Back from Pingyao; a town the Lonely Planet (aka 'the bible') calledthe best preserved traditional, old, chinese town still around.
It was the financial capital of China until around 100 years ago,and for the 400 years or so before that was an important (andsuccessful) trading town.
I learnt that Beijing has clean air in comparison to this place(where the sun barely peeped through the pollution) and I thoughtabout the role of tourism in such a town. The old, preserved, partof town is inside the 6km circumference walls. It consists of acouple thousand buildings, of which 10% are fancy temples, old banksor old residences which have been restored (or not in some cases)and in total form the 20 'historic attractions' that you can visiton 1 ticket. Of the rest; I think only half are actually occupied(their residents have probably moved on looking for betteraccommodation or jobs).
This old part of the town only survives of tourism (and providingbasic services to those staffing the restaurants, hotels and (mostof them) the 20 historic attractions. These 'attractions' wereridiculously overstaffed (maybe there are more tourists at othertimes of the year); as were all the (identical) shops selling tackygoods. The fact that all the kids ran up to us saying 'hello',presumably means they don't see many white faces! I think Karen(friend I travelled with) enjoyed the attention though!
Outside of the walls, is the rest of the town; which is a depressingexample of Chinese urbanisation. I wont say more about it, just thatit 'sucked'. We rented some bikes so I could show Karen a bit moreof crappy Shaanxi province (I had been to this province before) -shesoon realised visibly that this province provides 30% of china'scoal. In fact, I think we saw 5% of it either piled on the roadside,being piled into trains, or as coaldust (which we were breathing in).
The trip was fantastic. The old stuff was great; the hotel we stayedin was very traditionally chinese and we spent the whole weekendtrying to read characters (we know about 100 most common ones). Therest of the city was so chinese, you just feel like you areexperiencing the real urban China. The weather was great, theovernight train journeys fun; and then there were lots of littlequirks to amuse us:
-the bike I hired had a metal bar for a brake, connected to anothermetal bar, connected to the brake pad (no wires or plastic when thisbike was built!);
-the pedicabs chased us everywhere wanting to drive us the few kmsthe town took up;
-the 12 of the 20 attractions that we did were complete withhilarious signs (bad english, or just dumb, 'desparate-to-invent-something-interesting-to-say') and the same group of actors doing adifferent show at a different attraction every hour (or so itseemed);
-the obvious extortion we received as foreigners when buying streetfood: a chinese woman would pay 3 RMB for 6 of something, and wewould pay 2 RMB for 1 of something. Yet when we tried to haggle,they refused; even when we could buy it from 15 other people sellingthe same thing!
It was fun, and it has made me determined to learn more Chinese andsee more of China. The routine I seem to be settling into in weekdayevenings suits me fine. My flatmate or her sister cook for us; Ipractice my chinese with them, learn new words, make them laugh as Itry to create sentences, and so on.
In a week or so, I have a videoconference with the HQ of a bigassurance company who MIGHT sponsor AIESEC China for all, or someof, a full-time CSR coordinator (a job I will hopefully do iffunding gets secured, and if the rest of AIESEC here want meto)...so we'll see.
and to end (another long email!), I'll get my new name/businesscards soon which will have all 4 chinese characters of my chinesename on (Ya Dam Lay En). Ya Dam -Adam. Lay =thunderstorm and En=kind person who helps others. I like it. The first is a directtranslation of Adam (no meaning) and the second part shows mymasculinity (grr, big thunderstorm) whilst ensuring I am still intouch with my 'feminine side' (kind, with feelings)....or so I liketo think :))
anyway, hoping to enjoy more of this 20-25 degree weather, before itstarts getting too hot and humid in a month or so.
Adam
Monday, March 28, 2005
Thursday, March 24, 2005
random stuff
First I am remembering to let you know there are some new picturesup on the site (http://www.imagestation.com/member/?name=adamlane);a new album from my second trip to the great wall and one from mytrip to Yuanmingyuan (ruins of famous palace) and some others havebeen updated too.
There will be more photos uploaded next week -these onese shouldactually be interesting, as this weekend I am going on a weekendtrip to the best preserved old city in China, called Pingyao.
Things about Beijing/China:
-the huge number of security guards at entrances and exits to mostdecent size shops, all Universities, most appartment buildingcomplexes, most car parks .... everywhere. no wonder Beijing is safe(well it certainly seems so anyway)
-the ridiculous number of food selling places (street vendors,small, medium and big restaurants). So spoilt for choice -so manydifferent types of chinese restaurants (xinjian, cantonese,shanghainese, sichuanese, hotpots etc), and each one with menus of15 or 20 pages -even the restaurants with only seats for 20 people(and a kitchen the size of a large wardrobe!).
