Crowne Plaza Yantai Sea View

... yet were unfazed.<br><br>Being a port city, it's unsurprising that there is quite a collection of Western-influenced architecture here; and, as is my wont, I assiduously tried to see it all. I became more self-conscious of this habit when I read this week of one of Tolstoy's protagonists: "Looking at places of interest, not to mention that they had already seen everything, did not have for him, a Russian and an intelligent man, the inexplicable importance that ...

... platform, called Langyantai Platform, was constructed on the northernmost city hill, as a means of defense against pirates. General Qi Jiguang of the Ming Dynasty fought against pirates using this platform, and developed Penglai Water City, a navy base which remains well-preserved to this day. Although Yantai is located in North China, monsoons regulate the climate, keeping it warm and humid. The average ...

... strangely enough is a place I feel comfortable, and it's not too hot because there's a really pleasant ocean breeze. And, for some reason the food is even cheaper and actually better than that of Beijing. Plus, not being a big city and all - believe it or not a million-person city is pretty small by Chinese standards - the people are really friendly and talkative, although they're standard Mandarin isn't so great. I'll ...

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 never knew the name of that song, but I was about to ...

... learning a bit of Chinese, snacking and drinking tea - taking it easy until training starts again tomorrow! Our group has a week until we're to be tested on the first proper fist form that we've been taught so I imagine this week will be a tough one. That's about all there is to report but will hopefully start updating sometime this week

... a mountain backwards (doable but not easy to motivate yourself to). He also used a little electronic dictionary thing to work on his English all the time. Bao Shifu was Little Du's best friend and constant companion. He was great at his job too, he's the only man I've ever seen do a handstand on his thumbs. Those two had competitions of "can you do this" that were always entertaining, they kicked trees to see how many acorns they could get to fall ...

... I'm sure all of you are familiar with kung fu, so I'll tell you a bit more about tai chi and chi gong. These are internal arts which develop your internal life energy. By practising this you can improve health and even use this internal power to protect yourself from a big blow in a fight or give someone a super massive hit - believe it or not. It's what they do to be able to smash bricks etc. - but that takes years of practice. Master ...

... toilet, fire stove, hard beds, home-made cherry baskets etc... Then we went up some hills to pick and eat a lot of cherries before lunching back at "Grandmothers'". The mother was continuously taking photos the whole day "white girl walking / white girl picking cherries / white girl eating etc"! And I found myself in the newspaper a few days later - so funny! So that's all for now. I will leave you with the best news - I found Wally - check out the photos! :)

... the states and is on a major healthy makeover, so I dont come home 2 stone heavier rather than thinner) On Wednesday evening Hong arrived, who is originally from China but has lived in Colarado most of his life. Me and Carlos thought Hong was going to be a girl though, and were rather bemused at the sight of him (classic China communication error) and on Thursday Jenny arrived whos family are from Hong Kong but she was brought up in Torronto. All are here for a month in summer ...

... socially acceptable - croaky responses do not prompt apologies for calling at an unearthly hour, karaoke is very popular especially amongst the tone deaf, 'Dove' is actually 'Galaxy' chocolate, DVD shops have illegal back rooms with films that are only just at the cinema - but the 'special features' hardly work on any of them, everyone always tries to help even when unnecessary, a weight attached to feathers provides kids with endless hours ...