Hanting Express (Taiyuan Kaihua Temple)

... crowd has gathered, someone will cry "Taiyuan" and the crowd will ooh and ahh in a "Oh you mean Taiyuan, sure you should have said" kind of way!

Ticket successfully in hand, we followed our Bus Lady across the road to our sleeper. (She had the most beautiful boots) The bus was filled with the tiniest bunk beds you've ever seen. Just about big enough for a short leprechaun to lie on his side and curl up his feet. (mild exaggeration only)

The bus ...

... br>Taiyuan mel byt pro nas jen prestupni stanice, ale nakonec jsme v nem stravili cele odpoledne. Taiyaun je vice nezmilionove mesto, prestavbu centra dokoncili pred 2 roky. Hlavni ulice je misty az dvanacti proudova dalnice. Nikde tu nikdy nedelaji nic maleho. Asi sem nejezdi moc turistu. Vsude na nas zirali a v obchodech se nas ani nesnazili moc natahnout, takze jsme tam vubec nesmlouvali. Zasli jsme na jidlo, do muzea umeni provnicie Shanxi a posedeli v mistnim parku.

How to learn Chinese is a frequently asked question. Occasionally, people would like to find a tutor to help them learn Chinese. Actually, in modern times with fast development of internet, online mandarin Chinese seems more ...

... Lantern, was filmed (it's a really good movie I highly recommend it). The Qiao family was a rich merchant family that had the money to build a huge compound for themselves. A large portion of the wealth in China was in that family. Their compound had almost 300 rooms in it and they were filled with lavish gifts and decorations. The difference between the rich and the poor during this time must have been incredible. These families ...

We get dropped off at the Qingxu service station at 2:30am. There's a 24hr convenient store, we find a row of plastic seats and tries to make it until the sun comes up. We have been on the road nonstop for 18 hours, have to wait 7 more hours before we can find a bed.

... and we should consider paying 150 yuan for a english speaking guide. Since Mike had really wanted to come here and we had made the extra moves to get here we paid the extra for the guide. Our guide's english name was Lucy, a young woman who just graduated with a degree as a tour guide. She met us at the hotel which was good since we had to change buses along the way. The weather was forecast to rain an ...

... chram (jedina vyjimka, studentske vstupne za 2 yuany), kde se mimo jine nachazi provincialni muzeum. Chram pekny, muzeum nic moc. Pak jsme vyrazili na autobusove nadrazi koupit listek, tam nam pratelsky sdelili, ze listek si muzeme koupit az v den odjezdu. Famy o tom, ze cestovani autobusem je levnejsi nez vlaky, jsou skutecne jenom famy. A studentske listky taky nemaji. Druhy den jsme se sbalili a s pevnym rozhodnutim se do Taiyuanu nikdy nevratit (haha) jsme ...

... of Xian - about an hour and a half bus ride. The bus ride was rough - everywhere we glanced, it seemed, there were dogs, which was uncanny since up to this day we had seen so few dogs in China. Even the bus seat covers had dogs on them!!! We missed, and still do miss, Seamus badly :( As it turned out, however, a hike up to Mount Hua Shan's west peak was just what we needed. I had initally feared that I had under-dressed ...

... was something that you thought twice about. Coffee, chats, plenty of food, and looking around at the development work her organisation does - community centre, medical clinics, farm, cheese factory. Her dodgy gall bladder was a bit of an imposition, but we all fought on bravely. Her place was a great little sanctuary from the outside world, and a good place for a rest for some weary travellers.

... use for a week! It's always, "oh, oh, I'll have a student show you", but nothing ever happens! Thursday I had my Listening class, so I go to the room and having already listened to the class tapes and then hearing the students English levels, there's no way these kids can follow the book and tapes, but I do my class introduction and have the students introduce themselves and then get ready to start the listening exercises. I then find out that my books ...