Blogs from Liaoning, China, Asia - page 11

so the other night i went out partying with some Germans, Chinese and Australians. it was a fun time. we got really cheap bottle service, and danced. in china you can literally drink and smoke everywhere: street, bus, train, taxi, bars, ect. i love china! there was free coat check in every bar, and the drinks were insanely cheap. i don't think i will go out partying here again, but it was an experience. the next day me and one of the germans went hiking. we weren't feeling very well, but we hiked for about 3 hours. it was a very beautiful day to hike, and the scenery was really neat. we hiked through some mountains to the ocean. some locals took a picture with us and about 8 random locals said "hello", haha. we stopped ... read more

yesterday my driver took me to pick up a few things from the store. then i met with a couple friends for lunch at I 55 cafe. their coffee is to die for, and my sandwich was delicious! we hung out there talking and smoking for a while. then we headed to a flower shop to pick up flowers for our painting class on friday. the teacher told us to get red flowers. i just couldn't help it when i saw the amazing flowers, so i bought 2 bunches. one was yellow and one was orange. then i got a single red rose and a single bird of paradise. all of the flowers, except the yellow ones, i put in a vase in my apartment for dad :) the yellow flowers and some sweets i brought ... read more

For a small city, Benxi has a decent number of tourist attractions. From national parks, water caves, mountains, lakes to a half-decent zoo, these have proved more than sufficient to keep me entertained during my limited free-time stay here. With three days left of the Chinese National Day holidays to enjoy, there was just the one destination I had yet to venture to; the nearby city of Anshan, home to the world’s largest jade Buddha. Known as China’s iron capital and an industrial powerhouse, Anshan is a two hour bus ride from Benxi. Attempting to reach the city from Shenyang Airport (after returning to the country from North Korea), it soon dawned upon my wife and I there was no public transport of any kind leaving in the direction we wanted. This left two choices. The ... read more

Yes, I know I don't write frequently enough. And I leave some stories unfinished. It is a combination of lazy, procrastination, and actually teaching, the reason I am here in the first place. I will cover the most recent events first and if energy permits I will try to fill in the blanks. October Holiday! In China there is a national holiday the first week of October each year. In idea of a holiday is a little different. Typically it is mix of days off work, and days of work rescheduled. In my case that means I was free from work after completing my classes on September 29th. Classes for the 30th will be made up this Saturday the 9th. Some other local colleges will also have class on Sunday and might have had additional classes ... read more

With my time in China quickly running out, there has still been plenty of opportunities to enjoy festivities in Benxi. In recent days, Mid-Autumn Festival (also known as the Moon Festival) was celebrated, a festival commemorating the autumn harvest, when the moon is at its fullest. There are many traditions related to this festival, the most important of which seems to be the ability to eat as many moon cakes as humanely possible. These cakes, the Mid-Autumn Festival equivalent of mince pies at Christmas are small pastry cakes filled with a variety of sweet and savoury fillings. Moon cakes are a delightful little creation guaranteed to expand your waistline at incredible haste. During an English class I noticed one girl playing around with a couple of these moon cakes under her desk. As she continued to ... read more