-the construction; i read that half of all the cranes in the worldare in china right now (or something close). things are just alwaysbeing built, altered, knocked down or something. it all happens,literally overnight. within 1 weekend, near the university, a wallwent up. no hints of anything; but now there is a square wall (withtrees within it, so not sure what it will turn into -maybe acourtyard or something).
-end of this year =120 million internet users in china and 25% ofpopulation currently own a mobile phone (of a population of 1.3bn,thats a lot!)
the second trip to great wall was nice; it was pretty warm, greatviews and no pollution! however there was not much greenery (time ofyear), and we saw some pictures of what it looked like covered insnow :( i'll have to go back next winter.
so its defintely warmer. Although there is sometimes a harsh wind;without it, in the afternoons there is no need for a jacket, andwhen i played table tennis with my room mate (and her sister), istripped down to t-shirts! Did i mention the room-mate's sister? shedoesnt speak more than 5 words of english and is here for a (long)while, not working, so always around for me to try and talk to.
having said that, my roommate skipped work today (cause sheis 'lazy' or something), so that makes me feel better. normally thechinese are very diligent and hard working (relatively). she helpsme a lot with my bad attempts to create sentences; i just need totalk to her more!
the exciting china-news developments were Rice's visit here, and thesubsequent Europeans decision to probably not lift their armsembargo on China (I think the fact that China just passed the 'anti-succession' law allowing for force to be used against any part ofchina that might do something beijing doesn't like, played a part init). The law is intentionally very vague about what is an offence -it just says that force should be used if an offence occurs!
I also just read that: "The CPC is currently launching a nationwideimage building campaign to show as a ruling party, it is "open-minded, progressive, responsible and democratic and competent" tolead the nation." (CPC is Communist Party)
finally, i have been reading up on RSS, and thus spending more timeon the internet, but reading and learning much more, much moreefficiently; including getting all the People's Daily's articles; sonow I am very much in touch with the chinese government's propoganda.
no more to write just now really, although we went to a fantasticindian restuarant last night for Rohit's birthday (indian friend, ex-AIESEC), not cheap but i hadn't had a tikka massala or curry sincejuly probably!
Adam
There will be more photos uploaded next week -these onese shouldactually be interesting, as this weekend I am going on a weekendtrip to the best preserved old city in China, called Pingyao.
Things about Beijing/China:
-the huge number of security guards at entrances and exits to mostdecent size shops, all Universities, most appartment buildingcomplexes, most car parks .... everywhere. no wonder Beijing is safe(well it certainly seems so anyway)
-the ridiculous number of food selling places (street vendors,small, medium and big restaurants). So spoilt for choice -so manydifferent types of chinese restaurants (xinjian, cantonese,shanghainese, sichuanese, hotpots etc), and each one with menus of15 or 20 pages -even the restaurants with only seats for 20 people(and a kitchen the size of a large wardrobe!).
-the construction; i read that half of all the cranes in the worldare in china right now (or something close). things are just alwaysbeing built, altered, knocked down or something. it all happens,literally overnight. within 1 weekend, near the university, a wallwent up. no hints of anything; but now there is a square wall (withtrees within it, so not sure what it will turn into -maybe acourtyard or something).
-end of this year =120 million internet users in china and 25% ofpopulation currently own a mobile phone (of a population of 1.3bn,thats a lot!)
the second trip to great wall was nice; it was pretty warm, greatviews and no pollution! however there was not much greenery (time ofyear), and we saw some pictures of what it looked like covered insnow :( i'll have to go back next winter.
so its defintely warmer. Although there is sometimes a harsh wind;without it, in the afternoons there is no need for a jacket, andwhen i played table tennis with my room mate (and her sister), istripped down to t-shirts! Did i mention the room-mate's sister? shedoesnt speak more than 5 words of english and is here for a (long)while, not working, so always around for me to try and talk to.
having said that, my roommate skipped work today (cause sheis 'lazy' or something), so that makes me feel better. normally thechinese are very diligent and hard working (relatively). she helpsme a lot with my bad attempts to create sentences; i just need totalk to her more!
the exciting china-news developments were Rice's visit here, and thesubsequent Europeans decision to probably not lift their armsembargo on China (I think the fact that China just passed the 'anti-succession' law allowing for force to be used against any part ofchina that might do something beijing doesn't like, played a part init). The law is intentionally very vague about what is an offence -it just says that force should be used if an offence occurs!
I also just read that: "The CPC is currently launching a nationwideimage building campaign to show as a ruling party, it is "open-minded, progressive, responsible and democratic and competent" tolead the nation." (CPC is Communist Party)
finally, i have been reading up on RSS, and thus spending more timeon the internet, but reading and learning much more, much moreefficiently; including getting all the People's Daily's articles; sonow I am very much in touch with the chinese government's propoganda.
no more to write just now really, although we went to a fantasticindian restuarant last night for Rohit's birthday (indian friend, ex-AIESEC), not cheap but i hadn't had a tikka massala or curry sincejuly probably!
