Yantai Hotel Yantai

... service industry. Whereas in Yantai I felt like a traveller, here I feel like a tourist. Perhaps this dichotomy is illusory (and even pretentious). In Qingdao you are supposed to enjoy yourself because everyone knows how beautiful it is. And being a contrarian, this elicits the opposite response in me! The prominent visibility of tourists also lends the place a somewhat artificial feel. The domestic busyness of Yantai is here replaced by persistent hawkers and ...

... they were doing to the tourists who were visiting his city. They simply sent him out the door just like they did us. He was so apologetic and his frustration was more than genuine. In the end we returned to the first hotel we priced and paid twice that it should have been. Being one not to allow money to spoil things I paid for several nights and did my best to put it behind me allowing the thoughts of ...

... day we've been here just because I have more of a desire to speak and I'm happier (now to see about finding a cheap boat...) . So yea, my Chinese-speaking ability... If you weren't aware, this is an immersion program so amongst each other, on the street, and in class we aren't allowed to speak English... at all. At first it was really tough, especially putting together original thoughts and even understanding people. It ...

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 ...

... kicked and I did not hear the master say stop at one point. The second round was better for me, I got in more shots and got hit less (always a good thing). After it was all over my master proceeded to tell me how to fight a really tall guy effectively and I tried it out on another tall guy in my class and it worked a lot better than being hit. I guess it means I'll have something to prove next time I meet one of those really tall people, watch out...

... a mountain backwards (doable but not easy to motivate yourself to). He also used a little electronic dictionary thing to work on his English all the time. Bao Shifu was Little Du's best friend and constant companion. He was great at his job too, he's the only man I've ever seen do a handstand on his thumbs. Those two had competitions of "can you do this" that were always entertaining, they kicked trees to see how many acorns they could get to fall ...

... is the vehicle that I had heard so much about and had intended to take from city to city across southern China with my brother and Hunter when they come to visit in February. It seems perfect: beds on a bus. You can sleep while you travel, just like on a train, but it's so much more comfortable, flexible, and cheap! Well, to my surprise (though it had been predicted by others) there are some drawbacks to the infamous sleeper bus. First of all, they are definitely more ...

Got up on my day off today to see the Childrens day show. Today is national childrens day in China and for those of you that are short enough you can get into any Chinese monument half price. The show was really impressive, with costume changes every scene and well rehearsed dance moves. It was even better because as Helen had been helping her primary school kids rehearse she got a staring role singing at the end and backstage passes. At the beginning all the ...

... no imagination and give them a word like 'actor' and they come to you looking worried because they don't know how to draw it! Also some of the kids have hilariously bad drawing skills for example the kid asked to draw 'school' had everyone shouting 'alien'! Chinese whispers is fun, partially for the irony and partially because they really get into it. It gets all the kids involved which is nice, so no one can hide! In my ...