Last nigh we had our Halloween party at the school. It was late by a day seeing as upper management didn’t want to cancel any of our core classes during the weekend or on Friday. For the whole week, we had to convince the students that Halloween was actually on Sunday and not Monday, and [...]

On our last morning in Qingdao, and with not a huge lot left to see and do, Em and I decided to take a trip to the Qingdao Naval Museum. I think I’ve mentioned before that I’m not much of a war enthusiast, but I really like seeing old planes, tanks, boats, and other military [...]

One of the big highlights for me, and anyone else who travels to Qingdao, is visiting the Tsingdao Beer Factory. I’m not a huge beer drinker, but having tried to make beer on numerous occasion in the past, I can, at very least, appreciate the fine art of beer making. But first, a few facts [...]

One of the things we really wanted to do while in Qingdao was to go to some of the markets, especially the older Chinese ones. On the top of the list was Jim olu Market, a collection of markets selling cheap good, knock off products, and just about anything else someone would need in a [...]

Last Tuesday night, after I had finished work at 7:45, I came home via the bus (saving myself 15 minutes of walking) and picked up Em for our trip outside of Beijing. We had planned the trip about a month or so ago, not wanting to spend the week I had off for National Day [...]

Now that summer camp is over I’m back to having my weekends again (well, Wednesday’s and Thursday’s) which means Em and I can do a little more together, including going to some amazing place in and around Beijing. Yesterday we decided to visit a couple of Beijing’s hutong areas;  Yan dai xie jie (烟袋斜街) and [...]

It’s been a while since I last posted a travel post here. Actually, since I’ve been in Beijing, I haven’t gone on any trips outside of the city, so it was no surprise that I was quite eager to set out on my little adventure this morning. With Em away, and the whole day to [...]

As I mentioned the other day, Em and I went to a concert the other night. We went to see Em’s favourite singer and performer, Jay Chou (周杰伦, Zhōu Jiélún) at the Workers Stadium in Sanitun last Saturday, with at least another 50,000 people. For anyone unfamiliar with Jay Chou, he’s one, if not the [...]

One thing I didn’t know about Beijing is that it is an artsy kind of place. I know that’s hard to believe with the amount of spitting, rudeness, shoddy labor work, and concrete you see all over the place, but there is a vibrant arts community that appears to be thriving through the city. No, [...]

Not many people are aware of this, and I’m sure a lot of you are going to be surprised to learn, that Beijing has an underground city. Actually, it’s not a city per se, but a massive underground facility stretching for kilometers intended to be a safe haven for residents in the event of a [...]