DONG IN THE BACK

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Jack

I was in Rongjian with Julile and a butterfly landed on the car. I told her that it is good luck, and sure enough, a Dong lady stopped by and asked us for a ride into town. We were beside the river and going into town, so we picked up her up.

I told her when she asked that we were both Americans, and she said to Julie, “Not you.”. Jule is a Native American Indian, and the Dong lady thought she was a cousin or something. They hit it off well and we had a couple “selfies”. She tried to pay us when we dropped her off, but we asked for a picture instead. She was very friendly.

Finding the Wine Festival

Posted on September 8, 2014 by Jack

If you don’t know how to go to the conference center, just flag a taxi and tell the driver that you want to go to the Jinyang International Conference Center. You probably will have to say it in Chinese:

Back

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Jack

I am back in Guiyang and ready for another year of teaching at Guizhou Normal University. It was a wonderful summer vacation. I spent the whole time in Northern Michigan, in Traverse City, my home town.

I was a farmer for a little while, harvesting cherries on a friend’s farm. I was up at 5am and in the fields by 7am. Cherries aren’t picked anymore. We mechanically shake the trees and collect the cherries on a big mechanical tarp, called a “catching frame”. It then feeds into a mechanical conveyor belt and delivers the cherries into large 42 inch cubed boxes. The boxes, when full, must weight about a ton. I drove a tractor and delivered full boxes to the storage area and returned to the field with a new box. It was a great time.

The rest of the time I spent doing BBQs, golfing, and playing racketball. I also hung around the health club, even lifting weights from time to time. I came back through Shanghai and saw some old friends there.Altogether, it was a wonderful seven weeks.

Flying back to Guiyang was a pain. The bags were overweight and I had to mail some items back to Guiyang to minimize the expense. My limited Chinese was taxed heavily, dealing with the post office. Well, I got the package today, and all is well.

golfing in Guiyang – 贵阳扎佐高尔夫 Zha Zuo Town, Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China

Posted on July 31, 2014 by Ray

golfing in Guiyang – 贵阳扎佐高尔夫 Zha Zuo Town, Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China

30 minutes from Guiyang Longdongbao Airport. 30 minutes from downtown Guiyang.

many photos of the Guiyang Golf Club at: http://www.gygolf.cn/ ; also see: http://www.chinabooking.net.cn/en/golf_detail.asp?id=975

= = =

Diplomats compete in tennis, golf in Guiyang

2014-07-14 17:32, By Sun Xiaochen (chinadaily.com.cn), http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/sports/2014-07/14/content_17769954.htm

The Diplomats’ Sport Games 2014 concluded its two-day Guiyang competition leg over the weekend in Guizhou province, the event organizer said.

Approved by the General Administration of Sport of China, the annual games are organized by the International Sports Exchange Center of the GASC to promote “sportsmanship, friendship and exchanges”. More than 40 diplomats and staff from 19 embassies, consulates and international organizations competed in golf and double’s tennis.

Paul Fernando and Ronnie Fabricio, both diplomatic officers from Ecuador, won the men’s tennis doubles champions and Hoang Huy-Bui from Vietnam finished first in the men’s golf tournament.

Women were also invited to play but rankings were not given because of the low turnout.

“Through the competition, every participant experienced the joy of sport and enhanced friendships while developing mutual understanding,” said Zhang Qiuping, director of GASC’s International Sports Exchange Center.

Featuring the concept of “Sports Without Borders”, the event has previously been held five times in locations including Beijing, Zhejiang and Fujian, attracting more than 300 diplomats from more than 60 countries and organizations since it was launched in 2009.

Entering its sixth year in Guizhou, which boasts rich ethnic folk customs, the games provide an ideal platform for foreign diplomats to witness China’s social economic development while enjoying sports.

During their stay in Guiyang, diplomats have been invited to attend the opening ceremony and discussion of a summit forum, “Ecologically Civilized Guiyang”.

They will also visit the National Wetland Park in Huaxi, a southern suburb of Guiyang, to experience the local folk culture.

