A Tour to Silver Beach and Weizhou Island in Beihai (2)

The next day, we sailed to Weizhou Island, the biggest extinct volcanic island in China. It is located 36 sea miles off the Silver Beach, with an area of 25 square kilometers, which is also called "Great Penglai" (Penglai is a legendary fairy island in the East China Sea.).

After two hours sailing, the Weizhou Island completely emerged into out sight, as if it is a jade floating on the expansive ocean. Such scenery is really picturesque. We went on shore at the Nanwan Bay, a nature bay formed after a major volcano eruption, which opens to the south with the other three sides surrounded by cliffs. It seems like a huge crab wielding its pincers in the sea wrapping the pier to protect it from the gale and rainstorm on the sea. All sorts of fishing boats berth at the pier going and coming. On arrival, we immediately intoxicated at its unspoiled natural scenery, such as Volcano Relic, Coral Reef and various kinds of vegetation. Walking forward, we saw straight pines and huge cacti cover the cliffs which stand tens of meters high. Sea birds can be seen perched on the reefs or hovering over the waves, and the sea is so limpid that corals and other sea creatures are clearly visible. The seawater around the Weizhou Island is green like jade; when seen from afar, it is gradually changing into blue, dark blue until melts in to the sky. The scenery of volcanic lava and the magnificent crater is very unique; and the waves, currents and tides have eroded the coastal rocks into a wide array of forms: caves, trenches, cliffs, pillars. The rocks and reefs near the coast seems as life-like sculptures of seal, sea cow, whale, dolphin, crab, squid, sea horse, snail, jellyfish, which have won this island the label "Nature Aquarium". The sand of the beaches here is pure yellow contrasting sharply with the jade green sea. Walking barefoot on the soft sand, we could feel that the cool of the seawater transferred from our foot to the whole body, which made us totally forget the summer heat.

The fishing village is also very attractive. It boasts not only charming and gentle scenery, but also simple folkway without pesky salesmen rushing to the tourists, which usually happen in many other scenic spot. Walking through the simple village, we were really excited to find a Catholic Church constructed with a kind of special coral stones, earth tiles and wood. It is a fascinating church, built by French Paris Overseas Catholicism in 1869, with a total area of 774 square meters. It also has affiliated buildings such as monastery, school, hospital and orphanage. Surprisingly, this western-styled church and the traditional Chinese fishing village form a harmonious whole.

During the tour to Silver Beach and Weizhou Island in Beihai, we have found real relaxation and happiness.

A Tour to Silver Beach and Weizhou Island in Beihai(1)

When we heard Beihai, our imagination always flies to a fascinating city boasting lustrous peals, beautiful Silver Beach, mysterious Weizhou Island and traditional fishing villages…… At April 14, 2008, we eventually explored Beihai personally. What a wonderful tour it was!

On arriving in Beihai city, we took the No.3 bus heading to the Silver Beach. Located in the southeast of the Beihai city, the Silver Beach is 10 kilometers from downtown, with a total area of 22 square kilometers. For thousands of years, fine quartz has been accumulating on Silver Beach, so called because it reflects the sun rays with a dazzling light, like a land of silver. Praised highly as the First Beach in China, it is famous for its extensive beach with fine and white sand, clean and warm water and gentle waves, as well as being safe and free from sharks in swimming area. After checking in and leaving our baggage in the hotel, we couldn’t help ourselves running onto the Silver Beach Resort. It consists of three sections: Beihai Silver Beach Park, Beihai Beach Park and Qiaogang Beach, which connect together stretching tens of kilometers, dotted with Ocean Sports and Entertainment Center, the villas and restaurants by shore. Among them, the Beihai Silver Beach Park and Beihai Beach Park cost 25RMB respectively. There are thousands of tourists of every skin color in every sort of swimwear: some lie on the beach, some swim, and some chat under beach umbrellas. We found that there are many pores in the silver-white even beach, from which many little sand crabs run out of. The lovely little things arouse our interest in grabbing them, which is of much fun. The boundless dark blue ocean is so limpid due to its great self-cleaning capability that objects more than two meters under seawater can be seen clearly. And it is really exciting to swim in the sea. Everyone, whatever their age or sex, went crazy, jumping and cheering in the waves, reluctant to leave, as if all the worries in daily life vanished at that moment.

To be Continued

Happy April Fools' Day!

Another April Fools’ Day is coming, are you planning to play a joke on any body? Oh, I’d rather call it a “celebration”. Please be careful, your friends or family may be planning to “celebrate” the festival with you!

To myself, I will not cheat any body, but I must defend, somebody else may be planning to send me a present. Anyway, I think the April Fools’ Day is good, because so many people are being pressed by their work, study or daily life, they are eager to find a way to release all the pressure. The April Fools’ Day gives them the chance.

Clarence Seedorf, one of my favorite football stars, was born on the April 1st 34 years ago! Happy birthday to him!

I love cat

"Cat or dog?"When you give me this little question to the people around you, you will get answer "dog".
Now, why many people like dog than cat? Especial the children.
Because this kind of people need love an safety.
But I like cat more.

3/20 Friday Rainy

Spring.In my eyes this word is equal to rainy.But i don't hate this weather even it makes me stay at home all days.

