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LATEST NEWSRe: Owen Buckland - Alone With A BottleThat is a typical diatribe from a grovelling weasel and corporate lackey like yourself. You have never had any credibility on this board. Your friend Owen is nothing but a scumbag, a liar, and a cheat, that grub should have gone to prison long ago. You are guilty by association, a defender of crap schools and recruiters. Buckland is crap and scum, just like TDM Wuhan, Tianshou, Frank Zhang , Kevin Hensley and the rest of the grubs at Suzhou Foreign Language School. Stop posting your poisonous rubbish here, I don't know how "teachers" like you can live with themselves!... Re: An African English teacher in Chinabut i also want to say that Chinese people are kind essentially,and we really like make friends with people from other country Yes, I agree that "essentially" (or "basically") Chinese people are kind besides all the corruption, unfounded snobbism of the new rich and the rich-poor gap you have mentioned. Those Chinese people you are mentioning to be kind are the "real" people - no recruiters for schools or corrupt and criminal bosses of crappy training centres. These are the kind of Chinese people that most foreign teachers in China have problems with and are really angry about.... Re: Nanchang UniversityMhhmmmm.....why should it be avoided at all costs? Because it is one the few top-tier unis in China?????...lol.... Re: Nanchang UniversityAvoid Nanchang University at all costs.... Studying ChineseI have been struggling with the Chinese language all my life. As a young man, I was studying it at university (in addition to other languages and subjects), and I got a degree in it. To "study" Chinese may mean several things: - You can just study Mandarin or one of the major Chinese "dialects" (in fact, a different language than Mandarin) like Cantonese up to various levels of proficiency. - You may have then option of just studying the spoken language by way of its romanization system, Pinyin and ignore the written language with its complex script. - You may study the modern spoken and written language (Mandarin) with or without additional training in the ancient (mainly the ancient written language also known as "Classical Chinese" that even a modern native speaker of Chinese could not ... "Lawless" societies and "relationships"China is not a contract but a relationship society, and besides that almost everything is possible. It is one of the striking differences that set Western and Chinese (I would also include Korea and Japan, at least) society culturally so significantly apart. OK, when we say that this is a cultural difference that is based on traditions centuries and even millenia old, what does it mean as China is modernising (xiandaihua) and catching up with the rest of the world to become a global player? There is also difference between the old days and these days, you know. In the old days, China was not a global player but a self-sufficient nation that had some contacts with other parts of the world but not in such an intensive way as it has these days. China also had been in relative isolation from t... Vacation Time in China (Part 3)I learned that night that Chinese love to sleep on really hard beds (at least they say they love it, but I suspect it is related directly to their budget because I've noticed that the wealthy Chinese seem to mysteriously opt for very comfortable Sealy's and the like). Most hotels, except for the very top end 5 Stars, have beds that are just too hard for us spoiled Westerners, and this hotel, perhaps a consequence of its Red Army ownership, had a bed that was like concrete covered by a single cotton sheet. So I awoke early, unsure if I had actually slept at all, showered, and began a lengthy quest for coffee, which I normally cannot begin my day without. My "Chinese Date" was to last 4 days, and my beautiful Chinese lady companion was coming to Hangzhou by train to meet me that afternoon, s... Vacation Time In China (Part 2)My first vacation in China was, I thought, well planned and well thought out. I was newly single, having recently separated from my girlfriend of 3 years, the shortest of my 5 long-term relationships with western women, evidence enough that I was incapable of maintaining a lifetime partnership with any woman born and raised in North America. I had always been attracted to Asian women, but had never had the opportunity to act on that feeling, and at 48 years of age time was running out. I'd been planning the trip for several months and had even managed to combine it with 2 days of business in China which meant my flights across the Pacific were being paid for as well as 2 night's accommodation. I was going to spend 2 weeks in China and decided