for John

Hi John (who left the message about PCs in Dalian)

you didn't give me your email address, so I can't get back to you.

No prolem building a PC I'd say. Seems to be lots of places and they would be pretty cheap. I dunno where the best place is since I've only been here for 2 weeks, but I'm sure we can find out!

Shanghai Here I Come

Had my second class with the second year Transportation students again. These guys like their beds (as do most of us), since only 3 of them were there at the 8am bell! A few more wandered in and I think we had 12 in total by 10 past! Gonna have to crack the whip I think. Maybe get them to do something embarrassing, like sing the ABC song if they are late! We had 1 girl this time, which was handy cos I did want to base the class around personalities and stuff like that, so it's nice to have both sides of the story!

So, after the class I went back to the flat to surf the web a bit and then came a nice unannounced power cut. Hopefully this won't happen often, but then again, this is China. An old guy in the apartment block said that this happens very rarely.

In case anyone wants to see what some of the Uni looks like, here is a pic of the Main Building, where I teach:


No, it ain't raining. In case some of you weren't aware, Asian girls are opposite to Western ones such that Western girls like to tan and have darker skin, whereas Chinese girls want to have skin as white as possible! It's considered beautiful in China. I thought Irish TV was bad for face cream ads for women. Chinese TV is 10 times worse, and all of the stuff is aimed at whitening the skin! So, Chinese women walk around in the summer under umbrellas so they won't tan!

Here is the view of the Uni from the 9th floor of that building:

Most of that stuff is dorms and school buildings. There's a fella in a sailor suit standing to attention at the front gate but I didn't get a chance to take his photo. Maybe he's like those guards at Buckingham palace!

Went to town and bought a plane ticket to Shanghai. Gonna be visiting a friend there next month. Should be good to see how modern China can be! Dalian ain't bad. More modern than Dublin in some ways.

Dalian has tons of shops and shopping centres everywhere. Anyone who is under illusion that this is a communist country, should come and take a look at the full-scale commercialism here! You can walk around here and think you were in any city in the world. I am not sure where communism rears its head in the daily life of the people (on a superficial level anyway).

So, back to the uni and I could hear loud military-style chanting. And that is what it was. All the first years have to go through around 4 or 5 weeks of military training!


I was told they were having a sort of singing contest, seeing which group could sing the loudest (between the near group and the far group). Very entertaining.

Lost In Translation

Didn't do a huge amount of productive stuff today, nevertheless, it was a good day.

Myself and Tom set up the printer we got in Carrefour but there was no black ink cartridge, only colour. So, we went into town to see about getting a black one. Carrefour said that the printer didn't come with a black ink one. D'oh! Tried looking in some places in the tech shop next door but the bleedin cartridges cost more than the printer! So, after a wander around some more shops looking for an electric frying pan for Tom, we grabbed some food. Great fun trying to speak Chinese to the people working there! Some people just seem to have a block there when talking to foreigners but some people will try. I guess they are not used to hearing broken Chinese. We, on the other hand are used to hearing broken English all the time!

This is funny. We saw this sign on the tram. I haven't a clue what the English is actually trying to say! Maybe a Chinese person can look and tell me what the Chinese version actually says!



I don't know what "special to hint" means! I am guessing that an engineer did the translation. I guess it means that we foeign teachers must try harder when teaching Engineering students!

So, after coming home, I got roped into going for a few beers with the Aussies and Americans. Weekday drinking. For shame! It was god craic though. And only 2 Yuan (2 euro cent) for a pint bottle!!

Had good craic at home there. Rang a few of the folks back home using skype.

But here is a better idea. With VOIP Buster, you can actually call Ireland (and lots of European countries as well as Australia/USA/Canada for wait for it... FREE! You need to by 1 euro credit, otherwise they cut your call off after 1 minute. But even with that, it ain't bad for a freebie!

Sunday Around Town

Headed into town twice today. Getting the hang of the tram no problem.

Went in first with Tom the Aussie and Song Dan to look for a printer. Got a cheapie one in Carrefour. Bought some other stuff there including some freshly baked bread. I hope it's nice compared to the manufactured-tasting stuff you buy in packets. Now, if I could only get fresh milk. Those are 2 things I miss from the motherland! I tells ya, that Carrefour is amazing. You can buy anything there and there is a huge selection. Even in the bakery, there is tons of stuff! You can buy anything from a fridge to fruit!

Tom tells me there's a place in town where you can get a western breakfast for 15 yuan (€1.50) with your bacon and eggs and all that. It's expensive but we could go once or twice.

I caved today and went to McDonald's! We were in a rush, so we grabbed a burger. That was the excuse anyway! As with KFC, McD's is quite expensive for what you get!

Anyway, here is a pic of the street taken while we were waiting for a tram. Not very interesting but I haven't been to most of Dalian yet.


The poor visibility there was due to a sea fog. Since the air smelled very clean, I don't think it was de to pollution. This ain't Beijing!

We had an interesting experience on the tram home. I think what happened was that a guy accidentally broke something (probablysomethingg she bought) before getting on the tram. The 2 of them had a shouting match for 15 minutes. More and more people startedgatheringg around in the tram and some got involved. Great entertainment!

