John & Chris's 7th Newsletter from China

John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012 Still in China!

We are still enjoying China immensely. We keep saying that we must do another newsletter, but have been so busy that we never got round to it! The last one was May and so, as 7 months have elapsed, we have decided to bite the bullet and give a normal A4 version, centred on our work and John’s Holiday at the beginning of October.

We hope you find it interesting and apologise in advance, if some of you know some of this already!

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19 places visited by John this year in China Apologies for the delay in this newsletter Teaching - Chris & John John’s Part-time work Summer swimming John’s Holiday to Central China, by car, including going up a 3,000 metre high mountain, visiting the world’s biggest dam, with the worlds largest lock system and a Chinese wedding.

Kingkey 100 Building - Our visit to the top of Shenzhen’s tallest building China is an amazing Country - New high speed railways Church on Christmas Eve in China Christmas Dinner Friday Group Shenzhen - Some Facts & Figures Round up Happy New Year Apple problems

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012

Places visited by John this year 1.

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Shimen National Forest near Guangzhou (January 2nd) Hong Kong (Several Times) XiChong Beach (August) XuLiao Bay (September) OCT East / Da Mei Xia Beach (Thrice - January, August & September) Guangzhou (Twice - July & November) Summer School at ZengCheng - A city and district belong to GuangZhou City! - One hour from GuangZhou on a bus Zhouhai (Twice - April & July, including the Yuanmingyuan Imperial Garden) Macau (Twice - April & July) Changsha City - Hunan province WuHan City - Hubei Province XiaoGang City - Hubei Province (Our host Seven’s home town) Guang Ying Lake (Goddess of Mercy Lake) near XiaoGang City - Hubei Province Shi Ming City - Hubei Province - The Chinese wedding was here XiangYang City - Hubei Province WuDang Mountain - Hubei Province Three Gorges City - Hubei Province Three Gorges Dam - Hubei Province Xian Tan City (Lost here for two hours when the motorway was completely closed with no diversion signs! Even the GPS system didn’t help - It was another huge city)

Numbers 10 to 19 were during the October Summer Holiday, by car with my Chinese friends for a week.

Apologies for the delay in this newsletter We are terribly busy and I (John) have wasted so much time with all the Apple problems, it's not true. One of the problems is all the programmes we lost (Apps) and not having the license key to the newsletter's bulk emailer. I recently found it, thank goodness.

So, here goes with our NOT so brief update!

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012 Teaching We both worked at OMT (An Adult English Language Training Center) which went bust at the end of May and closed shop without informing either students or teachers, although Chris was still working for Clarity (A different company with HQ in Hong Kong) teaching hotel staff. He got paid from OMT, but I didn't. However my student owed them (OMT) for 8 hours and so he gave the money to me and it was what they owed me for May - Honest student, but he is a friend of ours now. He is a Senior Bank Manager.

John with Clarity •

Demo for Clarity Academy (Hong Kong based) at Lenovo with my colleague Chris in their board room, but although Lenovo wanted me to teach them, the Academy failed to win the contract.

•

May 2012: Shangri-La Hotel but quit after the first two lessons, as I didn't agree with the course material. In my opinion it was totally unsuitable for hotels! The purpose of including this experience here, is to demonstrate that ethically, I cannot teach what is not suitable, so I will refuse assignments where I do not think the client will benefit. (This was Valiant, their 70 year old "Professor" in charge of the teachers material being super dogmatic! We had to do a lesson on LYRICS and had to go through the song "I got you babe"! Why do they need to know about Lyrics running a hotel? So, I told them to stuff it - Now, there’s a surprise! Ha Ha).

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012

Chris Teaching

Chris got to the stage with Clarity where he was being told off by the management for the material he was teaching with and one student complained to Clarity that she liked Chris and what he was teaching and not what they were forcing him to teach. Chris ended up resigning by email, as he wouldn't work for that stupid "Professor Valiant" or put up with his stroppy emails any more! Or for that matter the stroppy follow-up emails from Clara, their Sales Director. We thought Valiant was Clara's Uncle and that it was their company, but someone told us that there is a Hong Kong based Clarity, so it seems it may not be Valiant and Clara's company after all! Whatever, they are intent on screwing it up!