Adam
Sunday, March 20, 2005
authentic beijing, pizza, ruins and the end of overemployment?
Back from an exhilerating run this morning; where I ran past some ofthe most 'authentic' parts of Beijing I have ever seen. Rubbishlying around, chaos on the roads with bikes and cars being repairedall over the place and lots of people sitting around. Next time I'lltake some pictures, because it was great.
I subsequently watched 'Finding Neverland' -the (relatively true)story about JM Barrie, who wrote Peter Pan. I highly reccommend it.Last night was Ralph's 21st party; so I had my first visit to apizza buffet in China! Its AYCE (All You Can Eat) and a crossbetween western food (pizza, chips, chicken nuggets, ice cream etc)and chinese food too with beer and everything included. It was verypopular and I ate way too much (predictably), but enjoyed a lot ofthe food.
Earlier I had a traditional Peking Duck lunch and spent a few hoursat Yuanmingyuan -an old 'palace' that now lies in ruins, since itwas destroyed the Brits and French in 1860 (1st Opium War....when wegot Hong Kong from China). There were so many mentions of this, itgot extreme (the israelis and aussie i was with thought ithumourous...although i'm not sure where either of them would bewithout the brits! he he). As it was also designed in a europeanstlye the ruins looked a bit like Rome -very different to everythingelse in China that is all so Chinese! And the few colonial stylebuildings are either in perfect condition (renovated or exclusive)or been replaced by high-rises.
I've now suped-up my bike too :) Well, I replaced the old, tiny,seat post (so now I am more than a few inches off the ground) andgot the front brake installed. The result: a faster, more efficient,safer cyclist :). Cycling is such a joy here, and so much safer thenthe buses that deliberately slamn you around their 20 year oldinteriors that are generally so sparsely kitted out, its just apiece of wood or metal between your feet and the road.
I heard on the news today that Beijing has approved plans to installautomatic ticketing machines on the subway here! I never thoughtthat day would come. That move will create several thousandunemployed ticket sellers and ticket collectors, so its a brave,sensible move. Not sure when it will be finished by, but I guessbefore 2008 once the other 5 subway lines are completed.
Its school-trip time on tuesday! wow, its been SUCH a long timesince i went on one of them; at least 6 years. such fond memories.although it wasnt often that we went on a school trip to somethingcomparable to the Great Wall :) should be fun. we can continue ourbitching about the german girl who disrupts the class so by treatingthe teacher as a personal tutor!
any more news? i dont think so. did i mention that Mark who waspresident after Sarah (who was president after me) in AIESECManchester will be the new President of AIESEC UK? Its great thatwe've made such steady progress in the last 5 years since me and afew others started sorting AIESEC Manchester out. I'm so proud ofhim :)
today when i went running i wore shorts for the first time sinceoctober! not as hot as UK, but it might be almost 20 sometimeshere :) hopefully Spring is FINALLY here!!
Adam
I subsequently watched 'Finding Neverland' -the (relatively true)story about JM Barrie, who wrote Peter Pan. I highly reccommend it.Last night was Ralph's 21st party; so I had my first visit to apizza buffet in China! Its AYCE (All You Can Eat) and a crossbetween western food (pizza, chips, chicken nuggets, ice cream etc)and chinese food too with beer and everything included. It was verypopular and I ate way too much (predictably), but enjoyed a lot ofthe food.
Earlier I had a traditional Peking Duck lunch and spent a few hoursat Yuanmingyuan -an old 'palace' that now lies in ruins, since itwas destroyed the Brits and French in 1860 (1st Opium War....when wegot Hong Kong from China). There were so many mentions of this, itgot extreme (the israelis and aussie i was with thought ithumourous...although i'm not sure where either of them would bewithout the brits! he he). As it was also designed in a europeanstlye the ruins looked a bit like Rome -very different to everythingelse in China that is all so Chinese! And the few colonial stylebuildings are either in perfect condition (renovated or exclusive)or been replaced by high-rises.
I've now suped-up my bike too :) Well, I replaced the old, tiny,seat post (so now I am more than a few inches off the ground) andgot the front brake installed. The result: a faster, more efficient,safer cyclist :). Cycling is such a joy here, and so much safer thenthe buses that deliberately slamn you around their 20 year oldinteriors that are generally so sparsely kitted out, its just apiece of wood or metal between your feet and the road.
I heard on the news today that Beijing has approved plans to installautomatic ticketing machines on the subway here! I never thoughtthat day would come. That move will create several thousandunemployed ticket sellers and ticket collectors, so its a brave,sensible move. Not sure when it will be finished by, but I guessbefore 2008 once the other 5 subway lines are completed.
