Blogs from Ji'Nan, Shandong, China, Asia - page 3

I think I need to be on the payroll for tourism Shandong and Jinan as today I stumbled across some more things to see and do in Jinan. Wednesday is my easy day, teaching from 8-30am to 10-15am, so with the one hour bus to and from it makes for a nice 4.5 hour day. This compares very favourably to my Tuesday which is 8 periods of 45 mins teaching, that day starts at 7am when I catch the bus and 6-30pm when I finally stumble up the stairs to my apartment. So after a quick vacuum and dust of the apartment, lunch and coffee and emails I was off to explore. I’m not that house proud but there is always a fine layer of dust settling on everything here, the air is gritty, your skin ... read more

A Saturday off, so today’s plan is to head toward the Spring City Park which is further south than Spring City Square. It’s called Quan Cheng and is a huge expanse of forest areas, water features and paths. Pine trees featured in the area I was in, reminding me a lot of New Zealand and the South Island’s parks and domains of my childhood. I took the 79 bus up Ji Shan Lu South and stopped off at RTMart and McDonalds for a little treat; latte and muffin! Kinda thought I would walk it off, no harm done! McDonalds was so full, the Chinese have embraced Western food wholeheartedly and despite the big prices compared to street food, they were buying up big. A burger is around Y15-. KFC is hugely popular here too; 24 hour ... read more

Today I had the privilege of visiting 2 kindergartens as part of my work here. Qilu University Shandong China has partnered with Southbank Institute of Technology Queensland Australia to deliver a Diploma of Child Studies to students. Chinese and Australian teachers are training the students to work as kindergarten assistants. As part of this training the students must do work experience at a kindergarten and they do this in blocks of 2 weeks. There they volunteer, and work alongside the paid staff working with the children in the rooms. Each kindergarten caters for children from 3-6years and this is non-compulsory but seen as highly valuable, so many children attend. The two I visited today had enrolments of 500 and the other 600, with 40 children in the junior rooms and 50 in the senior rooms, with ... read more

At Black Tiger Spring park every Sunday morning, a group of people meet to practise their English. Any English speaking person is welcome to come along and just chat. So any westerners are especially welcome. You just stand there or lean against something or perch and people surround you and want to talk about anything and everything. I was quite of interest being new and people just wanted to hear my accent and ask questions and compare life for us to them, ask why I was in China, what I thought of China etc. Clayton and his partner Julia who is a Chinese lady and speaks flawless English, took me there, we took the bus. I met Geoff from the USA, he and his wife. They have retired here after her teaching job finished here. Rose ... read more

No alarm to wake up to at 5-50am, a lazy start with a cup of tea on the balcony, breakfast at my leisure and time to think and breath. After planning my program for the week, a canteen lunch of rice, meat and veges and meeting one of the music students who wanted to befriend me. I headed off for another walking tour. Going in the opposite direction to Daming Lake on Huayuan Lu I walked until I got to RT Mart and Maccas. This certainly is not the pretty area of town, its life without the silver lining, lots of variety, with shoe menders plying their trade on the street corners amongst some of the street businesses. A latte and cheese cake reward in a very hot upstairs section of Maccas, it almost feels decadent ... read more