Blogs from Tianjin, China, Asia - page 15

To leave China I booked a flight from Tianjin to Kuala Lumpur. Tianjin is connected to Beijing by a high speed railway that reaches 217mph (350 km/h). I took the half hour ride from Beijing the day before my flight, so I did not have much time to fully explore Tianjin. The city had a very strange feel to it. Everywhwere I looked there were groups of 10 or 15 grey builings being built, each one accompanied by a crane. It really looked like something out of a science fiction film. It looked sterile and lifeless at dusk, but I found it more interesting than negative. The most notable landmark is the gigantic Ferris wheel on the Hai He River. The lowest part of the wheel is stradled by a highway junction. At night people gather ... read more

Ni Hao people we LOVE! Well... the girls have been here for just over two weeks now, and we are getting very excited to move on from Tianjin to VIETNAM!!! The last two weeks have been awesome. I was really starting to get homesick, especially on my birthday, but two of my lovely girls helped to make it very special. School has just been finishing up here. It was nice that the girls got to meet some of my students, but that meant that I had to work during the weekdays. It was a little lame- since I so badly wanted to be exploring and hanging out with my girls... BUT this has forced them to have to learn a lot on their own :) which is great- it has made for some funny stories. John's ... read more

Na hora da despedida quero deixar aqui um grande apanhado do edifício das aulas e da minha querida turma do segundo semestre. Aqui fica!... read more

It seems to me that almost everything in Tianjin is either behind walls or gates and the windows are all barred, even the windows on the upper levels of apartment complexes. Well, maybe not everything, but a lot of places are. Furthermore, there are security guards every where who are working for all types of businesses. My own campus is a gated community. There are three entry points at which one or two guards are posted. Once it gets dark, two of the gates are closed and locked, and only the main gate remains open. Eventually however, even the main gate closes to all traffic except for pedestrians. The buildings on campus are only opened during their allotted hours, which seem to be only during class hours. Need to look for something an hour or so ... read more

Thursday…Today we went early enough to be sure we had enough time before the bank closed. We got into a cab -my roommate Becky came again- and off we went. Now I assumed that since I had the card and the cash that we would stop by the Agricultural Bank of China branch near the Suning camera store, but the cabbie had other ideas. I may not know the roads well but I am really good with landmarks and as we were driving I looked around (it is better than looking where you are going - they drive so crazy here it makes me nervous to look in front of the car) and I was a little confused. I leaned over and asked Dai Lao Shi, and asked in English (because I didn’t want to be ... read more