Blogs from China, Asia - page 2274

Greetings blog readers, It has been way too long since I provided tales of my adventures here in China, so sit back, put on some music, and relax as I tell you some tales. Today's entry will focus on the start of my teaching adventures here. As last week was the first week in which I began teaching at the Jingshan school. This will be one of those two part blog entries...so stay tuned tomorrow for part 2. I would first like to open with a great little story that just happened. Earlier readers will remember that I frequent a store on the corner in order to make my water purchases every couple of days. Despite my lack of language, the proprietors (a young couple and their baby) and I always share a smile and a ... read more

Ni Hao, In this period of the year, it is low season in China, but still, many Chinese tourists over here. Not so many foreign tourists. The typical Chinese tourist travels with an orgonized tour, in a luxurios bus. They travel from one tourist attraction to another with the bus, take a lot of photos and hardly walk. Here, in Dali, the women even sometimes buy a typical Chinese custom, wear it and take photos with it. Very kitschy. So Dali is a very touristic city with many shops, restuarants, etc. But, still, a very charming old city. The potential of the local Chinese tourism is around 700 million. The other 700 million are too poor to travel. While travelling, the relatively rich Chinese hardly see the poor villages and people around. Their situation is in ... read more

Hey everybody. I’m really sorry that I haven’t blogged in such a long time. It’s really too bad, because when I don’t blog much, it means I am doing a lot of interesting things, so you guys miss out on all of the fun. The most important change since the last blog is that we started school. I think this was the only time I have been excited for the first day of school. I was really nervous, too, to meet al of my classmates and test my knowledge of Chinese by sitting in classes taught entirely in the language. It was also the first official time I could model my uniform, which was pretty exciting. It’s necessary to comment about the morning excercises that we do every morning. All of the students line up on ... read more

Today I received the documentation from my friend Arthur Lee, the Foreign Affairs Director for Taizhou Teachers College, needed to apply for the "Z" Visa. It is the one-year visa, designated for foreign-expert-status, and is issued by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs, P.R.C. It is an impressive looking document, with the required red signature-stamps. It will permit me to visit the Visa Agency, which is helping me with the process through the Chinese Consulate in Houston, Texas. There might be some additional red-tape, such as a medical-physical and some vaccinations. For those who are interested, I will continue to post the process of the efforts. Until the certainty of the Visa, I am still somewhat hesitant about the travel arrangements. The freighter from Miami to Hong Kong is still on top of the ... read more

ok this is the first entry. this is going to be a massive first entry because i only discovered this site a couple of days ago despite a lot of time spent at this computer on the internet. we arrived in beijing on the 2nd of feb. plane flight was great the plane was huuuuge. anyway had a slight hiccup when we arrived becuase despite the emphasis in heathrow of trying to make sure my bag wasn't left in paris which was where we changed flights...it got left in paris. it wasn't actually that bigger deal becuase on the good side i got a free shite t-shirt and a free washbag curtesy of some asian guy. nice. anyway it was also very cold when we arrived and within a couple of days it was snowing i ... read more