Make your life in china easier. Living in china for stranger can be daunting tasks, especially if you don’t speak Chinese and try to find your way around. I try to give you some advise as a native Chinese.
Living in china for stranger can be daunting tasks, especially if you don’t speak Chinese and try to find your way around. I try to give you some advise as a native Chinese.
Whether you think of do a world tour around china, or relocate to live there for a couple of years, you might have hundreds of question before you make any move. Question like:
* Is there any culture shock?
* Is English popular in China?
* How friendly are Chinese people to foreigner?
* What kind of social life does a foreigner can expect in China?
* What is public transportation in china like?
* What is the easiest way to make Chinese friend?
* Which city to live?
* Which currency should I bring to China?
* Is it better to bring the travellers Cheque or Credit card?
* Can I Live with a Chinese family while study?
* Can I teaching English (other foreign language) on Tourist visa?
* How much can I expect to earn when working in China?
* Is it easy to dating a Chinese? Or do Chinese people disapprove of mixing that way?
I have list the answer on my site.
The important thing to remember is never trust stranger, try bring cash with you as little as possible, contact is extremely important in China, have a basic Chinese goes a long way.
Author: Li zhang
Showing posts with label In. Show all posts
Showing posts with label In. Show all posts
Friday, December 5, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Ilchecko Takes Gold In Women's 10km Marathon Swimming
Larisa Ilchenko poses with her gold medal.Larisa Ilchenko of Russia won the Women's 10km Marathon Swimming title at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on Wednesday.
Larisa Ilchenko clocked 1 hour 59 minutes and 27.7 seconds, followed by Keri-Anne Payne in second and Cassandra Patten in third. Both Payne and Patten are from
Larisa Ilchenko competes
Larisa Ilchenko gears up to the finish line
Larisa Ilchenko celebrates her victoryWednesday, August 13, 2008
Michael Phelps: Life In Fhe Fast Lane
The deep gulps of air and fighting back of tears as Michael Phelps stood proudly upon the podium as US anthem the Star Spangled Banner rang around the Water Cube said it all.
It is a sound the 23-year-old American swimmer knows all too well. After winning the Men's 200 meters Butterfly final -- Phelps's fourth gold medal of the Beijing Olympic Games, each on a world record time -- another superlative can justifiably be added to the growing list of adjectives used to describe this amazing athlete: legend.
Phelps powered his way into Olympic history at Beijing 2008 to become the first person to ever win 10 Olympic gold medals. "I just kept thinking wow, I'm the greatest Olympian of all time, It's a pretty great title. It's pretty neat, I'm definitely honored."
"Listening to the anthem, with the medal around your neck is an amazing feeling," said Phelps, after his tenth record medal. "I am almost at a loss for words. Growing up I always wanted to be an Olympian."
He is the classic wholesome all-American boy who, for an added twist of tension, even had the audacity to win the 200 meters Butterfly despite a goggle malfunction which affected his vision.
"When my goggles filled up there was nothing I could do. All I could do at that point was swim. I tried to see something at the 150 wall. I tried to see the T on the bottom to judge my turn. I was more or less trying to count my strokes, hoping I was dead on. I'm just disappointed because I know I can go faster than that."
(Photo credit: Nick Laham/Getty Images)
Faster was precisely what Phelps and his colleagues in the USA Men's 4 x 200 Freestyle team did to add an 11th gold to his list an hour after clinching the all-important tenth. They shattered another world record – Michael's 30th - by slashing an amazing 4.68 seconds off their own previous world record.
His 11 gold medals in total stand two clear of the previous best – the nine-gold-medal club consisting of four athletes: Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi, Ukrainian gymnast Larysa Latynina, US swimmer Mark Spitz and sprinter Carl Lewis.
"When you have an Olympic Gold medal, it stays with you forever. You're always an Olympic gold medalist. It's amazing and it definitely never gets old."
Indeed by the time the Beijing 2008 swimming competition concludes Phelps could also become the first person ever to win eight gold medals at a single Olympic Games, surpassing Mark Spitz's seven at Munich in 1972 and ratcheting up his overall tally to 14 gold medals.
