Insert Name Here: January 2007

photos again!!

Heres the ice of Xining:

Zhongshan on a warm sunny day:

And Sanya, which feelsmore like a beach resort somewhere else, not like China at all:

We are warm again.....

We have had a busy few days since our last post.

We left Xining a few days ago, and headed for Zhongshan, where we visited friends who run an English language school. Unfortunately we missed our connecting flight and had to spend a night in Xian, at the airport hotel. It was our most expensive hotel to date.

This meant we only had two days in Zhongshan, I would have preferred to visit for longer. We had a great time with Fraser and Hannah, and managed to help teach in one class.

What a contrast to Xining. It was warm and sunny, even though mid-winter, whereas Xining has ice on the streets.

Today is our first day in Sanya, which is a beach resort city, and it was about 27 degrees here today!!!

Something has gone wrong with my blogger connection, so will have to try and get some photos up tomorrow!

Bye all.

Last days in Xunhua

We have now moved back to Xining, and everyone will soon be going their own ways.
Everyone is doing okay, after some coughs and colds.

We have continued with teaching English each morning in the school, and have been really well received by the young people, who are mostly hungry for help with English.

Heres a selection of photos from around Xinhua:

Still in Xinhua

We are still here.
we have had loads of fun teaching English in the local high school.

Yesterday, two of the students took us out for lunch, and yes, once again we had great food!!

now in Xinhua

Our 1st day in Xinhua!!

We have left Xining and are now in Xinhua.
The trip here was awesome, with frozen dams, rivers and spectacular mountain scenes.
A new road has been built, including a 3.4km long tunnel, which avoids the highest pass, and cuts about 2 hours of the trip. We have some video of this to show when we return.

We had the first of three business seminars today, with David being the centre of attention. It was all very well organised and advertised, with posters showing David’s photo being circulated around town. The seminar covered a general introduction to New Zealand, and was well received.

Xinhua like many other places in China is under construction, with many new buildings going up. Heres a few:

We enjoyed our first dinner here at a local restaurant. They have a great tea, nicely flavoured (I think its called eight treasurers tea). They also have a great tradition of throwing bones and scrapes under the table! I love it!

Xining

We are here in Xining and its cold!
On the way to our hotel from the airport, we crossed a frozen river, and there was a guy who had cut a hole in the ice, was standing in the water fishing!!!
Check it out:

Here's Ali with a new friend Alley, and that sign has both of their Chinese names:

Xian

We are in Xian, which is famous for terracotta soldiers. An army of these soldiers were buried with the first emporor of China.
We went to see the terracotta soldiers, which were just plain awesome: