Speaking of horns, I hate walking down Liufang, it’s “the village” just up the street from us. I hate it when I’m walking down the narrow streets and hear a van come down it while s/he’s blaring the horn to let you know that they’re there. It’s LOUD! Try standing at the bus stop and have a bus honk their horn 20m away. That’s even louder!

If there are others with me while crossing the street, I let them take the lead. I still hesitate when they decide to cross but I do my little freak-out skip across the street instead of the calm and collected prance of my neighbour.

I don’t think it’s a China-only thing. When I cross at a crosswalk in Toronto, I still don’t cross if there’s a car that looks like they’re still going 30 km/h and barely slowing down. I wait for them to come to a near stop before I walk out. I’d rather be safe than sorry. I can’t assume that they noticed the blinking crosswalk lights with all the distractions in cars.

This week, I’m working on a project for my students. Little paper craft houses for our little town. I’m glad I have a small class just finishing up the last few and then I’m off to bed. Anyone want to purchase property in our little town of 12? Contact Karen Realty, you know where to find me.

My luggage is checked. I head to the waiting area but remember that I have a bottle of grapefruit juice in my bag. I sit down and finish my drink while listening to some music playing on someone’s laptop and watching whatever is playing on the huge monitor in front of me–it looks like some Victoria Secret fashion show of Santa lingerie. All done. I find myself a recycling bin and head to the “Safety Check Area.” No liquids? Check. No lighters? Check. Some man is boarding in 10 minutes, I let him go ahead of me. Carry-on scan time! “I have a laptop.” “Okay, take it out, please.” I walk through the detector, green light, I’m clear. I don’t have to take off my shoes this time because I’m wearing my Crocs. I pack up my laptop and head to the departure gate. I set up shop a couple rows from my departure gate. I’m in denial and think that Wuhan has turned to the light and decided to offer free Internet at their airport. No luck. The only unsecured wireless network is China Mobile’s and they require a CMCC account. It’s about 08:30 and my flight isn’t scheduled to take off until 10:20 so I end up listening to music until about 09:30. I look at the monitor above my departure gate: “ETD 11:50″ Delayed 1h20m! Fine. Listen to more music, stand up and stretch a million times, open up a bag of Chinese chip-style rice-cake-like snack to nibble on because I’m getting hungry.

I see the plane! Time to pack up and sit and twiddle my thumbs while all the passengers get off the plane and we can finally board the plane. There’s the announcement. China Eastern Airline cardholders get priority boarding. Okay, twiddle my thumbs a little longer. There’s only two people left in the line, my turn. Seat 19A. Window seat! 19B is empty, yes! I pick up the safety booklet (because you’re suppose to review it every time you get on a plane!) and read it through. I chuckle at the baby doll a woman is holding and the photoshopped water to show how to use the seat as a floatation device. We sit around for a while and we hear an announcement on the loudspeaker. Due to poor weather conditions en route to Shanghai, the flight has been delayed indefinitely. I shuffle through the 3-4 publications in the seat pocket in front of me. Oooh, Shanghai Expo 2010. It’s in Chinese and English. A little while after, they tell us they’re going to start serving lunch. The flight attendants serve the back 3 rows when another announcement is made. It looks like the weather en route to Shanghai has cleared up, we’re taking off in 5 minutes. Lunch is on hold, time to prepare for take off. *rumble* That’s the engines warming up. I look out the window. The wing flaps are adjusting, we’re almost ready to go! The plane heads to the runway. We’re on standby for, what feels like, 10 minutes. I nod off. I wake up to the plane moving. Finally, we’re taking off! As we rise higher and higher, Wuhan slowly grows smaller and smaller until it finally disappears below us as we enter a fog of white clouds. That’s all we see for the rest of the flight. We hit a bit of turbulence once we get into the clouds but it only lasts about a minute before it calms down.