So, after dropping the shopping back, I headed into town again to meet Peter (from Ireland) and his girlfriend Mia. They were in the big electronics place. We looked at some DVDs, only 6 yuan each (around 60 euro cents). Pretty cheap. They bought some. I reckon I'll come back some afternoon by myself and stock up! Maybe I can get some to show the students!

After that, we sat down for a while and went or some Mi Xian (rice noodles a la Yunnan). Quite tasty but not as cheap as in XiShuangBanNa!!!

Here' a pic of myself and Peter beside an interesting sculpture made of metal fish...

2 new posts about Yunnan

I HAVE ADDED 2 NEW POSTS (AUGUST 10 AND 12) ABOUT YUNNAN. CLICK ON THE AUGUST ARCHIE LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THE RIGHT HAND BOX. THE POSTS ARE IN THE ARCHIVE.

Weekend!!!

Had my first taste of a Dalian pub last night. Not bad. Beer is relatively expensive compared to restaurants. Went there with the 2 Aussie teachers but we met 3 of their mates there, a Dane, a Paddy and a Chinese guy. It was good craic. Since I haven't had any more than 1 or 2 beers on less than 5 occasions since I left Ireland, my tolerance has gone way down! There was supposed to be a band later but we didn't stick around.So, I had another class yesterday as well. More 2nd year transportation students. This was also a mixed class. I don’t know why my first class was all boys. Maybe Chinese girls don’t like to get up early; hence there were none at the Wednesday 8am class!!I learned one thing: Chinese students don't like to practise their English with each other. A number of them that I talked to said it would be very strange to do that. I will have to see if I can get hem to practise with each other. The only time they speak English is in Oral class! So, this is one of the reasons why their oral English lags behind their reading and writing!So, this morning with a sore head, I went to a Chinese Language school near the uni. Song Dan brought me. They said that most of their students are Japanese and Korean, so their reading and writing is better than their speaking. However, for me, it is the other way around! So, there are no students like me, so they can't form a class. She said they only way to learn would be for me to get a private teacher, which would be 60 Yuan an hour - quite expensive!!

This evening I met with Some Chinese people, one who wants to be a Chinese language tutor. So, I need to decide what way I want to go with it. Whatever way I go, I want someone who is professional.

So, don’t have any major plans for tomorrow. I think I need to buy a printer, so I will go to town with Tom, the Aussie guy and his student volunteer.

Blogger Acting the Bo&%ox

Blogger was acting up today and wasn't letting me post stuff up on my website. My ISP said it was nothing to do with them! So, I wasted a lot of time trying to see what was wrong. Then when I came back after dinner, it was working but today's entry was there 5 times!!

I have 1 class tomorrow, at 4pm. First Oral English class to another group or second year Transportation students. So, I should be a pro wih that lesson by now. I don't think I will change what I did today unless I modify the Introductions thing so they don't talk as much. I don't want to be too heavy handed, which will result in the atmosphere being killed, but I don't want them just chatting among themselves in Chinese. I'd be delighted if it was in English!

Maybe I will have some time tomorrow to take some photos around the campus!

New Day, New Class

Today, I had my second class: Transportation second years again but a different group. The class was at 12 noon, which is usually lunch time for the students. I was wondering if anyone would actually turn up. By 11:55 there was one lad!

But more and more of them started piling in and we had maybe 15 by the time the bell rang. A few late-comers drifted in and we had 20 students in the class in total! Different class totally as there were 60% girls in the class today. So, my notions of talking about soccer every week are out the window with this class! I’ll have to talk about shopping and movie stars (that’s what they sad they like!!! However, in the survey I conducted, all students liked eating and sleeping! So do I, so we have something in common!

The class went better today as I got rid of the "talk about your degree course" thing. I did introductions instead (thanks Ciara and Mei for the idea). They had to talk about themselves to each other in their groups. Afterwards, I asked one person in the group to describe another person in the same group. I think that was OK except that they were speaking some Chinese during the talkie bit and some people were bored when other groups were talking in class. Then I got them to come up with ideas for things they are interested in. I think they are all interested in learning English songs, so I asked them to think about it for next class. I want to teach "Yellow Submarine" byathe Beatles! Simple words and melody and it's also catchy. And above all it's the Beatles and not some crappy manufactured shite. And it has something to do with the sea. This is Dalian Maritime University, after all!

One lad in the class has a mate who is working as a barman in Dublin. He said it was the Liverpool Bar but I have never heard of that, and I have heard of (and drank in) a lot of Dublin pubs. He said the bar bought everyone a pint of Guinness after Liverpool won the Champions League! I was in the wrong pub!!

So, tomorrow I do that routine again with a new class. Then I have to plan the second instalment for the transportation students next week.

I might take the camera outside this afternoon (since it is such a lovely day) and take some snaps of the college and stick them up on the blog.

Yunnan Photos

I have put a selection of photos from my Yunnan trip up on a flickr site.

Go to My Flickr Site and click on the Yunnan set. I have made lots of comments about the pics. Click on the first pic in the set of small pictures. You can use the "next" link under the small picture on the right in order to look at the pics and see the comments. With the Slideshow, I don't think you can see the comments. Blame Flickr for a crappy interface.

I have been a busy bee today. I should really adjust my lesson plan for tomorrow so it goes a bit more smoothly than today's class.

Some Pictures of Where I live

So, now that I have Internet and now that my first class is over, I have time to put up some pics of the place where I live.