not to try to do too much so I planned to spend... Vacation Time In China (Part 1)The Chinese do not take vacations in the same way that we do in the West. We each slot our own time away from work, carefully scheduling that time to not conflict with the holidays of our co-workers or colleagues. Due to school holidays of our children there are busier seasons and slower seasons, but with the exception of a few days around Christmas and New Year, overall life and business goes on as usual with little interruption. Not so in China. In China there are 3 major holidays, and on those 3 occasions the country basically shuts down and everyone goes home (literally). Vacation time in China is family time, and the 3 holidays are: Chinese New Year This holiday lasts for an official period of 9 days, but in fact everything seems to come to a standstill businesswise for more like 16 d... Low Cost short term/temporary apartments in Beijing&Shanghai - a popular Hotel alternativeMany families are discovering that staying in short term apartments while going on vocation will save money. Apartments not only accommodate more visitors than hotel rooms, but staying in an apartment can save money just by cooking your own food. If planning a longer visit, staying in an apartment can give a real sense of living in China. If you are looking for Beijing & Shanghai short-term apartment rentals, then the focusapartment.com online websites are the best mode to find short-term rental apartments. Rental apartments are an ideal alternative for visitors who want a place to hang out for a few days or a few weeks. The purpose can be business or leisure; Beijing Easy Accommodation has lots of apartments of different sizes at costs that are competitive with alternative hotel accommoda... Re: BUCKLAND INSTITUTE - SCAMI have been doing a lot of research on English teachers in China for my own sake. I've heard mixed reviews about Buckland and/or The Buckland Group. I have just one question, If this post was written by English teachers working in China than why are there spelling and pronunciation errors? By the way, I have no degrees or experiance in teaching, yet I seem to have a better understanding of English. Why is that, hmmm.... Tongli ChinaTongli is an old water town located on the eastern shore of Taihu Lake not far away from Suzhou city and has a population of 55,000. In 1981 Tongli has been officially listed as one of the thirteen tourist attractions of Taihu Lake region. There are bridges throughout the entire area linking between different parts of the town. Forty-nine stone bridges in total in a variety of styles join the seven islands created by fifteen rivers and five lakes (Tongli, Jiuli, Yeze, Nanxin and Pangshan) upon which Tongli stands. Standing motionless for hundreds of years, the bridges bear witness to the vicissitudes of history and remain an indispensable part of the township. Tongli has a reputation of a "museum of ancient Chinese architecture," There are many houses and temples date back to Ming and Qing... The Yellow MountainYellow Mountain, also known as Huang Shan, is located at south of AnHui Province with a total area of 9807 square kilometres. The area is well known for its scenery, sunsets, peculiarly-shaped granite peaks, trees, and views of the clouds from above. Huang Shan is a frequent subject of traditional Chinese paintings and literature, as well as modern photography. The main scenic spots of the Huang Shan start from hot spring, which is an entertainment center for visitors. Climbing up, you will see a lot of scenic spots: the Ciguang Pavilion between the thick forest and tall bamboo, the Banshan Temple with quiet environment situated between the Laoren Peak and the Zhu Sha Peak. Going to the top of the Tiandu Peak, you must pass through a long carp back which is considered as most dangerous "he... Yangtze RiverDifferent from the Mississippi, the Niro and the Amason,Yangtze River is the largest river in China, it starts from Tibetan Plateau and passes through Yunnan Province, Sichuan Province, Hubei Province, Hunan Province, Jiangxi Province, Anhui Province, Jiangsu Province and Shanghai and eventually flows into the East China Sea. Between Chongqing and Yichang area is marvelously magnificent. This area is generally called Three Gorges area: Qutang Gorge, Wuxia Gorge, and Xiling Gorge. The world largest water conservancy project, the Three Gorges Dam is located in Xiling Gorge in Yangtze River drainage area. Some major cities along the river include Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing and Shanghai. Yangtze River is most rich in water energy. The gross water energy exploited from the river is up to 200,000... Five Great Lakes in ChinaAs we all know, the world-renowned five great lakes