We’re almost at Shanghai Pudong International Airport, we hit some more turbulence that feels like the drops on the Mindbuster. About 5 minutes before the announcement to land comes on, we change elevations and my right ear doesn’t find it’s equilibrium even after trying to swallow 20 times. It slowly starts to feel like my brain is being pulled out from my ear and I have this ache all along the right side of my head. Is this what a migraine feels like? The ache doesn’t go away until we’ve landed and we’re rolling into the passenger drop off. The pain is gone! My ear drum isn’t going to explode! *cheer* Arrival time, 13:40.

I get out of the plane and walk down the metal stairs that don’t have coloured strips to tell you where the next step is. I took care, didn’t stumble and didn’t look like a klutz. I boarded the shuttle that drops us off at the domestic arrivals door. I’m one of the lasts, so I squeeze in. Some girl doesn’t take off her backpack and ends up taking up blocking my only path to go further into the shuttle to make room for more people. I end up squishing between the backpack girl, some 50-year-old Japanese guy and a 60-year-old Chinese lady. I can reach the overhead handle, I feel gigantic! My arms start to give because I’m holding my carry-ons in one hand but we’re almost there! Must… hold… on. I make it! We walk through the domestic arrivals door and I’m heading the pack. Baggage claim, up the escalators. The escalators aren’t turned on yet. Incentive to walk the stairs! Halfway up the stairs, the PVG employee gets to the escalator and turns it on.

I follow a series of signs and head down another flight of stairs and I arrive at baggage claim. Monitor says we can find our luggage on belt 2, to my left. I pick up a trolley and head to belt 2. First one there. At the start of the belt. Baggage starts to roll out. A total of one bag in first/business class. o.O Roll, roll, roll. Not mine, not mine, not mine. Of course, first to check in, last to get her luggage, as always.
I walk to the exit and they check to make sure I didn’t take someone else’s luggage by checking my luggage receipts. Right, you’re not an idiot, you can go through. First stop, SPD bank machine. Withdraw some cash and head to currency exchange. They sell Canadian in Terminal 1, yes! I get my cash and head to Terminal 2. Terminal 2 is packed, a flight just arrived and people were streaming out of departures and clogging up the hallway. It just so happens that my destination is on the other side of the crowd. I make my way through the crowd and get to my destination, the “Cash Recycling” machine, also known as the ATM. I pull out more money. There’s maximum withdrawals per transaction. I didn’t want to stand at one machine putting my card in multiple times, so I just go around to different machines–strange, I know. The guy behind me is a foreigner too. At first, he walked past the machine not realizing that “cash recycling” meant ATM before the security pointed him in the right direction. I mean, duh, who doesn’t know “cash recycling” means ATM, right? *boggle*

I have nothing else to do so I head to check-in. They tell me my flight has been delayed five hours. “Would you like another flight that connects through Vancouver?” The first and last time I connected through Vancouver I missed my connecting flight because Customs took to long. “Mmm… no thank you, I’ll wait.” Oh, I get a 70 RMB coupon for food, valid in any Terminal 2 restaurant. Score! I can’t find a vegan option anywhere and I’m starving! I didn’t have breakfast. I pick coffee with 3 packs of brown sugar and noodles in soup with seafood. It seemed like it had the least animal product in it, but, in fact, it came with half a boiled egg as well as two pieces of fish- or shrimp-meat chunks. It came with pink kimchi too!

I spend the remaining 7 hours of my wait at gate D75 surfing the web and dealing with tax stuff for my last two months of salary. Shanghai is awesome enough to offer free wireless or at least someone named “spia-guest” gives us free wireless. Since my last visit, they’ve added little outlet hubs with universal plugs where people can plug in their laptops or other electronic devices so they can burn energy while they wait. I used to use the plugs in the floor that no one seems to know about.

The Guānggǔ Music Festival is a televised event in Wuhan. I’m not sure about the rest of China. It seemed like a big thing. The production had stage monitors, fancy-shmancy lighting, pyrotechnics like fireworks and flamethrowers, smoke machines, bubble machines, and exploding containers of gold paper that would shower the stage. They were passing out signs for the audience to hold up to the cameras when it passed by and whistles and glow sticks and colourful lightsabers. They cued fake applause, cheers and whistles. The works! It was pretty cool to see it all first hand.

