If you look at a map of Shenzhen, you’ll see the Shekuo area is a huge jutting out of land into the sea, and there is a lot of coastline. I thought I’d take a long walk and see how much of the coast I could see. The short version of my 7 1/2 mile …
Category Archive: My Experience
My experiences while preparing and traveling.
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Public transportation is great for EVERYTHING
This is exactly what it looks like. A public bus being used to transport a few dressers and shelves. I can’t imagine the bus driver was amused, or the other passengers happy that they had to navigate around this set. I believe they were unloading the bus here.
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Getting by without talking
I’ve decided that it’s totally possible to get by without talking at all, and in fact may be preferable to trying to speak. When I try to initiate a transaction and say Hello in Mandarin, people assume that I can speak at least some, if not fluent, and they will speak back in Mandarin, to …
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KFC
KFC is HUGE in China. You’ll find one on just about every other block. They have delivery bikes, a breakfast menu, and many are open 24 hours. One night, partly because I was tired and hungry and didn’t want to worry, and also partly in the interest of experimentation, I ignored my hatred of chain …
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Hello looking handbag watch?
The most popular phrase in the Luohu shopping market is “Hello looking handbag watch?” Sometimes this is shortened to “Hello looking?” or mixed up with “You buy glasses?” Where the electronics market is filled with booths of people who sit disinterestedly chatting with friends online, the Luohu shopping market is the exact opposite; thousands of …
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Being a Mandaridiot
My Mandarin is awful. I just spent the whole subway ride, about thirty minutes, with my little book on Mandarin, trying to figure out what to say to order my buns this morning for breakfast. I hate that every day I point and I’m not showing people progress. Six freaking syllables. Two bean, one spiral. …
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Cute little kids at school
This is a normal thing to see in the mornings. Little kids all line up before school in rows and columns and do exercises led by their teachers. They’re as coordinated as little kids can be, and the parents and grandparents are often standing around and watching. I snapped this pic quickly from a distance …
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Eating roses
This is a dried rose. It tastes like dried stawberries. It’s very sweet, and the petals are small and make it have a different texture from strawberry. Apparently all that is done is some sugar or honey is added for sweetness. I think it was my first time eating a rose and I have to …
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Shenzhen Mini Maker Faire
Sunday, April 8 was the Shenzhen Mini Maker Faire, put on by Seeedstudio. There was a good group of projects, though the robots category dominated the list, with little, and not so little, mechanical things running around the floor and even flying through the air. There were about 40 booths of people showing off their …
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Noodles in black bean sauce
If you’ve ever seen the Korean movie “Castaway on the Moon”, you’ll remember that noodles and black bean sauce play an important role in the movie. It’s a really good movie, by the way. So when I saw it in a Korean restaurant I figured I had to see what the hype was about. Well, …
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