in America are magnificent and providing American the rich water resource. In China, there are also five great lakes, but all fresh-water lakes and they play an important role in the Chinese great civilization. These lakes are Dongting Lake, Poyang Lake, Taihu Lake, Hongze Lake and Chaohu Lake. Dongting Lake is located at the southern part of Jing River and crossing Hunan and Hubei province. The beautiful natural landscape around the lake become the key scenic spots, such as Tu Fu Tomb, Yueyang Tower, Jun Mountain, Qu Yuan Temple and so on. They represent the long history of China and accumulates great gems in culture. Poyang Lake is the lake for flood control and drought relief, it is also one of the important global ecological zones cho... Terra Cotta WarriorsTerra Cotta Warriors it is a great discovery in human history and one of the eight wonders in the world. The site is highly ranked just next to the Pyramids in Egypt and the ancient sculptures in Greece, they are all invaluable treasures. The discovery of the Terra Cotta Warriors was in Xi'an in 1974 by a local resident. It triggered the interest of Chinese archeologists who excavated the 7,000 earth-made soldier and horse figures from the ground. The most interesting thing is that their face expressions and the "hair styles" of these soldier figures are all different from each other. It took about 38 years with many craftsmen to complete this historical project. In 221 BC, Emperor Qin Shi Huang of the Qin Dynasty established the first centralized dynasty in China. After his death, his peo... Re: An African English teacher in ChinaIt must be diffcult to live in a place like that I wanted to travel to china and korea and see the teaching jobs there but just reading all these racial hatred problem involving employment its terrible to judge one by there skin color Its very hateful... I'm mix two total differtent ethnics both my parents love eacher. I live in america which in a very diverse with ever ethnicity. I Would like to ask you what are something that might be helpful for a ethnic person to get a job in china or etc.. what are some helpful company to contect. Please email on rahma.jama@gmail.com... Tunxi Old Street (Tunxi Laojie)This Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) built street, 1,273 meters in length, was a major commodity distribution center in Anhui Province during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It has been well preserved by local residents and is now a shopping precinct in Ming and Qing architectural style. Rambling along Tunxi Old Street, tourists will feel as if they were in a street of the ancient times. It is paved by the maroon granite slab, long and narrow, with many lanes crisscrossing each other, like a fish skeleton, is very convenient to reach any corner of its nearby places. Row upon row of shops built along the street orderly, all half-timbered, with white wall, and covered by grey tiles. Beautiful carvings are found on the windows and door lintels of the street houses. Most of the houses on the street ha... Li River - Cruise in a Living GalleryThe Li River or Li Jiang is a beautiful river in Guilin, Guangxi Province, China. The Li River takes its rise in the Mao'er Mountains in Xing'an County and flows through Lingchuan, Guilin, Yangshuo and Pingle, down into the Xi Jiang River, the western branch of the Pearl River (Zhu Jiang) in Wuzhou, its reach of 437 Kilometers is flanked with stunning karst landform scenery. Along the course of the 84 kilometers between Guilin and Yangshuo is considered the quintessence of the Li River. It is one of China's most famous scenic areas, where the unusual mountain peaks have often been compared to those at Halong Bay, Vietnam. Virtually all the tourists who visit Guilin would make a cruise in this living gallery. According to the distinctive scenery along the riverbanks it can be divided into t... Chinese DanceAs a comprehensive art form, dance is an important part of the ancient Chinese term "Yue", since Yue in Chinese includes several elements such as poems, songs, dances and music. Chinese dance has its own unique vocabulary, meanings, and ordered structure that enable a dancer to fully express his thoughts and feelings with ease and grace. The art of Chinese dance traces its origins to a time before the appearance of the first written Chinese characters. The ancient dance of China went through embryo and childhood stages in a primitive society. It became ripe around the Bronze Age. A study of ceramic artifacts with depictions of dancing figures reveals that people of the Neolithic Yangshao culture of around the fourth millennium B.C. already had choreographed group dances in which the partic... Interesting Chinese Name CultureHow Many Surnames in