Small wonder one of his friends sent him a cheeky text message after seeing Phelps step onto the podium for the tenth time: "Dude, how many times a day do I have to see your ugly face?"
At Athens 2004 Phelps took eight medals -- a feat only achieved by one other athlete, Russian gymnast Alexander Dityatin, in Moscow in 1980.
Perhaps the most staggering thing is that, at 23 years old, Phelps is feasibly young enough to add more Olympic medals to his collection should he decide to carry on until London 2012.
So who is Michael Fred Phelps and what makes him the greatest Olympian in history?
Born in Baltimore in the US state of Maryland, Phelps – known as the Baltimore Bullet -- suffered Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder as a teenager and trained at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club under coach Bob Bowman, who was later an assistant coach to the US swimming team at Athens 2004.
He was a talented junior swimmer who became the youngest-ever US swimmer to compete in the Olympic Games when he represented his country at the age of 15 at the Sydney 2000 Games in the Men's 200 meters Butterfly. A few months later, at 15 years and nine months, he became the youngest man to set a swimming world record, again in the 200 meters Butterfly.
His first World Championship gold medal came in 2001, but the big breakthrough year was 2003, when Phelps won four gold medals and two silver at the World Championships in Barcelona.
At Athens 2004, Phelps extended that to six gold medals and two bronze (swimwear manufacturers Speedo offered Phelps one million dollars if he won all eight medals – an offer which has stayed on the table for Beijing 2008).
Indeed a succession of lucrative sponsorship deals meant Phelps could no longer train as an amateur, so when Bowman moved to coach at the University of Michigan in 2004, Phelps followed too and trained at a local swimming club in Ann Arbor called Club Wolverine.
Phelps has vowed not to work under any other coach than Bowman. "I don't think I would be where I am today with any other coach. He's always on top of things. We've been through a lot."
He maintained his grip as the world's No. 1 swimmer by winning four gold and two silver at the 2005 World Championships and then six gold medals at the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, Australia. Then came this week's incredible record-breaking feats.
The bad news for Phelps's rivals is that he hasn't lost his thirst for more titles.
"This is something we've been preparing for over the past four years. The hard work is paying off and it's starting to show."
That is surely the understatement of Beijing 2008. Debate among sports columnists will rage about whether Phelps is the greatest Olympian of all time. Conjecture, of course ... but the record book is firmly on his side.
Full name: Michael Fred Phelps
Date of birth: June 30, 1985 (age 23)
Place of birth: Baltimore, Maryland, United States
Strokes: Butterfly, Individual Medley, Freestyle, Backstroke
Height; 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)
Weight; 195 pounds (88 kg)
Club: Wolverine, University of Michigan
For More information :-
http://en.beijing2008.cn/news/special/features/n214538178.shtmlThursday, August 7, 2008
Olympic Medals A Story In Globalization, And Business
The first Olympic medal ceremony took place Thursday near Tiananmen Square, as the 6,000 gold, silver, and bronze medals were formally presented to organizers of the Beijing games.
Assembled in a mint in Shanghai and a product of Melbourne-based BHP Billiton Ltd., the metals themselves are a story in globalization. The gold and silver medals are comprised of silver from Australia (the gold medals are plated with gold from Chile) while the bronze medals are smelted from Chilean copper. A ring of Chinese jade from the Qinghai province adorns each.
The combined lode cost BHP, the world's largest mining company, over $1 million in raw materials. Although the company declined to comment on the specific values of the medals, the rising cost of commodities was not enough to deter the mining giant.
For one, the Olympic sponsorship was merely a drop in the bucket for BHP, a billion-dollar corporation. Second, for BHP, it's all about the big picture. Iron ore -- not gold, silver, or bronze -- is the BHP's primary product, and while the company and China have tussled in the past, China comprises 20 percent of BHP's business (already up from 12.5 percent when the agreement was announced in 2005). Apparently, a little Olympic goodwill can go a long way.
