Blogs from China, Asia - page 2267

Well it's been a while, so I'm trying to remember everything. Li Xiao was still out of town, so some of Ying's students picked me up and took me to Sanqing Dui. It is an archaelogical site where they found many remnants from the Shu culture, estimated to have been around almost 5000 years ago, and they have found artifacts I think for about a 1500 year period (I'm not totally sure on that.) They found lots of old pottery and very interesting masks. They do not know what the masks are used for and they know very little about the Shu people, so it is all very mysterious and very interesting! The students didn't come in the museum with me, but I went with a diplomat from Africa and his Chinese friend. Afterwards, the students ... read more

while i write this, i am extremely upset. today, i went with yellen and jill to watch my big chinese television debut, all prepared to face mobs of fans and piles of fan mail. we go into the room as excited as can be and sit down to watch BTV 1 on the big screen in one of the classrooms. we wait through twenty minutes of chinese television, which by the way is the worst programming in the world, and then hear the word jing shan from the mouth of the broadcaster, anxiously awaiting our segment. so they go through the thing about how we communicated with this hong kong school and the camera pans the crowd in the room, giving all of the people in our group some face time. then, after a couple of ... read more

hey guys. The last time I posted was almost two weeks ago, and for that I apologize profusely. Also, I’ll make a promise (maybe an empty one) that I will post more often in the future, especially because starting at eleven-thirty tomorrow morning China time I will be famous and thus my blog’s fan base will grow immensely (more on that later.) The days during which I didn’t post were kind of an emotional roller coaster for me. My host family situation is far from ideal and is making it difficult to achieve my main goal on this trip, which is to drastically improve my spoken Mandarin. As I have mentioned in earlier entries, the family’s only motive in hosting me was to give their daughter an opportunity to practice her English. Thus, in order to ... read more

Many of the fascinating impressions that have remained with me from my visit to China, come from the people I had the fortune to meet. As I prepare for the return-journey to this amazing country, in May '06, and I ponder the coming year at Taizhou College, it has become easier to anticipate the adventures ahead. I am constantly reminded, how Mr. A. Lee, a teacher and administrator at the college, had so personalized my visit to his country. He made surprising efforts, and provided every opportunity to meet very special people, his family, his many friends at the College, and people from all walks of life and of all ages. Meeting the President of Taizhou Normal (Teachers) College was one of those highligths. he had just returned from Germany, and we discussed his impressions. Mr. ... read more

WangFuJing is this massive street maybe 100 feet across and a kilometer long. It is closed off to cars, and for pedestrians only. Along the side of the street there are all sorts of stores selling anything from cheap paraphernalia to Rolex Watches (yes, actually real Rolex. Not the ones in briefcases handled by people on the street). And, best of all, the street is really close to school. I talked Maggie into going to the WangFuJing book store with me. We turned the corner onto WangFuJing and we didn’t get far before we hear behind us: “Hello, Excuse me. Do you speak English?” There was a small Asian woman maybe 40 years old speaking to us. We said something in English, and she had us. She got right to the point: “I am an ... read more