Chris ended up working part-time for Meten English (A big language school chain) at Science Museum which is two stops on the metro and really handy and it got to 25 hours a week at one stage. It dropped off again after the full time teachers came back from their summer holidays. Chris then realised that he needed the stability of a full time job.

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012

Chris obtained a full time job at Web International (Another BIG Language school chain), starting in September, so we decided to stay in this flat for a 10 month extension, until the year's contract of Chris´s job runs out in September 2013. We shall not have time or funds to go to the UK in between times. Chris is enjoying it and went first to the Coco Park centre (two metro stops) and is now split between there and a new centre at Grand Theater (Spelt the American way), which is 3 metro stops the other way. He will even ask for overtime, as he enjoys it so much They had a great Halloween Party as well!

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012

John's Part Time Work •

February to May Inclusive: One to One with a senior Bank Manager with some Management Training included, using my vast experiences, which he has found most useful. I gave only 8 hours of structured lessons, using my own materials.

The rest (80 hours) were around banking, which I also know, as I had many banking clients over many years. We role played potential situations with his US, UK and Hong Kong bosses, colleagues and clients. His clients were the top 10 companies in China and all had offices in foreign countries with Englishspeaking staff. Hence this client had to not only speak English fluently, but manage many situations in English and not Chinese. I enjoyed this very much.

•

I have since then been an English Language Consultant and Special Operations Manager for a Hong Kong Company and three Shenzhen Companies owned by the same family, specialising in selling High Tech gadgets to English-speaking countries. This consultancy has involved staff management and training, resulting in the revision of their English Standard Operating procedures and rewriting their template letters in English. I have also helped them make savings with various customers and suppliers by helping them write key letters in English. Enjoyable but stretched to too many unpaid hours! I have stopped now.

•

In July, I was asked at one day’s notice to take part in a Summer Camp for the Language School Campus, attached to Guangzhou University. I was teaching English to 2 classes of 37 children aged 10 - 13. I had to use my own materials.

Never again! Here are some details: •

It meant leaving home at 1:45 pm on the 22nd - The day of my birthday.

It's quite a long way away. Went by Metro, High Speed Train (First class Cost 20 RNB more! 2 pounds!), metro and bus.

•

I was teaching 37 kids in 6 lessons every day for a week! It paid well though! We arrived late and they asked if we had brought teaching material!! It seems a bit disorganised, but there was an American also doing a class and we travelled on the bus together from Guangzhou to this country place. He was going to help sort out a structure for the lessons, over a few beers. We looked at the university language school’s material and decided we couldn’t teach this at all!

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012

•

Luckily I had my own materials so prepared nearly all the lessons. The American came up with a couple of ideas for games. We were also allowed to show Mr. Bean movies which they love here and we also watched part of Johnny English! We also attended the cooking class and learnt how to make dumplings - I joined in - see photo attached.

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012

•

The kids were terribly behaved and we swapped classes. They were even worse! They actually threw something at the American guy. Just trying it on I think!

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It was interesting though!!!! The bedroom was really nice, en-suite and had internet!

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012 •

By the end of the week on Saturday, MY kids didn't want to go for their 10 minute break between lessons. The Chinese teacher who taught them at other times, asked why they weren't at break and I said they didn't want to go. He said I was a good teacher!

•

On the passing out parade with the parents on Sunday afternoon, the American (Chuck) and I did a PPT showing UK and US words that had different meanings. the PPTs had really good graphics The coordinator thought it was a fantastic presentation. There were about 400 people with parents, teachers and kids! The parents talk through all their kids performance, but I was so loud I doubt they could through mine! When we said goodbye on the last slide, we got a terrific response from the whole audience.

