Dahuaxuan Hotel Dongguan

Today another shopping day downtown.

First stop, and eye doctor for Amy's father. There the girls working there loved qiqi, one even gave qiqi a birthday present, an embroidery that she made herself.

Later some more shopping and then after dinner, qiqi visits a traditional Chinese medicine pharmacy and doctor.

... Anyways after I checked in and went through the painless customs security, I was sitting in the airport reflecting on my trip. It was still quite surreal to me that I was in CHINA and had just spent the last couple days there. A few years ago I would have never imagined to be where I was now. I thought about how great of a time that I had in China and how I really wish that I could have shared the experience with someone. I am realizing that it is not just about where you are ...

Today we picked up our rental car and also switch hotels. At the first hotel, there was too much dust in the air and the traffic was too confusing because they are building a subway station close by.

The second hotel is an apartment hotel, where we stayed for 1 night. there was heat there, and it is pretty cold here for this time of year. So far they are having the coldest November on record!

....si! haceun rato que he llegado de Disneyworld Hong Kong!!! ...se que habra quienes pensaran que soy un poco infantil, peroque conyo! se que os moriis dela envidia! ;-) No hay mucho que decir, Disney es igual en todas partes, solo que los actores y bailarines de aqui tienen ese toque asiatico... por lo demas, todo igual! excepto que es incluso mas pequenyo que el disney de Paris! El castillo de la bella durmiente es mini!! (o quizas a ...

I'm woken from a deep sleep by the bedside phone in the hotel ringing...I drag my eyes open and peer at my watch: quarter to three! Who the hell is ringing my hotel room at quarter to three in the morning??!!! I pick up the phone with a barely understandable 'hello', and a nice chinese lady politely tells me that the company driver is here to collect me. The only reason I can imagine they sent ...

... each put in 20 Hong Kong Dollars (it felt like playing $20 in Vegas, but was the equivalent of about $3 Cdn), and just as in Vegas, the money was gone in no time. We slowly wandered out, people watching all the way, and started to make our way to the bus. We hopped on a bus back to Gong Bei Port, and got there about 6:00. We had to go through the same line ups, and although it seemed to go faster, it seemed much worse. People were pushing so much that I swear ...

... to do lots of prep for the TOEFL and IELTS classes, but that was nothing compared to what I have to do to prepare for 4 classes on Sundays. I had my first taste of teaching children, and boy oh boy, what an experience that was! Classroom management is a real issue, and I need to figure out ways to hold their attention. I can't say that I blame them for not wanting to be there. They go to Chinese school Monday to Friday, then English school on the ...

... Often, apparently, schools and offices are evacuated when this occurs. The week after I had left Hong Kong and the south-east this weather returned with a vengeance, causing flooding and deaths in Guangdong province. By the day after my arrival in Hong Kong, however, the weather had settled and I could clearly see the view down ...

... occasion I nearly died laughing as a little boy peed all over his unfortunate grandfather who was at the time oblivious to the problem. - People snack on seeds and nuts in enormous quantities. The shells all go straight on the floor so that you sometimes happen on public seating areas or corners of a street that look like a troupe of apes has swept through. It is absolute carnage. It is of course a very healthy way to eat compared to packets of crisps and ...

... Sometimes, there are police sitting on every street corner. Every private accommodation block has 4-8 uniformed guards on gate duty at any one time, every office building has security guards, and the one that really blew my mind was a policeman standing on the dance floor in the night club. We're not talking stewards, or doormen in penguin suits, we're talking camouflage gear, heavy boots and protective head wear. I realise after ...