Bayi Hotel Taiyuan

... crowd has gathered, someone will cry "Taiyuan" and the crowd will ooh and ahh in a "Oh you mean Taiyuan, sure you should have said" kind of way!

Ticket successfully in hand, we followed our Bus Lady across the road to our sleeper. (She had the most beautiful boots) The bus was filled with the tiniest bunk beds you've ever seen. Just about big enough for a short leprechaun to lie on his side and curl up his feet. (mild exaggeration only)

The bus ...

... br>Taiyuan mel byt pro nas jen prestupni stanice, ale nakonec jsme v nem stravili cele odpoledne. Taiyaun je vice nezmilionove mesto, prestavbu centra dokoncili pred 2 roky. Hlavni ulice je misty az dvanacti proudova dalnice. Nikde tu nikdy nedelaji nic maleho. Asi sem nejezdi moc turistu. Vsude na nas zirali a v obchodech se nas ani nesnazili moc natahnout, takze jsme tam vubec nesmlouvali. Zasli jsme na jidlo, do muzea umeni provnicie Shanxi a posedeli v mistnim parku.

How to learn Chinese is a frequently asked question. Occasionally, people would like to find a tutor to help them learn Chinese. Actually, in modern times with fast development of internet, online mandarin Chinese seems more ...

... Lantern, was filmed (it's a really good movie I highly recommend it). The Qiao family was a rich merchant family that had the money to build a huge compound for themselves. A large portion of the wealth in China was in that family. Their compound had almost 300 rooms in it and they were filled with lavish gifts and decorations. The difference between the rich and the poor during this time must have been incredible. These families ...

We get dropped off at the Qingxu service station at 2:30am. There's a 24hr convenient store, we find a row of plastic seats and tries to make it until the sun comes up. We have been on the road nonstop for 18 hours, have to wait 7 more hours before we can find a bed.

... it had rained earlier it was just a heavy fog. To get to the dam you must go into the mountains. I'm not sure of the elevation but it is about an hour drive. Near the end the bus goes through 5 tunnels, one of which is over 2 miles long. The tour takes you first to a point overlooking the dam at which time we could barely see across the dam. The 2nd stop is just under the top of the dam which gives the ...

... chram (jedina vyjimka, studentske vstupne za 2 yuany), kde se mimo jine nachazi provincialni muzeum. Chram pekny, muzeum nic moc. Pak jsme vyrazili na autobusove nadrazi koupit listek, tam nam pratelsky sdelili, ze listek si muzeme koupit az v den odjezdu. Famy o tom, ze cestovani autobusem je levnejsi nez vlaky, jsou skutecne jenom famy. A studentske listky taky nemaji. Druhy den jsme se sbalili a s pevnym rozhodnutim se do Taiyuanu nikdy nevratit (haha) jsme ...

... of Xian - about an hour and a half bus ride. The bus ride was rough - everywhere we glanced, it seemed, there were dogs, which was uncanny since up to this day we had seen so few dogs in China. Even the bus seat covers had dogs on them!!! We missed, and still do miss, Seamus badly :( As it turned out, however, a hike up to Mount Hua Shan's west peak was just what we needed. I had initally feared that I had under-dressed ...

... water, but its called the curse of the golden flower, gong li's in it too, along with sino-pop-rnb sensation jay chou (who im told by all my students is 'unique'). directed by zhang yimou (hero - good, house of flying daggers - sucked). anyway long story short i thought it was fairly good, al thought it wasnt. while walking again we came across a little old woman playing a street gambling game. it involved her putting a certain amount of beans into a jar lid type thing and then ...

... and totally inefficient!" hahaha What a day! I also teach Oral English to sophomores on Monday and European Culture to juniors on Thursday, but it seems more like some unorganized history class. That class will require quite a bit of effort because I'll need many outside references to supplement the limited textbook. It's kind of funny, but in China, they're so serious about "sports" that we just consider kids games. Ping pong and badminton are ...