Here's the first one, of the view from my bedroom window.


You can see the road in front of the building. If you go along this road, you can find small shops, restaurants and internet cafe. In front of the road, there is this dried up river and then the road where you can get the bus and this road also has the chemist and supermarket.


Now for some pics of the apartment itself. Here is my bedroom:


which is in its usual spotless state. Well, it's aout as clean as it gets. The room is quite spacious in my opinion an it has air-con, which I haven't used that much so far. Can catch a cold if air-con is to cold and weather outside is warm.

Here is the main room in the apartment, which is both a living room and dining room. I have a TV and couch etc and a table and chairs. That empty beer bottle was left by an Aussie fella last night. I didn't drink it before my first class this morning (although that might have been a good idea!!)


Here is the kitchen area:


I haven't done a lot of cooking yet. Well, then again, I was given my wok only yestarday. I don't know how good that hot-plate will be for cooking. I must find some Chinese students to teach me some simple Chinese dishes. Well, since my students are all young lads, I doubt most of them can cook!

First Class Done!

I had my first class this morning! Second Year Transportation! 15 21-year-old lads. It went ok. It could have been worse but I think I learned a lot!

The difficult thing is to get the students talking as much as possible and that's not easy! Also, picking topics that they can talk about is also very important! I know these guys like football and sports and music, so I think that could be an angle. Mention football and their eyes light up. I think they all know Roy Keane from Ireland, so that's a god thing!

So, I will have to sit down and come up with some more ideas for tomorrow's class. It's also a first class for some other transportation students.

I'm glad to have the first class over with. I think I won't be as nervous about the next one. I think I know more what to expect. I have a lot to learn about teaching but I hope to improve a lot!

I'm Connected!

I got my ADSL today! SO, the continually pestering the China Telecom people worked a treat!

Only hard thing now is to get off the computer and prepare my lesson for tomorrow.

For anyone who is interested, this site has an RSS feed. Using an |RSS reader, you can receive updates when they are ready. Any people using Mozilla Thunderbird can set it up by creating a new account. The URL for the feed is:

http://www.greatblogofchina.com/atom.xml

I don't know if the RSS thing includes pictures or not.

I will try and get some pics up there, now that I have Internet in the flat. So, I will have some pics of Dalian and also of my travels in Yunnan!

Chinese Culture Lesson

So, today we had some more orientation. Hats off to the staff for doing this, as I think it has made a lot of difference. I know an awful lot about what's going on in the uni and also about what to expect and how to deal with certain things that might come up.

The main topics of the orientation were Chinese culture and how it applies to Chinese students in the classroom. Two Postgraduate Chinese students were there to talk to us about these topics. So, the following has come from their mouths and not mine!

For those who don't know, Chinese students are worked to the bone at school from the age of six. They just study, study, study. There is huge competition to get into Universities here. So while they are studying, they seem to miss out on real life experiences that most Irish students get, like even having a girlfriend or boyfriend or experiencing the larger world. Compared to Western students of the same age, Chinese students are more naive and less street wise. Maybe a lot of first years never left their home towns before, never mind gad to fend for themselves. And these kids are maybe 20 years old. Maybe some Irish students are a bit like that when they get to uni if they come from small towns or remote places but it wouldn't be as pronounced as here.

So, the Chinese education system consists of lots of exams so the students study things by heart and regurgitate the material. Rarely is there time for independent thought.

Chinese culture is strongly influenced by Confucianism, which states the importance of the group over the individual. So, group harmony is more important than individual gain. So, Chinese people never want to offend or to cause trouble, as it would sometimes affect the group. Sometimes this means that they will never say "no" as they don't want to hurt your feelings. Asps, you have to read between the lines a lot!!

People are taught to be modest and not to flaunt their talents. So, we were told that this, along with lack of confidence in their English and the fact that they may never have spoken with a foreign teacher before all contribute to the blank faces and non-answering in class, especially for first year students. Seems like it will be a tough job getting them going! We were also told that the students just won't get what you are saying, even after a few weeks. I think patience and perseverance is key!

We were also told that since the students had worked so hard to get into University, that sometimes they see the time there as a relaxation period. And the oral English class is seen as the most relaxing. So, I think Oral English teachers need to act professionally and earn more respect amongst the teachers and other students.


After all that interesting stuff we headed for lunch with those students and some of the teachers. Had very interesting conversations about different cultures and inter-cultural environments etc.

From listening to different students and teachers, it seems there are a variety of styles. Some of the students and younger teachers would tell me that I should be the students' friend and to have a relaxing class. The older teachers stress the line between teacher and student. I think that there should be respect for a teacher among the students, so therefore you can't be all pally with them. You have to retain a certain distance otherwise they will walk all over you. Some teachers are very strict and may throw students out for using mobile phones or talking whereas other teachers say it doesn't bother them unless it disrupts the class. Chinese students have told me that they respect the strict teachers. So, I think I will need to have some basic rules to keep some respect in the classroom.

I have to say that the TV cable for the laptop was a great investment. Now, I can play Super Mario on the TV and watch movies and TV shows etc! And I can have it as a juke box and make the TV display nice colours in time with the mysticism. What will they think of next...

That evening, I had a few beers with an Aussie teacher. It was good craic and he was giving me his point of view on teaching and as well as telling me some stories of when he taught English in Turkey! Ah, the Aussies and the Paddies have a lot in common. Well, the guy's name was Brennan!

