Sofitel Royal Lagoon Dongguan

These lovely pictures are of the South China Normal University in Guangzhou, the capital of the Guangdong province. Guangzhou is 1.5 hours by bus from my town Qingyuan. It is a very large city of about 15 million people, but I have yet to feel overwhelmed or crowded by the people. It is very easy to travel around even with very weak Chinese as almost all public signs are in both English and Chinese and most young people speak at least a little English. I ...

... several students had pitched in to get it for Axu. She informed me that it was at least 700 RMB (~$100) or more! I was totally shocked! Not only was it a gift from his students, but a very expensive gift, that he had just given to me without out a thought. I told him that it would be a great gift for
Aaron and that I was very grateful. He said to think nothing of it and that I should play with it until I returned home and could gift it to Aaron. I agreed.

We left the ...

... of the fund, I will make
sure that all the information’s in our data base is changed in your
name as the beneficiary of the fund.

I now decided to make this proposal to you for our own benefit so that
the funds will be release to you as the next of kin or relation to the
deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for
it and I don't want this fund to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed
Dongguan, Guangdong, China m.awot

... Dynasty because Sun-Yet San lived in Guangzhou.  It was also taken over by the Japanese during WW2 and was rebuilt by the urban renewal projects set up by communist China.  It is now the largest city in Guangdong Province which is the wealthiest province in China.   This is all from Wikipedia so if you want to know more, got there:) We arrived in Guangzhou Thursday, January 8 after a 22 hour train trip ...

... works busily trying to finish the construction. If you've ever heard of Occupation Health and Safety, it does not exist here. There wasn't a single construction worker that had steel toe shoes, there are open man holes in the open ready to swallow up any unsuspecting tourist and with all the plasma cutters, portable generators and power tools purring away, no hearing protection what-so-ever. Once you get past the massive ...

Baoan is located outside of the Shenzhen Protected Economic Zone, and thus there is a border crorssing fee to "enter China". The school that I taught at (though I still lived in She Kou) was a private school, whereas the school in She Kou was a public Kindergarten school. I taught in Baoan in the 2003, whereas I taught in She Kou in 2002-2003.

... onto the table. Oh.... I'll never get the hang of chopsticks. Table manner's are really non existent like I had read online prior to leaving for China. Use your fingers...double dip...spit food on the table... whatever do anything. They gave us special fruit to try. Later in the day they gave us a whole shopping bag full of this fruit called leche. Lesh? Letch? Haha It's like big white grapes that you peel off rough skin from. Very sweet. Later on, we took a ...

... and power. It was a blessing in disguise to lose it after too many kamikazes on an empty stomach! Now I can slow down a bit and recover from what had for a few days turned into a whirlwind social schedule. I can just spend a last few days with a few close friends. I'm happy, cheerful and refreshed and the feeling is a great reminder of the value of running your own life and having your own time to share with people you think are good company and want to be around.

I like nothing better than a few beers in a fine British pub with my friends or family, and rightly or wrongly we Brits have a reputation as a nation of pissheads! In China it seems, we have met our match when it comes to a nation of binge drinkers. If people go out for an evening it seems they either declare sobriety beforehand or do as much as possible to get as ...