Back Teaching Again

Back to the old teaching game today. First 3 classes of the semester. Marketing, ET (whatever that is) and Applied Physics. The marketing students were good, as expected. The ET (some sort of electronics) students were very reluctant to speak, but the Applied Physics surprised me a bit! A nice bunch of happy students. Little do they know what’s in store for them when they start hitting the heavy stuff next year! They reminded me a bit of our class. A quite normal bunch of people, although our class had probably a 40-60 ratio of girls to guys, whereas theirs is 20-80. However, in a similar way to our class, a lot of them were doing physics cos they didn’t get their first choice! I did console them in the fact that a degree in Applied Physics can open up a lot of opportunities. All you have to do is look at the diversity of jobs that people from our class are in now!

The rest of my students are all studying techie type stuff, like Computerisation, Telecommunications, Computers and Electronics. I can see more ET-types! But you never know.

Disturbingly Bad English : "Perfection Concentration Camp"

While strolling around Xiamen, I noticed an advertisement outside the building site of a new apartment complex:

Now, you may not be able to make out the English text (click on the pic to get a larger version), but the text reads "The Perfection Concentration Camp". What the f%?k ? The Chinese says: 厦禾商圈惊现完美豪宅, which is just going on about the great apartment complex (according to my Chinese sources). I don’t know what prat did the translation, but I reckon if his superiors knew and understood the meaning what he'd written, he'd be shown the door fairly sharpish! Good job only a very tiny fraction of the people who read this sign (i.e. English-speaking westerners) will actually understand what it means, otherwise it could cause a lot of insult and upset!

In case there are some readers who don't know what a concentration camp is, they were horrific places built by the Germans and the Japanese during World War II, in which millions of people were turtured, experimented upon and murdered.

Back In Dalian

Got back to Dalian 2 days ago. It’s a strange feeling being back after 2 months of rambling around the place! The old place hasn’t changed too much actually! It was a bit wacky that first night cos I got a call from a friend back home at half past one in the morning! When the phone woke me up, I hadn’t a clue where I was, whether I was in Ireland, Guangdong, Fujian or god knows!

I will start teaching on Tuesday. Already collected my text books. They actually have a book aimed at Oral English this time! Maybe I can use some stuff from it. I guess heading into this semester, it will be a lot easier. I am way more comfortable with the whole thing. The first time I stood in front of a class, I felt a bit stupid! Should be grand this time around.

Photos from most of the places I have been to are up on my Flickr site now. I have created sets as well, one for each place.

In Hakka Country

On the second last leg of my trip now. I came to Fujian a few days ago, Xiamen to be exact. I have to say, it is a lovely city, nicer than Dalian and it has history and culture, which Dalian lacks. If they all spoke Mandarin, then I'd very much consider moving down there. Then again the weather isn't to my liking. I'd be burned to a crisp, even in so-called "winter".

So, in Xiamen, we visited Gulang Yu, which is a small island full of colonial buildings. Totally different feel from the city, and most of China for that. The person who was showing me around is a friend of my Chinese teacher. That afternoon, her father and this other guy drove us around Xiamen island. Lovely beaches with palm-lines roads. I could have been in California, if it wasn't for the Chinese driving! They then brought us out for a big meal and drove me back to the hotel. Aren't Chinese people great? They didn't even know me from Adam and they did all that!

The other thing I wanted to see in Fujian was the 土楼 (Tulou), which are really old round dwelling places of the Hakka ethnic group. A few hundred people could live in these places. I took advantage of Chinese driving "skills" this morning. The woman in the hotel reckoned there wasn't enough time to get to the bus station to catch the bus to Yongding (where the Tulou are). I reckoned it could be done and the crazed taximan didn't let me down! This dude should be entering in trials for the Chinese GP next year!

OK, for anyone who is interested in going to see the Tulou, here is some advice: Allegedly, Yongding (永定) has the biggest amount of them, but there are also some in Nanjing (南靖, not the famous Nanjing in Jiangsu). Anyways, to get from Xiamen to Yongding, you must take a bus. The earliest I got was 8:10am. Got into Yongding around 12:30. They had a minibus out to the Tulou at 13:20. It's around an hour and a half to get out there on shitty country roads. I was also getting a bit iffy when some people were bringing live poultry onto the bus. Hmmmm, bird flu!

Anyway, since my luggage was in the bus station, which closed at 5:30, I didn't have much time at the Tulou, since the return minibus was leaving around 3:20. Now, I got scammed a bit. I hadn't had the chance to do any research (any Lonely Planet had feck-all info), so I ended up going with some touts. However, I have a feeling, there is actually some official tourist place with some Tulou, as the tout dude did have a ticket for it. Either way, I didn't have enough time to see all that shit. I did get to see some Tulou, which were pretty cool. Two of them that I saw were allegedly 500 and 1000 years old.

Anyway, so if you want to get the most out of the Tulou, you can either go to Nanjing (don't know what they are like) or spend longer time here, maybe staying over near the Tulou. Nanjing is better connected than Yongding. The last bus out of here to any big place is around 3pm! I luckily got a train ticket to Guangzhou, which leaves at 11:15 this evening.

This little place (Yongding) is great. Such a slower pace of life. And the kids are friendly. Three little fellas showed me to this Internet cafe! You wouldn't get that in Dublin. All kids are chaperoned to and from school by parents in fear of kidnappings!