Stand by the window,watching out of it everything in my view is wet.Trees still stand there as its always do.But the rain makes it diffrent.they are looks cleanner and greenner.The flowers shy its head to let the drops dancing on their face.all thing out of the windows just looks so lovely and alive.the i understand why people call spring as the mother of our plant.she just like the mother feed her baby and the rain is her latex.

I just write down what i just thought

Visit to Guilin Seven Star Park

It was a clear spring day. The soft breeze, warm sunshine and aroma of flowers seemed to invite people to go out for a break or just a feel of spring.

I followed the stream of the spring-outing people and arrived at Seven Star Park, which is the largest and most popular park in this city, and which is always crowded with both locals and travelers. And this was particular true that day, when each corner of the park was filled with people. Chinese tourist groups led by tour guides dashed through the park, old people entertained themselves by playing cards in sunshine, parents played with their kids, and lovers sought privacy in the recessed corners.

Flowers in the park were in full blossoms, and the air was filled with an intoxicating frangrance.

The melodious flow of a stream inside the park came soothingly upon my ears. Following the sound, I caught sight of a group of people washing their feet in the stream, at which I felt very disappointed at. The Chinese government had taken a series of measures before the 2008 Olympics in an effort to raise Chinese tourists’ concerns for their appearances, and those measures yielded results in changing people’s bad habits of spitting and littering before Olympics when it was being carried out strictly, however, the outcomes gone soon after the Olympic when the government loosed its policy at this aspect. It seems that Chinese government has a long way to go to teach its people how to behavior properly.

Walking further along the tree-lined path, I reached the rear part of the park, where there is a zoo. My goal was the two giant pandas who settled here last year. Because the panda hall is located at the end of the zoo, so I need to travel through the houses for the other animals. What I saw in the next few minutes in the zoo left me upset for the next few days. I wish I had not visited it at all and I would come to the zoo no more. The living condition of the animals was very poor. They were kept in dirty, small and smelly houses or cages, which is not acceptable to me as an animal lover. Ironically, the zoo serves as an education site for young children. How can they teach kids to love animals while at the same time they are persecuting them at the spot?

I reached the Panda Hall after around 2 hours’ wandering around the park. To my great disappointment, the two pandas were sleeping in their halls, so I missed them.

My experience of eating at street restaurant

I think a lot of you like to eat at street restaurants just as I do. I prefer street restaurants to large food outlays because the former serve cheaper and more authentic food.

My mother warned me of the sanitation problems of most of those small restaurants regularly, and said they were harmful to one’s health. I do consider my mother’s reminders each time when I am to step into a street restaurant, however, the aroma smell of the food is too tempting for me to resist walking in. But my horrible experience of eating at a street restaurant at last weekend made me pay more attention to its sanitation than the food that it serves.

Last Friday night, we were having our dinner at a riverside restaurant.

"My God! What was this?"

My husband shouted out suddenly.

What I saw made me unable to enjoy a meal for the next few days: My husband was holding a long, curving hair between his two fingers, which was picked from the soup. The next 30 minutes saw a fierce argument between us and the dodgy restaurant owner, who tried desperately to keep the well image of his restaurant in the present of so many dinners, and who insisted that the hair was dropped into the dish after it’s served and was probably from me. However, the truth was that my hair was not so long as that one in the soup and it was straight. Realizing that further argument would not do us any good but to waste our time, we left the restaurant in a great disappointment.

This event was a good lesson for me. I would be hesitated to eat at a street restaurant since ever.

A Happy Day

I went to Lingtian town with my friends yesterday. The scenery is beautiful there. The azaleas are growing all around the hills. And there is lots of bamboo. In spring, near the bamboo there are so many bamboo shoots. People usually use them to make a dish. I took some bamboo shoots to home for dinner.

At first, I peeled off the bamboo shoots clothes and cut them into pieces. Second, put the bamboo shoots to the boiler and fry them. Then put the eggs into the boiler and scrambled them.

Finally, a dish of scramble eggs and bamboo shoots was done. It didn’t look nice. Maybe next time it will become better.

Pleasure to greet a friend from afar

A friend of mine from America will come to china and visit me in April. He is a kind and humors person, who is just like a teacher (actually he is a real teacher) and friend for me.

We met each other in 2006 when I was a academician. He came to visit our school with their travel group and because of his friendliness and conversational personality; we made friends with each other very soon. After his back to his country, we keep in touch with each other by e-mails; it’s really nice to communicate with him even just by words. He is learning Chinese on his own while I am learning English, so we are a good couple for studying from each other.

It’s such great news to know he is coming to China soon, I’m really looking forward to meet him again. It is always a pleasure to greet a friend from afar.

Spring Outing

Finally, the weather didn’t disappoint us and turned sunny. We were able to go outing which had been planned for a long time.

In the beautiful sunny morning, Lussie, Boss Huang, Sunny, Cliff and I set off for the Yao Mountain. Our main purpose was to enjoy the blooming azalea.When we got to the foot of the mountain, looked at the rugged muddy path, we hesitated and finally changed our mind. Just as what Sunny said: we were here for flowers, relaxing, not for trekking. Then we turned to Lingtian, Boss Huang’s home village, of which scenery he was quite proud. He highly recommended it and promised that we wouldn’t be disappointed as few tourists went there. What’s our five's slogan? Discovery Our Way!