•

It was a hard week, but Chuck also liked his beers, so on a couple of nights we went to KTV (Karaoke) and stayed out till 3 am!!! The meals at the school were terrible, so we ate out every lunch time and evening and so ended up spending 20% of our wages on food and drink!

•

Great experience for a retired person. The coordinator thought I was about 50, which made my week!

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012

Summer Swimming Our pool at the apartments was open mid-May to mid-October, so I (John) swam 800 meters (Half Mile) every day for those 5 months, apart from holidays and when there were storms, when it was shut. This was the same as I did for 8 years in Spain every morning. Here, I went at 2:30 pm when the pool opened, did my half mile and then sunbathed for 3 hours, so ended up with a nice tan, even through the clouds!

That’s me waving up to our flat on the 16th floor. the pool is on the 5th floor.

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012 John has also been on holiday For the October holiday, I had a fabulous week in central China touring by car, visiting 8 cities, Wu Dang Mountain and Three Gorges Dam and Locks, including attending a Chinese wedding!

We visited many places and this was our itinerary: Monday 1st (Hunan & Hubei Provinces) Travel to ChangSha City - Hunan Province where we had lunch Travel to WuHan City (Hubei Province) and book into hotel Had Dinner and walked round WuHan City in the evening, both in the town and by the river to see the building lights

• • •

Tuesday 2nd (Hubei Province) Breakfast and set off from WuHan City (Hubei Province) Arrive in Seven’s home town XiaoGang City - Hubei Province and have Lunch In the afternoon visit Guang Ying Lake (Goddess of Mercy Lake) near XiaoGang City Hubei Province Go back to XiaoGang City - Hubei Province and have Dinner with Seven’s family

• • • •

Wednesday 3rd (Hubei Province) • •

Travel to Xiangyang City and have lunch with Seven’s family in a restaurant.

In the evening have Dinner at the Bride’s Father’s home in Shi Ming city.

Thursday 4th (Hubei Province) • •

Set off really early and climb WuDang Mountain. Started the walk at 9 am Get back for Dinner with Seven’s family in a restaurant at 6 pm in XiangYang City

Friday 5th (Hubei Province) • •

Travel for lunch at 12 am including the Chinese wedding in Shi Ming City Dinner with Seven’s friend Lilly and her husband back in Three Gorges City

Saturday 6th (Hubei & Hunan Provinces) • • •

Travel to Three Gorges Dam and Lock complex in the morning Travel to Changsha City - Hunan Province where we had dinner Stay the night

Sunday 7th (Hunan Province) • • •

Set off at about 9 am Get lost in Xian Tan City for two hours when the motorway was completely closed for asphalting, with no diversion signs! Even the GPS system didn’t help - It was another huge city Travel back to Shenzhen and arrive late

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012

The Three Gorges Dam and Locks The Three Gorges Dam project was launched in 1993 with a budget of 180 billion yuan (about 27.69 billion U.S. dollars).

Located on the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in Hubei Province, the total project consists of a 185-meter-high dam, which was completed in early 2006, a five-tier ship lock, a reservoir and 32 hydropower generators.

The project generates electricity, controls floods by storing excess water and helps to regulate the river's shipping capacity.

The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, located in Yiling District, Yichang, Hubei province, China. It’s the biggest Dam in the world and we were there as they were finally completing the final stages. This is what the Mail On-line had to say: Friday, Dec 28 2012 9AM The final 32 generators went into operation this week, making it the world's largest hydropower project Breathtaking force: World's most powerful dam opens in China as gushing water generates the same power as FIFTEEN nuclear reactors The giant and controversial Three Gorges Dam in China has launched the last of its generators, just as it hits its annual flood peak.

The final 32 generators went into operation this week, making it the world's largest hydropower project, built on the Yangtze River in the Hubei Province.

It is designed to decrease the risk of flooding during the current peak rainfall season, as well as store and distribute water during the dry periods.

