Every once in awhile there is an application so amazing that it justifies purchasing an entire new computer system. Like the original VisiCalc spreadsheet, Netscape browser, or Space Invaders. Or, I don't know, maybe DOOM.
Machu Picchu was the killer app for Peru - as soon as I saw it I knew I had to visit it. Likewise the Angkor template complex in Cambodia.
China's killer app is the Hua Shan trail (华山), otherwise known as The Most Dangerous Hiking Trail in the World.
Take a look at the pictures in some of the following links:
http://www.ratestogo.com/blog/most-dangerous-hiking-trail/
http://www.hotelclub.com/blog/huashan-trail-worlds-most-dangerous-hiking-trail/
http://www.dailydawdle.com/2012/11/the-most-dangerous-hiking-trail-in.html
I mean seriously, who would think that is a good idea??? People have DIED from trying to hike this trail. I know safety standards have come a long way (and maybe we're now a little bit overly safety conscious) but what person in their right mind would ever build a trail like this, let alone hike it.
But not only do thousands of people hike this trail every year (one of my 中国同事 tells me he has hiked it "many times" as a teenager) they've even built temples and guest houses at the summit.
I have to visit this crazy trail, and meet the people who built this and thought hiking it would be a "fun" thing to do. Maybe I'll even hike the trail myself!
Thursday 28 February 2013
Wednesday 27 February 2013
什么东西给新的中国朋友 (SWAG)
As a Canadian travelling abroad I feel like I'm a kind of ambassador, plus I want to take a few little gifts along to give out to some of my new Chinese friends. I took a short tour through some of the tacky souvenir stores in downtown Victoria to get some ideas. Then I googled around online to find some deals!
Here's what I came up with:
There's nothing more Canadian than Maple Syrup, so I ordered some maple candy from White Meadows Farms in Ontario Canada - http://www.whitemeadowsfarms.com/. I got 3 kinds of candy - 2 kinds of maple leaf shaped candy and a maple sucker. They're small, easy to pack, and individually wrapped for easy distribution. I haven't tried them yet but I'm going to make sure I do some pre-trip quality control.
I also picked up some maple leaf lapel pins. These were for sale individually in downtown Victoria, but I ordered a package in bulk from Pins Central - http://www.pinscentral.com/.
I ordered some pens from the same company that printed my business cards - Vista Print http://www.vistaprint.ca/. I just got them in the mail and I'm pretty happy with the quality. I ordered the minimum number and am thinking of maybe ordering a few more! Vista also prints other customised SWAG such as post-it notes, 等等。
Ironically most of this stuff is originally Made in China!
Here's what I came up with:
There's nothing more Canadian than Maple Syrup, so I ordered some maple candy from White Meadows Farms in Ontario Canada - http://www.whitemeadowsfarms.com/. I got 3 kinds of candy - 2 kinds of maple leaf shaped candy and a maple sucker. They're small, easy to pack, and individually wrapped for easy distribution. I haven't tried them yet but I'm going to make sure I do some pre-trip quality control.
I also picked up some maple leaf lapel pins. These were for sale individually in downtown Victoria, but I ordered a package in bulk from Pins Central - http://www.pinscentral.com/.
I ordered some pens from the same company that printed my business cards - Vista Print http://www.vistaprint.ca/. I just got them in the mail and I'm pretty happy with the quality. I ordered the minimum number and am thinking of maybe ordering a few more! Vista also prints other customised SWAG such as post-it notes, 等等。
Ironically most of this stuff is originally Made in China!
Tuesday 26 February 2013
Counting in Chinese
Did I mention that learning Chinese is really hard? Well, thankfully counting is pretty easy. Once you've learned to count from 0 to 10:
零， 一， 二， 三， 四， 五， 六， 七， 八， 九， 十。
(ling, yi, er, san, si, wu, liu, qi, ba, jiu, shi)
From there you just assemble the pieces into larger numbers: 21 is 二十一 （two ten one), 45 is 四十五 (four ten five) and so forth. A hundred is 百 (bai), a thousand is 千 (qian) and ten thousand is 万 (wan). A million is 一百万 (a hundred wan), 等等 (etc).