Its school-trip time on tuesday! wow, its been SUCH a long timesince i went on one of them; at least 6 years. such fond memories.although it wasnt often that we went on a school trip to somethingcomparable to the Great Wall :) should be fun. we can continue ourbitching about the german girl who disrupts the class so by treatingthe teacher as a personal tutor!
any more news? i dont think so. did i mention that Mark who waspresident after Sarah (who was president after me) in AIESECManchester will be the new President of AIESEC UK? Its great thatwe've made such steady progress in the last 5 years since me and afew others started sorting AIESEC Manchester out. I'm so proud ofhim :)
today when i went running i wore shorts for the first time sinceoctober! not as hot as UK, but it might be almost 20 sometimeshere :) hopefully Spring is FINALLY here!!
Adam
Saturday, March 12, 2005
oh, and....
and while the focus in on Africa, Blair, G8 etc, spare a though forthe ongoing disaster in Zimbabwe, which will just get worse at theirnext 'election':http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1521516,00.html
also, there are many other Human rights atrocities in Africaincluding the Congo...but noone seems to mention death as muchwhilst the World lauds Blair's economic Marshall Plan...
Zimbabwe is one of those things that REALLY annoys me; because it isis such a stupid waste...a case of 1 man turning a successfulcountry that was exporting excess food, into 1 that is as corrupt,chaotic, starving and as poor as any other in the World. SUCH BADLEADERSHIP! and what does the West do about that? If only they hadoil, he'd have gone a long time ago...
i feel better now :)
also, there are many other Human rights atrocities in Africaincluding the Congo...but noone seems to mention death as muchwhilst the World lauds Blair's economic Marshall Plan...
Zimbabwe is one of those things that REALLY annoys me; because it isis such a stupid waste...a case of 1 man turning a successfulcountry that was exporting excess food, into 1 that is as corrupt,chaotic, starving and as poor as any other in the World. SUCH BADLEADERSHIP! and what does the West do about that? If only they hadoil, he'd have gone a long time ago...
i feel better now :)
taiwan, strange students, dating chinese ppl, teaching, the BBC....
Some of you may have known that the BBC ran a special 'questiontime' in Shanghai with representatives from China's government whichincluded controversial topics about Taiwan etc.
I read about this from various sources. Notably the China Daily(offial, english language, state run media) commends how open thecountry is becoming about these issues and western media accessingthem. I find this very amusing, as the show was not shown in China,and the BBC is blocked in China, in all but the expensive hotels (orrich who have satellite TV). So its a great example of many things Ihave highlighted about China (controlling media, being open to somepeople but not to others, pretending so much) -I wonder if thechinese version of the paper mentioned the show at all?[http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/12/content_424237.htm]
So what's news with me? Last week I taught 4 evenings out of 6. Ipromptly then quite the company that provided 3 of them due to:
-kids being too young
-pointless teaching them English
-kids being uncontrollable in English (my chinese is bad)
-any serious attempt for me to teach them would require seriouspreparation and thought into designing games, communicating somehowand so on.
-travel time being around 30 minutes each time....based on all this, I am not being paid enought for it to beworthwhile at all. Anyway, the other job is great; kids are 8 yearsold, speak some english, I have a textbook to use, and its evenbased in a classroom. I'll continue to look for other opportunities!
I met an english girl at a party (dont see many of them around!),and she had taught english for her gap year (pre-uni) in a ruralpart of China, been proposed to by a chinese student of hers (whowas only a year younger) -the proposal was the same as 'asking outfor a date' as they hadn't been on a date yet, she accepted; wentback to uni, quit after 1 semester to start Uni in China instead,and now hopes he can get into Uni Beijing. wow, the things Love willdo (did she really know she would love him, having just taught/beena friend with him for a few months?). apparently her parents gotengaged after knowing each other for 10 days, so it must be a familything. Although she also said that every year at least 1 girl getsengaged, from the group that go to teach overseas through ProjectTrust (the ngo that she went with), and some even come backpregnant. YIKES!
Anyway, the fiancee is from one of the most remote, poorest placesin China (1 of the 100s of millions of chinese who have never lefttheir province, live in a 2 room hut with a fire..); so I am veryinterested as to how their relationship works (cultural differencesetc, although she speaks fluent chinese). I mention this due tosmall-scale past experience with Katy, but also from a couple ofother friends who have dated Turkish guys and others who have datedChinese guys and so on.