We drove along the winding paths, enjoyed the hillsides which were in flames with azaleas. Only by that time, I realized how vivid and apropos the azalea were given to another name of “Ying Shan Hong” in Chinese: The red azalea showed up to advantage with the green mountains.

Later in the afternoon, we returned home with balmy greenness on our backs and freshness in our hearts.

Banxia Lake

Banxia Lake, a place where few tourists know, not as famous as the hot places of interested, people will love which once they’ve been there.

Banxia Lake is locates in Yongfu village, which is1.5hours ride from Guilin. People from the village or nearly town will drive their cars to get there for fishing or camping in the weekend.

The water of the lake is combined with the spring water and the rain water from the hills around. The water is 100percent nature, and the deepest place of the lake is more than 200miters, so it’s the perfect place for fishes breeding. People could take the bamboo raft to look around or go fishing.

It will take almost one hour to non-stop show you around the lake on a motor bamboo raft, not to mention the time you will spend on taking pictures with the elegant view.



Definitely, the Banxia Lake will be another superexcellence option for people hanging around and calm their tensional down.

It is raining

Spring is coming, so rain has become a frequent visitor in this season.

What do you think of it?Maybe some of you think it is so boring that it stops you go out. But in my eyes, Spring rain is as precious as oil.

Please try to imagine, when you are on the Li River cruise, you can immerse yourself in the dreamlike world:all the sights you can see that time are all shrouded by the rain and wist. And at this time, the weather is not so cold as winter ,but not so hot as summer.

Therefore, how wonderful the landscape is and how fantastic the atmosphere the rain brings. I promise it is beautiful beyond your imagination.

Go to feel spring in Guilin

With a short of breeze, I can feel that the spring coming. Guilin is subtropical monsoon climate, where can see the real spring is a serious question. Of course, the farm field is a wise choice. Especially, in the way to Yangshuo and the countryside of Yangshuo. Now, it is the season of rape flower, large scale of yellow flowers will make you forget all tiredness and troubles. Another good place to experience the spring is Longji Terrace Field.

Do not hesitate, go out and breath the fresh air now.

What the ads bring to us?

The advertisement is full-filling our lives gradually, and nobody can escape. They accompany us in the way to company, in the public wheels, in the fast-food stores and Internet. Sometimes, they are abused. The advertisement is changing our regular lives and work. It is good or bad, what does the ads bring to us?

We can not avoid the question, 'caues it concerns every step of human's developement. The advertisement gets us to know more discount information of Vollma Supermarket, it saved our money and time; the ads provides the detailed travel information; meanwhile, the ads creates more competetion, more fake goods, even more swindlers.

More ads made us unconvince which could trust and which not. More false ads bring me a thought that I never trust advertiements, whatever how good they expressed.

Public Exercise Facility in community

Around communities, the property developers or the government will set some public exercise facility, to reminder residence moving and also promote neighbors’ friendship. So if it is a nice day, seniors and little kids will come outside to enjoy the sunshine and chat. The pets will come to the crowd.

Karen

House for Chinese People

House plays a very important role of Chinese people’s life, which means “Home” sometimes. Thousands of us think lack of sense of safety without it. Unmarried ladies even add it into the list when looking for a guy to get married, which is one of the symbol of treasure. But before 1990s, Chinese need not pay for their house, government or the company will evaluate according the length of service, position, members of family and so on, then decide who could get the 30-40 square meter room for free (more than 20 people on the same floor will share the washing room). So you could see that our parents only had their private room when they were 40. With the developing of reforming and opening-up policy, government found that real estate could stimulate the economy perfectly, so canceled this free policy. People even youth could have their own house with 20-30% deposit, then loan refunding to bank monthly lasting for 10 even 30 years. The loan will take 30-40% of the whole family income one year. While the friendship among neighbors who sharing the washing room before are facing challenge strongly. The residence on 8th floor does not know what the name of next door is, what he is doing. So it happened before that the thief unclenched the door and moved out the furniture, the neighbor said hi to them in elevator and asked what the new house is located.

Karen

Azalea of Yao Mountain

Located about 5 kilometers away from Guilin downtown, to the eastern suburb of the city, Yao Mountain is the highest mountain in Guilin. It got its name from a Yao emperor temple which was built in Tang Dynasty on the top of the mountain. There are different views in different seasons. Spring is full of colorful azaleas.
At beginning of April, wild azaleas give full blossom. You will be exciting to be rounded by colorful flowers. Walking in the azalea sea, you can find that you are a part of the nature.

Overseas customers could visit Tibet again from April 5 on!

A piece of good news! Overseas customers could visit Tibet again from April 5 on!

All the travel advisors at China Highlights are relieved, so are the customers who book a Tibet tour I believe.



Come and enjoy your trip in Tibet!

Join in China Highlights setting-up exercises

How many hours you sit in front of your computer? How often you stand up to do exercises for a while? To keep healthy and fit, please join in China Highlights setting-up exercises. It has 8 sections which take only 5 minutes. Twice a day, keeps doctors away!

It is my honor to be the model to demonstrate the exercises. Candy Wei dub for the video, while Mercier Zeng is the cameraman.