Once you can count you also know the names of all the days and weeks.
A week is 星期 (xing qi), so the days of the week are 星期一， 星期二， 星期三， 等等。
A month is 月 (yue), so the months are 一月， 二月， 三月， 等等 up to 十二月。
The year, time of day and phone numbers are similarly easy. (Except there's another word for 2 when you're counting something, another word for 1 in phone numbers, 2 different names for Sunday, a whole different set of characters for writing on cheques, and I'm sure lots of other exceptions that I haven't even learned yet. Groan, time for a nap.)
零， 一， 二， 三， 四， 五， 六， 七， 八， 九， 十。
(ling, yi, er, san, si, wu, liu, qi, ba, jiu, shi)
From there you just assemble the pieces into larger numbers: 21 is 二十一 （two ten one), 45 is 四十五 (four ten five) and so forth. A hundred is 百 (bai), a thousand is 千 (qian) and ten thousand is 万 (wan). A million is 一百万 (a hundred wan), 等等 (etc).
Once you can count you also know the names of all the days and weeks.
A week is 星期 (xing qi), so the days of the week are 星期一， 星期二， 星期三， 等等。
A month is 月 (yue), so the months are 一月， 二月， 三月， 等等 up to 十二月。
The year, time of day and phone numbers are similarly easy. (Except there's another word for 2 when you're counting something, another word for 1 in phone numbers, 2 different names for Sunday, a whole different set of characters for writing on cheques, and I'm sure lots of other exceptions that I haven't even learned yet. Groan, time for a nap.)
Monday 25 February 2013
Accessing my Blog and Email from China
I just realised the other day - now that I've decided to use Google tools (blogger and email) to communicate with my family and friends while I'm on my travels - that most of Google's tools are blocked in China! Apparently this is very well known and there are even numerous online tools available. For example try entering http://sendageektochina.blogspot.com into the following web site:
http://www.blockedinchina.net/
Blocked!!!
This lead to the following embarrassing conversation today:
Me: I just found out that my blog is blocked in China.
Sonya: Isn't that something a Geek should know?
Me: I guess so ...
Sonya: I think you should call your blog "Send an Enterprise Architect to China"!
Me: (hanging my head in shame)
I'm sure there are ways around the Great Firewall (GFW) of China. Not that I would ever try any of them. No, never! However I do need to keep in touch. My mom will worry about me (especially when I blog about the Hua Shan trail, which I'm planning to hike, but more about that tomorrow.) So I'll figure this thing out and then let you know!
http://www.blockedinchina.net/
Blocked!!!
This lead to the following embarrassing conversation today:
Me: I just found out that my blog is blocked in China.
Sonya: Isn't that something a Geek should know?
Me: I guess so ...
Sonya: I think you should call your blog "Send an Enterprise Architect to China"!
Me: (hanging my head in shame)
I'm sure there are ways around the Great Firewall (GFW) of China. Not that I would ever try any of them. No, never! However I do need to keep in touch. My mom will worry about me (especially when I blog about the Hua Shan trail, which I'm planning to hike, but more about that tomorrow.) So I'll figure this thing out and then let you know!
Sunday 24 February 2013
The Beijing Water Cube (水立方)
Ever wonder what happens to all those wonderful Olympic venues once the Olympics leaves town?