She's a nice girl, and I might help her and a friend start a newcharity on campus here to raise money from the (rich) foreigners tosend to help poor people with their education/health etc. She wantsto make it a national movement across all Unis here...nice idea :)
Other news is, and I could go on about this for a loooong time, I amabout ready to kill one of the girls in class; too many irrelevantquestions, too much talking, too bad a dress sense, too critical,grrr. Anyway, a bunch of us students met after class informally, andalso at dinner, to vent our feelings! Felt SOO good! enough of thatthough! the rest of the class are pretty cool; an american who wantsto get drunk (and get the teacher drunk too) in class -just becausehe thinks he can. He isn't here for the studying obviously! Also metsome Andorran who studied in UK and enjoys doing acid in theevenings and a french girl who got arrested last time she was inChina for almost killing a chinese man (who had been stalking her)with her high-heels!
so you meet all kinds here!!
did i mention how weird it is that China is talking about this 'anti-seccession' law with Taiwan and talking about reunification; yetclaims the country is already unified? Bizarrely claims Taiwan as aprovince yet classes its students here as 'international'...the listgoes on. Anyway, for those of you out there interested, the bestarticle i read yet was how this law will be a bad thing for China,because it will allow Taiwan to just look for loopholes in it and dothings that are 'according to the law', whilst going against thespirit of it (if there is no law, then anything against the idea canbe criticised). Also keep a look out for the development in the nextfew months of the EU arms laws being officialy relaxed to China, theconflicts this is causing with the US and so on. Taiwan shouldbecome a bigger issue in the western press I think. Long-run, lookout for signs that US-China cooperation is turning into US-Chinacompetition. From what I have read, the signs are all there forexplicit military and economic competition within the next 5 years.
Lets just hope its not another Cold War (I know noone has mentionedthis much in the press, but...) -I sincerely hope not!
Enjoy your Saturday night, wish England well :)
Adam
I read about this from various sources. Notably the China Daily(offial, english language, state run media) commends how open thecountry is becoming about these issues and western media accessingthem. I find this very amusing, as the show was not shown in China,and the BBC is blocked in China, in all but the expensive hotels (orrich who have satellite TV). So its a great example of many things Ihave highlighted about China (controlling media, being open to somepeople but not to others, pretending so much) -I wonder if thechinese version of the paper mentioned the show at all?[http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/12/content_424237.htm]
So what's news with me? Last week I taught 4 evenings out of 6. Ipromptly then quite the company that provided 3 of them due to:
-kids being too young
-pointless teaching them English
-kids being uncontrollable in English (my chinese is bad)
-any serious attempt for me to teach them would require seriouspreparation and thought into designing games, communicating somehowand so on.
-travel time being around 30 minutes each time....based on all this, I am not being paid enought for it to beworthwhile at all. Anyway, the other job is great; kids are 8 yearsold, speak some english, I have a textbook to use, and its evenbased in a classroom. I'll continue to look for other opportunities!
I met an english girl at a party (dont see many of them around!),and she had taught english for her gap year (pre-uni) in a ruralpart of China, been proposed to by a chinese student of hers (whowas only a year younger) -the proposal was the same as 'asking outfor a date' as they hadn't been on a date yet, she accepted; wentback to uni, quit after 1 semester to start Uni in China instead,and now hopes he can get into Uni Beijing. wow, the things Love willdo (did she really know she would love him, having just taught/beena friend with him for a few months?). apparently her parents gotengaged after knowing each other for 10 days, so it must be a familything. Although she also said that every year at least 1 girl getsengaged, from the group that go to teach overseas through ProjectTrust (the ngo that she went with), and some even come backpregnant. YIKES!
Anyway, the fiancee is from one of the most remote, poorest placesin China (1 of the 100s of millions of chinese who have never lefttheir province, live in a 2 room hut with a fire..); so I am veryinterested as to how their relationship works (cultural differencesetc, although she speaks fluent chinese). I mention this due tosmall-scale past experience with Katy, but also from a couple ofother friends who have dated Turkish guys and others who have datedChinese guys and so on.
She's a nice girl, and I might help her and a friend start a newcharity on campus here to raise money from the (rich) foreigners tosend to help poor people with their education/health etc. She wantsto make it a national movement across all Unis here...nice idea :)
Other news is, and I could go on about this for a loooong time, I amabout ready to kill one of the girls in class; too many irrelevantquestions, too much talking, too bad a dress sense, too critical,grrr. Anyway, a bunch of us students met after class informally, andalso at dinner, to vent our feelings! Felt SOO good! enough of thatthough! the rest of the class are pretty cool; an american who wantsto get drunk (and get the teacher drunk too) in class -just becausehe thinks he can. He isn't here for the studying obviously! Also metsome Andorran who studied in UK and enjoys doing acid in theevenings and a french girl who got arrested last time she was inChina for almost killing a chinese man (who had been stalking her)with her high-heels!
so you meet all kinds here!!
