Trek The Unknown

Before I went to china I also heard about the famous single child policy that China has. It was very interesting to talk about this subject with the people i’ve met with in China. As time passed I learned there are some ways you can have more than one child. Here are the exceptions:

1. If you live in the village and you have a girl as a 1st child, you can have another chance having a boy.
2. If both of the parents are an only child they can have 2 kids, regardless of their gender. This law now becomes relevant. The single child policy is 30 years old, so the current young generation is now getting married and having kids. China is expecting to have a generation with 2 kids familyies
3. Pay high fee - If you rich enough, you can afford another child.
4. Go abroad and have another child - solution only to people who can afford it.
5. be a villager - villagers are so poor that they have nothing to lose. So they have as many kids as they want.

The official number of people in china is around 1.3 Billion. experts say the number is much higher, something like: 1.6 Billion. I don’t know if the population is decreasing but growth is certainly slowing down.

People who are following my blog from the beginning knows I’ve studied Chinese in china for 2 months using one on one tutoring. This is by far the most efficient way to learn anything, of course.

I had limited time in china so I wanted to get the most from it. indeed, i speak and talk basic Chinese now. but, not everybody can just leave their work,home,family for 2-3 months to do it.

Internet comes to help (like in any other case in life ), with the ability to learn online. I’ve been searching for online Chinese learning web sites for quite a while, while I was in China. The most interactive web site I bumped into was ChinesePod.com. I downloaded a few lessons and they are really doing a great job. I just used the free account though. They let you download mp3 files with lessons in various learning levels. At some point I understood it’s not the optimal way for learning. In order to learn you need a person to teach you. somebody you can have a conversation with and stimulate you….

One day, I got a link from my twin sister. it was: ChineseVoice.com.They use a different method. They have a system to have a video conversation with a Chinese teacher in China! I haven’t tried it yet although I registered for a trial lesson. They have courses in different levels and you get 2 very important obvious benefits:
1. One on one tutoring (there are also options for small group studies) and…!
2. No need to fly to china.

How is that for a start?

“Ni shuo han yu ma?” (”do you speak Chinese?”) These were my 1st few Chinese words speaking to a a Chinese girl since I left china. I was very excited to be able to understand her answer: “Dangran, wo shi zhong guo ren!” (of course, I’m Chinese!). We then moved back to English, because it’s just easier….

I told her I haven’t met any Chinese people traveling before her. She said it might be because I can’t tell the difference between them ,Korean and Japanese travelers. She is defiantly right, but still I can tell which language they are speaking. I heard only Japanese (or that might was Korean, but defiantly not Chinese).

Another reason I didn’t expect to find Chinese travelers was this: When I was in China, my hosts told me that the way the Chinese people are traveling is by large groups of people and sitting on the bus for a few hours, seeing the place, taking some pictures and going back home…

also, I heard from my hosts it’s sometimes very hard to go on your own to travel with no group and they have to give some kind of a deposit in order to get out of the country.

I met this girl In Pushkar, India. This is not the sightseeing-through-a-bus-window kind of place. also, she was traveling by herself…

My point is that this encounter with that girl maybe shows about the changes the Chinese society is going through in terms of the way they travel. Chinese people starting to travel in a way that western nations are traveling. Of course she was only one Chinese girl, but this might be marking the beginning of a phenomena (or maybe they were really many Chinese travelers around me, I just didn’t pay attention too ).

what’s your opinion? I’d like to hear your view especially If you are Chinese….

Just came back from shopping for some tekking equipment. As I said next week I’m flying to Katmandu. I’m going to travel Nepal for something like 7 weeks. Since this trip to Nepal wasn’t on my plan at all, I don’t have any of my tekking equipment with me (except of my great whitney gregory backpack).

I’m about to trek the “Around Annapourna” , at some point so I do need to buy some new equipment.

Get some view on how much trekking equipment costs here. I went to a friends store so I got lower prices (30% off probably), but you’ll get the feeling.

Here’s what I got (prices are in Chinese yuan - RMB. exchnage rate 1$ = 7.5 RMB) :

1. shoes - bought Sherpa ****shoes. These shoes are water proof, but don’t have Gortex. It’s the cheapest good shoes for treking you can find here (300 RMB)

2. walking metal stick with a 2 position of lock and soft lock. Can be extended to different hights. Includes Campuse and can be used as a tripod or your camera (made in china - 60 RMB. If you want an Iltalian one 300 RMB is the price for you.)

3. Head Flash light , not watr proof ( 20 RMB, Peztel costs 560 RMB)

Some other stuff I saw in the store were thermo t-shirt ( 50 RMB), Thick rain coat( 728 RMB..after 30% of it’s ~506 RMB ).

my journey continues…. I left my friends at the university a few days ago. It was a pleasure being there and experiencing the student life ( the shower is a bit of a challenge, but I can handle it ). So thank you Peter and all. It was a great help.

Now I moved to the other side of town. I’m Leaving with shens family. Shen has a wife and an 8 year old son. they have extra room so they are letting me stay here. It’s great being here and it feels like home.

They live in an apartment building. One side facing the hills while the other side is facing the sea. So I have a forest hill from my balcony when waking up in the morning. On the other side of the apartment the sea and ships are the common landscape, During night time you hear the ships horns, which for some reason makes me smile. Feels like you are leaving in a special place.

Next week I’m saying goodbye to my Chinese teacher and flying to Nepal. I’m very excited about this. just wondering if finishing my Chinese studies is the right thing to do now. well, I have to leave here anyway because my visa expires, it doesn’t worth coming back…hope to come visit again and keep learning. I learned so much about Chinese culture and way of life when staying here. Also staying with locals even helped more. I just like it so much….understanding foreign cultures. it’s much much better than staying in a hotel of any kind!