Universal International Hotel Shenzhen

... people. Also see http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/1 0/china_celebrates_60_years.html for amazing photos of the celebration.

If you can see the effort, training, patience and perseverance in this ceremony you will get a glimpse what is happening all over China. It is hard to describe without you experiencing the thoughts, feelings and attitudes of the Chinese people and how vastly different they are compared to us in the West ...

... and selling it in Britain. This is because China did not want any of the British products, considering them useless and inferior to their own. This trade worked well for a time, but there was one catch. The Chinese would only accept bullion in exchange for their teas and silks, so over time, the British lost more and more bullion to China. Of course Britain didn't like this, so they started the opium trade ...

Just a quick hello...before I leave Hong Kong!! There's been so much to do here that I haven't had much time to spend on internet or upload anymore photos!! Hong Kong is another really great city!! The skyline and views along the river front are just amazing! Every evening they have this 15 minute light and sound display which is really cool....all the lights on the skyscraper come on and off with different patterns ...

Left for Katie's house yesterday at around 12pm on the train. Sad to say goodbye to everyone but excited to be going on my first adventure. Arrived at heathrow terminal 5 a bit too early so sat around and chatted and the time soon went to check in. Ate a lovely big meal in giraffe to fill us up for the long journey. Couldn't get over the size of the terminal at heathrow, it was almost as big as cabbot circus in there! even had a ...

... it has some things from Australia like confectionary, wine, beer etc. Malani checked out the Deli - there were a lot of weird things for sale there - like pigs guts and chicken's feet - talk about fresh though - the prawns were packaged under plastic still alive - they were still squirming. There was a fish tank you would find in Chinese Restaurants - where you can select your fish and then take it away - not that's fresh. We braved it and had KFC ...

... all still SLEEPING...we did find a McDonald's. (Or maybe all of the people stampeding to the train and bus stations to leave because it was the end of Spring Festival holiday were actually goat magically transformed into people.) So we had pancakes to wake up to. While we were waking up we decided it would be silly to stay in Guangzhou because we really didn't want to, so we found out that a train went from ...

... this far and now we're in search of somewhere to wait.. but first.. a toilet stop. After this, and alot of meaningless wandering around the airport we realise that we need to go through a security cheak to get to the transfer lounge. Now we realise we need our boarding passes and passports... only then do we realise that we dont have our boarding passes or our passports. I figure out that ive left ...

... to perfectly as things do in China, picking up my passport that afternoon with my residence permit allowing me multiple entries into China and buying a student-discount night train for that evening to Shenzhen. Shenzhen is one of China's special economic zones created in the 1970's, meaning it has a huge population and bustling urban economy but no history or culture. It also attracts many tourists from Hong Kong that want to get a taste of ...

... sure I will return too. China has many things going for it, and it's an amazing place, but if I could share one thing with people here that would make it better, it would be to stop fighting this perpetual war with everybody you don't know, notice what's around you and marvel a little at the world you live in. However much being in this daily war zone gets to me, I keep telling myself I can't forget to have a little peripheral awareness of my own. It's hard, but I keep trying.

... occasions in my life where I can't remember having time to reflect, or to pick a path. My boss asked me how the courses I'm teaching were going and I answered truthfully that, "it's like heading into a blizzard and trusting that my compass is going to get me out the other side." That is quite fun for me too, and it's not unduly worrying, but what I don't like is the fact that ...