A series of incredible photos show the sheer force of the flood water released from seven spillways after heavy downpours in the upper reaches of the dam caused the highest flood peak of the year.

Water from the Yangtze River upper gushed at up 70,000 cubic metres per second into the dam's reservoir yesterday.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2178951/Three-Gorges-Worldspowerful-dam-opens-China-gushing-water-generates-power-15-nuclearreactors.html#ixzz2GKozznZU

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012

And the locks are the biggest lock system in the world with a 5 stage up and a five stage down set of locks in the same channel!

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012

Traversing the Three Gorges Dam locks took three hours.

Watch it in three minutes! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=xokpTKZclGs

WuDang Mountain I climbed the 3,000 + meter WuDang Mountain from part way up, from the bus station and there are steps all the way. The other guys, aged about 30, asked me to slow down! Seven's 51 year old father in law went up by the cable car, but walked back with us. I walked both ways! I felt very fit. Here in the photo on the left, we were at the start at 9 am and it was all as steep as this for about 3 or 4 hours!

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012

Here, in the middle and on the right, you can also see the sheer volume of the crowds flocking up this mountain and then down again!

From Wikipedia .....

History A Taoist monastery at Wudang Mountains In years past, the mountains of Wudang were known for the many Taoist monasteries to be found there, monasteries which became known as an academic centre for the research, teaching and practice of meditation, Chinese martial arts, traditional Chinese medicine, Taoist agriculture practices and related arts. As early as the Eastern Han Dynasty(25–220 AD), the mountain attracted the Emperor's attention. During the Tang Dynasty (618–907), the first site of worship—the Five Dragon Temple—was constructed. Some of the monasteries were damaged during and after theCultural Revolution of 1966–1976, but the Wudang mountains have lately become increasingly popular with tourists from elsewhere in China and abroad due to their scenic location and historical interest. The monasteries and buildings were made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994.

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012

The Gate of Yuan Wu at Wudang Mountains The palaces and temples in Wudang, contains Taoist buildings from as early as the 7th century, and the largest groups of complex on the mountain was built during theMing Dynasty (14th–17th centuries). It represents the highest standards of Chinese art and architecture over a period of nearly 1,000 years. Noted temples include the Golden Hall, Nanyan Temple and the Purple Cloud Temple.

On January 19, 2003, the 600-year-old Yuzhengong Palace at the Wudang Mountains was accidentally burned down by an employee of a martial arts school. A fire broke out in the hall, reducing the three rooms that covered 200 square metres to ashes. A goldplated statue of Zhang Sanfeng, which was usually housed in Yuzhengong, was moved to another building just before the fire, and so escaped destruction in the inferno.

Association with martial arts Page 17 of 33

John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012 According to legend, Zhang Sanfeng (张三丰), is the originator of Wudangquan generally and Taijiquan specifically. He was said to be inspired by a fight he witnessed between a pied magpie (also said to be a white crane) and a viper.

From the early 20th century, Taijiquan, Xingyiquan and Baguazhang have been considered Wudang styles, following Sun Lutang. Following this classification the national martial arts tournament of the Central Guoshu Institute held in 1928 separated the participants into "Shaolin" and "Wudang".

The third biannual Traditional Wushu Festival was held in Wudang Mountains from October 28 to November 2, 2008.

Some Photos of our Group

And yes, someone is being chair-lifted behind the photo of our friend!

Below right, a guy carrying his goods for sale the old fashioned way!

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012

The Chinese Wedding Here are a selection of photos. The Bride & Groom greet everyone at the door outside, so my best Chinese friend Anson & I had a photo taken with them.

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012 The MC sings and cracks jokes, but also deals with the more serious side of the ceremony. Then the Bride & Groom have to take their vows in front of all their family and friends. It culminates in them pouring wine into a set of glasses cascade style.

Unfortunately, I shot this on video, which was not at all good quality. I did lift a still shot from it, so you can get the idea bottom right.

I got a mention in the speech given by the MC and had to stand and take a bow!

