Tag: travelling

Visiting Guangzhou: What to see and do

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This year, there were many pictures on the internet of Guangzhou during Chinese New Year. As a major transport hub for China, the city was overrun with people trying to get home as a number of trains and planes were delayed due to snow and general bad weather. Luckily, we arrived in Guangzhou after spending Chinese New Year in Hong Kong. The city was much quieter and, thankfully, we had no transport issues. So, what did we do in Guangzhou? The Cathedral of the Sacred Heart Stepping into this courtyard is like stepping into a European city. Apart from all the …

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The challenges and joys of teaching drama in China

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When applying for teaching jobs in China, the most relevant experience I had was as a youth theatre drama teacher. Due to this background, the teaching agency I ended up working for in China placed me at an arts school, and the job offer I was given was English and drama. Fine by me. I love drama and think it can be used in many ways to teach English. When I arrived at the school, I was told that I would teach drama club every Friday for an hour. Great. However, it wasn’t until I started that I found out …

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Hong Kong Highlights

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Hong Kong is a busy, dizzying city. We stayed in Kowloon, which was both crazy and brilliant. Coming from mainland China, one of the first differences we noticed is how expensive the city is. You realise this when you are forced to pay £20 for the smallest room possible in a hostel (and if you’re lucky you’ll get a window!). Aside from that, alcohol is expensive in bars and you may need to wander a bit to find some cheap eats. Getting around is fairly cheap if you get yourself an Octopus card, and a lot of the things to see …

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Kowloon, Hong Kong: Busy, Bustling, and Burning my Money

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Stepping off the plane to 18 degrees after leaving Hangzhou and its bitter winter chill was blissful. My flight was delayed so it was getting late but I managed to swiftly get through boarder control, pick up my bag, and get on the City bus before midnight.  As the bus rocked up at my stop near Mong Kok station, I was amazed looking outside. It didn’t look like 12:30am. It seemed more like the middle of the afternoon: restaurants full, people chatting, and people walking down the street. I met Mitch, who had arrived earlier, and it was then that …

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Shanghai Shenanigans

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Hangzhou is ideally located an hour away by train from Shanghai. We left from the snazzy East Hangzhou train station. It felt more like an airport as it was very modern, full of restaurants, and even had proper boarding gates with ticket checks and security. For a mere £7 we left Hangzhou in our comfortable economy seats and arrived an hour later in Shanghai. I still can’t quite comprehend the size of the city: 23 million. That’s nearly 4 times the amount of people in Hangzhou and London. Needless to say, only being there 2 days meant we saw a …

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Celebrating Thanksgiving in China

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Being British, I have never ever celebrated Thanksgiving. So when I got a message from a fellow British expat here in China, asking a group of us if we’d like to celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday I wasn’t too bothered. I told Mitch but he thought we should go, sure, we’re in China, but why not celebrate other cultures and festivals.

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