Category: Life
China Tree Slapping Workout Video
Tree Slapping, you only have to walk past any park particularly in the mornings/evening to come across this amazing exercise phenomenon (…or if you’re lucky enough to be me you can watch it from your bedroom window!). Clearly China’s elderly are on to something!
There are many great health benefits of Tree Slapping including:
- Stimulating the nerves, you know, when you hit the tree just a bit too hard and injure your hand reminding yourself that you do in fact still have nerves!
- Scratching that annoying itch on your back.
- Loosening up the joints.
- Improve blood circulation.
Besides the …
What ever you do don’t fasten your seat belt!
*Disclaimer: This is a tongue in cheek look at China’s culture of not wearing a seat belt, please do not take any of this as actual advice!
Whatever you do, when you get into a taxi or private car in China don’t fasten your seat belt! Too bad no one told me that before I came to China!
In Australia where I grew up, wearing a seat belt was drilled into my head from a very young age with public safety campaigns saying “buckle up” all over the TV and radio. Not to mention the advertisements plastered all over roadside …
The China cough, it ain’t a medical myth!
In all my time in China I could never understand just why so many Chinese spat on the streets. There were two things I wondered about…1.Why it is that they had no regard for public hygiene? and 2. Why on earth did they have nasty goo in their lungs to cough up all the time anyway, don’t you only get that when you’re sick, are the Chinese just always sick?
And then after living in China for nearly two years I finally understood…
It was China they were coughing up on the street, it was all the nasty pollution that …
Don a face mask for this season!
Smoggy skies for this season,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
It is winter in China,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
Don we now some stylish face masks,
Fa la la, la la la, la la la.
To stop the coughing up our lungs,
Fa la la la la, la la la la.
It’s winter in China and what does that mean? For the next few months China’s cities will be blanketed with a delicious brown smog of polluted air thanks to everyone turning on their heating and just overall increasing their energy …
Shanghai Snap: An Old Shanghai Surprise
Wuyi Lu looks like any other quaint Chinese street in Shanghai’s Changning district so the sight I would stumble upon during my Sunday afternoon walk was quite a pleasant surprise! Technically not even part of the French Concession and not a street frequently trodden by foreigners I stumbled upon these very out of place terracotta reliefs, a tribute to old Shanghai that embellish many of the buildings on the last stretch of Wuyi Lu near Yan’an road.
If you want to walk along this charming stretch along Wuyi Lu head to Yan’an Road metro station on line 3/4 then walk …
Crash Course in Shanghai Metro Safety
In the depths of Shanghai’s Xujiahui metro station is a tribute to the Shanghai Government’s commitment to public safety in the form of the Shanghai Museum of Public Safety Rail (if you can call a few poster’s on the way to the entrance gate a museum).
Safety on the Shanghai Metro is clearly top priority with stringent security measures put in place in all metro stations, no massive bag goes un-scanned! In fact the bag-scanning system is so good that sometimes they don’t even need a person sitting behind watching the monitor!
But safety on the Shanghai Metro doesn’t just …
Is This China? East Nanjing Road
East Nanjing Road is one of the most iconic roads in all of Shanghai. For those who’s first impression of Shanghai and indeed China is this flashy circus of a road, then you could easily be manipulated into thinking China is not Chinese at all but in fact western. The first time I laid eye’s upon East Nanjing Road I had to pinch myself “Is this China?” In fact when I want a little break from China that’s where I head!
East Nanjing road is a confusing sight, flashing neon lights everywhere that could lead you to believe you were …
Shanghai’s Bipolar Weather Temperament!
Shanghai has been experiencing its driest year since 1873 according to the Shanghai Municipal Meteorological Bureau. In fact it’s been so dry this year that I actually forgot that Shanghai has a nickname related to its weather temperament. Shanghai is affectionately (or not so affectionately) known as ‘Rainy Shanghai’ and if my first experience of summer in Shanghai in 2010 was anything to go by it certainly lived up to its name! But this year Shanghai seems to have been happy, holding back it’s unpredictable spring and summer tears that typically plague the city from April through to at …
Shanghai Snaps: Waltzing in Fuxing Park
There’s one thing that the older folk in China like to do and do well, that is waltzing. In every corner of China you will find China’s graying population waltzing their way around public squares and parks in the afternoons and evenings. It’s a great sight to watch, clearly most of them have been doing it their whole lives and subsequently look like pros who could take on anyone on Dancing with the Stars!
Fuxing Park is one of the many places in Shanghai you can observe this beautiful and entertaining pastime. But don’t just observe, join in, you will …
Tried and Tested VPNs in China
The Great Firewall of China has been the bane of my existence since the moment I touched down in China. When I first arrived I had no clue how to get around it, all I had heard of was some magical buzz word, proxy server. For the first few weeks I stumbled around the Internet using various free proxy sites like VTunnel. Sure I could check my Facebook page but when it came to updating my status and letting people know that three weeks into China I was indeed still alive, sadly all I could do was see not participate! …
