Orient Haitian Yantai

... and look down at the rocks by the sea and count a dozen such couples all being photographed in a small space. It is corny in the extreme. And the forced expressions on their faces somehow manages to be both nauseating and comical. I can't work out what is most objectionable about this phenomenon: the mawkish sentimentality, the artificiality, or the completely unimaginitive repetitiveness of it all: I'm just willing one of the men to perhaps wear a light grey suit.<br>

... route. So what better to do that simply ride it to its end and then return and stop where ever we saw fit. On the return journey we departed the bus at the end of Beach Number 2 where went for a walk along the short pier and took photos with the Moon Man. We then decided on a walk along the board walk but both of us were amazed that they wanted 40 Yuan to walk it. We decided against it and then let our ...

... weird and a little wrong - and having other people's support and various knowledge was been more than a little helpful in doing something that is far from easy. Now I can speak Chinese about as well as a 7 or 8 year old. Oh, and the train... Train travel in China is everything I heard about. Cramped, six person sleeping cars, bad food, warm beer, and way to many people in a super small space. We had fun though. It was ...

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 ...

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 ...

... showed the outline of a martial arts master squatting and doing his business. It was possibly one of the most awkward moments of my life as I actually put my hand up for a bow said "ni hao" then ran off. It definitely woke me up and I felt very awkward around that particular master for a while. That was rather early on in my time at the academy, eventually I learnt that we were both destined to meet there everyday at around 4 am without fail. I ...

... to stay at the academy because he preferred monk life. Wang Shifu went to the shaolin academy with Wei Shifu, he was very well known for his great abilities in sanda, he's one lot's of medals and competitions (they all have but him especially for sanda). He trained his class hard, discipline, no smiling or jokes. He was a great personality though, he adopted Spot the young dog, gave really good speeches and gave annoying students what they deserved ...

... glare at me every time she shifted to a less uncomfortable position on the floor. I clutched my ipod and purse like a teddy bear the entire time, and both Shenoa and I are fairly sure that she looked through our other bags during a bathroom break(which luckily contained nothing other than some crackers and a pair of damp jeans that I was still trying to dry after having washed them 48 hours ago). The bus had airconditioning, but for some reason it only came on occasionally ...

... Although it was painfully hot, 3 hours long and all in Chinese it was totally worth it to see Helen warbling at the end and a few cute kids falling and getting lost on stage, however there was not much of that in this super ordered communist country, and the backstage word is that they were really punnished for making mistakes. Im definitely off to Beijing this weekend with Andrew, Carlos and Hong. Give me an email anyone who is going to be there too. Ciao

... actually hit the children, but the kids are never ever that bad! At lunchtimes (if I go!) then I get all the little kids sitting around me. Then they mutter at each other and poke the kid who's best at English and finally come out with some bizzare question like 'Teacher, do you like bananas?' 'Um... no... not really...' and then the muttering starts again! Anyway enough from me!!! Hope everyone is well! Talk soon, Helena :)