Life in the Land of Chilli Peppers

Rooftop views

2008-07-07T16:00:00.000+08:00

So this is the view from the roof of our apartment building- its kinda quiet up there if its quiet anywhere in Changsha.

You can kind of see the mish mash of buildings and how some people build little gardens and hide-aways on their roofs. Mostly people use the roof of our building for drying washing and drying food- you can see some beans being dried on the left and some chilli's being dried on the right.

Facebook blocked?

2008-07-07T09:59:00.000+08:00

Well it seems the olympics are playing all havoc with visas here in China and now maybe even the internet?

Facebook has become the place where I spend most of my time on the 'net so much that I don't even post to this blog very often....that is until facebook doesn't work.

It seems that Facebook is currently blocked here in China (for the last week approximately)- I can access it via a proxy via a proxy (yes crazy - not even one proxy will do it!) and then I only get the basic views - i can't change my status, click on tabs or post. Other than that the internet is really really slow and other random sites seem to be blocked as well - including www.weather.com. Downloading of emails is also hit and miss.

We'll wait and see if this will be a long term thing or just a short term random annoyance.

Pictures of the frozenness

2008-01-28T10:22:00.001+08:00

Ok they are now calling it the coldest winter in 50 years. Highways, airports and train lines are all closed. But it looks pretty...just wish we had better heating.

FREEZING CHANGSHA!

2008-01-25T21:22:00.001+08:00

Wow - the coldest winter in 30 years they are saying. I can't believe how cold it feels - even those from Canada and UK who are used to up to -40 are freezing! The locals who can afford it are checking into hotels. Businesses have generators set up as the power keeps getting cut!

Newspaper article

2007-12-11T13:15:00.001+08:00

(picture from changsha evening newspaper)

me at work! (staged work!!)

Check out article (in chinese) and photo here

Work has been crazy busy lately. Thankfully the weather has been quite mild, only began to go below 10 degrees celcius this week!

Hotel room

2007-09-27T14:52:00.001+08:00

Ok, so the photos don't do it justice. It was a nice room, just a little...interesting. Bright orange walls, pink desk, bright green bathroom, bright yellow piping for central heating. And there was the lamp with sweaty looking peacock feathers. Oh! and of course the glass walls around the bathroom!

Autumn moon festival

2007-09-25T13:44:00.001+08:00

Today is the day for the Autumn Moon Festival. Traditionally this is the day you have dinner with family, eat moon cakes together and look at the moon.

Unfortunately, I don't particularly like moon cakes, I'm far from family and any friends today and its cloudy so chances of seeing the moon later are doubtful.

Happy Moon Festival to you anyway! :)

Sam

Tripping around

2007-09-24T17:31:00.001+08:00

Well I've been here, there and everywhere in the last 3 weeks. Had a busy week first week of September with meetings at work. Then headed off to Macau for our annual staff retreat.

Macau used to be a pirate cove apparently (bet you didn't know that ;) ), the Portuguese in all their shipping exploration etc rid it of said pirates and as their reward China gave them Macau, or so the story goes. Macau was of course returned to the Chinese several years ago by treaty but still retains many old buildings and other remnants of Portuguese culture including yummy food. Unfortunately now it seems the "pirates" have won it back and the place is chocker block full of casino's. Nice place to see once but won't be rushing back there anytime soon.

I then had a few days in Hong Kong for some errands/business. Went back to Changsha for 2 days and then came to TianJin where I am right now, visiting another NGO who are helping families in the community who have children with disabilities. Its only day one but its been amazing, my head's exploding but in a good way.

On another note, I'll post pictures of my hotel room I'm staying in when I get the right cords. Its a local cheap hotel, very nice, especially for the price. Just whoever did the planning was a little....creative with colours, and the bathroom :)

Catch you all later,

Sam

life goes on

2007-09-03T14:48:00.001+08:00

hmm, i've managed 5 posts now this month, 2 in the last 2 weeks. Not bad huh?

I've discovered a new tool called "scribe fire" which makes blogging soooooo quick and pain free - recommend you give it a try if you have your own blog. The only challenge now is to remember to take more photos out and about.