China? According to the records of the One Hundred Family Names (a book about the Chinese surnames which was written in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty), there are 408 monosyllabic surnames and 30 hyphenated surnames in China. But by today's statistics and other ancient documents there more than 5600 in China! In addition, some ethnic groups have names but have no surnames, for instance the Dai people. Ten Common Used Surnames According to the national census, the ten common used Chinese family names are Li, Wang, Zhang, Liu, Chen, Yang, Zhao, Huang, Wu and Zhou. How to Address Chinese People It is customary to address Chinese by their given name, using the title Miss, Mrs., or Mr. until persons become good friends and know other's nicknames. There are a l... Re: Has anyone taught English in China?It's not as good as these people make it out to be. Work is a bit hard to find right now compared to 2 years ago. The economic crisis must have something to do with it. Anyhow, beyond that, most of the offers are not for real. Often the wage your offered turns out to be much lower once you arrive. Then there is the housing issue, it's not always free. Don't deal with recruiters, be sure you are tlaking to the school directly, that simple.... MUST READ Re: Owen BucklandDave and I have worked for Owen Buckland for a year now. I felt compelled to write our opinions about what we think about Owen's agency. At the very end of my first semester, I was so upset with my school. The school told me that they will no longer employ Buckland teachers and I had two days to pack all of my belongings and leave. I called Owen and he said, "Come to Yangshuo (Buckland Headquarters) immediately and I will arrange for me to work at another school." It turns out that the reason the other school dropped Buckland was because Buckland required them to pay their foreign teachers a large amount of money and this particular school believed that it was too much. I know this because Dave and I befriended the foreign teachers, who taught after me, during the second semester. The teac... Re: Various posts by Alex Wu about his 5 years teaching in ChinaSorry to be the one to tell you, but your grammer sucks. You have lots of bad mistakes.... Re: why chinese women want western menI agree to your point to a certain extent but as i have never really dated a Chinese girl but i have talked to many but thats as far as it went. My other bad experiences with asian women is when i was in Thailand. I am currently teaching here in China but i was in Thailand for quite a while and had the bad experience of meeting a very beautiful Thai lady 26 years of age. I was 38 at the time and everything was going well ie building a house and starting a business for her, everything was happy until the wallet of mine and my bank account started getting smaller and smaller. I suggested to here that i did not want to put anymore money into her families account anymore as i thought with buying a business for her she would become enough self sufficient to take care of her family and i could j... Re: Learning Mandarin: To Be Or Not To Be (polite) That Is The QuestionUseful, but when entering a large shopping centre, good hotel or big restuarant I thought I heard Méi guan xi which you say means –Doesn’t matter. I was told it is a form of welcome address.Please explain. Thanks... Re: Any chance that Chinese is not so hard to learn? *Link*Hi Lily (very popular name amongst Chinese women) What a good post. Clear and to the point. Good luck with your quest to teach Chinese, I'm sure you will be successful.... Re: An African English teacher in ChinaAs a Chinese i must say a majority of people in China are low-level educated,after 30 years reformation,people in this country become more and more snobbish,china have some society problem like corruption and rich-poor gap，as a Civil engineer like me, i always worry about a job opporunity and when i can get a samll apartment belong to me. but i also want to say that Chinese people are kind essentially,and we really like make friends with people from other country,and i have been to South Africa and Sudan where i had some good time,hope you have a nice life in China.... Expats in China - Unveiling the Beauty of This Interesting Asian NationOne of the most progressive countries in Asia, China offers interesting and nice sightseeing spots that tourists from other nations can surely enjoy. Despite the stable economic conditions in this country, those who plan to become expats in China should weigh some factors that can truly affect their stay like the tax system, government, and climate. In addition, people should also consider the status of medical care, the shopping industry as well as the real estate in the