I haven’t been able to find any articles on last night’s show yet, but here is the old one.

“光谷音乐节” on 武汉晚报 (May 24, 2009) (*.pdf) You can read the article in shoddy English here.

We don’t have a 4-day weekend, but we still have time to travel. Some of the teachers and I are going to head to Hángzhōu (杭州) to do the tourist thing. I really don’t know what we’re doing when we get there, but they have it all planned. We’re taking off by plane tomorrow after work and then coming back by train Saturday morning, just in time for the music festival. I did some digging around and Hángzhōu happens to be the home of the Lóngjǐng tea or Dragonwell tea (龙井茶). I’ll have to buy myself some of that. It looks like it will cost me about ¥300/box. o.O

Every Monday, we have flag ceremony in the morning instead of homeroom. After standing at attention for the Chinese national anthem a student stands under the flag and says a speech about a relevant topic for the week. This Monday, it was the Dragonboat Festival. Crystal talked about the best-known origins of the festival, the story of Qu Yuan.

Qu Yuan was a scholar and a minister to the King from the Southern Chu during the Warring States Periods. The King from the Southern Chu allied with a stronger state. Qu opposed the alliance and was banished and accused of treason. Years later, the alliance state conquered the Chu capital. After this news, Qu committed suicide on the fifth day of the fifth month by drowning himself in the Mìluó River (汨罗江).

The story says that locals that admired Qu Yuan tried to retrieve his body from the river by paddling out on boats. This is said to be the origin of the dragonboats. In hopes to stop the fish from feeding on his body, the locals threw rice into the river to feed the fish. This is said to be the origin of the rice dumpling, zòngzi (粽子) that is commonly eaten during the festival. I have some in my fridge right now. They’re so teeny tiny and cute.

We find out over the weekend that the judges have selected 3 performances from our school. Now, we have to prep for the big show on Saturday because there’s a ¥5000 prize money for the first-place performance!

The last couple weeks I have set aside a brochure I was making for the school. This week, our students are performing at a nearby shopping centre and it would be silly of us not to have brochures or something to hand out to curious parents. We have a flyer for our English Immersion Summer Camp but none of the school itself. So this week I have been scrambling to get it completed. I was only able to finish it because of the prompt translations, the remade logo by Felix because I was too lazy to do it myself, and all the great pictures we had stored away on everyone’s computers. The brochure is off to the printer and hopefully ready before our performance. I’m hoping no one will notice the fake grass that I clone in front of the school. It’s better than the dirt and building materials that was in the original!

I was sitting in the front seat and saw it happen. I had time to brace myself for the impact. I was thrown into the metal bars. A girl sitting across from us got thrown out of her seat. She turned out okay though. I walked out with a bit of whiplash and a couple bumps and bruises on my left leg and arm. I woke up this morning, sore all over!

The driver at fault didn’t stay and left everyone for dead. Karma will catch up.

Chinese Consular Information in Toronto

Consulate General of the People’s Republic of China in Toronto
240 St. George St. Toronto, ON M5R 2P4
Office Hours: 09:00 – 12:00, 13:30 – 15:30 Monday through Fridays (except holidays)
Tel: 416-964-8861
Fax: 426-324-9010

• Chinese Visa Application Requirements
  • Passport, original copy. Make sure it expires no more than six months after your return date and has enough blank pages.
  • Visa Application Form. Don’t forget to sign the form.
  • Passport Photo. Attach it to your visa application form.
  • You must apply and pick up your visa in person.
  • You pay for the visa when you pick it up. Bring cash.

Be aware that you have to leave your passport with them when you apply for your visa. In addition to the above, having the following documents with you will save you time and reduce the chance that you’ll be turned down and asked to come back another day with the proper documents.