So, I joined a gym a few weeks ago and am enjoying it so far. It always seemed a little 'extravagant' to think about joining a gym here but have really felt the need to get more exercise now that I am riding my electric bike and not walking so much. At least gym membership here can be really cheap ($60 for 3 months), it seems like a nice enough place (people are friendly, they have classes and most of the machines work). Should be worth it if it gets me fit or helps me lose some kilos!

Autumn has arrived

2007-08-27T17:26:00.001+08:00

Autumn has arrived to Changsha and the change of weather is lovely after the scorching hot months we've had. This picture's taken in a grassy area near my apartment. Its been raining this last week making everything nice and green.

Walk the Wall!

2007-08-05T17:19:00.001+08:00

Walk the Wall! check it out by clicking here

In a nutshell, its a fundraising venture organised for the organisation I volunteer with here in China to raise funds to help in our work of helping abandoned and disabled children here in China.

If you think its a worthwhile cause and want to walk or donate, see the information on how to do so on the website.

If you want to sponsor me to walk the 10km here in Changsha, click here to go to a page where you can do just that.

Gone wireless

2007-08-05T17:02:00.000+08:00

I had to make a trip to the 'computer market' yesterday as the cord for my computer somehow became partly severed and the wire was exposed - didn't look all that safe.

Anyway, I found a power cord of different brand but which seems to do the job fine for 85RMB, not bad.

While was there the wireless routers caught my attention and I ended up picking up one of them for 190RMB (thats like only $30) which is making working and researching at home so much more enjoyable. Now I don't have to fiddle around with the cords which used to keep falling out in the middle of downloading emails and things.

Old city wall

2007-08-05T16:46:00.001+08:00

I was out and about the city today, helping a newly arrived team member find where she is to attend university classes and trying to map out a bus route. Snapped this picture on our way home. Part of the last remaining section of the ancient Changsha city wall. You can go in and also relax in the surrounding parks, lots of interesting historical stuff to see in there if you ever come by Changsha.

Its really really really hot here. More than just high temperatures its ridiculously humid. Was sweating buckets out there in the sun today, I hate how your eye's sting when they keep getting sweat in them :)

New post! New bike!

2007-06-26T10:12:00.000+08:00

Finally! A new post you say!

Just a short one but just wanted to share with you a picture of my new electric scooter. Thanks for the generous donation IRCC!

This scooter is making my life so much better, its so much more efficient to travel around different places for work now and it even has a little 'boot' so I can even fit some grocery shopping in there.

The picture isn't the best but I've been trying to get a photo for weeks, finally got someone to come with me and take the picture and the batteries in the camera died- so it was up to the trusty mobile phone camera which doesn't have as good results. Maybe I'll post a better one later.

Great Wall Fundraising Run - 4 days to go!

2007-05-15T23:43:00.000+08:00

A dad and daughter team are doing a run along the Great Wall of China to raise money to help abandoned and orphaned children through ICC (International China Concern).

If you want to help them raise money go to www.justgiving.com/harrisgreatwallrun

only 4 days to go!

Sam zai nali? (where is sam?)

2007-05-15T22:51:00.000+08:00

I'm aware this blog has been more than a bit 'dead' of late, lacking in new posts and all that. Have been a tad bit busy but hope to get back to regular posting soon. I have found though, logging back into the blogger site since I am in China they have now decided that I must access the site in Chinese which will add an extra element of interest to my posting experiences....if anyone happens to know how I can select a language preference let me know.

Stay tuned for a recommencement of blogging from the Land of Chilli Peppers....

meanwhile, let me recommend a blog of a family who recently travelled here and volunteered with the organisation I work with to help some abandoned and orphaned children in China:

click here for reflections on Changsha and here for their trip to the project

Happy Chinese New Year!

2007-02-20T09:49:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year! 新年快乐！

Well I'm currently in Australia and am missing out on all the celebrations and NOISINESS that accompany Chinese New Year in China. The last time I celebrated Chinese New Year there it was amazing, at midnight everyone set off fire crackers and huge fire works. The ground actually shook and the air was so full of smoke you could hardly see anything!

Well I do have one New Years photo to share with you. Just before I left Changsha I was invited with many other foreigners to attend a New Years performance in Changsha. It was quite good with an orchestra from Shanghai (I think) playing lots of classical pieces, a couple of opera singers and some traditional chinese folk music and dances.

Welcome to the Year of the Pig!