...

Well, in the afternoon I wasn't feeling that well, so I got some medicine from the local Chemist. The place here is very handy. There are restaurants, shops and small supermarket, Internet cafes, chemist, photo shop, barber shop etc! SO, had great fun trying to explain to the chemist through Song Dan that I had a headache and a bit of a temperature and a sore tummy! I was sent away with some pills anyway. They did make me feel better and I for some rest that day and spent a lot of time lying down.

I was sort of wandering around looking for a glass of water around midnight when I swore I heard my phone ringing! It turned out to be my family! I was so groggy that I don't think I made much sense to them!! Well, when/if my broadband arrives I can call them using skype. Much more handy!

Friday

Today, we had a meeting about teaching. There were some Chinese students there. Previous teachers and the Chinese students gave us an idea of what to expect and how to deal with certain things. Allegedly, Chinese students are not as forward as Western ones regarding answering questions and getting involved. This will be a big challenge, especially with First Year students!

We got our textbooks. I will be teaching the Navigation nstudents (1st years) and they have a special book with all sorts of shipping terms! Ro/Ro ships and Bulk carriers and container ships and so on. I don't have to teach all of that stuff, but they will need the vocab in case they call at foreign ports!! Maybe U should teach them some sea shanties and swear words, so they can curse like real sailors!!!Good job I like boats!

I will be teaching normal oral English to the transportation students (2nd years). I have a book as a guideline. Main thing I sam not sure about is the likes of class tests/homework etc! I'll figure it out. I think the main thing is that if i can build a rapport with the class and get their respect, I should be ok!

To be continued (again)

...

Went for lunch with the teachers in the nice restaurant in the campus. Definitely not where the students go!

Got a few things done with the two lads like getting a key cut and getting a carpenter to fix the shower door, which wouldn't close!

That evening, Song Dan (one of the students) came around with a few beers and some meat skewers. Fair play to him. He was a bit late for his dorm that evening since they close the doors ar 10:30pm! So, he had to go and knock on the front door for someone to let him in. A far cry from the student res in DCU!!

Hello Sunshine!

NOTE: I HAVE UPDATED EARLIER POST FROM 16th ABOUT ARRIVING IN DALIAN. CHECK IT OUT. THANKS TO SONG DAN FOR UPLOADING IT FOR ME.

I woke up this morning to sunshine, thank God!! I was to go to the admin building for orientation. As usual, my student brought me there, afraid that I'd get lost! Well, to be fair, the guys have been very helpful. One of them told me that usually they have a guy and a girl to help each teacher but since he has a girl's name, they thought he was a girl, so paired him with a guy!!! I hear that's common enough in China, for boys to have girls' names and vice versa.

So, at orientaion, all the new foreign teachers, some of the existing foreign teachers, academics as well as admin staff were there. I think it was a good experience and it was actually the first time they ever had orientation! They told us that we'd be teaching oral English and that they actually had a coursebook! Handy to fall back on! There were 3 of us that hadn't taught before, so that was a bit relieving. Of all the foreign teachers, it looks like I am the baby! Most of them are older but they seem to be a nice bunch of people and I'm sure I'll be going for beers with some of them!

So, they went through some stuff and gave us our schedules. My worst nightmare was realised. Four out of five days with an 8am start! ARRRRGH!! Lucky my apartment is a 5-minute walk from the school!

Some of us then went over to the Chinese Department to find out about Chinese classes. It seems they run a chinese course for overseas students but it is 10 classes a week (15 hours) and all the classes are in the mornings so they clash with my teaching. Even if my teaching was in the evenings, maybe the workload between preparation for teaching, the teaching itself, going to Chinese classes and studying the Chinese class material would be too much! Maybe I can find another school or get a tutor from time to time and work by myself. However, going to class is the best way to motivate one's self!

To Be Continued...

Day Two in Dalian

I wrote some stuff for my blog last night on my laptop using Word but I have no way to trensfer it to the internet. Can't use USB key in this internet cafe.

To summarise, Dalian is a lovely and clean city compared to Beijing! Two guys (students in the uni) picked my up from the airport and brought me to my apartment, which is nice and spacious and well equipped with big TV (that I can watch English football on!!), fridge, microwave, rice cooker, kettle, electric cooking ring, hot water, air-con in bedroom and a PC.


The day broke in true Irish fashion again. Pissing rain! The 2 lads picked me up in the morning and we went to the police station to fill out some sort of residence form.I told them that they should use the word "cop shop" instead of police station. I am teaching them English that is useful. Then we went to the uni to see about some stuff. There will be orientation on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Only in the mornings. I briefly met two of the other foreign teachers. One Amerhican and one Australian guy.

Som after lunch, we hit for town. First was the seemingly easy task of getting ADSL Internet. As I've heard before, the old language barrier can be a big obstacle. First there was confusion cos my landline was some sort of prepaid type, where you buy creditm like a pay-as-you-go mobile phone. Then, I was trying to find out the upload and download speeds. More confusion insued! After nearly two hours, we sorted it out!! Could have done with a pint after all that.

We took the Dalian equivalent of the LUAS into the city centre. Very cheap, even considering that my salary is around aeven times lower in China! It is 1 yuan (around 10 Euro cent) for a bus or tram ride.