Monday, August 4, 2008
This Week In China
With just over a week left to go before the Olympics, strong wind and rain have helped improve air quality in Beijing. But the Chinese government isn't taking any chances, eyeing "emergency measures" that still may not be enough to clear the skies. On the ground, officials are hiding buildings and areas considered to be Olympic eyesores behind newly erected walls. Despite increased security measures, violence broke out among some 50,000 people waiting in line when the final batch of Olympic tickets went on sale Friday. Olympic organizers apologized for a scuffle between police and reporters in Hong Kong.
For more on China's run-up to the Olympics, check out FP's photo essay and list of five ways the Beijing Olympics will be the "biggest, baddest ever."
More Olympics
China's anti-doping officials are planning the toughest drug-testing program in Olympic history. What's more, a new sex determination lab will test female Olympians suspected to be males. U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback suspects the Chinese government is planning to spy on hotel guests during the games.
Politics
Authorities detained a teacher who had posted images of schools that collapsed in the Sichuan earthquake on the Internet. Vice President Xi Jinping expressed concern over the ICC's case against Sudanese president Hassan al-Bashir, as Sudan's finance minister visited Beijing Tuesday. The Dalai Lama met with John McCain in Colorado Friday. China's Foreign Ministry was not pleased.
Economy
An unlikely alliance between China and India helped spur this week's breakdown in the Doha trade talks. An anticipated coal shortage may spark an electricity crisis. China is spending an estimated $40 billion on fuel subsidies this year, while also accounting for 40 percent of the world's recent increase in demand for oil. With 253 million users, China is now the world's biggest Internet market. Hong Kong and the mainland agreed to further enhance economic ties. Hong Kong Disneyland is expected to benefit.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Torch Of Freedom Burns Brightly In Beijing
If you want to protest in favor of freedom and democracy during next month's Olympics, you have an ironically appropriate place to go: the Beijing World Park. The park -- which has replicas of the Statue of Liberty, the U.S. Capitol Building, and the White House, along with other world monuments such as the Sydney Opera House and the Eiffel Tower -- is one of three official protest zones that China has set up for protesters.
Some have speculated that the logic of designating the World Park as a protest zone is to make it look like protesters are elsewhere when images appear on television and the Internet.
And what's up with the Twin Towers still standing in the replica of the New York City skyline?
Friday, August 1, 2008
Faking The Olympic Spirit In China's Muslim Region
The Olympic torch is in China's far West and security is tight. Still, there are some who came out to celebrate the event -- 200 invited guests and a handful of well-trained Uighar schoolchildren. Journalists were watched closely.
A gigantic statue of Mao waves to the people who have gathered in his shadow on Wednesday morning to celebrate the Olympic flame. But despite the size of the stone figure, there aren't many milling about on Kashgar's main square: Perhaps 200 invited guests -- 200 out of the region's 3.8 million residents. Ordinary citizens -- apart from groups of school children in festive costumes -- were not invited. The children wave banners and flags and shout "Go China." On the stage, the city's ensemble performs Uighur folk dances to music so loud it risks awakening Mao in his glass coffin in Beijing, thousands of kilometers east of here.
Officials in white shirts give stilted speeches, until the last runner finally arrives, an older man with a traditional Uighur hat -- called a dopa -- on his head. Speaking into a microphone, he says it is a great honor to hold the Olympic torch in his hands. He then punches it into the air. It is a gesture the master of ceremonies practiced with him next to the grandstand beforehand.
The Olympic flame, which the government has declared sacred, has arrived in the far West, where it will spend three days on its long journey through China's provinces. Kashgar is one of the country's outposts; it used to be an important caravansary on the Silk Road with a British and a Russian consulate. Today it is known for its big Sunday market, where farmers still trade camels and horses.
REPRINTS
Find out how you can reprint this SPIEGEL ONLINE article in your publication. In fact, the city is closer to Islamabad -- both culturally and geographically -- than to Beijing. Yet, just as the rest of China, it has undergone major changes in the last few years. Many of the old quarters with their mud houses and dark alleys have made way for broad streets and modern buildings.