Kingkey 100 Building - Our visit to the top of Shenzhen’s tallest building Note the LED lights all over the outside of the building. They actually move up and down and sometimes they do snowflakes and fireworks effects. It’s a big thing here on many buildings in China. I find it totally fascinating and have a huge selection of photos & videos from building all over Shenzhen and the other cities that I have visited.

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012

This is what Wikipedia has to say: The Kingkey 100 (Chinese: 京基100), formerly known as Kingkey Finance Center Plaza, is a skyscraper in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China. It is located in Shenzhen's Luohu District in an area which can be described as the financial district.

The mixed-use building rises to 441.8 metres (1,449 ft) and contains 100 floors for office space and a hotel.

Out of those 100 floors, 68 are used for 173,000 square

metres (1,862,157 sq ft) of Class A office space, 22 stories for a 35,000 square metres (376,737 sq ft) six-star business hotel and the top four floors of the skyscraper hold a garden and several restaurants. The building's lower levels feature the KK Mall, which opened its doors November 26, 2010, and contains luxury brand stores, restaurants and a supermarket. The KK Mall also hosts Shenzhen's first IMAX cinema.

The St. Regis Hotel occupies floors 75 to 98 of the main tower, which opened in September 2011.

It is currently the tallest building in Shenzhen as well as being the 9th tallest building in the world.

In a few years there will be a new tallest building near us here, that will be 150 floors! It will be half as tall again!

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012 China is an amazing Country Indeed, we think it's an amazing place. They opened a high speed northern train route last month, the first in the world to cope with huge temperature extremes …….

High-speed train begins operation in northern China: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVNM6eTqp8o ….. and the worlds longest one this month!

This is fantastic. Must go on it whilst I am in China. The southern terminus is just over an hour from us here in Shenzhen.

China has opened the world's longest high speed train line. It runs nearly 1500 miles from Beijing in the north to Guangzhou in the south and reduces journey time from 22 hours to just eight. http://news.sky.com/story/1030132/china-opens-worlds-longest-high-speed-railway

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012

Church on Christmas Eve in China We actually went to a Christian Church here on Christmas eve, with Anson, but got there at the end of the service. Still, it was interesting! Here was a Christmas Carol we tried to sing!

The church was huge and on several levels. We were on a bottom level, where the service was relayed from another level!

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012

There was a huge crowd outside waiting for the 10:30 pm service.

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012 Christmas Dinner We went to McCawley's Irish Bar for a Turkey and Ham traditional Christmas dinner at 6 pm to 9 pm - Eat as much as you can! 188 RMB (£18.80) was the cost, with beers on top, but the Carlsberg was 22 RMB (£2.20) a half litre, so that's not bad! Last year's do at HuiZhou was great but there weren't the genuine Christmas vegetables and trimmings. McCawley's had the REAL stuff, so we really enjoyed it! Please note that there were no roast potatoes or sprouts! We had 11 attend but only 8 ate the Christmas dinner. Chris, Shannan and John stayed to the end and finally got kicked out at 2 pm. (No change there!)

Friday Group Chris & I meet every Friday evening at an outside bar/restaurant. The attendees are mainly Chinese. We started it, when we worked near there in February and March and John came over with his student Sam, three times a week. Chris met up there as well, as he was also teaching at the same place.

We continued this and expanded it after that school went bust, as it’s a great place to meet and in the open air. It’s the same place John had his fight in March!

We have mainly Chinese friends attend. My best Chinese businessman friend Anson is there every week. Then there is Nick, a Bulgarian and his Chinese wife Ester, Joe a Mexican, plus Chris’s American and Australian TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) teacher colleagues. But Chris & I go every week and we sometimes meet up there on Saturday and during the week as well.

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012

The last photo bottom right is when a group of us went for a late afternoon walk up Lotus Hill (Lian Hua Park) behind the Civic Centre in Shenzhen. Left to right: Anson, Nick, ester, Maggie & John.