We went to a big electronics place (where you can bargain) so I could buy a cable to connect my laptop to the TV so no need for DVD player. More inter-language problem hilarity insued!! We then went to the giant Carrefour to get some necessities for the apartment.

Came back and got some cheap food in the local restaurant on the corner. Becoming a regular at this stage!

So, from my day out, it seems like Dalian is a lot different from other Chinese cities. It's luxury in comparison to most of them! However, some things still remain very Chinese, i.e. the people. Most people in shops can't speak English. I wouldn't expect them to and it also helps me with my Chinese!

Hopefully I will like this place when I get to know more people!

Goodbye Beijing, Hello Dalian!

Irish weather still persisted for my last day in Beijing! Bucketing down, so it was! Although the rain made the day very cool and tolerable compared with the previous day. So, didn't do much in the morning apart from going for some more yummy Beijing Roast Duck! They love the stuff over here and so do I!

My flight was due to depart at 4pm.we had planned to leave at 1:30. The rain was so bad that we were forced to take a taxi. The traffic was horrendous and we didn't arrive at the airport until maybe 3:10. Then we realised that we were at the wrong terminal!! So, cue the Olympic trolley pushing contest from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1! Got to check in the nick of time. When I got to the gate they hadn't boarded yet! And they still hadn't boarded by 4:30! All that rushing for nothing! Boarded and sat on the plane for another hour. They made some announcements about what was happening but I couldn't even understand her English since her accent was so thick! Sounds like she could do with a good English teacher, hehe! Maybe I could offer my services and make some extra cash!

Touched down in Dalian International Airport around 5ish! Seemed a lot smaller than Beijing! There were two students to greet me at the airport. Nice lads. They struggled to carry my 23kg bag to the waiting car that the University sent. So, my impressions of Dalian as we drove at night time to the university: Very clean and neat compared to Beijing. Seemed to be a lot of bright lights on the way. Don't know if they were casinos or hotels or bars. The city is supposed to be less crowded than Beijing and has less harsh weather- cooler summers and less freezing winters!

We arrived at the Uni. Seems like the uni is split in two by a road and there are some shops and restaurants and houses there in the middle where locals live and shop. So, my apartment building isn't exactly inside the campus and I am told that there are some locals living in the building as well. Not sure if the Uni owns the building or not and just lets out the spare apartments.

So, first impressions of the apartment were great! It has 4 rooms: large living-room/kitchen, large enough bedroom with double bed and air conditioning, bathroom with 24 hour hot water and study room with computer (where I am right now). I also have a TV, fridge, microwave, rice-cooker, hot water machine and a hob thing. I better learn how to cook some Chinese food. Maybe some students can teach me some simple dishes! So, this gaff is better than what I had in Dublin, and I don't pay rent!

I am going to get internet soon. I guess that it isn't supplied I guess cos the house isn't on campus. It's supposed to be cheap anyway.

Another thing that made me happy was that one channel shows English football. So, I got to see Liverpool's crap opener against Middlesboro! Commentary is all in Chinese. Better brush up on my Chinese footie vocab. Dalian has one of the best football clubs in China, so I will have to go and see them as well!

There are plenty of shops and restaurants around and also a small supermarket. So, I can pick up anything I need quite easily. I am told that it is a half hour journey to town, so that's not too bad. I'm not sure if I will get a bike or not cos it might be a bit dangerous on the roads. Most of the locals don't cycle cos there are too many hills here! We'll see!

So, this is my first ever night living in a place on my own. Sort of strange but it's good to have my own place that I am responsible for. So, here's hoping for a great year here!!

Monday Night

I think I definitely brought the famed Irish weather to China. It pissed down with rain in the afternoon. I had planned to meet up with the guys from Sun Microsystems Beijing at some restaurant but since the rain was so heavy, we had to change to another one nearby. Thank God China has a lot of restaurants! So, had a nice dinner and some beer with the lads. No karaoke this time!

Back In Beijing

Arrived back in Beijing this morning after 10 days' traveling in Yunnan Province in South China. It was pretty cool and got to see a lot of cool stuff.

I am flying to Dalian tomorrow. Holiday ends and reality kicks in!! Well, hopefully everything will be fine. I have got more used to China at this stage and I think my listening skills in Chinese have definitely improved. I need to learn more vocab though for speaking.

When I get to Dalian, i will get broadband (don't know how long that will take) but I will hopefully have access to University computers so I can post stuff about my travels in Yunnan and stick up a few pictures. I might set up a flickr site (or something similar: any suggestions for similar sites, since I don't really like flickr?) and put lots of pics up there.

Will probably hook up with the Sun Beijing boys today to pass on all the trade sectrets I learned in Ireland :-) ! Watch out for the RIFs, PIT Ireland!!

That's all for now. Don't want to hog Jenny's dial-up connection!

Long Journey Down South

After Breakfast on the 11^th, we made some enquiries about flying to XiShuangBanNa. No tickets were to be had, so it was the dreaded sleeper bus!! When we got to the bus station, who should we meet but the family from Guangzhou!! Small world, even in China!! So, we set off on our long, bumpy journey! Man, it was bumpy! We were tossed and thrown all over the place and Jenny got motion sickness! The further south we went, the scenery gradually became more tropical. Although the journey was long, the scenery was really beautiful (see picture).

