TaiZhou YaoDa International Hotel

... in prison, due to their use as weapons and devices for suicide) has remained popular into the 21st century, particularly among pubescent boys. A belt may or may not be worn with this style - if a belt is used, it is cinched tightly at the mid-buttock region, with the effect that the trousers of the wearer are being held up by genitalia underneath. Many public schools now enforce belt-wearing, often only for the male population, and requiring the belts to be worn tightly at waist ...

Well, I jinxed myself by saying that no one had been in the hospital yet, Elise had to go in to get fluids and antibiotics. We think she drank some water in her bath, because she threw up and had diarrhea all night. (Everyone else was fine and we had all eaten the same food.) She continued to throw up all day and the following night, so that 36 hours later, she needed some IV fluids and she was running a slight fever so the doctor ...

... assume that I am from here, that I married a foreigner (since the kids are obviously not 100% Chinese), and that we had the kids overseas. They think we’re just back visiting family or that the kids are being brought up here, so that they speak Chinese and the local Qingtian dialect. It is actually quite refreshing to see all the babies and toddlers and families with more than one child.

... in the city. We actually used Roman candles, firecrackers, M-80s and some cones that made awesome spark displays. Roman candles shoot fireballs with a firecracker in the center that blew up after shot. The firecrackers we set off individually and sometimes we emptied out the gunpowder onto a rock and lit it for a big flare. M-80s are sticks of dynamite that could blow up a hand. Last of all, the cones shot green colored sparks.

... the view out the front door of the remodeled section of the house. Back then, this huge paved road was their garden and they had a view over the river.

My mom has such nice memories of this place. It is really neat to be here, to meet relatives we wouldn't otherwise get to meet, and hearing family stories. It is a real highlight of the trip for me.

... of it. Many people from Qingtian have been moving overseas, starting businesses, and mailing money back to their families, so we’ve found this "small city" to be relatively cosmopolitan! There are many overseas Qingtian people living mostly in Europe. We’ve heard people speaking fluent Spanish, French and German here. Actually very few go to America, so we haven’t heard any English!

This weekend we took a trip to Lin Hai for a hometown visit. The family of a student that I have been working with invited our group to a visit of their hometown. We had a chance to visit the Great Wall of the South, an Old City and Guoqing Temple. Today was my 22nd ...

... déverse tout dans la rue et on y fait aussi cuire le tofu, et autres denrées plus ou moins appétissantes et odorantes... Bref je vous passe beaucoup de détails pendant une semaine je vais me rendre de là ou j'ai pris une chambre (j'ai dù changer 3 fois d'hotel dans la semaine pour cause de pas d'eau dans la douche,puis de pas d'eau chaude et enfin de déplacement autoritaire des autorités. Le monastères est tout neuf (10 ans) magnifique avec beaucoup de décoration d ...

... relation to attractions or anything because we were only there for one night but we did walk to a chinese restaurant from the hotel.

We stopped off at a big open-air shopping centre in town where there was a really great shoe boutique (but unfortunately, again, they don't really cater to a size 9!) but they also sold sunglasses and other bits and peices. There was also a Watsons chemist there and a ...

... down hovels on river banks, with massive freeway overpasses being built over them, next to fantasy-fairytale architecture, took a while to get used to. (I think they only have 4-5 building templates to choose from ... hehehehe). People complain about the mass blocks of units and sterile developments we have in Australia ... imaging it ten-fold in size ... and ten times as often! Some of the run down buildings looked like remnants from the war ...