did i mention how weird it is that China is talking about this 'anti-seccession' law with Taiwan and talking about reunification; yetclaims the country is already unified? Bizarrely claims Taiwan as aprovince yet classes its students here as 'international'...the listgoes on. Anyway, for those of you out there interested, the bestarticle i read yet was how this law will be a bad thing for China,because it will allow Taiwan to just look for loopholes in it and dothings that are 'according to the law', whilst going against thespirit of it (if there is no law, then anything against the idea canbe criticised). Also keep a look out for the development in the nextfew months of the EU arms laws being officialy relaxed to China, theconflicts this is causing with the US and so on. Taiwan shouldbecome a bigger issue in the western press I think. Long-run, lookout for signs that US-China cooperation is turning into US-Chinacompetition. From what I have read, the signs are all there forexplicit military and economic competition within the next 5 years.
Lets just hope its not another Cold War (I know noone has mentionedthis much in the press, but...) -I sincerely hope not!
Enjoy your Saturday night, wish England well :)
Adam
Sunday, March 06, 2005
more on bikes, teaching
Well I've now done a few trips by bike, and covered a few differentring roads and many miles. I have learnt:
-that you have to pay to park your bike! In busy areas, thereare 'bike parks' (not very obvious, just more bikes than usual) anda government employee watches over them (for theft) and you pay them(not much). I finally clicked when 1 lady chased me a bit down theroad when i didnt pay her (I didnt know why she wanted money, andhad never seen anyone else paying before!)
-that the ring roads are fantastically designed, and its generallyvery safe and efficient to cycle in the bike lanes alongisde them
-that I will cycle everywhere at anytime, in any state ;) (wellmaybe not in ANY state). Its like being back in Manchester again!
I've also done my first teaching job and learnt:
-preparing lesson plans helps if you know more about the targetclass!
-the internet has lots of useful resources
-teaching kids in a living room is not so easy
-teaching kids who have their parents with them is not so easy
-teaching chinese 3 year olds who speak no english is also not toeasy (for 2 hours!)
-this job required huge amounts of effort and energy since most kidswere cycling round the room, ignoring me or too shy to do much; andwhat the parents wanted was just fun and games (why pay for anenglish person to do that?).
-kids are good at reciting words, if you give them fancy stickers asrewards and chocolate!
anyway, probably wont teach such young kids again (too far away & ona saturday), but will teach some older kids (teach, not just play!!)
It does seem to genuinely be getting a bit warmer (no coat today,but i was warm cycling); and my chinese has progressed ever soslightly. But as I have a test tomorrow, I will post more later!!
adam
-that you have to pay to park your bike! In busy areas, thereare 'bike parks' (not very obvious, just more bikes than usual) anda government employee watches over them (for theft) and you pay them(not much). I finally clicked when 1 lady chased me a bit down theroad when i didnt pay her (I didnt know why she wanted money, andhad never seen anyone else paying before!)
-that the ring roads are fantastically designed, and its generallyvery safe and efficient to cycle in the bike lanes alongisde them
-that I will cycle everywhere at anytime, in any state ;) (wellmaybe not in ANY state). Its like being back in Manchester again!
I've also done my first teaching job and learnt:
-preparing lesson plans helps if you know more about the targetclass!
-the internet has lots of useful resources
-teaching kids in a living room is not so easy
-teaching kids who have their parents with them is not so easy
-teaching chinese 3 year olds who speak no english is also not toeasy (for 2 hours!)
-this job required huge amounts of effort and energy since most kidswere cycling round the room, ignoring me or too shy to do much; andwhat the parents wanted was just fun and games (why pay for anenglish person to do that?).
-kids are good at reciting words, if you give them fancy stickers asrewards and chocolate!
anyway, probably wont teach such young kids again (too far away & ona saturday), but will teach some older kids (teach, not just play!!)
It does seem to genuinely be getting a bit warmer (no coat today,but i was warm cycling); and my chinese has progressed ever soslightly. But as I have a test tomorrow, I will post more later!!
adam
Thursday, March 03, 2005
human rights...
just wanted to mention another very interesting story i read:
"China lashes out at serious US human rights violations"http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/03/content_421497.htm
Compare the US's opinion on human rights in China:http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/index.htm =indexhttp://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41640.htm =china page Ithink...but ironically, it is blocked from China ...if someone couldaccess it and email it to me, that would be much appreciated!!!!
with China's opinion on human rights in the US:http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/03/content_421420.htm
i'd appreciate also being emailed the US's report on human rights inthe UK...as that is also blocked here (??)
i won't make any comments as my opinion, but wanted to mention thisissue and show you what china's stance is as you can read theofficial english language paper's news story on it.