We stopped in the evening for dinner at some place in the middle of nowhere! Then we took off on the bumpy roads again! I think I got some sleep but not much. We pulled into XiShuangBanNa around 8 in the morning! The whole journey had taken around 20 hours! And I thought the Kunming to Dali one was bad! The place reminded me a bit of Malaysia, with the tropical plants and trees and also the buildings. It was definitely the poorest place we had been to.

Got off the bus and noticed the heat and humidity! Jut like Malaysia except not as hot! Our first priority was to book a plane ticket back to Kunming! No way would we sit on another sleeper bus for 20 hours! Well, Jenny booked a plane ticket and we went for brekkie. The family invited us out to a village where the mother’s uncle lived. Sounded interesting. But what a journey we had in store for us!

We got on the bus and it crawled slowly out of the town, trying to pick up some extra passengers. Outside the own, we hit the country “road”. Well, it was more of a waterlogged dirt track! Oh, what fun! Worse than the sleeper bus! There was a boy with a few frogs in a plastic bag, which drove the girls crazy cos they were afraid of them! The frogs were for the lad’s dinner that night! The road wasn’t getting any better. Someone asked how long. Another hour! My God! This road would surely shake everyone’s stomach up! There was a lot of large puddles on the road and the driver was trying o negotiate them without tipping over the bus, Sort of scary since you didn’t know how deep the puddles were! Ah, character-building stuff!

We arrived in the village after 3 hours of driving! We went to the cousin’s house first. The place was in the middle of the countryside, surrounded by crop fields. Scenery was quite nice! They gave us some grapefruit. They’re mad for it down here but I’m not a big fan. Very sour and sickening. After a while, we drove up to he uncle’s house in one of those blue work vans that you see everywhere! The uncle (in his sixties or seventies) and his wife lived in a sort of housing complex. Lots of houses surrounding a central area. We had some nice dinner there and they then showed us their grapefruit trees out the back. Jenny was very interested in all the different fruits and trees. We then had some fruit called BoLuoMi. It’s a huge thing (2 or 3 kilos) with sort of knobbly skin. A bit like a durian but not as spiky. The fruit inside was a bit lie a durian as well, but not as strong-tasting! It was quite nice!

We headed back to XiShuangBanNa around 5. We wanted to find a hotel and go to the National Park the next day. The family wanted us to stay but we declined since we didn’t have as much time in the area as they did. The journey back didn’t seem as bad although it had rained in the afternoon, so there was a lot more water (in huge pools) on the road. Great fun!

When we got back to town, the bus driver helped us find a hotel. He got a good discount for us. It was a 3 star, I think. Not bad either. It was good to have a proper bed to sleep in rather than the bunks on the sleeper bus!

Back in Dali

So, we left rainy Lijiang on the luxury bus to Dali! Yet again they gave a little free gift! It was a key ring with a bus on it! Aaahh, the service is nice here in China! Can't imagine Bus Eireann doing that!

When we arrived in Dali, we found that the sleeper buses to XiShanBanNa (good girl

the place in the South of Yunnan) were gone. That place name is too long. Took m ages to remember it!!! So, there was one in the morning at 11:30. We were also contemplating flying down there since we wee told that the sleeper took 16 hours!!! So, we had to find a hotel. We ended up staying in a nice 3 or 4 star hotel for 100 Yuan each or something! Jenny got him to give a discount. You seem to be able to get money off anything here by haggling! So, I had a great sleep that night!

Rainy Lijiang

I think China wanted me to feel at home today, cos it was raining all night and still raining now (4pm)! Just like home!!

I rang Dalian and they will have someone to pick me up at the airport on the 16th, which is handy.

They have a mountain called "Snow Mountain" near LiJiang. We were thinking of gong but we c couldn’t go anywhere because of the rain. Anyway, we had decided not to go because of the crowds and the possibility of bad weather. Probably no more spectacular than any other mountain I had seen!

So, the provisional plan is to go to a place in the south of Yunnan province, on the border with Burma. However, this could change. Jenny is off discussing it with the tour guide guy we met yesterday. This gave me time to update my blog and write the crap you are reading right now!!

some beautiful scenery and a bit of history

Tuesday August 10

Up we got at 6.30am (yawn) and finished off the last of the brown bread I had brought from Ireland. My last bit of home, sniff, sniff.

We were set for LiJiang, in the mountains. The scenery on the way was spectacular. Starting with a lake on the right hand side and mountains on the left with green crop fields in between. The mountains were poking through the clouds, so it really was spectacular. They grow a lot of tobacco and rice here. It was a real rural area as we wound our way into the mountains!

Arrived in LiJiang Old town. We made our way to the town square and then some of our group went looking for hotels. The local minority people here were all doing some dancing in the square to incessant flute music. (I can still hear it outside and it's now raining heavily outside and the girls are dancing while holding umbrellas!!!).

Had great craic with the cheeky little kid from the Guangzhou family. When we asked him his name he said “bu zhidao” (不知道), which means "don't know". So, that was his name from now on. Can't remember what his real name was. He was a really cheeky kid. I could sort of talk to him in Chinese. He was 8 years old and had studied English for 3 years but wouldn't speak it! He called me over one time and asked me to teach him some English, but he wouldn't speak it the others. Too shy. Seemed like a clever kid. He called me his “waiguo gege” (外国哥哥) or foreign big brother! He was hanging out of me for the whole day and was a big hit with everyone. What a comedian! Chinese kids are so cute. And I think they are a lot more innocent than Irish kids!

