Blogs from Qingdao, Shandong, China, Asia - page 12

Monday we set out with the agenda to reach the Buddhist Temple in Zhongshan park. We could have been there in 20 minutes, but it ended up taking about an hour and a half. We FINALLY found it, though. We couldn't go inside, and for many parts of it, there was no photography allowed. There were insense altars all over the place. One building had about twenty people sitting on the floor, chanting. It was very cool, but I felt like I was intruding. It was a very private space, and praying seems very personal to me, and yet there were tourists all over the place, snapping pictures where they were permitted. We stuck around for maybe an hour, then wandered down to the beach. Recently a new polar ocean park was built, and I wanted ... read more

Hi everyone! Sorry its been so long between entries, been ridiculously busy the past week and a bit since i started actaully working. The last time i 'logged off', was the Sunday before my first class. If i can borrow a quote from Simmo, i was more toey than a roman sandal! Many punters had shared their thoughts and voiced their queries regarding my trip before i left, and i have to say that i received nothing but the best of wishes! However the same questions/statements were prominent. "Do they speak english..?", "Have you taught before..?", "shit....thats pretty keen mate". I will admit now that i look back, in hindsight it was fairly keen but what can ya do now? I perhaps didnt realise the magnitude of my decision before i stepped into the classroom for ... read more

Ni Hao, thanks for joining me on what proves to be a rather large third installment of my China travel blog.... And what a big week it has been on the east coast of the PRC! Before i go on i must vent some steam as this is the third attempt i have had at writting this troublesome addition! Computer didn't want a bar of me on not one by 2 occassions! Mad as a hatter! Anyway, with that out of my system i must continue to squeeze this entry out as i can feel my creative juices fast depleting rapidly. So last time i left you, Greg and i had rendezvoused with Mark (Billy) Brady from Stawell. Now dubbed 'the gift', well it hasnt really taken off yet but im working on it (thanks Simmo). ... read more

Greetings all, its your Asia corresspondant back to redeem himself after a somewhat shakey opening blog. So yeh... im in China and what a big few days it has been in the PRC. I left you last as my Japan Air flight was decending upon the Chinese seaside (Daniel) metropolis known as Qingdao. Qingdao is a city located on the east coast of China in between Shanghai and Beijing. Mostly renowned for its world class sea food and producer of the most popular beer in china, Tsingdao Beer. After strolling the city for the past few days i would best describe it as the Gold Coast equivalent of CHina, but on a much larger scale. Very hot, somewhat dated infrastructure and moderately crowded streets. Qingdao is home to 5 million Qingdaonese which is considered small compared ... read more

Awoken by a very early phone call was an offer to be an actor in a Chinese soap opra Named "I Love Stewardess's! Of course i could not turn this down. I arrived thinking it would be a man holding a handheld camera and four actors but it was actually a pretty big operation. There were bout 30 extra's and the director was behind the play back monitors and theres people running around doing makeup and setting the lights perfectly. After seeing this I was excited to here how we were going to be apart of this. We were told that we were an international Bike team sitting in the airport bar. We as in ( Eric, Steve, Alex and I) . My name was Frank from Fance. haha Lame but whatever. The show was classic ... read more