Back in the PRC Proper

After a few days in semi-Westernisation) Hong Kong), I am back in the good old Mainland. I gotta say, I really liked Hong Kong. I think the city has got a lot of energy, and the harbour and hills of Hong Kong Island really give it atmosphere.

I got a new camera there as well, a Canon Digital IXUS 55. Saved over 100 euro on the equivalent package in Europe. Cheers Derrick for bringing me to that shop! So, hopefully my next pictures will be a bit better! The camera is pretty nifty!

I am now in Shantou, Guangdong Province, where I am staying in the lovely apartment of my Chinese teacher's family! This is the best accommodation I've had since I came to China!

South China reminds me a lot of Malaysia. Similar smells of fruit and veg and also the shop fronts. Not to mention the humidity. This place is scooter city as well! Tons of motorbikes and scooters! There is definitely a different atmosphere in South China. I reckon it is way more lively and more people are out and about on the streets.

They seem to be way more into tea-drinking than the Northerners. Any house I've been to sort of performs a little tea ceremony for you. It's not like Ireland where you are given a mug of Barry's Tea. They boil the water in one kettle, then use a small teapot to brew the tea. Then there are 3 small cups to drink tea from. The cups are washed out with water and tea each time. Then filled with tea from the small pot. Once the three cups have been finished, the host will then make more tea in the little pot and so on. Sort of hostly, I reckon, if there is such a word.

I have just over a week left of holidays, and then it's back to Dalian! I want to head to Xiamen in Fujian Province and then I will head to Guangzhou, since that's where my flight to Dalian leaves from on Thursday.

Hong Kong

Here I am in Hong Kong.

Arrived here two nights ago after making the long trip from Mudanjiang! Big difference. It's 20 degrees here as opposed to 20 below zero!

I'm happy that I got here in one piece cos without that telescope thing to help me see things far away, I'm sort of useless. The place I was to stay (Tsim Sha Tsui) was as I imagined when I arrived.Lots of bloody hawkers annoying the fuck out of ya trying to get you to stay in their hotel. My place was nearer than I thought, so I overshot it but I asked in a shop and 2 student-type chaps helped me out. That hostel was a bit of dodgy. It was clean but not very secure. And it was very noisy. I changed to the Cosmic Guest House, and myself and an Austrian guy got a room here. So much better and just slightly more expensive!

So, HK: big difference from mainland!! This place is more Westernised ad more international. Lots of expats and tourists here! The narrow streets give it more the feel of a European city and the double-decker buses and driving on the left remind me of home!

I met my friend Paul here, who is Irish born Chinese, so it's cool to meet him and also he speaks Cantonese and knows his way around, so it's cool. Went up the peak yesterday and then went for a few pints to see Ireland get beaten by France in the rugger.

Leaving the Freezer

I will be heading to Hong Kong via Shenzhen tomorrow, so will be gaining a 35 degree temperature difference!! We've all seen it so many times in movies and travel programmes on TV! Should be a cool place!

One thing to warn unwary travellers to these icy regions, well 2 things. One is that batteries don't function properly in the cold. My camera kept dying with no charge. The solution is to keep your camera in a warm place inside your clothes when not using it. Another thing is that some equipment is just not designed for far-below zero temperatures. I have a thing called a monocular (sort of half a pair of binoculars). It was working before I came here and now it ain't. The lenses and optical components inside it are rattling around. I think the cold temperatures have made the components contract and so the glue binding them together has failed! One lens was slightly loose in Beijing but now the whole thing is broken!

On another note, I got my teaching schedule for next semester. Teaching all first year classes! And guess what, I will be teaching Oral English to the Applied Physics class on Tuesday afternoons!! Strange how things work. For those who don't know, I did a degree in Applied Physic in DCU in Ireland! Home they don't ask me any physics questions, cos I reckon I have forgotten everything I learned in college, and even some stuff I never learned!

more pics

New pics on my flickr site.

I have added new sets (i.e. albums) for different places I've been. look at left hand side of page.

Icy North

Hello from Mudanjiang in the deep freeze of China- Heilongjiang Province!

I came to Harbin from Beijing last Friday to a -20 Celsius reception. People have been scaring me a lot about this place saying you'll freeze your ass off but if you wear enough clothes, it's grand. Right now I have 2 pairs of long johns under my jeans and on top i have two pairs of long john tops, a T-shirt and a jumper! Feet and hands get a bit chilly from time to time and your head too unless you wear a hat! I did notice that your ears start to get really sore after a minute or 2 if you don't wear a hat. I also noticed that your snot sort of freezes in your nose! We were lucky I'd be a real killer!

So, I saw the Ice Lantern Festival in Harbin, which was cool. They have a park full of buildings and sculptures made from Ice, some of which have lights inside, which look really cool at night. They also have an icy walkway, for people to test their ice-walking and falling over skills. Very amusing!

The next day we went to the Sun Island Park snow sculpture place. To get there, you had to cross the frozen Songhua river. This was a first for me, since I never saw a frozen river before! It was cool. At the riverbank, they had made an Ice rink and hockey rink and some bobsled slides and some other icy activities! They really know how to make money but of ice here!

We got a horse and carriage over to the Island and went into the park. Sculptures were really cool, ranging from Russian churches to Japanese palaces as well a characters from Chinese folklore and religion. Amazing stuff!

Got the train to Mudanjiang, where my friend here is from. just chilling out, as it is a quiet enough place. However, they do have stuff on their frozen Mudan river and we tried some icy antics yesterday!Wow, I think I am getting used to the cold. I'll probably melt when I get to Hong Kong on Friday!