Author Archives: Jack

Record Eagle Newspaper

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The Traverse City (TC) Record Eagle, my hometown paper, has agreed to publish this blog www.tourguizhou.net on their web site.  I am looking forward to working with them and telling my friends in TC about the expat lives here in Guiyang, Guizhou, China.

I am a real estate appraiser in Traverse City, and maintain a company called “Certified Appraiser, LLC” .  My personal appraisal activity has dropped to about zero, as I have lived in Guiyang for several years now and refer old clients to qualified appraisers.  I am currently teaching English at Guizhou Normal University, here in Guiyang. I remain interested in TC, having spent twelve years as Township Supervisor of East Bay Township (1980-1992).

The subject of my blog is to chronicle our  day to day lives here in China. We are often quizzed by Chinese about the US. I have many friends in local government here in China and can’t help but compare the two systems.  Also, I remain active in TC issues and will comment from time to time on issues that remain close to my heart.

We encourage all expats to contribute here, however, only my posts will  be published in Traverse City.  Exceptions can be made for occasional guest blog contributions.

Bill’s Hot Air Balloon Ride (Memories)

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These are photos near Manistee that Bill Richardson took from his hot air balloon. This is the countryside that Jack and Bill come from. Jack is now in Guiyang and Bill went back.

Memories of Northern Michigan #1 Tahquamenom

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[mappress mapid=”6″][mappress mapid=”4″][mappress mapid=”4″][mappress mapid=”2″][mappress mapid=”2″]Photos by Bill Richardson in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan

A Chinese Holiday — Nonstandard. October holiday is a Holiday with Chinese Characteristics.

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Talking about Chinese language:  a “Holiday with Chinese Characteristics” really means that it is nothing like a holiday at all . . .

According to the state-run Xinhua news agency, Chinese tourists made 428 million trips last week during Golden Week.  See: http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2013/10/12/vote-should-china-scrap-its-holiday-schedule/?mod=WSJBlog

This is too crowded.

We have something called “makeup days” where the Saturday and Sunday prior to the holiday, and Saturday and Sunday after the holiday are work days, which are used to make up for the time off during the holiday.  So I”m not exactly sure about these computations, but it seems that we work a five day week, then a weekend – 7 days. Then we have a holiday of about 10 days, including a weekend, then a 5 day week, a 2 day working weekend, then another 5 day week = 12 days working in a row. If you include the 10 days vacation, then we have 7+10+12 = 29 days. Our routines are disrupted for about a month in order to create this feeling of a national holiday. Of the eight days actually off (not including the weekend, four days are made up. I’m not complaining, but there might be a better way to do this.

If the government wants to give us four days off, maybe we could get two four day weekends: Take Monday and Tuesday off before National Day and then Thursday and Friday  off after National Day. There would be four days off, but they would be grouped together better.  There would be a one in seven chance that National Day would fall on a Wednesday.In that event, perhaps one in seven years, we could have Wednesday off.  In the best scenario, we would have Sat/Sun off, then Mon/Tue (Sept 29/30) off, then the Wednesday (Oct 1) Then Th/Fri, then a regular weekend. That would be a nine day holiday and no disruption of our weekends. On  six  of seven years we would have simply two four-day weekends.

People could take a day or two off prior to the 4 day weekend, or after. There would be many destinations where a 5 or 6 day break would be suitable. Well, just thinking out loud. 🙂

 

Chinese Made Simple

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In China, the term “waijiao” denotes “diplomatic relations” or “foreign teachers” .  These are so closely related that it is very difficult for me not to get them mixed up.  Chinese is very easy in one way,  you don’t have so many sounds to learn.  You just have to keep  track of the tones . . . In this case: wai4jiao1 and wai4jiao4 (diplomatic relations and foreign teacher respectively).

Incidentally, if you are a student of the tones, you will note a difference between what was said, what was written, and what you will find in a Chinese/English dictionary.  While Chinese seem to have no trouble understanding each other, they often disagree on tones and stroke order.

Vice Governor Chen Yiqin welcomes Foreign Teachers and Investors

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On September 29, 2013 Guizhou Province hosted a reception ceremony welcoming the foreign  teachers and foreign investors to Guizhou.  Executive Vice Governor Chen Yiqin told the foreigners that Guizhou appreciates our efforts to help build the economy here in Guizhou.  A fine banquet was provided in a demonstration of thanks.

A Woman is a Flower

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I recently visited the Guiyang Botanical Gardens off Shacong Nanlu with my friend Yifei, an incurable camera addict. Yifie was the primary photographer in my “Shopping With Chef James” video http://www.tourguizhou.net/shopping-with-chef-james/. I am told that in China, a beautiful girl is often referred to as a “flower”, the same as in the West.

IMAG2468 IMAG2469  Which photo shows the best flower? I couldn’t decide, so I posted both:

 

The Trouble with Rats . . . Update #2

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Well it was just about am month since putting the last rat to sleep.  This ground floor older home is vulnerable, but I just can’t bring myself to put out poison.  I caught a big guy about 3  days ago and killed him the same way, dropping the live trap into a bucket of water.  It was a very heavy animal, and I’m sure that if I let him go free that he would have beat up on the neighborhood cats. After killing my first rat a month ago, the second one was much easier. This rat was caught on a potato.  I am baiting the trap with French bread and peanut butter. Both potatoes and peanut butter are proven rat baits.

Note: Complaints about my rat picture led to it’s deletion. I have inserted a more popular rodent:Mickey