Belated HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!

2007-01-31T23:11:00.000+08:00

Ok, this post is not about Changsha, but since last Friday (26th January) was Australia Day I thought I could post this link . It made me smile.

Sometimes in class my teacher asks me questions like "So in China everyone calls you a foreigner, stares at you, points at you, charges you more for goods, talks about you openly as if you aren't there....what do you do if you see a foreigner in your country" - I've tried to explain so many times that it is totally different - because any individual Australian may have ancestors from any number of "foreign countries" and so it is impossible to tell by simply looking at someone that they are a "foreigner" and even if you could, it wouldn't even compare in significance to being spotted as a foreigner in China. Ok....RANT over.... you'll understand what that refers to if you check out the link...although I'm yet to meet an "Indigo Australian".

Sunny winter days....

2007-01-30T08:48:00.000+08:00

The weather here has been lovely these last few days, sunny, blue (well blue-grey) skies and at night we can see stars!!!!! Its school holidays so the kids are out everywhere enjoying the nice weather and all the grandparents are sitting in the park knitting and chatting while watching over their grand kids.

And.... its great weather for getting the washing done and dried and if you have no where at home to hang it out - why not hang it out in the park? I love it.......

Snowing....

2007-01-18T21:45:00.000+08:00

Its really cold here at the moment...freezing....well I know there are much colder places than here but this is cold enough for me! It snowed on Tuesday night and on Wednesday Changsha woke up under a thin blanket of snow. It usually only snows once a year in Changsha so everyone made the most of it - scraping together snow to make snowmen like the one above and having snowball fights. By later afternoon it had mostly turned into grey mush which made feet wet and cold but it seemed the white stuff...while it lasted...had lifted everyone's spirits for a while in the cold, wet, grey skyed Changsha winter.

Christmas in Changsha

2006-12-30T11:57:00.000+08:00

Today is Saturday - but its a work day- one of those curious times of the year that we work the weekend so we can get a day off - so I'm working Saturday so I can have Monday and Tuesday off for New Year. I think I would have preferred to have the weekend and just monday off but nevermind.

So instead of doing something fun (or more interesting than sitting at the computer being frustrated by limited access to the net and no access to my emails) - I am doing some planning and preparation for the coming weeks of therapy. But since it is officially lunch time at the moment thought I would update my blog.

It seems Christmas is increasingly becoming a recognised celebration in China. This year there were loads of places (shops, hotels) with Christmas displays and decorations up. There were also many Christmas decorations and Christmas themed gifts for sale (admittedly in the american, french and other foreign backed superstores like Walmart, Carefour and Metro) and some of the locals were buying. Even the markets down by the river were overflowing with christmas trees, tinsels and baubels. Many of the big hotels and some nightclubs have special performances or parties but they are held on Christmas eve (24th), in fact, it seems most people seem to believe that Christmas is celebrated on the night of the 24th and they call it "Ping An Ye" or Silent Night.

I had a really busy christmas but finally had a quieter Christmas lunch on Christmas day at one of the fancier hotels in town who do a christmas buffet and decorate with christmassy things. They even had gingerbread houses and displayes all over the place.

It seems Google escaped disruptions

2006-12-30T11:50:00.000+08:00

It seems that my ability to access my blog might have something to do with the links Blogger has with Google.

Google is working ok, I can do google searches (but not access the sites it brings up), access google news (well the story summaries anyway - I can't view the actual articles) and people who have gmail accounts can access their email. I wonder if there is going to be a flood of gmail accounts being opened.

The good news is that internet access seems patchy, with different people connected with different providers able to access different amounts on the net.... so i'm holding out hope that the patchiness is going to be in my favour and in the next day or so I might be able to download some of my emails (crosses fingers). Meanwhile, my sources of distractions on the net have been reduced to blogging and one china-based expat forum site where there are a bunch of addicted internet-gamers going through panic and withdrawal.

Earthquake disrupts net

2006-12-29T12:01:00.000+08:00

Hmm...typical. Apparently there was an earthquake near Taiwan that broke a whole bunch of internet cables connecting to China. So at the moment I can't access email, chat or out-of-china websites....apart from it seems...my blog!