Where once colorful market traders haggled near the famous Idkah Mosque, a sterile shopping center now stands. Donkey carts have become a rare sight in the city, whose residents weave around -- almost silently -- on battery-powered scooters.
In Kashgar the Han Chinese are a minority. In some quarters, they show their faces only very rarely. Some of them fear the Uighurs, with their European facial features and their women who hide their entire faces under brown cloth. Others pull their veils only over their noses. Most, however, only wear a headscarf.
'Be Disciplined and Obey the Law'
In Kashgar men wearing dopas make copper caldrons and tin boxes in their workshops, sell honey and watermelons, gossip in tea houses and pray in the numerous small mosques.
The voices of the muezzins, however, can hardly be heard in the street during the day, as the Chinese authorities have banned them from using loudspeakers. And anyone under 18 years is not allowed to worship Allah in one of the mosques.
Many older Uighars hardly understand Chinese. Yet, many young people also have no grasp of the official language. Written in Arabic and Chinese on a mud wall in an alleyway is: "Be a good citizen, be disciplined and obey the law."
"What I think of the torch relay?" a merchant in a teahouse asks. "Not much, as they are forcing all shops to close for two days. That means no revenue."
In fact, many traders in the city center had to pull down their shutters a day before the Olympic flame arrived in Kashgar, creating a leaden atmosphere in the usually bustling streets.
On the day of the torch run, only invited guests from selected "work units" and schools were allowed to cheer on the runners from the roadside. The homes around the Idkah Mosque and the people's square seemed deserted: No windows were open and no residents watched the spectacle from above. Meanwhile, soldiers, militia and police gathered in large numbers and hermetically sealed off the area around the mosque. They even stuck yellow tape over the storm drains.
The Chinese government is wary of its remote province, in particular of Kashgar. As in Tibet, Beijing sniffs a conspiracy in the autonomous Muslim region of Xinjiang -- not by the "traitorous Dalai Lama clique," but the Uighar separatists who are fighting for an independent East Turkistan.
Yet, how dangerous these groups are is unclear. Uighars in exile accuse Beijing of exaggerating the danger, to give it a reason to clamp down on religious groups.
The Chinese media, however, again and again reports attacks and conspiracies by Uighar terrorists. Recently staff of China Southern airline discovered a female passenger who tried to use gasoline to set a plane on fire. The government said it was a terrorist act, but so far it has failed to offer any proof of the real motives behind the attack.
'More Cheering'
The fear, though, is great, and it overshadows the Kashgar stage of the torch run. There is no sign of the festive atmosphere that attended the first stage of the torch relay in China, on the tropical island of Hainan. In Kashgar nobody seems happy, though the image on television later will no doubt be a different one.
Everything has been rehearsed: "More cheering," a regional television camera man tells a group of young people, who are not waving their Olympic flags enthusiastically enough for him.
Even here, far away from world public opinion, the Beijing Communist Party manages to instrumentalize the Olympic torch: to show a demonstration of unity between the party and the -- non-existing -- people, and a unified China.
"Write a beautiful chapter of harmony and progress -- paint a magnificent painting of scientific progress," the inscriptions of banners along the route read, "Welcome the Olympic Games with all your heart."
Tight Controls on Journalists
The few foreign journalists who have made the long journey into the desert are strangely referred to as "liberators" in their registration forms. Yet despite the moniker, they have not been liberated to watch the spectacle as they might have liked.
The authorities decided who was allowed to go to Kashgar. For "security reasons" they all have to stay at the shabby Qinibagh Hotel. Other hotels were instructed to turn away foreign journalists. Young helpers handed the journalists a comprehensive brochure, which mainly contains prohibitions and urges them "to show courtesy."
The authorities have forbidden journalists to watch the torch relay from the roadside. The foreign press are only allowed to be at the start and finish, where they are first carefully searched and then closely monitored by officials.
The Olympics in China's Wild West is no relaxed affair. Kashgar has been cowed and the Communist Party, with its security phobia, has the city totally in its grip. One wonders what the actual games in Beijing might look like. The answer comes blaring out of the loudspeakers under the Mao statue: "We are ready!"
By Andreas Lorenz
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