Inspiration

Qingdao – Where Europe meets China

Chinese Places, Inspiration, Teaching English in China, Things to do Leave a comment

Beer in plastic bags, KFC with draft beer and Medieval German churches. Where do I start?! The city of Qingdao is part of historic Shandong province where Confucius gained his claim to fame and it is also a place where you can enjoy a beach in the northern part of China. The city has a high speed station and a normal one allowing access to and from many areas of China and enjoys a pleasant climate of cool winters and warm yet not too hot summers. One of the main sites in this post-colonial town is an immaculately preserved European…

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British Brown Man in China- One year on

Chinese Places, Daily Life, Inspiration, Teaching English in China Leave a comment

Fast. The one word that describes how quickly time has flown by. It has been an entire year now and I have lived to tell the tale – for now. I would say one year was an entire introduction on China and yes, many people will have completely different sorts of experiences, that is the beauty of it all. The character building and the incredible social life that starts to develop is something not many other types of experiences allow for you to have. Also a more open minded worldly approach to life is something that I had noticed develop…

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The confucius institute at the University of Nottingham next door to our office at Noon Elite Recruitment. Many test centres are based on university campuses and they are prestigious buildings.

HSK – Everything there is to know

Inspiration, Learning Chinese, Teaching English in China, Things to do

HSK. You hear it when looking at Chinese courses, on job adverts and see it required on University courses. But what is it and why is it worth looking into? This post is is all things HSK.  What it shows, why to take it and what it stands for? Here’s everything you need to know… What it is HSK stands for hanyu shuiping kaoshi. This literally means Chinese language water level examination. More accurately translated to Chinese language level exam, or, examination of your Chinese language level.  The examination is run and accredited by Hanban, a department ran by the…

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A British brown man in China – From Beijing to Jining

Beijing, Daily Life, Inspiration, Teaching English in China

In a follow up from my first blog, I had woken up the next day in Beijing, and had to think where I was for a short moment. The realisation then dawned upon me that I was not in fact at home, blanketed by central heating, but in the colder hostel room in China. For breakfast, I thought to stick to comfort in familiarity with an egg omelette as part of me acclimatising my stomach of sorts, to avoid having any repeat of an incident similar to previous travels in Tanzania or India…always learn from experience it seems. The local…

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