Travel To Grow

My escape from the small town of Aojiang and integration back into the real world now finally feels complete as I experience more of China through Beijing… hell I even went to a beach again! These are pictures from my trip to a seashore town 5 hours away by train from Beijing that I went [...]

After 6 months of teaching in the small town of Aojiang I finished my contract and it was time to move on. Being confined to the small town life of Aojiang was tough at times so I wanted to check out a different side of China in a big city, and I was also dying to [...]

This past weekend I went streaking here in China. My friend Darian and I stripped down and ran across the massive bridge between the two local cities of Aojiang and Longgun. It took a good 5 minutes to make it from one side to the other and although we did it at night we still [...]

I’m always really fascinated with the stark differences between my western culture and the culture of my Chinese friends. One area where the differences are huge is how young adults relate to their parents, and the power the parents hold over their children’s lives. In the west its common for parents to have a great [...]

A Day in the Party Life of an English Teacher in China Sitting in bed with a massive hangover and no desire to move for the rest of the day I figured this would be a perfect time to write about a day in the party life of an English Teacher here in China. Nearly [...]

Unfortunately the other day there was a power surge in my appartment. My laptop got hit and now when I turn it on it will boot up for a few seconds then automatically power off. My laptop was plugged into a powerbar, but looking at it now the powerbar doesnt seem to have a fuse [...]

I had heard some horror stories of Chinese hospitals. Unsanitary dirty conditions… Lines that stretch out the door… Refusal of service without medical insurance… Crazy procedures… Suffice to say… I knew that a Chinese hospital was one place you did NOT want to go. But nothing that I had heard prepared me for… my experience… [...]

In China people can be extremely judgmental about people who are different. In big cities like Beijing and Shanghai it’s not much of an issue, but in almost all the rest of China being different can have pretty bad consequences. People who stand out for some reason, maybe they dye their hair funky colors or [...]

Everyone knows that trying to communicate with people of another language can be a little difficult, but with a little patience, and by doing a few descriptive actions you can usually get your point across… This is not the case in China. Trying to communicate with strangers here in China is something special… and can [...]

I recently had an awesome chance to check out one of the most beautiful towns in China with my close friend Jen, the town of Wuzhen in the Zhejiang province. Wuzhen has often been called the Venice of China, and although I’ve never been to Venice I think the description matches pretty well. The town [...]