I could write a lot about human rights in china, but won't. Wellactually I will mention that I read 200 people were executed inChina in the week before Chinese New Year, which is higher thanusual apparently (its usually over 100 a week!)..compared to only 59executions in the whole of 2004 in the whole of the US.
Adam
"China has executed more people in the past three months than therest of the world in the past three years, says AmnestyInternational."news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1425570.stm
again, i can't read this, since the BBC is banned, and so isAmnesty's website!
"China lashes out at serious US human rights violations"http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/03/content_421497.htm
Compare the US's opinion on human rights in China:http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/index.htm =indexhttp://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41640.htm =china page Ithink...but ironically, it is blocked from China ...if someone couldaccess it and email it to me, that would be much appreciated!!!!
with China's opinion on human rights in the US:http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/03/content_421420.htm
i'd appreciate also being emailed the US's report on human rights inthe UK...as that is also blocked here (??)
i won't make any comments as my opinion, but wanted to mention thisissue and show you what china's stance is as you can read theofficial english language paper's news story on it.
I could write a lot about human rights in china, but won't. Wellactually I will mention that I read 200 people were executed inChina in the week before Chinese New Year, which is higher thanusual apparently (its usually over 100 a week!)..compared to only 59executions in the whole of 2004 in the whole of the US.
Adam
"China has executed more people in the past three months than therest of the world in the past three years, says AmnestyInternational."news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1425570.stm
again, i can't read this, since the BBC is banned, and so isAmnesty's website!
bikes, studying, jobs...
hey'all
so what's news? 3 classes are done (80 odd more to go!), and I feelok -my tones are not
good still, but my vocab feels quite good(well, i have been here 6 months longer than the rest of the class!)and i now think i know maybe 5 characters. I have realised I have tospend a lot of time writing characters in order to learn to bothwrite and read them, and I also need to up the revision on thevocab :((
and i was just starting to enjoy the DVD player/TV too! I willprobably have a job lined up by next week, teaching english to some6 or 8 year old kids for 4 hours a week (earning about 8-10 poundsan hour) -it seems like the perfect job, close by, well paid andlots of fun just talking to kids, so no preparation really required.
today i finally joined the ranks of the 'cyclist' in Beijing. Ittook a while; as i finally bothered to ask Flic for her bike, andthen get both puntures fixed. Then on a ride home, at 11.45pm, theback tyre went flat again -i guess the guy had not removed the thingthat caused the puncture in the first place :( Then i got anotherguy to fix it, but he only pumped it up, thinking that would fixit..? anyway, it didn't, cause it promptly went flat again, so theni forced him to fix the puncture and check the tyre to removeanything in it....and now it works :)
I must look an idiot by western standards -but typical by chinesestandards. why? the bike is a) female, b) too small for me c) almostprehistoric (no gears, but there are 2 brakes thankfully!). its notmade my life much faster (1 gear, lots of traffic and a need to beVERY careful when cycling = not very fast), but its fun and relaxingand some kind of exercise, and i feel more chinese...thanks Flic :D
The food in the canteen here is great; i normally splash out for 50pence for a cooked meal of 2 dishes + rice. i have a routine now andeverything (including breakfast on the way to uni for 15 pence) asuni is all morning, afternoons is revision and/or aiesec work andevneings will be working (paid) or revision or DVD or party. Its anice life and there are millions of people who i'm befriending in myclass (of 13-16 people) and all the other classes, and all thefriends/roommates of everyone else.
Tell you what, I do feel poor, now all the students have descendedflashing their euros and dollars around (canadian, aussie and US);but after 6 months, you learn to live with being thrifty...althoughits kinda pathetic hunting down cheaper food brands or supermarketsfor the sake of a few pennies. most of the non-asian students havefound accommodation such as: a cheap hotel for the whole semester,an appartment similar to those the expats live in, homestays or ifthey live in the dorms, they have gone for the expensive rooms andoccasionally paid for both people! yikes, we are all so spoilt!
today i realised that in the best University in China they sell beerin the canteens -and that the big 600ml bottles are cheaper than the330ml cans (?? -it might be because the uni can get money bacm fromrecylcing the bottles, whereas noone recycles cans as much). I alsorealised that me being tone deaf (as you all very well know) is nothelping me pronounce my tones. I learned that some of theuniversities here are fantastic, with facilities and the right kindof attitude that puts my (ex-) university to shame. I also askedwhat the chinese version of my surname is (my first name is thesame -adam, but said ya(3rd tone)dam(1st tone)). It seems it is Lay-en (phonetics) which might mean thunderstorms (first word) and aperson who is kind and give things to other people (second word).Not too bad, I think. So I'm getting some new name cards made upwith my chinese name on too (i need more).
that's almost it for now, except for a comment on Gordon Brown'svisit to China..although it seems he was praised for realisingChina's economic importance, I still totally think that the westunderestimates China, and really has no clue about China; so littleabout it is known, and that which is seems to be from some oldhistory class, or to be related to words like communism whichprovoke images of china that are inaccurate. This is summed up bythe fact I am yet to meet a bitish person studying at my Uni (theremust be some!) but plenty from most other countries. anyway, i guessjust me being in china makes you a bit more aware of anything in thenews that cops up about it, so keep on reading (especially about thenew issue of the Hong Kong governor being replaced and the reasonsabout this...which also leads to discussions in the papers aboutdemocracy in hong kong).
enjoy your weekend -I will be off to a party in my old appartment -the office! yay where I will also meet the new German guy who is SOfortunate to have my bed in the corner of the office, he he.