• Flight itinerary
• Hotel/accommodation reservation receipts

It’s better to have the documents than to be turned away if they need it. When I went to get my visa I didn’t need them but someone in Vancouver said he had to show them his itinerary and proof of accommodations. Make sure you apply for the correct visa:

• L-Visa: Tourist/Family-Visit Visa
• F-Visa: Business Visa
• Z-Visa: Employment/Work Visa
• G-Visa: Transit Visa
• J-1, J-2 Visa: Journalist Visa
• D-Visa: Residence Visa
• C-Visa: Crew Member Visa
• Diplomatic or Service Visa

They claim it takes four days to processing your application, all else being equal. My visa was ready in four days in July before the Beijing Olympics. I’ve been told it takes seven days in Vancouver, this was in June before the Beijing Olympics.

Learn Mandarin

There are a variety of options for learning Mandarin: private tutor, in-class sessions, online courses, podcasts, coffee with a Mandarin-speaking friend, voice chat with new friends around the world. If you’re like me and didn’t have the foresight to take classes there are so many ways to learn online. I found one of the most effective ways to learn Mandarin was finding a podcast that I could bring around with me. Log onto iTunes and you’ll find 8 or 9 podcasts for learning Mandarin.

• Chinese – SurvivalPhrases
  • This podcast reminds me of those pocket phrasebooks from the Lonely Planet series in a podcast. They teach Mandarin phrases like, “Where is the bathroom?”, “Please say it once again.”, “Can you speak English?”, “I don’t understand.”, and “Do you take credit card?”. Great for the “tourist” essentials. The teacher also fits in some commentary on Chinese culture. This podcast doesn’t focus on Mandarin dialogue but phrases.
• Learn Chinese – ChinesePod
• Learn Mandarin Chinese with mychinesepod.com
• Mandarin Chinese Conversation
• Manadarin Chinese Lessons with Serge Melnyk
• World Learner Chinese – Learn Chinese . Manadarin

The following are great for Mandarin Intermediate level or higher. The instructions are given in Mandarin. Great for those that want to increase their vocabulary and perfect pronunciation.

• Learn Mandarin Chinese
• Learn Chinese & Culture @ iMandarinPod.com
• CSLPod

Stay away from:

• Chinese Cast from eChineseLearning.com
  • I listened to episode 29, it had really poor quality and it was difficult to hear the pronunciation of the words. It was like listening to the woman talk from across the room with a lot of white noise from the microphone. I wouldn’t suggest this podcast.

There are lots of different sites that offer Mandarin lessons, find the one that meets your needs and get started.

• LiveMocha
  • Free to register and use all services.
  • Offers self-study lessons, tutors, motivational tools and a community where you can speak with others whose native language is your target language.
  • Uses social networking and user-generated content concepts to keep the site running.
• iTalki
  • Free to register and use all services.
  • Uses social networking and user-generated content concepts to keep the site running.
  • Larger offering of languages than LiveMocha.
• ChinesePod
  • Free to register. There are four additional subscription levels. The basic plan at $5/month to the executive plan at $125/month.
  • Free Subscription: Podcast lessons, mp3 format
  • Other Subscriptions: RSS feeds of your lessons, lesson transcripts, review audio, review suite, vocabulary study tools, iPhone access, counseling sessions, personal study plans, and daily speaking practice.
• Learn Chinese
  • No need to register. Free lessons.
  • Offers traditional textbook lessons with accompanying audio files.
  • Some of the audio files don’t work but it looks like the site is still in the works.

Getting Ready for the Flight

Air Canada Before You Go: A ‘To-Do’ List
Air Canada Baggage Information

Tips and Guides

Travel Report for China

JourneyWoman Clothing Tips for China
JourneyWoman Cultural Tips for China
JourneyWoman Travel Tips for China
TravelChina Guide What to Pack
wikiHow to Pack for a Trip to China
World Travel Guide on Money Matters

Living in China

Wuhan Travel Guide
Wuhan Map

Registration of Canadians Abroad
Passport Renewal
Canadian Embassy/Consulates in China