, good hiking down there, and we'd have enough money to afford stuff when back in England for a week or so, rather than having to beg poverty and drink other people's dregs. Many meetings happened, to talk about nothing. William would call at 7.30am about something urgent, only for us to find out that it was because he wanted us to teach phrases in our ... read more