= = =

Guizhou Guiyang Golf Club

from http://www.travelchinaguide.com/tour/golf/guiyang/

Guizhou Guiyang Golf Club is the only forest golf course on the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. It is surrounded by the Langchao Lake Reservoir, boasts the mild and average temperature. Especially, the unique karst topography, convenient transportation, attractive environment and considerate service have made it a popular golf resort.

Located in Zhazuo Town, the club is 20 minutes’ drive from the downtown of Guiyang if you go by the expressway. With a total area of over 494 acres, it is the only 36-hole international tournament standard golf course in Guizhou Province. Two enthralling 18-hole courses with different flavor are constructed on the typical Karst landform, which keep the most origin of the landscape.

With large bunkers, pools, odd stones and rare trees together, Guiyang Golf Club has become the world-class forest golf course in China. A full range of amenities like super deluxe clubhouse, grand dinning room, beauty salon, gym, swimming pool, tennis, sauna and fishing are all provided.

The two-story 48-seat luxury golf practicing hall is available for playing at any time; the clubhouse is decorated with traditional Chinese wood carvings. The grand dinning room can house as many as 600 people having banquet together. There is also a long corridor along the Langchao Lake where you can appreciate relief sculptures on the pillars and admire the ancient African, Chinese and Greek cultures. What is more, the hotel is equipped with facilities of five-star standard, offering you high-quality services.

Address: Sanyuan, Zhazuo Town, Guiyang, Guizhou Province, Tel: 86-851-2351888, Fax: 86-851-2351260

= = =

Item		Member	Member Guest	Visitor
Green Fee(18hole)	Weekdays	Free	250	500 yuan 元 RMB
Green Fee(18hole)	Weekends/Holidays	Free	400	800

US Passport Blues

Posted on July 19, 2014 by Jack

Details of my passport issue are here:

http://www.tourguizhou.net/archives/9280

(Written June 20)

If you are coming to China, you should have an up to date passport to avoid my dilemma. It looks like I will have everything square with one day to spare for my flight back home July 2. It has been frustrating and a little scary. My VISA is being processed as I write and I can pick it up on June 30. It takes five weeks to get the Expert Certificate (2 weeks) and visa (3 weeks). Because my passport expires during the term of my next year’s contract, it was necessary to renew the passport before making application to the Chinese government for Expert Certificate and Visa. So I flew to Chengdu in the spring to get things rolling. After all the paperwork, I thought all was well, and then when the US Consulate notified me that my passport was ready, they said that I needed to give the receipt for payment to the person picking up my new passport. I had a friend do this to avoid a second flight to Chengdu. No mention was made of the receipt being required, and because time was of the essence, I wrote the consulate an email asking if the receipt was really necessary. After all, no mention of the receipt was made any time during the process, and I had discarded the receipt. That correspondence is below. It says that the receipt really isn’t necessary after all. Thank heavens for Consulate efficiency. My friend picked up passport no problem.

The only issue I had was that the correspondence required 35 days to process and give me an answer. I had had the passport for a month before they confirmed that I didn’t need the receipt. The correspondence was cordial, although not timely. China processed my Expert Certificate and Visa application in the time it took the US Consulate to return my email.

PS
The Chinese completed the work on the Visa with three days to spare.

######### CORRESPONDENCE BELOW

U.S. Full Passport Ready for Pickup
Inbox
x

Chengdu, AmCit <AmCitChengdu@state.gov>
May 5

to me
Hello,

Your U.S. passport has arrived at the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu, and is ready for you to pick up. Please come to the Consular Section between 13:00 – 16:00 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays (please see http://chengdu.usembassy-china.org.cn/service.html for any closures of our office).

To pick up your passport, you will need the receipt you received when applying for it and your current passport. If you are picking up for other members of your family as well (or a child), please bring their passport(s) as well as your ID. If you are unable to pick up your passport in person, you may authorize another individual to pick it up on your behalf by arranging this with our office.