Telergy

People have telergy each other. Do you believe? At least I believe it.
It is almost 10 years after I graduated from university. Several days ago I met a very good university roommate and we agreed to have a 10th year university Classmates Union. At that time, I recalled some familiar faces and asked her whether she had any news about them.
Maybe you do not believe, all the people I mentioned are those who I never talked with in my whole university life. Because this roommate knew me very well, she felt very surprised.
However later when I told her a story happened between me and one of such friends, she had a feeling that all things happened in their reasons.
At the end of university life, writing Good wishes to friends are very popular. I am not exceptional. Once a time, I left the Good Wishes Book in one of the dormitories and asked one of my friends to write something there.
Soon, we departed each other and in that Summer, one day, I turned the Book over casually, at the end of the Book, in one white margin, I found a message from HER. Yes, it is her who I never talked with while talking a lot in my heart.
She said in the Book that in the whole 4 years university life, we had no word. However she always thought what would be if we became friends. She thought I must be a very interesting people since others always said so.
At that moment, I was so moved. Yes, people have telergy each other. She knows that I have talked with her already in my heart.
I believe Telergy, don’t you?

Why Jesus Is Not in the North? - After watching the movie Crossing （北逃）

I watched this movie Crossing on-line by occasion. This is a story about lives in modern DPRK. I don’t want to talk about the politics but I was shocked by this maybe true story.
The story happened in a small village in North Korea. Longxiu, the protagonist had a family with his wife and 11-year-old son. They were poor local farmers. One day his wife affected white plague while she was pregnant. Unfortunately they were not able to buy the medicine for her wife in North Korea. His friend told him that the medicine can be found in China. In order to save his wife, he decided to steal into China for the medicine. Thus a sequence of disastrous stories happened: his wife died while he finally got the medicine in South Korea. His son became homeless on the streets. After experienced lots of sufferings his son finally died on way to see his father in Mongolia.
Longxiu, the man in deep despair, cried and asked:” Why Jesus in Not in the North to help save these people in suffering?”
I was speechless and with tears in my eyes. Why? I didn’t know. Maybe Jesus knows. Maybe it was the destiny. Maybe only in the heavens can we find the pure land without politics, wars, hunger and discriminations. May you rest in peace, these unfortunates.

My Good Friend

I bought a rabbit last year. He was male. He was so small and was only 2 months old. His hair was gray. And he was very lively. When I took him in my home, he was running around the garden. He was interested in the new things.

Everyday my mother and I went to get a lot of grasses outside or bought some vegetables. In the morning, I cleaned his house once a day. Because my mother spent long time to look after him, he liked my mother better than me.

He liked eating greengrocery, corns and leaves. My mother always gave him the rice mixed cornmeal and the corns to eat. In my opinion, rabbits only like eating vegetables. One day, my mother found that he also liked eating noodles and bread. It was very strange！

He was so clever. When I came home and go to the garden, he was running and jumping around me. I was glad to feed him with the grasses. But sometimes this boy was naughty. He destroyed the flowers that my father planted. So my father was angry with him. I had to say sorry to my father.
In winter, his hair became thick in order to keep warm. It seemed that he was fat. In fact, he was only 3 kilogram. I was envious of him. I also wanted to buy a coat looked like his.
Because of him, I was so happy everyday. He was my good friend and I like him very much!

The First Serfs Emancipation Day

Today, Mar 28th, 2009, is the first Serfs Emancipation Day

50 years ago, before the liberation of Tibet, the serfs and slaves, who consist 95% of the population of Tibet, led a miserable life: no food, no house, and no freedom. Except for their shadow and footprint on the grand, nothing belonged to them.

In the past:


Over the past five decades, Tibet’s political, economic and cultural sectors have been taken great changes ... former serfs and slaves have become masters of the new socialist Tibet.

Nowadays:


Come to China, to view the new Tibet in your own sights.

A Hiking Trip to Li River

Spring has arrived. It’s time to take some sports. After a hard determination, I finally decide to join this hiking trip that Steven asked thought I have done this “hard journey” several times.
Li River is a famous river in Guilin even in China for its clear water and beautiful landscape. Many world-class celebrities like Bill Clinton, George Bush, Deng Xiaoping… have visited this river.
Former US President Nixon praised Guilin: "I have visited more than 80 countries and over a hundred cities. I have found that no city can surpass the beauty of Guilin." I believe 80% of his praise is about the natural landscape along Li River.
These celebrities choose comfortable cruises while we decided to hike – to fully enjoy and merge into its beauty though it might be a little bit exhausting.
We started our hiking trip at Yangdi Village, ended at Xingping Village with a total length of 16 km. This is the normal hiking route. I’m not sure whether there are more hiking routes. Perhaps I’ll take a try someday for a new exploration.
It was a nice day. And it was amazing that there were so many people there preparing to hike.
At the start, we were asked to buy tickets for this hiking which is CNY 16 Yuan for each person. With this ticket we can take four free boat transfers to the opposite river bank. I don’t why. If you want to successfully finish your hiking, you have to take these transfers. Probably because of there are some blocks or dead-ended paths if you only walk in one side.
The 1st transfer is at Yangdi Village where so many people were waiting for the narrow boat. Oops, I almost forget to tell you, it was REALLY nice to see the hills around the silver ribbon-like Li River. Exciting? It’s too early to say it! There were more adventures waiting for us.
About half an hour time we arrived at small village named Langshi Village. What delighted us is the fields there are decked with Rapes and Lilies! Combining with the mountains and river, I asked myself: “is this paradise?” Girls were even more exciting, they jumped into the flower sea laughing and singing. Taking pictures? Sure, come on, guys! Let’s take a snapshot, let’s bring this beautiful moment home!
After several hours’ hiking, we were a little bit hungry which means it was time to have lunch. There are several local farmers’ restaurants along the river and there are many stalls along the paths we were hiking selling waters and snacks. So you never have to worry about your meals. I had packed enough food for hiking and I know I was wrong when I saw these so many food suppliers.
The highlight of this hiking trip would be Xingping Village – the ending of this hiking route. The most classic Chinese painting now present in front of my eyes. We were shouting: “How beautiful!” Hills reflected on the river, fisherman fishing with their birds on the river. Everything there was harmonious. That’s why Chinese 20 Yuan note uses Xingping as its illustration.
The trip ended at 5:00 pm. We’ve walked about 6 hours! But we even did not feel tired. Why? I don’t know, maybe the picturesque landscape have taken the exhausts away.
I am happy that the result of my “hard determination” was definitely NOT so hard but impressive and joyful.
I’m sure you’ll experience it some day, aren’t you?