In Beijing the Water Cube (水立方) - site of all the Olympic competitive swimming events - has been transformed into the “Happy Magic Water Cube, Beijing Water Cube Water Park”.
http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/play/beijings-watercube-water-park-now-open-040746
According to anonymous Redditor "datnewnew":
I am doing a summer study program in China and I was there a week ago. It is awesome but I was not prepared for what I thought was going to be a normal water park. Me and two friends go in there and instantly hear loud music. That thing in the bottom left of the picture is a stage and there were live performances every hour or so. Then a clown or Chinese version of a clown came on a threw balloons into the crowd. They were the balloons that you would make balloon animals out of but he just blew them up a threw them in the crowd in the pool. People were fighting each other for balloons. I saw a man rip a balloon from a child and the child cried. I saw another man grab a balloon at the same time as another kid and yanked on it so it popped because if he couldn't have no one could. All of this was happening with leva's polka playing in the background. (I would add a youtube link but youtube is blocked in China god damn it) A little later an alarm went of and the pool became a wave pool and blaring techno music came on. The beat dropped and everyone started splashing in the pool to the beat. A pool conga line started. Then my friend told me to turn around and I saw everyone with their arms in the air doing the peace sign and waving their arms back and forth. One of the weirdest and best experiences of my life.
TL;DR: The Beijing water park is weird because China
I'm pumped!!! 水立方 is definitely on my itinerary for Beijing.
In Beijing the Water Cube (水立方) - site of all the Olympic competitive swimming events - has been transformed into the “Happy Magic Water Cube, Beijing Water Cube Water Park”.
http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/play/beijings-watercube-water-park-now-open-040746
According to anonymous Redditor "datnewnew":
I am doing a summer study program in China and I was there a week ago. It is awesome but I was not prepared for what I thought was going to be a normal water park. Me and two friends go in there and instantly hear loud music. That thing in the bottom left of the picture is a stage and there were live performances every hour or so. Then a clown or Chinese version of a clown came on a threw balloons into the crowd. They were the balloons that you would make balloon animals out of but he just blew them up a threw them in the crowd in the pool. People were fighting each other for balloons. I saw a man rip a balloon from a child and the child cried. I saw another man grab a balloon at the same time as another kid and yanked on it so it popped because if he couldn't have no one could. All of this was happening with leva's polka playing in the background. (I would add a youtube link but youtube is blocked in China god damn it) A little later an alarm went of and the pool became a wave pool and blaring techno music came on. The beat dropped and everyone started splashing in the pool to the beat. A pool conga line started. Then my friend told me to turn around and I saw everyone with their arms in the air doing the peace sign and waving their arms back and forth. One of the weirdest and best experiences of my life.
TL;DR: The Beijing water park is weird because China
I'm pumped!!! 水立方 is definitely on my itinerary for Beijing.
Friday 22 February 2013
学习普通话 (Learning Chinese)
I've been thinking about this trip for a long time. I've done a lot of travelling in the past, but usually only for a couple of weeks, and I've never been able to speak the local language, so have stuck pretty closely to the "Gringo Trail".
For my China trip, I'm going for almost 3 months, and I've been studying the language for over 2 years. I spent a year trying to learn Mandarin on my own, and finally came across Pimsleur tapes (which IMHO is the best learn-on-your-own program out there). After completing the 3 levels of Pimsleur Mandarin, I signed up with an online school in Xi'An China (http://www.echineselearning.com/), and I've been doing 2 hours per week via Skype since last January.
In China, I'm going to spend my first 2 weeks at Hutong School (http://www.hutong-school.com/) doing an intensive Chinese program, and I've found schools in Xi'An, Chengdu and Kunming where I can get one-on-one tutoring during my travels.
Chinese is hard!!!
It's a "tonal" language. (妈妈骂马吗？ mama ma ma ma? Is mother scolding the horse?)
There are thousands of characters to learn. The characters group together to form words, which sometimes have no relationship to the individual characters. (火车 "huoche" "fire car" means "train", but 东西 "dongxi" "East West" means "thing". Go figure!)
The grammar is completely different. (我今年打算去中国旅行。I this year plan go China vacation.)
The "sounds" are different than English. (雪 xue snow and 水 shui water sound pretty much the same, and even use the same tone!)
There are "traditional" and "simplified" versions of the characters, not to mention the "pinyin" or romanized version.
I think I've gotten to the point where I can book a hotel room and order noodles. Asking for directions is going to be a bit iffy.
请慢说一点儿。我就是加拿大人! Speak a bit more slowly, please. I'm only Canadian!
