Blogs from Asia - page 15576

I think we're getting part of the typhoon that's in the area at the moment, it's raining pretty hard outside and extremely windy, good thing I'm holed up in an internet cafe. This morning seemed so promising too, the sun was shining and the sky was blue.... I decided to go and see a place called Shuri castle today, it is only about a half hour from the city centre.　Although it's called a castle it isn't the typical Japanese style of castle. You see years ago Okinawa never used to be a part of Japan, it used to be called the Ryukyu Kingdom, it was it's own country and had a King as the ruler. In that time the King lived at this place called Shuri castle, although it was completely destroyed by bombs during the ... read more

Today is "get things out to pack" day as tomorrow we head for New York City where we will start our journey to China on the following day. Our trip takes us, via Tokyo, to Beijing, China, where we will meet our tour group for two weeks of an exciting adventure. This will be the first trip in which we have taken along a laptop computer that hopefully will enable me to keep a record of our travels with photos to be added after we return home. After 3 days in Beijing we will be on our way to Xi'an to see the terra cotta warriors exhibition. Then on to Chengdu where we overnite in preparation for an early morning flight to Lhasa, Tibet, the "Roof of the World." After 3 nights in Lhasa we ... read more

That's my chinese name! The guy behind the counter thought it was an interesting name...don't know if that is god or bad. My roomate left me, wanted an asian roommate so at the moment I am very alone. Beside I was told that have to move in one month anyway because they are ehh donig something to the place. Have no clue. I cant do anything anyway, ot even write my own name!!! And I haven't found an ATM yet...sigh Had a really bad day yesterday, just wishing it was over...but today is better. Stefanie from the stes have arrived and I met some people that seem nice through my organization. Have to go or that lung x ray on riday though.scary. But I was told it was a fake examination...don't know about that though. Hopefully, ... read more

Sarah: We've have had four fabulous days in Beijing. The local people are lovely and really want to welcome you to their city. We've visited all the major attractions you'd expect but also stayed in the hutongs which are the backstreets of Beijing, where the local people live in tiny little ramshackle lean-tos and their everyday life basically spills out into the street. This for us is the most fascinating part and has been a welcome relief from the big, busy roads and the big modern buildings that are springing up everywhere, impressive but impersonal. The Forbidden City, where the Emperors lived, is bigger than huge and more opulent than you could believe. As for the Great Wall of China, it is beautiful, although walking along it for 10k we were hotter and more exhausted than ... read more

Last night a bunch of the old teachers who are mostly all leaving to go back home or various other places in the world besides Dalian got together and all had dinner together before they left. Three of the new teachers were invited so we all joined them. We had an awesome time, went to this little kabob place and ordered a ton of kababs (they're probably a quarter each). The waiters and waitresses bring out little boxes that have fires in them and a little grate on top so that you can sit the kabobs on the fire and cook them yourself. It was really awesome. We all had some Chinese beer too (not too bad stuff) and I got to meet a bunch of people here which was also cool. Then we went to ... read more