I will however take advantage of this - since I can't access the net outside of china to try and find out how long it will take to fix this and since i can't ask someone to email me the info - maybe one of you would be kind enough to do a google search and find out and then post it in the comments? A few things i have read in chinese sounds like its going to take a while.... wonder how full my email inbox will be by then!

pictorial guide to living in china

2006-12-08T21:58:00.000+08:00

I was browsing around the net (procrastinating from the real work that is open in another window) and found this. Funny because its pretty much true.

Blind leading the blind....times 5

2006-12-08T14:20:00.000+08:00

I couldn't believe what i was seeing.... I thought it was amazing when a few weeks ago I saw a blind woman lead a blind man through on-coming traffic.

But... the other day, as the bus I was on pulled into a bus stop, I looked out the window and saw 5, yes 5 (five), old people in a congo line one hand on the shoulder in front, every second one had a cane. The old man in the front of the line expertly used his cane and guided the group through the crowd of people and parked cars on the sidewalk. I had to take a second look to make sure i was really seeing what i thought i was seeing. So very interesting!

A few days later after mentioning to friends what i had seen i found out that i had been witnessing a training session for people with a visual impairment to learn how to use a cane. So there you go!

Beijing Olympics

2006-11-30T23:33:00.000+08:00

I saw an article in the newspaper with an article about the cheap tickets that will be available for the Beijing Olympics. Being in Chinese I only understood the bare-bones of it so went on line to check it out (here).... seems the tickets are going to be very affordable - if you're quick I guess.... and then you've got to find accomodation in Beijing. Would be nice though....

I'm back!!! Recycling and chilli peppers

2006-11-30T22:46:00.000+08:00

I've been away for a week and with the busy-ness before and after travelling haven't had time to post . But finally got a chance to spend a bit of time online tonight and discovered...... Blogspot is unblocked again!!! Who knows why or when it might be blocked again but its a nice coming home present and inspired me to post a few pictures I took earlier in November.....

This guy is having fun pushing his bulky load up a potholed dirt hill.... and its about to get better for him - they are digging up the road a bit further up. I have to say though, that recycling seems to be a huge thing in China, everything can be collected and sold for recylcing - everything- bottles, cardboard, polystyrene, bits of metal..... they even have people who ride around on bicycles and will collect broken electrical equipment. (I think this guy is pushing his load of polystyrene collected for recycling - but I could be wrong - open to any guesses from you guys).

And finally! Some chilli's in the land of chilli peppers. I was out in the countryside a few weeks ago (workmates wedding) and besides growing grapefruit they had a few chilli bushes by the road. These are the baby ones.....

And here are the more grown up ones.....

Walking on water

2006-11-06T20:58:00.000+08:00

Was at the park on Sunday afternoon and began to notice these signs about. HMMMM...... "Walk on lake. Be careful" !!! Its almost a dare to try walking on water - didn't see anyone attempting this miracle though.

Its one of the things I love about China - these little incidences that surprise you and make you smile. Was on the bus today and saw this couple crossing the busy road. Not much surprising about that. BUT - they were both blind. The lady (?wife) was in front and she had this big stick she was using as a cane, feeling the road as she went. The man walked a step behind her with his hand on her shoulder. Truly a case of the blind leading the blind! It was amazing to watch - it seemed so nice in a way.

Blustery Autumn day

2006-11-06T19:29:00.000+08:00

Sunday was a very blustery Autumn day in Changsha, I was walking down the street and the wind was blowing leaves everywhere. The poor street sweeper (in fluorescent orange below) was rushing around, running across the road with her little cart but to be honest I don't think she could do anything right then to contain it all.

Blogger blocked

2006-11-06T19:27:00.000+08:00

Yes - I have decided that blogger/blogspot is definately blocked from China again.

Its making it just that little bit more difficult to post regularly - sorry about that.

Blogspot blocked?

2006-10-28T11:13:00.000+08:00

Hmmm.... it appears that the great firewall of China has blocked blogger blogs again. Nevermind, I think this is still going to work.

Hopefully will have some more photos and posts this weekend.

Videos are working!

2006-10-18T17:53:00.000+08:00

Ok, sorry I didn't realise that the videos weren't working until today.

That has been fixed so you can now view them - scroll down to the 8th October post or click here to see the first video and here to see the second video.

Thank you for pointing that out Al (check out his website).