Please contact us if you have any questions, concerns, or to arrange an alternate individual to pickup on your behalf.

Regards,
Chengdu Consular Section
Attachments area
winmail.dat

John Porter <johnsporter@gmail.com>
May 6

to AmCit
No mention was made of the receipt being required for pickup. I did not retain the receipt with my passport and it may have been discarded. I reviewed the authorization letter for my friend, Ms. Hao to pick up the passport and I planned to send that authorization letter, along with the old passport, to Ms. Hao, allowing her to pick up the new passport. Since my current passport has the active Chinese Visa, I plan to retain the old passport after it is cancelled for the duration of the Chinese Visa.

I am sorry, but I thought I had reviewed the required documents for pickup. Please advise me about what to do regarding the receipt.

Sincerely,

John S. Porter
Chengdu, AmCit
Jun 10 (10 days ago)

to me
Good morning,

We apologize for the confusion about the receipt. It makes things easier to have it with you, but our staff will be able to hand over the new passport without it. Your old passport will be returned to you, our staff just need to process the cancellation.

Thank you,

American Citizen Services
US Consulate General
Chengdu, China

Burger King 汉堡王 in Guiyang,June 2014,at Hongtongcheng shopping center 鸿通城购物中心 near Guiyang Railway Station 贵阳火车站

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Ray

Burger King 汉堡王 in Guiyang,June 2014,at Hongtongcheng shopping center 鸿通城购物中心 near Guiyang Railway Station 贵阳火车站

A Burger King opened in Guiyang, Guizhou province a couple of months back, along with a Baskin-Robbins, and soon a Starbucks. KFC and Pizza Hut have been here for several years. No McDonald’s yet, though.

I visited the Burger King today for the first time (I got a fish sandwich) with this teacher of English who I had met when he was a student at the college in Fuyang, Anhui where I was teaching last year. At the Burger King I saw a couple from Oklahoma with their two adopted Chinese kids (the husband does translation and business advising, and goes to the English corner at the local Protestant church), plus a group of about 10 American college students studying Chinese for several weeks at Guizhou University. Two of this group were from Kentucky.

Beckie’s Bistro for Great Pizza

Posted on June 12, 2014 by Megan Navarre

We just had a tremendous pizza at Beckie’s Bistro. It is all homemade and fresh. The menu has a lot of weird and wonderful kinds of pizza. We had fish and meatballs, sausage, hamburger and cheese, avocado

: This is at the gate of the residential community you need to go into

and shrimp, and a Turkish Pizza.

We are in the housing development with the purple clock on the south side of Da Ying Lu. You go inside the development. It’s a great little place and serves pizza only Thursdays through Sundays. The rest of the week they make bread and prepare the ingredients for the weekend. The menu has an English translation. Delicious!

A New Taobao Shop (Import stuff)

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Jack

There is a new place to get imported stuff. They order via internet and resell to needy foreigners and Chinese who like imported foods. It is called “Ni Xi Hong Bei”

Note the bus stops on the following map:

Find this entrance:

US Passport

Posted on April 28, 2014 by Jack

I just returned from Chengdu. I had to go to the American Consulate there to get a new passport. My passport expires August 4, 2014 after ten years. It is possible to designate an agent to renew it, but you can’t do it by mail. Somebody has to go there.

Transportation

I gave myself over an hour and a half to go to the train station. My train left at 8:15 PM on Thursday, the 24^th, and arrived in the Chengdu East Station 11 hours later at 7 AM. I had a lower bunk in the hard sleeper. I read for a couple hours and then slept about 9 hours. All in all, it was a comfortable trip. The cost was 190 rmb. Over an hour and a half seems like a long time, but getting to the train station during rush hour can be problematic. I figured 45 minutes by bus, but then got that uncomfortable feeling, like what about traffic jams, etc. A taxi, if I could get one, would be a lot less, maybe an half hour. As luck would have it, I caught a motorcycle. The motorcycle took 15 minutes. The cost was 20 rmb.

