User Comments - dtoronto
dtoronto
Posted on: Do you have...?
April 12, 2008 at 11:30 AMThanks CP for all the helpful exercises, time to put it to the test. I leave for China at 12:10 today and arrive Beijing tomorrow at 1:50 ... then I will go to Wuhan for a few days and then to Shenzhen for about a week ... I hope to get to take a cruise to the three gorges day - it is a three day cruise ... should be very nice. My Chinese have improved significantly thanks to Chinese Pod, and I know for a fact that ... if nothing else ... I can get a cup of tea in China. Thanks again - Don
Posted on: Beijing/Shanghai and Being a Good Guest
February 29, 2008 at 11:49 AMvery good discussion. I have found that in China - even if you are westerner - you cannot generally pay for meals when you are invited. My wife and myself went to Xian Fan for three or four days and we were guests of one of her friends (Jie Jie) ... they wouldn't let me pay for anything. In fact, I wanted to give a present for Jie Jie so I went to a photo studio to get one of my pictures enlarged and made into a desk top picture but my host (one of her friends) insisted on paying for it. He also paid for our massages and everything else. It got me wondering what kind of money these people were pulling in until I went to the Mai Jong game where the winners walked away with 5000 RMB - so they actually had plenty of cash. On the topic of Beijing - I have been there a few times, but I didn't go to China to visit tourist areas so after a few days in the Pearl market area and Tienanmen square market, we left Beijing and travelled around. My wife is from Wuhan and is trying to teach me Chinese, which is amusing in itself, when I find myself correcting her - ha ha (I am newbie) ... I tell her it is "Dien shi" not "Dien zi" - Wuhan ren have a lot of "Zs" in their dialect. I am going to China in April, and I will be in Wuhan and Shenzhen - for a couple of weeks. oh - authentic Chinese food - the best !
Posted on: Cat in the Hat
May 5, 2008 at 10:27 AMKind of a funny story - nothing against cats .... My son and I went to the animal shelter to pick up a cat - and there were associated adoption fees, donations, and so on - so the cost came to about 125.00. I called my wife who was living in China at the time, and told her that I just got a cat and it cost approximately 125.00 - well, she was shocked at how expensive it was (around 850 RMB at the time). My son (who is very witty) told me - "ya, well, in China, you buy cats by the pound. sorry folks, but a true story. The cats name is Xiao Hu (little tiger) and the wife is Jin Hua. Even after multiple threats to cook my cat and eat him, he is still doing well.