Saturday in Beijing, and all I did all day was watching worker after worker parade through the house fixing something, installing a gadget, and of course, wailing away at me in Mandarin.  The shower was finally completed, the door latch intercom system was installed, a guy showed up to install the satellite TV (which already worked). I had ...

Greetings from Altay, Mongolia. Lets see where was I? What should have been my last night in Hotv I met an American who was born in NH. Where I grew up. He spent a year in Northern Russia teaching English and before heading back to the states to get a real job he's back-packing across Mongolia. So he, my guide/translator, ad myself have dinner t...

I got back to Johanna's apartment a little while ago.  This day was another fairly productive one as well.  In the morning, I was able to locate the international post office and, after some running around and jumping through some hoops, I was finally able to send a package back home that was weighing me down unnecessarily. Then I wasl...

day 4 - got up at 4am to visit the great wall. was a bit chilly when we left, but after the 3 hour bus journey it had warmed up a bit. After passing various accidents on the road (mostly involving cars and large falling rocks) we arrived at the carpark and worked our way up (many) flights of stairs upto the wall. The walk that followed can only ...

Na ruim 7 weken wachten was het dan weer zover. Sandra kwam voor de tweede keer op bezoek hier in Beijing. Deze keer kon ik haar wel zelf van het vliegveld halen en haar persoonlijk verwelkomen. Omdat ze pas rond drie uur zou aankomen kon ik deze vrijdag 's ochtends nog "werken", want van echt iets nuttigs doen kwam het natuurlijk niet. De laats...

My first few days here in Beijing have been a whirlwind of activity - lots of walking around (mostly between Bei Wai's East and West Campus), listening and vainly trying to understand people speaking Chinese, information sessions, and my personal favorite: eating food. To all of you who think the Chinese food at Hunan Wok on College Avenue in St...

BEIJING Today, the culture shock was wearing off as I awoke to a feeling that I was going to fall in love with Beijing. The gray clouds and rain of the last two days also were replaced by a brilliantly clear, radiant sky. Today's itinerary included visits to Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Temple of Heaven. I was deeply impressed w...

Very nice to be collected from the airport and chauffeur driven to our hotel. A Holiday Inn, which to Colin's surprise is as nice at the K.L. Hilton even though we are not on the Executive floor. Have no clue which part of Beijing we are located in, the manager has already introduced himself and will provide a map etc., later when we stop by his...

To Do: Temple of Heaven Summer Palace presentation by calligrapher PU Lieping Peking Duck Dinner

CONFUCIOUS say - 'man who go to bed with itchy bum, wake up in morning with smelly finger'. Since I was a kid, confucius jokes have amused me. Images in my head of bent over old Chinese men with bum fluff beards and leathery faces shining with eyes of great wisdom, while hiding a cheeky smile and a magic behind it. Monkey Magic sort of stuff (Mo...