Yantai International Youth Hostel

Alright, I'm leaving a disclaimer... This isn't properly spelled, written, or explained. I am trying my best, and that leaves you with a long rambling entry that I must have tried to begin writing over a thousand times... Because there is so much going on, this is Friday evening to Wednesday evening. I promise Thursday to Thursday will be much m...

It was almost with a sense of euphoria that I arrived in Yantai. I don't really know what prompted this. Perhaps it was relief that the ship hadn't sunk on the way there; perhaps we can take a purely materialist view and say that it was just a chemical cause; perhaps it was the friendly, clean, good value and well-situated hotel that I checked i...

Hey Hey and a Big G'Day toya,

Arrrgh, the sea matees!
Remember the first time you saw the sea?
I don't as my family has been swimming and boating for as long as I remember!
Not always at the sea but we've shared our time between rivers and the sea/ocean.
Big boats, small boats, fast boats, slow boats, speed bo...

您好！？ Nin hao!? Salaam Aleekum! Sorry I haven't written to y'all lately (or in some cases at all) but I've been really busy, etc. I'm writing on this, my first day in Yantai. First and foremost, yes you can smoke anywhere, including my dorm room, and it's the tits. And cigarettes and cheaper and better than the Gambia....

Just recently I was visiting my best Chinese mate in the seaside city of Yantai. On this one day, while we were strolling through a mall, I heard this Chinese trance-dance song playing faintly off in the distance. I thought, "Oh man, that was my song! My friends and I used to jam to it at the many Chinese dance clubs we used to frequent". I neve...

Ok folks, I've finally started writing a blog! Just getting to grips with this site, it seems pretty complicated so I'm not going to get down to any serious writing just yet. It's almost dinner time here, the weather's pretty nice today as it's just about the end of winter now and I'm just lazing around. Have been watching some random TV, learni...

All the masters in the academy trained in the Shaolin temple roughly from when they were 10 till 20. Every single one of them has their own style, amazing ability and approach to teaching what they know. There is no real way to summarise them as a whole because of how different they all are so I think it's worth giving little profiles of each. I...

Walking into that tiny airport with my huge backpack and small suitcase was a bittersweet moment. My neck seemed to be permanently off centre and rather painful but there was a woman standing there with a sign with my name on it! (to be fair it was Jaafar's first name and my middle name misspelled but I'll take it as a win). We had eyed a girl o...

Well, it's my last day in Yantai - I leave tomorrow (heading to Shanghai to spend a couple of days there before flying to Thailand) at 2 in the afternoon. The last week has been pretty good. Finished all my classes on a high note - all went well and the staff and children seem sad to say goodbye. They keep asking Mhairi and I to stay and want to...

Hey hey we'r the monkeys Today I took the bus with ben to Nanshan(around 1 hour south west of Yantai) where he was getting his tattoo finished (a bamboo forest on his calf) to see the famous Nanshan Grand Budda statue of Sakyamumi. Its 40 meters tall, weighs 380 tons and is made of bronze and tin. It really was an incredible sight and was surrou...