We had a pleasant walk around the old town. More souvenir shops and crowds! They had a palace as well, something like the Forbidden City in Beijing, but on a smaller scale, since it was for a local king. Since all the tour was in Chinese, I didn't catch much of it! We then climbed the hill to the small Buddhist temple. It started bucketing down with rain but we had the kid to keep us entertained!!

One thing I found nice is that our group consisted of all ages, from the 8 year old kid to the Sichuan students (who were around 18 to 20), to myself and Jenny, to the parents and grandmother of the boy. The 3 separate groups never knew each other but were happy to be together and got along grand. People in China seem to be very friendly and always talk to each other, even to strangers. It would be different in Beijing or other big cities but this is something that is dying out in Ireland.

The rain eventually stopped and we had a gander around the old town. They sell all sorts of crafts and souvenirs. Got a bite to eat in one of the restaurants. Noodle soup. Very tasty. Food is great in China although the stomach needs to adjust. The odd time I get a craving for a big steak of spuds or something you can get your teeth into!

Jenny got talking to some local guys in the restaurant, and one of them is a tour guide, so he has given us some travel advice.

The hotel we were staying in is like a converted old house, similar to the one we visited the previous day. Interesting but noisy!!

Intro to Chinese Mass Tourism

Hello again. I am now in Dali (大理）after Leaving Kunming yesterday. On Sunday, we went to the stone forest (石林), which is a karst landscape, a bit like the Burren in Ireland, except more spectacular. They have loads of huge standing stones that have been there naturally for years.
We took a tour bus from Kunming to there. Great fun was had arguing over the price (Jenny, not me) and the bus finally took off after loads of waiting and arguing between the passengers and driver about getting a move on! I reckon I really need to learn more Chinese to make these tours more worthwhile, as I catch 1% of what is being said! Most of the guides had an accent as apposed to speaking BBC Chinese!!

Stopped at a Buddhist temple on the way, which was interesting. Have seen similar ones in Malaysia but nice to see one in China. They had monks on hand to tell fortunes and so on! Even had a Buddhist prayer with lads chanting and dowsing us with water. Very enlightening. At least Budley (小胖) got closer to his Buddhist roots. He loved it! (pic to follow)

The stone forest was cool. It is staffed by one of the minorities of Yunnan province, the Yi people. Usually, people in China always address people by a title, be it Shifu for taxi driver (term of respect for someone with a skill), fuwuyuan for waiter/waitress (server) or just xiansheng (Mister) / xiaojie (Miss). But for these Yi girls, who were the tour guides etc, you can't call them xiaojie, you must call them (阿诗玛 = a shi ma), so everyone got great fun out of this. Maybe it was a novelty of it was the way the word sounded! They all had a traditional costume and hat. We got an AShiMa guide to drive us around the place in an electric car. The rocks were really cool and they had some walks and gardens. Lots of standing stones and also some cliff type things and a nice lake. Really spectacular. I think most people don't know how much China has to offer. And this is only the tip of the iceberg!

So, we bussed it back to Kunming and then went for dinner with the family that was on the bus with us。 They were living in Guangzhou and the family consisted of the father, mother, cheeky kid and grandmother. So, we ten took the sleeper bus to Dali (大理). This was an experience in itself. The bus had 2 rows of bunks, and in some cases, there were bunks in the corridors! The bunk was just about as wide as my shoulders and not long enough for me! I got a bit of sleep and we got breakfast in Dali at around 7am. Maybe some westerners are unaware but Chinese breakfast is a lot different. In the west, we have the idea of different foods for different times of the day. Not so in China. So, you could be eating noodle soup or something spicy. Definitely different for me, although it was the same in Malaysia.

So, our plan for the day was to take a tour around the lake. I was told there was some fantastic scenery around the place. So, here is where it got crowded! They packed a few hundred people into each boat I think there were 3 boats. We set off and cruised slowly around the lake. The sun came out and we were surrounded by beautiful mountains. We docked at an island and the few thousand people piled onto it! At the top of the island was a huge 30m tall statue of Guanying 观音. She is a character from Chinese mythology. This Guanying had the body of a man and the face of a woman!

Onwards we went, taking the boat to shore for our dinner. The bussed us all up the road to some restaurants for some local food, which was average. After dinner, we were brought to the Butterfly Spring. If you wash your hands in the spring, you can have good luck! Myself and Jenny decided to climb to the top of the hill to get away from the crowds. There was a lovely view from the lake and it was great to get away from the swarms of people below. You could hear there buzzing away like a swarm of bees below. I think they should have staggered the visits to different placers so that the crowds would not be so big.

On the way back to Dali, we visited some more places, well mainly shops! We stopped at a traditional Bai (local minority people) house. It had a central courtyard and 3 sides of it has rooms, on 2 stories. We had a tea-tasting session there! Tea tasting seems to be a big thing here. Had it last year in Beijing. The give you a few different types of tea to taste and then hope you will buy some!

