Hey,
I've put up some photos from our brief trip at the weekend to Luoyang, the Longmen grottoes and to visit my student Nancy - you've met her: was wearing bizarre tights when we made dumplings. The photos are here but I may end up replacing them, doing something black-and-white-and-arty with them as, because the visibility was poor, they all look like a very similar grey shot of a crumbling Buddha statue... Hey,
In the fuss and confusion leading up to the end of the semester, and our departure, I forgot to mention that last month we went to Yun Tai Shan in northern Henan with Lin, Irene, Jamie and Michael from the office, Bryan, Nick and Wendy. It's near to Jiaozou, Irene's hometown, so she had fun being tour guide/ trip organiser. It was a lot of fun traveling with guys from the office - they're kept so busy, for such long hours that we seldom get to spend time socially with them, especially off campus. Yun Tai Shan, like much of Henan, is suffering from a severe drought so much of the river that runs through here has dried up. The most beautiful waterfalls, however, are still being kept flowing, one way r another - one rather suspects water is being pumped from the end of the park's most popular gorge back up to the top. The beauty of the place is being somewhat overtaken by the volume of tourists here - you'll spend most of your visit crawling forward, yard by yard, like cattle being herded forwards. Still, the slow pace allows for plenty of photo ops, and we had a fantastic time with the guys from the office :) Pictures here. X Hi there, I've created a new site called Go! Zhengzhou. It's a forums for foreigners, expats, teachers and the like to share advice and and post questions about fair ol' Zhengzhou. The members' discussion boards have everything you need to know about Zhengzhou, and are written by the people who live and work here. They're completely free too! Join here. Are you moving to Zhengzhou soon and want to know what it's like to live here? Post your questions and get answers here. Do you want to make new friends, meet other expats or find language-exchange partners? Check out the social scene here. Have you got any job opportunities, or are you looking for work? Check our free listings here. Do you want to promoteyour band, business or event for FREE? Put a message on our discussion boards here. Ok, so I didn't see Shakespeare's ghost in the ghost town, but I did see a performance of Much Ado About Nothing.
Read a review of the Shaolin Travelers Hostel, 308 Chong Gao Street (West), Dengfeng, Henan Province, China.
Hey,
I've finally got all of my photos from April online, in the right order and the right way up. They're on this page for your nostalgic enjoyment. By comparison, I've been rather speedy in getting my photos from Dengfeng, the Shaolin temple and Song Shan (all of which made for a great weekend break) online already. They're all here. Mega-planning going on, but I'll try ot blog over lunch. X Hey,
Apologies for the lack of blogs lately - since your departure I've been up to my neck in catch-up classes. I finished my last one on Thursday night (9pm on Thrusday night, might I add) and as soon as I've got some time to catch you guys up on the few bits of news from Zhengzhou, we're darting off to Dengfeng for the weekend. We'll be back on Sunday some time, and I'll try to get hold of you to report back on all the Shaolin temples and holy mountains I've seen and climbed. Hope you're all well, X The South Campus Library Huanghe Science & Technology College, or "HuangKeDa" as it is usually known, is a large, private university in Zhengzhou, Henan, China. There are 12 schools: Information Technology, Engineering, Business, Journalism & Media, Music, Industrial Arts, Medicine, Physical Education (Sports Sciences), Foreign Languages (English, Korean, Japanese), Chinese for Foreigners, Nationalities and International Studies. Students take either three- or four-year courses. There are approximately 1'500 members of staff, 40'000 students and an annual enrolment of some 17'000 new students. There are two campuses, north and south. There are currently (2011) approximately 25 foreign teachers at HuangKeDa including: Americans, Canadians, English, Ghanaian, Irish, Japanese, Kiwi and Scottish. Most teachers, if not all, live in university-provided accommodation oat the south campus. Most teachers, if not all, teach all their classes at either the School of Foreign Languages or the School of International Studies. Both Schools are situated on the south campus, not five minutes walk from the foreign teachers' residence. The typical contract (2011) is 20 hours of teaching per week - although this may be subject to change. Foreign teachers are almost always required for classes in Oral English as the College looks to increase its foreign staff, and it's also worth checking to see what other classes may need teachers. If you have any questions about working at HuangKeDa, please feel free to send me a message through the Contact Me page. For more information, please contact [email protected] or visit the official (Chinese) website www.hhstu.edu.cn
You have to see this!
I thought the couple of empty apartment buildings near campus were a waste of money, but this is unreal. It turns out that there are several 'ghost cities' across China. Fully completed, but entirely vacant cities. These satellite photos show apartments, government offices, even art museums, but only a handful of cars. And what's more, the largest 'ghost city' is... drumroll please... Zhengzhou New District. A $19 BILLION project that's full of... nothing. Zhengzhou's photo 4 onwards. Surreal! |
Photo Blog hereThere's a selection of photos from my time in China, and travels over Spring Festival, on these pages. Categories
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