Qinglong Hotel Taiyuan

My God!!
What??
That was the funniest and oddest bus I've ever been on! Firstly, It took forever to actually book at ticket! The trains were completely booked out so we dragged our backpacks to the bus station. At the station it took the usual amount of repeating and hand gesturing to get a ticket!

"Taiyuan?" "TAIyuan" "TaiYuan"

Even if you know the name of your destination there's no way in the world you'll pronounce it right. Eventually,once a ...

Z Wutaishanu jsme vyjeli autobusem v 8:10. Cesta do Taiyuanu trvala asi 4 hodiny, vetsina osazenstva ji prospalo - i kdyz personal autobusu se to snazil narusit poustenim nejake cinske superstar neuveritelne nahlas.

Jedna zastavka na benzinove pumpe. Zacina se zdat, ze toalety na benzinkach budou hlavnimi adepty na cenu "Zachod Julie Hubenakove". Hlavne devcata si porad nemuzou zvyknout na vykonavani potreby pred zraky ostatnich Cinanek ve fronte. O zapachu ani nemluve ...

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 ...

... it's hard to smile all the time, have such a structured schedule, get so many pictures taken, and try and converse with people you can barely speak to (thank god Ting and Sai Wing were there as our impromptu translators). I much prefer the backpacking form of travel. I like eating in the hole-in-the-wall places, I like my own schedule, and I hate having my picture taken. But it was nice to see a different world, just for a weekend.

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.

... we would show us one. We told her we'd like to buy her lunch and she said ok. It was nice to have her along as she explained about the area specialty Chongdong fish. Unfortunately it cost 240 yuan so we got a different fish but cooked the same way for 40 yuan. You ask what kind of fish for 240? Catfish. Keep in mind the exchange rate is about 6.5 yuan to $1.00 After a good and not expensive lunch Lucy asked ...

... 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 ...

... have taken the ancients longer than this!! The site of the Army of Terracotta Warriors itself was awesome. There were five buildings that we went into: the first building housed two half-sized bronze chariots. The detail of these chariots was amazing, but sadly the rooms, in my opinion, were somewhat poorly lit, which made it harder the take in the entire splendor of these chariots. The second building was were we got to ...

... film was X-Men 3 and it was a bootlegged DVD!!! The worst picture ever. So funny, the cinema looked completely legitimate from outside, just like a western one. Oh well, we watched it anyway. We realised afterwards that the reason we were having trouble asking them when the film would start was because they were going to start it whenever we wanted. We were the only people in the room and ...

... apparently the school will be doubling in size within the next two years so that accounts for the construction. The building I teach in is new and pretty nice, inside my apartment is nice, and they have a few good garden areas...the main problem here is dirt. The province here, Shanxi, is a major industrial and mining area, so a lot of dirt is floating around, combine that with they have bed drainage and there's ...