March 25, Horrible (2)

Still could not believe it. I called and sent message to my friends I could think out to get some comfort. The landlord came and helped me to change for a new lock. Then I sat on the sofa and was in a daze. Ten or twenty minutes later, I started to cried. Only at that moment, I got to be frightened.

Cindy finally came and we started to share our experience. Last November when we were back from our trip, Cindy found her apartment was stolen. I was quite angry for what had happened to her but I couldn't really feel how scared she was at that time. Now that we tasted the same bitterness and came out the same question: what should I do? Neither of us have the answer.

On the way to Cindy's home, she suggested I ask my younger brother to stay with me for a few days before our back home for the incoming holiday. I was somewhat hesitating as he was now preparing the examination for the Certificate in Marketing. I didn't want to bother him, but I had to do anyway as I am always the Very Important Person in my family to be protected. I dialed his cell phone number and cried aloud when hearing his voice. This was the first time that I cried on the street, without any restraint. There he came to Guilin yesterday and brought me with my beloved pawpaw.

As always, I miss my dear Duoduo. If she stays with me, such horrible things should not and would never happen. On the other hand, it was lucky that Duoduo wasn't in Guilin city. I cannot imagine how upset I would be if she hurts.



Still being frightened. I don't know how to go on when there's no security, no peace of mind, no Duoduo be with me…

March 25, Horrible (1)

March 25 was quite an unusual day to me, just like the end of the world. Firstly, I got my leg hurt and walked like a cripple; Secondly, I failed to obtain the KA flight for my clients which was extremely unacceptable; Thirdly and the worst one, the thief visited my apartment at a certain time on the same day (Cindy said it should be the time when my leg was hurt).

I went back home at around 19:30 and easily opened the lock. Deep inside my heart, I thanked the good weather which brought us dry air. As a few days ago, because of the humid weather, it took me time and efforts to open the door. However, this time, I took at most one minute to try to lock the door but finally failed. Then I turned on the light to figure out what the problem was. It was broken. Walked straight to the bed room, I found some gift boxes and books fallen down from the bookshelf. My hairpins, earrings and some other trinkets were laid on the bed. How strong the wind was, my books were blew down. I thought it was the wind that had done it. A few seconds later, I realized that I had actually closed the window before leaving home. Then I knew what happened.

Foreign tourists may enter Tibet after April

Rainbow above a Tibetan village

Tibatans love to dance

I wrote a post in February wondering whether foreign tourists would be allowed to enter Tibet or not in year 2009. (Will tourists allowed to visit Tibet in year 2009?). I got the answer now.

Starting from April, travelers from foreign countries and regions of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan will be allowed to enter Tibet. Spring and summer are the best time to travel to Tibet. I am glad that our customers will not miss the best time this year to see the beautiful landscape.

Are you ready for Earth Hour?

Recently, Earth Hour becomes one of the popular topics on the Internet.
Earth Hour, an international event created by WWF, aims at solving the global warming problem. At the same time, all the participator in the world will take off their lights for one hour. So much electricity and power will be saved and carbon dioxide emission will be cut which have been proved by many reports. And this year, Earth Hour will start at 8:30 on March 28th. China is also a member of this event. Then, we can do something at that time to take action on climate change.
Of course, we should save energy not only at the certain time but pay attention to it all the time. Whatever, it is our responsibility to keep our earth clear and alive.

Global Warming Irony

I think the world’s weather is definitely being affected by global warming. Global warming is not just characterized by warmer weather, but by extremes of weather, including cold spells. Convection, which drives the world’s weather systems, is being accelerated as our planet heats up. It’s too late to stop it, but maybe we can slow it down and make it less dangerous by burning our natural resources slower. Ironically, if we use air-conditioners less the hot spells may be less sweaty, and if we use central heating less the cold spells may be less severe!

Weather Comments

Being a typical Englishman I like to talk about the weather. The weather here in Guilin is warmer than last year, hence I forecast more rain and more thunderstorms, like in 2006. Last year we experienced snow. It was beautiful to see snow on the karst pinnacles. However, it was unpleasantly cold and some people in the countryside even died due to the cold weather. This year I have hardly needed gloves. I hear that back in England there was more snow this year than last. It seems like the cold weather moved from China to the UK this year, while Australia suffered scorching heat and devastating bush fires.