Little frustrations

2006-10-16T16:31:00.000+08:00

Ok, I'm sick and I've been stuck at home all day finishing some reports and other things which is probably why this is bothering more than usual (I haven't been out of the house much since last wednesday - have some horrible cold/cough thing which is still making me cough constantly and reach for the tissues every few minutes even though I am actually feeling much better).

Ok so this is about milk cartons of all things. Now, I have actually got used to the milk here in China which is OHT milk, long life milk - whatever you like to call it. I even like having it on my cereal now or occasionally drinking it which I would never have said a year ago.

BUT - why can't they make the milk cartons so they pour easily???? There is one brand with one type of opening on some of their cartons that pours ok. The rest? - you try to pour a little milk into your coffee and you end up with just as much running down the side of the carton onto the bench! AiYa! [translation: how annoying!!!]

Comments

2006-10-15T16:07:00.000+08:00

I've changed the comments function - I didn't realise it was on a setting that made it difficult for some to post comments.

So now thats taken care of - click on the "comments" link under any post to let me know what you think!

Happy Mid-Autumn Moon Festival

2006-10-15T15:27:00.000+08:00

Well, last Friday (6th October) was China's Mid-Autumn festival.

For weeks now the shops have been selling "Moon cakes" in the lead to this festival. These are small, round, I guess 'moon shaped' pastries filled with a variety of different fillings. I think traditionally the filling was salted egg but these days you get everything from red-bean paste to strawberry and pineapple flavoured.

On the night of the moon festival people have dinner with their families, eat moon cakes and stay up and look at the moon.

I have to say this year I didn't even eat one moon cake and it was so hazy on Friday night we couldn't spot the moon.....

Mooncake (this one is decorated with flowers). Photo by Kurt Groetsch thanks to flickr.

Golden National Holiday week - time out in Heng Yang

2006-10-15T14:47:00.000+08:00

Yep, last week was China's National Holiday week. I took the opportunity of a few days off to head 2 hours south to Heng Yang where I stayed a few nights with some friends.

We decided to try and see what 'touristy' things we could find to do or go and see and ended up visiting a school/building where (we think) Mao Ze Dong used to teach students about strategy to mobilise for the Peasant Movement prior to the cultural revolution.

What we could understand (everything was written in Chinese) was interesting and the building was fitted out in old-style chinese furniture.

This is a photo of part of the inscription on the outside of the building.

Videos

2006-10-08T17:42:00.000+08:00

Ok, my first go at putting some video on the site. It seems google video is not viewable from China so have gone with You Tube but the quality seems to have decreased a bit through the upload and publish process. Oh well.

2006-10-08T17:34:00.000+08:00

Going to work on Saturday

This was taken while on the bus last Saturday, heading to work for the "Monday" schedule. It was about 8am and you can see people out at the markets (opening scene - meat and vege markets down under where the red sign is), driving, riding, walking to work, crossing the road, riding their motorbikes in the wrong direction up the road. It was slightly cooler that day - it seems like the hot muggy summer weather is finally behind us and cooler autumn days are here at last!

2006-10-08T17:12:00.000+08:00

crossing the highway

This was taken while on the bus last Saturday, crossing the highway on my way to work. Love how we cut off the big white petrol tanker....

Someone stole the weekend!!!!!

2006-09-30T21:19:00.000+08:00

Ok I feel unbelievably tired hence very few posts lately. I did take a video this morning but don't see myself uploading it tonight.

This coming week is Chinese National Week Holiday - which means there are 3 days public holiday (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday). Thursday and Friday are also a holiday for most people but... you have to work the Saturday before the holiday and the Sunday after... your fee for a 5 day holiday is two 6-day working weeks!

So... yesterday was Friday, and last night felt like friday night... looking forward to the weekend... and then..... wake up and its Monday (well Saturday but we had to work to a Monday schedule). Someone stole my weekend!!!! So now its Saturday night but it feels like Monday night and when I wake up tomorrow we're going to be on the backend of the weekend but the beginning of a holiday week.......

Anyone confused?????

Knocking down.... don't knock him out

2006-09-21T21:14:00.000+08:00

Sorry the picture is a little unclear. I took this with my mobile phone on my way to work.