The statue is of a previous leader called Deng Xiao Ping. It was erected 30 years ago when Shenzhen was first started. It shows Deng Xiao Ping pointing and marching in the direction of Hong Kong.

The statue was erected 2000年11月14⽇日 = 14th November 2000. It was his plan to build Shenzhen as the first Special Economic Zone (SEZ) in China.

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012 Shenzhen - Some Facts & Figures The Special Economic Zone (SEZ) comprised only Luohu, Futian, Nanshan, and Yantian districts until 1 July 2010, when the SEZ was expanded to include all districts, a fivefold increase over its pre-expansion size.

Adjacent to Hong Kong, Luohu is the financial and trading centre of Shenzhen. Futian, at the heart of the SEZ, is the seat of the Municipal Government. We live in Gangxia, which is a part of Futian and a walk away from the Municipal Government Offices.

West of Futian, Nanshan is the centre for high-tech industries.

Formerly outside the SEZ, Bao'an and Longgang are located to the north-west and north-east, respectively, of central Shenzhen.

Yantian is the location of Yantian Port, the second busiest container terminal in mainland China and the fourth busiest in the world.

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012 Round Up In the summer people here do not like to be in the sun. Here is one in the city ....

The temperature is very varied now and earlier this month it was colder and raining for ten days and then became warm and sunny again. Now and it's gone from 22ºC on Sunday night to 13ºC on Wednesday 19th! Last weekend we were sat outside in only shirts and T Shirts. Now it’s back to three or even four layers! Last night it dropped to 8º C, but with a very cold wind and it’s almost mid day and it’s only 12º C at 2 pm.

Chris has two days a week off and he used to have Monday and Tuesday off and now it's Tuesday and Thursday! We try and play snooker late afternoon near us and it costs £5 for one hour, including two 600 ml (over a pint) bottles of beer each! We had two more each for 20 RMB = £2! We then sit in the lounge and play Scrabble on my iPhone. Cost of two hours drinking with an hour playing snooker = £7!

Last night we were quite upset as the beer in our local restaurant (600 Ml bottle = Just over a pint) was now 10 RMB (£1!) and we were quite upset! Early last year it was only 8 Rmb = 80 pence.

At our Friday Kingway Bar/Restaurant we get a litre jug of their Kingway Draught beer for 20 RMB = £2.

Over the festive season, in Western style bars and the Irish pub it ranges from a pint in happy hour being 20 RMB = £2 and going up to 35 Rmb = £3.50 at usual times, which is a UK price!

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012

That's it for now! Â We hope you enjoyed this long overdue update?

Keep in touch and let us know what's happening to you?

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012

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John & Chris’s Newsletter from China - 31st December 2012

Apple problems We saved time with Apple in Spain, but since upgrading to their new operating system called Lion (OSX) have had 18 months of hell. On the other hand, Chris's new Sony Vaio has run for over a year on Microsoft Windows 7 ultimate with only one problem and it fixed it itself! We have had problems with it taking it's time on things and I discovered it was one programme that caused that, so deleted it, bought 2 Gb of extra memory and hey ho, it's cured! Not much time spent on that!

On the other hand, I have rebuilt the Apple Laptop system from scratch THREE TIMES in a year, as their OSX filled up all the hard disks even after deleting everything and putting it on an external drive. It did the same with the external drive too, which is 2 TB! It says it's nearly full, but I am actually using only 10%! It does the same with any memory stick (USB Drive). I think it's not properly deleting the trash and keeping it there hidden and using disk space - Ridiculous and then the automatic Apple "Time Machine" backups won't work, because they were corrupt due to the HDD being full!

That never happened with the old OSX. As a result, I am looking at Linux and may dump Apple. An English friend in Spain is helping with information, as that's what he runs.

I notice that their BIG software boss on Apple's main board got fired over something to do with this new operating system. Maybe there was more wrong with it than they admit to? If so, he deserves it for the misery it has and is still causing me!!

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