Archive for the ‘Life’ Category

And ... I'm back.

I was hoped I could be able to update everything while on the go, but as one of the problems of travelling alone is that I have to plan everything myself, there was very little time for me to actually take care of this blog. So my apology for my laziness and not updating this blog for more than 3 month.

In the past three month I have visited a total of 8 Chinese provinces/multiplicities. My original motive for this travel was to see as much as possible of my home country before I suddenly find myself no longer a student. Unlike many kiwis, I don't like to do OEs as travel isn't really on my favourite list.

However, people, have become another important attraction for me. I was warmly welcomed by my friends online, especially those from twitter in every stage of my travel; some even kindly offered me free accommodations. They come from a variety of background: university students, white-collar workers, social activists whom have spent time in Chinese jails and government officers who are living in a very affluent life.

China is a land full of opportunities. The country is like a giant construction site and everything is played in fast-forward motion - I experienced this in Shanghai, literally. I was circling around Shanghai for about 2 weeks, visiting surrounding cities. Two weeks later, when I get back to Shanghai, I nearly got lost as I was troubling to find the very same accommodation I lived two weeks ago - everything around has changed, business were closed for some kind of redevelopment.

However, this incredible speed comes at a hefty price. Every person I have met, regardless of whether they are pro communist party or not, admit that this country cannot continue on this road forever, both socially and economically. Chinese society has become a kind of jungle, where the strongest survive and become affluent in every way, leaving very little physical and social resources for the poor and less fortunate ones.

This itself isn't wrong, however, relative strength of a person isn't decided he or her ability and skills, but money, power, and guanxi. This left the socially and economically disadvantage group very little opportunity to succeed, making the gaps bigger and bigger as time goes by.

Anyway, enough for the political side.  If you have a few thousand NZ$ floating around, China is a good place to go. It offers you pretty much everything you can imagine at a very modest price. My budget was about #3,000. The only problem is time, China is huge - I was only able to experience a slice of China - Panda, Great Wall, Terracotta Army and Shanghai in three month's time, there are a lot of place I want to go but couldn't find enough time and money.

The plan

Why I has been away for such a long time - I had a tough week before finish the semester, and ... I was just too lazy and really have nothing to say here.  Now I'm back, but I still don't expect to update here as usual as before. As you may know, I'm about to travel to China for three months. Mainly to visit relatives and my extend family, but with a little bit of spare time, I'll also be visiting a few cities in eastern part of  China  like Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing as a tourist.

But before I go, there are still exams I have to do.

So, the plan is I'll be leaving on 20th November. Before I get home I'll be having a stopover in Shanghai for about 2 weeks. During the period I'll be visiting cities around the area, most likely Hangzhou and Nanjing. Schedule for Beijing is still not yet decided, I'm trying to arrange a trip to North Korea, if it is possible to get into Kim's Realm , Beijing would be part of that trip.

There are several other places like Xinjiang and Taiwan on my list but not planned yet. I highly doubt I'll be able to go as my wallet would unlikely to allow me to do so.

I'll be on my own for most of the time in China, so anyone who would like to buy me a lunch or dinner  will be  much appreciated :)

On busy mode again

I was struggling to write something here in recent weeks, but I just could not find enough time to do so. It's that usual end of a semester busy mode again, and I'm currently having 3 assignments and at least 1 presentation on the to do list. Plus other personal commitments I have to make, the priority of update my blogs isn't that high any more.

I'm expecting that I could finish most of the works before or after Queen's Birthday, so I'll be back around that time, but before that, the update of this blog is halted. HOWEVER, you will still be able to find me in other places. I am still present on Twitter, and I have increased the number of tweets on current affairs in English.

The other thing is, I have made some of my RSS subscription categories publicly available for quite a while now, although I didn't post the links on this blog:). Most of my information and ideas came from those nice bloggers, so I just think these pages might be helpful if you are not a very into reading via RSS:

• blogs-china-politics (in Chinese)
  
• blogs-china-english
• blogs-new-zealand
• Magazines (mix of two languages)

Well, then, have a happy, safe Queen's birthday if I failed to make myself back on time.

Yet another break from this blog

I know it's bit sad to take two breaks from my blog within quite a short period. This time is different though, I'm not just being lazy, I need some time to deal with my personal difficulties. It's about my personal issue, so as usual I won't discuss it publicly.

I don't know when will I be capable to start this blog again, but, at least a week.

What I've been up to

I need another week to sort out my university works before I can resume my update here. However, I still have a online presence, I'm inceasing number of English updates in my twitter,  usually are short comments of news items.

During the week I struggled to finish the first of two presentations I have to do this year. As a moderate-severe stutterer(even this word is difficult to pronounce), it went better than I expected, but I still tend to over-simplify speeches to keep fluency, and that has affected my marks. Second presentation, however, would be a lot more worse, the panel includes city councillors, and a parliamentary party leader.

And I also got several assignment that I need to finish this week.

Not the time to celebrate yet ...

Exams are finally over ...  but I'm in kind of the unpredicable water, for oen paper, there's a real chance for me fail. Our department maintains a policy that you must final exam to pass the paper, or you face repeat.

That's quite a worry for me. I usually do very bad in exams, but get As in normal tests and assignments. This year's waitting game is the hardest ever, so I need some time to prepare myself ... mentally, to accept the final results, to do that, I think I need another week off from this blog :(