Travelling by motorcycle is worth mention. Most people say, don’t do it. It’s too dangerous. I agree. But if you do decide to take a motor cycle you will get there fast. No traffic lights or traffic jams will stop you. If you are careful, you can pick a safer option. Like eating food from street vendors, you need to be careful. First, make sure the driver has a helmet. If he doesn’t worry about his own safety, he certainly won’t worry about yours. Second, older is better than younger. If he is old and still doing this, he is probably a safe driver. Finally, check out his equipment. If he has clean equipment in good repair, he is probably responsible, and safe. My cycle driver had all three, and it was sweet getting to the train station with a safe hour and 15 minutes before departure.

Chengdu I found the subway inside the train immediately across from the exit area where I departed the train area. I had to wait in the information line, no English, so it pays to have your destination written down in Chinese. It cost 4 rmb to go from the east side to the southwest, where I met my friend Daisy. The subway was less than a half hour, and by taxi it probably would have been an hour and a half and over 60 rmb.

Daisy and her husband, Johnson have cars so transportation was no problem until departing the city. I flew back on a 10:30 PM plane, using China Southern. It was delayed about an hour and I arrived in Guiyang at about 1 AM on the 27^th. The taxi was a problem. The first guy wanted to charge 50 rmb, I got out when he wouldn’t budge. The second guy charged 40. It should be 25 to 35, but at one in the morning, 40 was ok. He didn’t know the way to Guizhou Normal University! I had to give him directions.

The Passport Process

My printer is still down from my move so I didn’t print the application. I figured I on filling the form out on arrival at the Consulate. Everything went ok, except for the picture. I took pictures with me but they were too small. When they say two inches by two inches on a white background, that is exactly what they want. My photos were two inches high, but not a full 2 inches wide. There is a photo studio directly across from the Consulate, so it cost me another 30 rmb to resolve this issue. I checked the extra pages option. I had run out of pages a year ago and it cost an extra trip to Chengdu and 70 USD. If you plan to travel very much, get the extra pages. There is no extra charge for the extra pages if you get them from the outset.

My passport expires August 4, 2014 and I can’t get a new visa for my next year teaching without the new passport. I had gone home on December 23 of last year and had almost 8 weeks of vacation, with which to renew my passport. The process requires four to six weeks. I elected not to renew the passport in Chengdu. The reason is that I couldn’t get as clear answer about my old Chinese Visa and my new passport. Would the active visa be transferred to the new passport? Would I get the old passport back? If I sent my old passport to the US State Department, and they kept it, my new passport might not have the active Chinese Visa. I was afraid that I couldn’t return to China without replacing the visa. The Chengdu web site details the process quite well: http://chengdu.usembassy-china.org.cn/passports.html .

After filling out the form and paying the money I connected with Daisy, her husband Johnson, and their daughter Jean. It was fun catching up with old friends. I even found a Big Mac. This is Daisy.

I only spent about 36 hours there, but I was able to visit the biggest building in Asia, so I’m told. I don’t know who measures these things, but it was big. It is a shopping center called “Global Center”.

The Global Center is a shopping center and it is so large that I had trouble getting the whole thing in a picture.

Inside of the place was also quite nice:

This is Daisy and her family:

The Bakerman Location

Posted on December 22, 2013 by Jack

Ray has posted about the man who imports foreign food and cooking equipment at reasonable prices. He is on the 25th floor of a residential building. It is unit 2507 to be specific. You can go there by taking the #61 bus and exiting on Wan Jiang Xiao Qu bus stop. I have photos of the relevant bus stop. From the bus stop you walk down the hill two or three hundred meters to the arch entryway of a development. Go through the arch, go past the basement parking entrance, turn left and walk up the stairs. The first building on the left has two towers. Take the tower on the right and go to the 25th floor. You may have to wait for somebody to unlock the foyer door to get to the elevators. Turn right off the elevator and go to the end of the hall. Bakerman is open until 6 pm most days.