Adam
so what's news? 3 classes are done (80 odd more to go!), and I feelok -my tones are not
good still, but my vocab feels quite good(well, i have been here 6 months longer than the rest of the class!)and i now think i know maybe 5 characters. I have realised I have tospend a lot of time writing characters in order to learn to bothwrite and read them, and I also need to up the revision on thevocab :((
and i was just starting to enjoy the DVD player/TV too! I willprobably have a job lined up by next week, teaching english to some6 or 8 year old kids for 4 hours a week (earning about 8-10 poundsan hour) -it seems like the perfect job, close by, well paid andlots of fun just talking to kids, so no preparation really required.
today i finally joined the ranks of the 'cyclist' in Beijing. Ittook a while; as i finally bothered to ask Flic for her bike, andthen get both puntures fixed. Then on a ride home, at 11.45pm, theback tyre went flat again -i guess the guy had not removed the thingthat caused the puncture in the first place :( Then i got anotherguy to fix it, but he only pumped it up, thinking that would fixit..? anyway, it didn't, cause it promptly went flat again, so theni forced him to fix the puncture and check the tyre to removeanything in it....and now it works :)
I must look an idiot by western standards -but typical by chinesestandards. why? the bike is a) female, b) too small for me c) almostprehistoric (no gears, but there are 2 brakes thankfully!). its notmade my life much faster (1 gear, lots of traffic and a need to beVERY careful when cycling = not very fast), but its fun and relaxingand some kind of exercise, and i feel more chinese...thanks Flic :D
The food in the canteen here is great; i normally splash out for 50pence for a cooked meal of 2 dishes + rice. i have a routine now andeverything (including breakfast on the way to uni for 15 pence) asuni is all morning, afternoons is revision and/or aiesec work andevneings will be working (paid) or revision or DVD or party. Its anice life and there are millions of people who i'm befriending in myclass (of 13-16 people) and all the other classes, and all thefriends/roommates of everyone else.
Tell you what, I do feel poor, now all the students have descendedflashing their euros and dollars around (canadian, aussie and US);but after 6 months, you learn to live with being thrifty...althoughits kinda pathetic hunting down cheaper food brands or supermarketsfor the sake of a few pennies. most of the non-asian students havefound accommodation such as: a cheap hotel for the whole semester,an appartment similar to those the expats live in, homestays or ifthey live in the dorms, they have gone for the expensive rooms andoccasionally paid for both people! yikes, we are all so spoilt!
today i realised that in the best University in China they sell beerin the canteens -and that the big 600ml bottles are cheaper than the330ml cans (?? -it might be because the uni can get money bacm fromrecylcing the bottles, whereas noone recycles cans as much). I alsorealised that me being tone deaf (as you all very well know) is nothelping me pronounce my tones. I learned that some of theuniversities here are fantastic, with facilities and the right kindof attitude that puts my (ex-) university to shame. I also askedwhat the chinese version of my surname is (my first name is thesame -adam, but said ya(3rd tone)dam(1st tone)). It seems it is Lay-en (phonetics) which might mean thunderstorms (first word) and aperson who is kind and give things to other people (second word).Not too bad, I think. So I'm getting some new name cards made upwith my chinese name on too (i need more).
that's almost it for now, except for a comment on Gordon Brown'svisit to China..although it seems he was praised for realisingChina's economic importance, I still totally think that the westunderestimates China, and really has no clue about China; so littleabout it is known, and that which is seems to be from some oldhistory class, or to be related to words like communism whichprovoke images of china that are inaccurate. This is summed up bythe fact I am yet to meet a bitish person studying at my Uni (theremust be some!) but plenty from most other countries. anyway, i guessjust me being in china makes you a bit more aware of anything in thenews that cops up about it, so keep on reading (especially about thenew issue of the Hong Kong governor being replaced and the reasonsabout this...which also leads to discussions in the papers aboutdemocracy in hong kong).
enjoy your weekend -I will be off to a party in my old appartment -the office! yay where I will also meet the new German guy who is SOfortunate to have my bed in the corner of the office, he he.
Adam
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