place. Furthermore, the cost of living in this Asian nation has great influence on the kind of life expats will have in China. Government and Tax System The government and tax system are important factors that expats in China should always consider before living permanently in the country. People from other countries may ... Asia Travel Tips, Secrets of Seeing Beijing on the Cheap!Beijing is a rather large city with 13 million inhabitants spread out over a vast area, but if you are up for it you see and do a lot of it on the cheap. From the excellent small restaurants, to the many curious shops, to the railway and bus stations, Beijing is an absolutely fascinating place to walk around and people watch. The Chinese have the prices set for everybody for the major attractions so you do not get special tourist prices, and a lot of the prices are written down for you to see in places that you might not expect like hotels. The temples and the tourist spots have many Chinese there visiting them, and they are as interested in you as they are the cultural attraction. Any of the markets will offered many things to sniff taste and play with. I bought some magnets that were pro... Useful Information on China NATIONALITIES: China is made up of 56 ethnic groups. The Han people make up 91.02 percent of the total population, and the other 55 national minorities 8.98 percent. They are Mongolian, Hui, Tibetan, Uygur, Miao, Yi, Zhuang, Bouyi, Korean, Manchu, Dong, Yao, Bai, Tujia, Hani, Kazak, Dai, Li, Lisu, Wa, She, Gaoshan, Lahu, Shui, Dongxiang, Naxi, Jingpo, Kirgiz, Tu, Daur, Mulam, Qiang, Blang, Salar, Maonan, Gelo, Xibe, Achang, Pumi, Tajik, Nu, Ozbek, Russian, Ewenki, Benglong, Bonan, Yugur, Jing, Tatar, Drung, Oroqen, Hezhen, Moinba, Lhoba and Gelo. All nationalities enjoy equal status according to the Constitution. The State protects their lawful rights and interests and promotes equality, unity and mutual help among all nationalities. China Airlines Conversion Rate RIVERS: China has 50,000 rivers that cover a catchment area of at least 100 square kilometers, and 1,500 of them cover a catchment area of more than 1,000 square kilometers. Most of the rivers flow from west to east to empty into the Pacific Ocean. The main rivers include the Yangzi (Changjiang), the Yellow River (Huanghe), Heilongjiang, the Pearl River, Liaohe, Haihe, Qiantangjiang and Lancang Rivers. At 6,300 kilometers long, the Yangzi is the longest river in China. The second longest is the Yellow River at 5,464 kilometers. The Grand Canal from Hangzhou to Beijing is a great water project in ancient China. 1,794 kilometers in length, it is the longest canal in the world. RELIGIONS: China is a multi-religious country. Buddhism, Taoism and Islam are the three major religions. Catholicism and Protestantism have smaller but substantial followers too. Different ethnic groups usually follow different religions. Islam is followed by the Hui, Uygur, Kazak, Kirgiz, Tatar, Dongxiang, Salar and Bonan peoples; Buddhism and Lamaism are followed by the Tibetan, Mongolian, Dai and Yugur nationalities; Christianity is followed by the Miao, Yao and Yi nationalities; Shamanism is followed by the Oroqen, Ewenki and Daur nationalities; and the majority Han nationality believes in Buddhism, Taoism and Christianity. TOPOGRAPHY: With a broad area, China has a very complex topography. The outline descends step by step from the west to the east. Mountains and hilly land take up 65 percent of the total area. There are five main mountain ranges. Seven mountain peaks are higher than 8,000 meters above sea level. The Bohai Sea, East China Sea, Yellow Sea and South China Sea embrace the east and southeast coast. MONEY: Chinese Money is called Renminbi (RMB) (means "People's Currency"). The popular unit of RMB is Yuan. The official exchange rate between U.S. Dollar and RMB Yuan currently is about 1 : 8.3 (1.00 Dollar = 8.30 Yuan). 1 Yuan equals 10 Jiao, and 1 Jiao equals 10 Fen. (There are parts of China the Yuan is also known as Kuai, and Jiao is known as Mao.) Chinese currency is issued in the following denominations: one, two, five, ten, fifty and a hundred Yuan; one, two and five Jiao; and one, two and five Fen. CIVIL ELECTRICAL POWER: AC 220 V, 50 Hz (bathrooms of many luxury and medium-grade hostels may have 110-volt sockets). TELEVISION SYSTEM: PAL (In addition to Chinese language TV broadcast, English and Japanese TV programs are available in many hostels via satellite relay. China Central Television Station (CCTV) and some local TV stations also provide English news and other programs in English.) TELEPHONE AREA CODE: Mainland China 86; Hong Kong 852; Taiwan 886. (Special Telephone Numbers: Police 110; Fire 119; Emergency 120.)
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