Haitian Hotel Weihai

... again the rebellion was short-lived.

During the reign of the Guangxu Emperor, the Beiyang Fleet was founded as China's first modern navy and a telegraph center, a naval academy, and the headquarter of the Beiyang Naval Units were set up on Liugong Island. This resulted in the construction of many facilities and an increase in the island's population. Eight out of fifteen modern ...

... Arrived in Weihai and it was like Santa Barbara, esp. when we found out our dorms were in a 4-star hotel on the beach with an ocean view. Weihai is Santa Barbara's sister city, it is incredible how alike the two cities are. I was blown away at how modern everything is, and also feeling a bit guilty because everyone thinks I am really roughing it in China which is not really the case, except I am hungry. Breeze and I keep saying how good the ...

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 ...

... socially. Helen has had a friend from Beijing staying (I prefer 'fling from Beijing' actually) hes called Sam and Bens been in Beijing sorting out his visa for India as he goes next week. So Ive been doing lots of organizing decorating and lesson planning, but hopefully this weekend will make up for it. However as its been a bad teaching week for me I've been having thoughts about how Im going to cope with another month of surly teenage faces (as Im not sure if me and Helen are ...

Hey hey we'r the monkeys Today I took the bus with ben to Nanshan(around 1 hour south west of Yantai) where he was getting his tattoo finished (a bamboo forest on his calf) to see the famous Nanshan Grand Budda statue of Sakyamumi. Its 40 meters tall, weighs 380 tons and is made of bronze and tin. It really was an incredible sight and was surrounded by amazing views, many temples, pagodas and ancient gardens. It took a ...

Top 5 humorous moments so far in Yantai: Mhairi on her 1st day asking one of the Korean boys to introduce himself, I realize my error only at the last moment when writing on the board: Kim Jong Il (I was had) Que much hilarity in Korean language class for the rest of the period. The classrooms all have small stages where you ...

... and my shaky Chinese... So now I'm in Taiyuan, once the most polluted city in the world, now about the third. I was wondering why I couldnt see the sun... Anyway tomorrow I'm off to Pinyao, a beautiful walled city, so I can get away from the awful hotel I've booked myself into. I won't show you a picture, because the parents would be horrified! Anyway something more cultural will appear here next time I promise! Farewell my Yantai buds xx Take care everyone, Helena xxx

... food from my stomach. This was a bit unfortunate though because that day I had been promised by my school to a primary school to go and see them because they hadn't seen a Westerner before. Of course I had only been informed of this at the last minute... but this is China, I'm not supposed to be told anything! Anyway I removed as much of the food as possible from my internal organs, and then proceeded to go to the school and ...

... sadly lacking! Half of the day there is no water in my taps/toilet/shower. How does your toilet flush without water I hear you ask... exactly, good question! When I can finally get water it is a dribble and cold... Finding five minutes of hot water for a shower is an absolute mission and one that is starting to get to me! Sometimes the shower pretends it has water, then after one minute, suddenly decides to have a laugh at my expense and stop. Seems every day ...

... I can't ask for them! I've seen the other volunteers quite a few times this week and at the weekend we are going to Penglai to check out some of the sights there. Twice recently though the dear school has locked the gates before 10pm and I've had to climb over the wall to get back in. I am thus quite looking forward to a night without a curfew! Take care, Helena :)