Two Words to Remember, Two Words to Avoid

Does it look strange in the title? Which two words to remember? Which two to avoid? Just have a look at the following sentences and you will get the answer.

When I was a student, I always heard the following complains after the examination." If only I read through the text book, I would know how to fill the blank." "If only I study hard, I would pass all the exams and get the certificate.” “If only I was careful enough, the accident won't be happened."

When I heard these words, I told myself that I will read all the articles in textbook next time. I will work hard to pass all the exams and got my graduate certificate next time.

Here I got the answer. Here are the two words “if only” and “next time”. Everybody made mistakes in life or work before. Some mistakes even lead to big suffering and loss. But we don't need to complain and be distressed for a long time. What we want to do is to replace if only by next time!

Food Soaked in Wine

When talking about seafood, shrimps and crabs come into my mind. They are my favorite seafood.

There are many ways to make seafood tasty. Here I want to talk about an interesting one: soaking in wine.

Take drunk shrimps (醉虾 Zuixia) as an example. Put the live shrimps into good wine. A few munities later the shrimps get drunk. In this way, people can taste both the fresh shrimps and the good wine. Translating醉虾 as drunk shrimps is quite suitable and vivid as the shrimps are really drunk.

The Romance of Words

Several days ago, I read an article written by Ernest Weekley. Title of the article is The Romance of Words. It is difficult for me to remember some exact sentences of the article. But the main idea of the essay said that every word has a special history and meaning. It is important to know the origin of the word and the language situation.

It is a good habit to use a dictionary when writing an article. Use every word carefully and appropriately. Although I have learned English for many years, I need to practice more to improve the context of words. There is still a long long way to go.

Is is allowed to put Chinese National Flag on a T-shirt?

National Flags on T-shirts

We made some T-shirts for our student group with Chinese national flag pattern on it, according to our customers' request. This aroused a big discussion about whether it was allowed to use the national flag design for this purpose or not in our office. Cindy consulted our lawyer, and the answer was no.

I did a search on the internet and found that there were many T-shirts with national flags of other countries, and I did find few T-shirts with Chinese National Flag pattern on them. Almost all of them were Olympic-related, except one. This design split the Five-star national flag into two parts for lovers' clothing: the big star was on one T-shirt and the other four stars were on the other one. They had to stand together in order to make a Chinese National Flag.

What are we going to do with these T-shirts? Our lawyer suggested we ask our customers to wear it in their home country.

The Chinese National Flag pattern was allowed to put on T-shirt during Olympics

It Is Time to Do Sports!

Spring is coming! Everything looks better than in winter, especially the weather. Last week, my sweater was put off, my heavy bed-quilt was sent into the bottom of a cabinet of mine and a pair of plastic slippers, instead of the cotton ones, began to serve my feet.

We have no excuse to escape from doing sports now! We nearly sit 10 hours a day, staring at our computer monitor. Everybody knows it is unhealthy. So I decided to do jogging from now on. At the very beginning 400 meters is ok. After 3 months, the distance may become 1000 meters. I hope I can hold on! By the way, I am 10 kilograms heavier than a year ago.

A good book for Chinese English learner

I found an interesting book during my last visit to the Guilin Library. It is called “Here They Come! Are You Ready- An American’s perspective on Hosting the Olympic Games”. It was written by Michael D. Knapp. Mr. Knapp lived in China for almost 11 years and married a Chinese woman. So he understands Chinese culture very well. This book is mainly about the culture difference between Chinese and Americans (Westerners). It prepares Chinese people to get along well with people from western counties. I like this book because it was all based on the author's experience in China. The language is simple but the description is vivid. I learned a lot that I never know before. For example, most Chinese people think that it is backward for a street full of vendors. But the author doesn't think so. He said “China is not the only place in the world where street vendors can be seen. Many cities in the united states and other countries also enjoy street vendors”.

One thing confused most Chinese English-learner is the answer to Yes or No question. According to the author, the key is to remember, In Chinese, you agree or disagree with the question, which in English, you agree or disagree with the fact. For example, the American boss said to his Chinese employee
“so you don’t want me to fire you, right? “ the employee don’t want to be fired, but he replied” Yes” . the correct answer to the question is “ no, I don’t want to be fired”.

I would like to recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the cultural difference between Chinese and westerners. The ISBN for this book is 978-7-111-23065-6. Or you can find this book in Guilin Library by using the code: H319 4:G04 14-80.

What I have for breakfast

Eating a nutritious breakfast is essential for a healthy diet. Studies show that eating breakfast prepares you for the day ahead both mentally and physically. Research shows that eating breakfast in the morning helps to stabilize blood sugar levels, which control appetite and energy.

I usually get up at 6:40am, then use a soybean milk maker to cook soybean milk. It takes 20 minutes to cook. At 7am, I eat an apple. It is good to have fruit before a meal. We can digest fruit quicker than other foods, so it's good for the health. Then I start to cook oat porridge with millet. Usually I add some fresh vegetables and meat to the porridge to make it more nutritious.

At 7:30, it is my breakfast time. I usually have breakfast while watching the news on TV.

It costs me about 3.5 CNY for this abundant breakfast, a little costlier than a rice noodle breakfast. It keeps me energetic for the whole morning.
Getting up early to cook a balanced, healthy breakfast is rewarding. My TG (triglyceride) level drops from 5.2mmol/L to 2.05mmol/L.