These guys are standing at the top of that little building/gate house with sledge hammers, demolishing it from the top down. Every now and then they knock off a big bit of concrete which they hurl down to the ground below - just missing the guy casually sitting there in his cane chair. Maybe he's the foreman - hopefully not the workplace health and safety inspector!!!!

mmmm...more ...?food

2006-09-17T19:15:00.000+08:00

I know its hard to imagine that with all the yummy chinese food here we would ever want to eat anything else - but - there is the odd evening when neither my house mate or I want to cook and we just don't feel like facing the chinese food at the place across the road. Its then that we decide to brave one of the restaurants selling 'Western food'. If you have ever been to China you will know what an interesting experience that is. What is sometimes even stranger than some of the food is the menus - I took a picture of part of the menu we were faced with the other week....

#1 - Ham and egg sandwich - ok so far so good
#2 - France many private - what the?? no idea.... something French presumably
#3 - An eggs of ham - hmm confusing.... possibly ham and eggs??
#4 - Many privates of peach - hmmmm......
#5 - The milk fries the banana/pick the silk banana - ????? anyone game to try this one????

That particularly night I ordered something called "The pastoral salad of many vegetables" - turned out to be something resembling a coleslaw and wasn't too bad.

mmmm.... food.....

2006-09-17T19:07:00.000+08:00

On Friday night some workmates invited us (me, my housemate and another co-worker) to a surprise dinner. Turns out they had cooked a feast in honour of my housemate's upcoming birthday. Look at all those dishes! Yummmm... Funny thing is they know foreigners often don't like eating lots of chilli so there's not a spicy one in sight. Also, that plate of carrot is raw - usually it would be cooked but everytime they have come over to our house we have had a salad along with the hot meals. We haven't yet convinced them that 'raw food' ie. salad is good to eat - but they know we like it and so the carrot was a "special dish" just for us. It was a really fun night - we have a tradition amongst our department of combining our dinner get togethers with lots of silly games - and they had organised a few of those as well. A fun night!

Changsha by night

2006-09-08T10:25:00.000+08:00

Finally! A pic from Changsha :)

Changsha is a city that's constantly changing, there are always new things to discover and many things look better at night. This is a picture looking down on the main road and the Gold Source Hotel from the giant ferris-wheel across the road. This is an area of town that is continually being developed. Next to the ferris-wheel there is a large public square area in front of the city's stadium. At night the area gets transformed into a large community gathering where hundreds of people come out to dance and there are lots of activities and rides for the kids.

The one thing this photo does do however, is make the traffic on the road look very orderly. Would not like to give you a false impression so take a look at the photo below which is more along the lines of what things look like. Even after a year, the casual approach people take to some pretty crazy traffic still amazes me. You can see a pedestrian crossing in the photo. People are beginning to see these as areas to cross the road but don't think that means the traffic is going to stop or slow down at all.

Changing a tire and possibly fixing some engine trouble in the middle of the road down at busy Dong Tang.

One more post of Yangshuo

2006-09-08T10:13:00.000+08:00

I've had quite a few comments about the picture from Yangshuo so I'd thought I'd post one more pic from there with the beautiful scenery.

One day we hired electric bikes that look a bit like moped's (all for the cost of about A$6 for the day) and went out riding in the coutryside and along the river. There were lots of bumpy dirt roads and we did wonder what we would do if we got a puncture or our batteries ran out but it was all fine and lots of fun and the scenery was amazing!

Beautiful Yangshuo

2006-09-03T23:21:00.000+08:00

I just returned from a few days break in Guangxi Province. I spent about 4 days in Yangshuo which is absolutely gorgeous surrounded by mountains and beautiful country side and bordered by rivers. Definately worth a visit if you're ever in China, be warned though, the town itself is very geared for foreign tourists so be prepared as you walk past the various shops and stalls for the inevitable "hello....hello.... looky looky.... tshirt? pashmina? .... good price for you....!!".

This photo is of a local fisherman on his bamboo raft on the Li River.

First post

2006-09-03T23:02:00.000+08:00

Well this is my first adventure into Blogging.... we will see how it all works out.

I thought I would start a blog about life in Changsha, China where I live. This city is famous for its spicy food packed with chilli peppers, hence the title.

You can't go anywhere without seeing chilli peppers being sold, layed out in the sun drying or smelling the choking fumes of them being cooked in someone's kitchen!