Adventurasia Community

How are you all doing? I’m in Dalian now, the city I am going to be teaching and I have been having a great time. My classes do not start until the third week of September because I’m teaching 2 graduate classes and 1 PHD class…yeap that’s right, I’m teaching doctorate students…pretty scary eh? The reason is because out of all of the other teachers, I have the highest degree so while some teachers have more teaching experience, they still get stuck with the undergrads while I get all the grad students.

As well, because I’m teaching higher level classes, I also get the best place to stay. I’m staying in the school hotel (most universities have a hotel for distinguished guests, diplomats, etc…) My place has a bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom as well as an eating area…they are currently renovating the place but when they are done, all the furniture will be new =) So, you are all welcome to come over and crash at my place =)

Before coming here to Dalian, I spent some time checking out Beijing. I covered most of the sites including the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, The Temple of Heaven, The Summer Palace, the Beijing Zoo, the Great Wall and the Ming Tombs. The first thing that came to mind when I saw Beijing was “boy is this place polluted”…the sky is this gray haze of smog…you can’t even tell the sky is blue!! And for those who have been to Taiwan and thought Taiwan drivers are bad…well, trust me, Chinese drivers here are worse…there is no such thing as right of way…it’s everybody for themselves…including people crossing the streets…cars just don’t stop at all…they don’t even slow down for you…it’s scary…and instead of Taiwan where there are scooters everywhere, well, in Beijing there are bikes everywhere…it’s just mad here. The temperature is also pretty hot and humid…the smog prevents the heat from leaving the earth and acts as a blanket keeping the heat in the city. Dalian is a lot better because it’s beside the ocean…you could actually make out that the sky is blue. As well, the downtown core of Dalian is a bike free zone so it’s not as crazy as Beijing.

I also went to Tianjin to visit some relatives. Tianjin in about an hour and a half east of Beijing. Even though it’s considered a moderately large city, it still has the feel of a rural city. Don’t know how to explain it…but it doesn’t feel as developed as Beijing or Dalian. The only thing to do there is to shop..they have this long street that is closed to traffic with shops on both sides…it was nice…but crowded…that’s the thing about China…there is people everywhere…it really feels like there are a billion people in this country…

Dalian is a nice city and relatively clean compared to Beijing and Tianjin. I’m currently living with my uncle at a new building that is connected to the Shangrila Hotel…a 5 star hotel…so we get to use all the facitlities of the hotel. I haven’t had time to take a good look around the city yet, but I do know that there is a lot of shopping as well…I’ll let you know more when school starts..I’ve included a picture of me on the great wall…trust me, that is really a great wall…it was huge…the climb wasn’t that bad…but the heat…now that gets to you…

Anyways, got to go to sleep now…have to wake up early tomorrow…take care and feel free to drop me a line from time to time…i’ll try to keep you updated with my life here in China.