Early morning in Guilin

Another Photo out of the office window: Morning fog covering Guilin like a blanket.

Chinglish vs English

Chinese and English are totally different language systems. Even though we have learnt English since being little children, most of us cannot convince native English speakers that we are good at English, no matter whether it is writing or speaking. We must confess that we use our Chinese-orientated brains to translate Chinese into English word-by-word. I would like to share some Chinglish that I collected from my foreign friends for your reference:
CN: remember you forever vs EN: always remember you
CN: wish you have a ... vs EN: wish you a ...
CN: give you vs EN: here you are
CN: yellow hair vs EN: blond/blonde
CN: WC vs EN: men's room/women's room/restroom
CN: it's a pity vs EN: that's too bad/it's a shame
CN: trousers vs EN: pants/slacks/jeans
CN: mend vs EN: fix/repair
CN: way in vs EN: entrance
CN: way out vs EN: exit ( way out=crazy)
CN: should vs EN: must/shall
CN: mansion vs EN: center/plaza
CN: so-so vs EN: average/fair/all right/not too bad/OK
CN: delicious vs EN: good/nice/tasty/appetizing
CN: try my best vs EN: try/strive
CN: famous vs EN: well-known/renowned/legendary/popular
CN: the door of the car vs EN: the car's door
CN: how to spell? vs EN: how do you spell?
CN: bye-bye vs EN: bye/see you/see you later/later
CN: it is said vs EN: I heard/I read/I was told
CN: and so on vs EN: etc.
CN: till now vs EN: recently/lately/thus far

Spring is coming

Finally, spring seems to be coming. The trees are getting greener and flowers pop up everywhere. Its finally time to put the long underwear back to where it belongs - the bottom of the wardrobe.

On another note: the weather this year has been strange: It changed between 30 degree and 4 degree in February. People say it is a first sign of what global warming will do in the next decade or century. But lets not worry about things we cannot change. Here is a photo from my window in the office:

(c) Julian

Two Days Hiking Trip Along The Hui-Hang Ancient Path

It has been one of my dreams to hike along the Hui-Hang Ancient Path as I have seen a lot of wonderful pictures on the internet. Finally I did it on last weekend.

The Path is between Anhui and Zhejiang provinces, starting from Fuling town of Jixi county and ending at Maxiao village of Lin'an. It used to the most important path to link these two provinces in ancient times especially for businessmen around 1850. They delivered messages and goods everyday, thus a few very famous richmen were made at that time, Hu Xue Yan was the most famous of them.

Let's get to the point, I firstly took an overnight train K156 from Guilin to Jixi county, after 18 hrs 31', I arrived at the small railway station early in the morning at 5am. I took a taxi to the bus station to the rest of the group, and got on the bus then headed for the Fuling town. The starting point of the Ancient Path was highlighted on the walls so you would not miss it. Bypassing the black and white houses and the green fields, we started to climb the mountains with a very clean stream on our right side.

The path got narrow and rugged after the first twenty minutes warm-up, most of us backpacked heavily and some girls had to stop from time to time to catch their breath.

(to be continued)

How to get a good breakfast without spending too much money and too much time to prepare?

A Idea Breakfast, Aple, Milk, eggs and one more is missing, the steamed bread or Guilin Rice Noodle

Guilin Rice Noodle

Alex was wondering what to have for breakfast, here is my answer.

Last time I was in Shanghai, I stayed in a hotel called 7 Days Inn. They told me that the following four things would make an excellent breakfast: one apple, one glass of milk, one chicken egg and one steamed bread roll. These were what they provided for my breakfast. Of course you may use other fruits to replace the apple, soya bean milk to replace milk, another protein food to replace the egg and another carbohydrate food like porridge, rice, a stuffed bun, or rice noodles to replace the steamed bread.

How does one get a good breakfast without spending too much money and too much time to prepare it? My suggestion would be as follows. First, buy some apples the night before, and eat one apple before leaving home for work in the morning (0.5 yuan, 3 minutes). On the way to work, stop by a rice noodle restaurant to have your rice noodles with an egg (2.5 yuan, 10 minutes). The last thing you are missing now is milk. Easy! We have a milkman come to our office every day to deliver one-yuan fresh milk without melamine (1 yuan, 1 minute, or drink while starting your computer). The total cost for this breakfast will be about 4 yuan. If you choose to have some steamed bread to replace the rice noodles, you may even save 1.5 yuan.

But I do have a question too. I was also told that the breakfast that I had in the hotel would provide for all the needs of my body for that day. But I don't know why I continued to feel hungry at lunch and dinner time. Was that because of my dining habits? If what the hotel staff said was true, I don't want to spend time and money on eating lunch and dinner in case my habit becomes an addiction, like people becoming addicted to cigarettes.

What would you like for breakfast?

Breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, dine like a pauper. No matter it’s scientific or not, I always have a good stomach when I get up in the morning. But what should I have for my VIP breakfast?

It’s very common for Chinese taking flour-made food. Noodles(miantiao), steamed bread (mantou) and steamed stuffed bun (Baozi) are three main food made from flour. We often take steamed bread and steamed stuffed bun together with rice porridge or soya-bean milk. The liquid drink could mix dry taste of the wheaten food and help swallowing.