For my China trip, I'm going for almost 3 months, and I've been studying the language for over 2 years. I spent a year trying to learn Mandarin on my own, and finally came across Pimsleur tapes (which IMHO is the best learn-on-your-own program out there). After completing the 3 levels of Pimsleur Mandarin, I signed up with an online school in Xi'An China (http://www.echineselearning.com/), and I've been doing 2 hours per week via Skype since last January.
In China, I'm going to spend my first 2 weeks at Hutong School (http://www.hutong-school.com/) doing an intensive Chinese program, and I've found schools in Xi'An, Chengdu and Kunming where I can get one-on-one tutoring during my travels.
Chinese is hard!!!
It's a "tonal" language. (妈妈骂马吗？ mama ma ma ma? Is mother scolding the horse?)
There are thousands of characters to learn. The characters group together to form words, which sometimes have no relationship to the individual characters. (火车 "huoche" "fire car" means "train", but 东西 "dongxi" "East West" means "thing". Go figure!)
The grammar is completely different. (我今年打算去中国旅行。I this year plan go China vacation.)
The "sounds" are different than English. (雪 xue snow and 水 shui water sound pretty much the same, and even use the same tone!)
There are "traditional" and "simplified" versions of the characters, not to mention the "pinyin" or romanized version.
I think I've gotten to the point where I can book a hotel room and order noodles. Asking for directions is going to be a bit iffy.
请慢说一点儿。我就是加拿大人! Speak a bit more slowly, please. I'm only Canadian!
Wednesday 20 February 2013
My Itinerary v 0.1
Here's my planned itinerary!!!
April 5/6 fly Victoria to Beijing. The Vancouver/Beijing leg of the trip is direct, about 12 hours.
April 6 - 20 (2 weeks) in Beijing. I'll be studying Chinese part-time at Hutong School, and the rest of the time seeing the sights and breathing the fresh clean air of Beijing!
April 20 - May 4 (2 weeks) travel from Beijing to Xi'An. Visit a few interesting places along the way, such as Datong, Luoyang, Kaifeng, 等等 ... I'll decide when I'm there and hopefully get some good advice from my new Chinese friends :-)
May 4 - May 18 (2 weeks) explore Xi'An and the surrounding vacinity. Possibly hike the Hua Shan trail!
May 18 - 25 (1 week) take the train to Chengdu and explore the city. Also taste all the fine Sichuan cuisine! 请不太辣！我就是加拿大人。(Not too spicy please, I'm Canadian!)
May 25 - June 1 (1 week) travel to Kunming, stopping at Dali and Lijiang.
June 1 - 8 (1 week) visit Kunming and see the sights.
June 8 - 22 (2 weeks) travel to Shanghai. Where to visit along the way? For sure Guilin. Possibly take a Yangtze cruise from Chongqing to Yichang, and then fly to Shanghai ... See how I feel (and how my wallet is holding up).
June 22 - 25 (a few days) visit Shanghai.
June 25/26 fly home to Victoria via Beijing and Vancouver. Due to a curious space/time continuum I leave Beijing June 26 at 16:05 and arrive in Vancouver 4 hours earlier.
Tuesday 19 February 2013
Sunday 17 February 2013
Toys for my Trip
I've picked up a few things for my trip.
To make new friends and keep in contact, I've had some "name cards" made up:
I also got some pens from this same company.
To face the polution in Beijing and other large Chinese cities, I've ordered a pollution mask along with some replacement charcoal filters: http://www.modernalchemyair.com/products/i-can-breathe-masks/. I'm very excited to vacation in an area where I'm not sure I'll even be able to breathe!
To keep up my blogging, email and Skype, I picked up an ASUS Transformer Android tablet with keyboard. All the benefits of a tablet plus netbook, all rolled into one! At only slightly higher than the combined price :-S
I've also stocked up on medication. In addition to all my shots (TB, Hep A and B, etc) I've got preventative meds for Malaria and some probiotics to help protect my sensitive stomach against the spicy Chinese cuisine!
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