After the tea, we were brought to a Jade factory and then another shop. The tour guides encourage the tourists to buy loads of stuff! Most people couldn't be bothered! We then went to the three towers, which were built a thousand years ago. I can't remember exactly why, but it was something to do with water and flooding. They were very impressive. There was also a Buddhist Temple dedicated to the reunification of Hong Kong with the mainland in 1997.
After all that, we finally arrived in Dali old town (大理古城 DaLi GuCheng). It was an old fashioned Chinese town turned into a tourist trap. Hordes of people hovering around the souvenir shops and bars. It was nice to walk around.

That evening all of us from our bus stayed in a hotel. It was quite nice excepot for the few mosquitos. The group consisted of Jenny and I, the family and 4 students from Sichuan. Early to bed for the 6:30am alarm clock!

Arrived in China!

I arrived in China yesterday morning! No problems with Immigration or customs or anything like that!

Met my friend Jenny at the airport. We then got the shuttle bus and taxi to her place. Forgot how big and full of pollution Beijing was! Didn't appear to be as many bikes as last year. I think people have taken to cars more and more!

So, exchanged money and went for lunch and had the customary Beijing Roast Duck. Very tasty! So, that evening we had arranged to fly to Kunming in the South of China to travel around for a few days. By 3 or 4 o'clock I was fit for bed. Not much sleep on the plane to Beijing. Before the flight we got free brekkie in the hotel and free lunch in the airport, so not too bad!

Arrived in Kunming around 9pm. It was obvious that this place was quite different from Beijing. The weather was cooler and the place reminded me more of Malaysia, with open shop fronts etc. I am told it is called the Spring City since the weather is nice all year round and you can get flowers all the time! We had planned to follow some Chinese backpackers to the Youth Hostel and after eventually finding it, they were full up! So, we found a nearby hotel, which was nice and reasonably priced. Didn't get out of bed tile 12 cos I was so knackered!

The weather today has been typically Irish (pissing rain), so we couldn't do too much. We went for the local special which is mixian (米线) or rice noodle soup. Very tasty. You get a big bowl of soup and some rice noodles and other stuff that you put in yourself. Went to the traditional Chinese Supermarket (Wal-Mart) for some supplies.

One of the differences I notice (and noticed last year) about China is the sheer number of people both going to places and working in places. They had someone to give you a shopping basket, somebody to weigh fruit, somebody to look at them doing it etc.!!! They just throw people at things. I guess there is no lack of people here in China!

The plan for the next few days is to travel around Yunnan province. It's supposed to have lovely scenery. Today, I don't mind doing nothing, since I am still a bit tired. Slowly getting used to the fact that I will be in this country for a whole year. I will have to get used to the food (no scuts so far) and the culture (e.g. thiongs are more based around the group as opposed to the individual, like when eating dinner, everything is shared. I'm no stranger to this, scince I have been in Many Chinese restaurants in Ireland, China and Malaysia) . I'm sure I can do it. My Chinese is also improving. Jenny insists on speaking Chinese most of the time to me even though she has really good English! I am also helping her with her English pronunciation and helping her to use more everyday speech.

Summary of China to date: so far, so good!

Air China, pride of the skies, i mean runways

Right now I should be flying over Russia in the Air China 747. But instead I am in the Radisson Edwardian Heathrow hotel!!

Good old Air china had an engine problem!! The flight was due to take off around 20:25. Bu 20:15, the gate number was still not displayed on the info screens in departure area. Then it appeared. Waited around at the gate until everybody suddenly broke out of the queue and headed in all directions. No announcements were made. We heard that there were engine problems and that engineers were looking at them. SO, they aid to go back to the departures area and wait for announcements. Lucky I had someone to talk to. It so happened that there was a girl (Amy) behind me in the queue who was from China and studying English in Dublin! She was to fly to her home town of Nanchang the next day on a separate ticket. So, we went back to the gate around 10 and they announced we were boarding. We waited. And waited. Then they announced after 11pm that they were cancelling the flight because they couldn’t get the engines fixed in time. Heathrow doesn’t allow flights after midnight because of noise levels. SO, we have to wait until the next day! So, they put us up in a hotel and give us free brekkie and lunch! We were lucky.. They asked for 10 people to stay in the Radisson with the Air China crew! I think we got the best one! Also, happened to meet a girl from Dalian, so she and Amy are sharing a room. New friendships formed already. Had to put m Chinese into action talking to the flight crew about phone cards. The adventure starts already!!!

So, the moral of the story is.... Fly Air France!

Last Post from Ireland

It's now the morning of the day that I go to China !!!

In true Irish fashion, my friends brought me out last night and filled me with booze! I know that in a lot of countries, people would get a good night's rest ahead of a trip like this, but not the Irish!!!! Sure it has to be done....to be sure!

Everything is packed. I will just go through my list and make sure that Everything is there. I'm actually organised for once. Usually I pack an hour before leaving for the airport!

Next post from me will be from somewhere in China...

One More Day...

It's Tuesday. One more day left before I leave for China. Scary, eh? I collected my plane tickets this morning and got a few things in town. Now I have to start packing, the part I hate the most, haha!

Since moving home, I haven't done a huge amount. Went out for pints on Sunday with a few mates. Yesterday was a family day. Went to the cinema and for a meal with the family followed by a few pints of Guinness down the local.

Will probably head into town for a few last pints tonight with some friends. Then it's goodbye Ireland, hello China! Exciting times ahead!