Actually, I don’t like wheaten food very much. If I have to make a choice, meat bun or vegetable bun are acceptable. But the steamed stuffed bun can be made in a very good taste like in heaven or a disaster that you don’t want to touch it anymore. I like bread and milk much better than wheaten food, but the price is higher. For example, one adult could take 4 ~8 little buns and 1 glass of rice porridge, it costs RMB3 at most. If taking 2 pieces of sliced loaf and 1 box of milk, it costs RMB5 at least, which is 66% higher.

If I want to be a king for breakfast, how much should I spend? And what kinds of food can I choose? Can we find a balance between diet and price? Or may be I should get up early and make breakfast at home.

Welcome to Eva's House

Hello friends!

Today I am very excited to let you "look around" my new house!

Welcome to my house. The first stop is my drawing room.















This is the TV wall. The program was "The First Time" from the channel CCTV 2.
This is my study. The bookcase looks nice, but it is very hard to keep clean, because it is open in style. I like to read some historical stories and novels. There are also some fashion magazines on the right hand side.















Below is my bedroom, you can see my wedding dress photographs on the garderobe:)

























You are warmly welcome to be my guests!

Funny to be with a foreign boyfriend

One of my friends Amy had found a new boyfriend from England. One day, she came to Guilin and visited me with her boyfriend, Alexander. I was surprised, but she was very happy and shared a lot of interesting and sweet stories about their experiences. The one thing that left the deepest impression on me most was about when Alex visited her parents. He couldn’t eat chili, but Amy is a Chongqing girl and her family is all prefer a spicy taste. Amy’s mother had cooked a dish called “sautéed diced chicken with hot peppers”. Alex likes chicken, but didn’t realize the chicken was covered with chili!!! When he ate one piece, it was so hot that he burst into tears. Everybody laughed in the end.

UFO99 and 69377

UFO99 and 69377


More cars have been appearing on the streets in recent years. Traffic jams happen more frequently nowadays. According to the previous regulations, car registration numbers were composed of five numbers, which meant no more than 100,000 vehicles could be registered. However, a year ago, car ownership increased too fast and it reached the maximum level allowable by the old system. So the local government began a new format for car registration numbers, any two letters followed by three numbers. People who buy a new car in 2009 are using the new car numbering system.

Most people select two letters from their name and pick up three lucky numbers, such as 6, 8 or 9 to be their car number. My colleague Yang Xie (Karen) bought a Honda in January, 2009. Her car number is YX601. YX are her initials.

When the new rule came out, things became interesting. I have seen cars with numbers like PK555, LV888 and UF099 (the number 0 looks like the letter ‘o’, so it contains the acronym UFO – unidentified flying object!).

Of course, I prefer my car number 69377. Although it is meaningless, as it was just chosen by a traffic computer system, I like it. Since it came with my first car, I hoped the number would bring peace and good luck to me. And it has.





David Zhou

Women's Day;Labor's Day Holiday and men's day

Women's Day;Labor's Day Holiday and men's day

Last Sunday is Mar 8th; Women’s Day. The local travel agent received many domestic travel groups; most of groups are comprised by women. The beauties are favoring landscape right here. One by one, they took the pictures under peach trees near by the lake. “Smiley face just like blooming flower in spring”. poet marked.

At this moment, National People's Congress is holding in Beijing. Some of representative submitted report for recovers the May 1st (labor’s day) holiday (7 days holiday from May01-07 ) which was terminated last year after put into effort more then 10 years. Personally I agree with their opinion. Since the economy is bad, the people may have more time for rest if that is only choice. Make travel to help the tourism, why not?

ladies; do you think is there any possible to set up a day in year just for men? like "Men's day". i would agree, and you?

My best wishes to all women; Happy Women's Day!

David Zhou

Cell Phone

Cell Phone

Old and young; everybody has a cell phone in China I believe. Since 1997, I have used many cell phones. The age is up and the memory slows down. I found it harder for me to remember all the stuffs. I want to keep some important things in my mind, but they are forgotten very quickly and easily. I need help!

Occasionally, I think if the cell phone could do the memorizing work for me, it will be great. I need the cell phone with this function; which could record my remarks first and then I can set up the alarm to play it at any time. I look for cell phones with the function in the market and on the internet, but I could not find any with the function. So I submitted an inquiry on NOKIA’s official website. One day later, I got a phone call from NOKIA Beijing office. The custom service staff told me that they don’t provide such kind of cell phone at the moment.

I used MOTOROLA cell phone before, so I submitted the same inquiry in MOTO’s website. Very soon, I got an auto reply email from CGISS internet team of Motorola, it confirmed that my inquiry has been received and someone would get back to me shortly. In the afternoon, I got a phone call from Motorola Shanghai office. Again, the lady told me they did not have any cell phones with the function I mentioned but they will pass my idea to the development department. Also I was told that I could check the news on their website from time to time for any further news.

A few days later, I got an email from Moto’s club. It was about their points plan. The subject shows this mail belongs to marketing development information.

(point plan)

When the year 2008 came to an end, I received a New Year greeting e-card with my name on it from the club.

(New Year's Greeting Card)

And later on, I got their newsletter. I know all this is SPAM but I can accept it.

(News Letter)

I wish I could have a cell phone with the right function as soon as possible!



David Zhou