Archive for the ‘gogolookllook’ Category

Arrived in America, Have a Chinese blog now

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

After some 12 hours flight I arrived at Los Angeles International airport. My friend’s friend’s friend Mr.John Chen was very kind to wait for me passing the customs and immigration which took almost 2 hours…

 Nice and safe. I am starting my Southern California life now. Time goes fast. Two years from now, maybe I will be going somewhere else. Who knows.

 I am writting a Chinese blog too. Go check out http://cn.alanhtang.com hehe, see you there.

还是不想把中英文博客混在一起, 我就开了个中文博客:http://cn.alanhtang.com  希望朋友们看哦。 别把我忘了。 明年回国再见。 

Sunday@the beach

Tuesday, December 18th, 2007

My colleague took me to the beach on Sunday. It was freezing cold. We walked along the beach. Went to see the ferry from the UK. Then had a peak at the fish market. Then walked in the little town. Saw a couple of nice houses. Then we did a bit holiday shopping. Then It became dark outside. So we decide to go to the casino. I didn’t know you need a passport to get in the casino. So we couldn’t get in cause I did not have my passport with me:(. Anyways, this is a quick post, sorry for my casual writing style. Here are some pictures. One thing I noticed. I got fat fast! I’m gonna so going to do more sports when I get back to Shanghai.

p.s. the little town is called Ouistreham, (when I pronounce it 90% French people could understand, which is good)

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Visit Mt.Saint-Michel

Sunday, December 9th, 2007

Mt.Saint-Michel is better than I thought. In a large flat land, you see this big thing right in the middle. I’d say it was impressive.

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When in France, do as the French do

Sunday, November 25th, 2007

Before I write this week’s post, I want to explain my two previous posts in Chinese. I try to write as much content as I could in English for my blog, because I would like to be as international as possible. But occasionally (I think less than 10%) I will write a post or two in Chinese, since I am a Chinese person and I am proud of that heritage. So the post of First day in Caen was because it was my first day here in France, so I had many things to do, writing in Chinese allows me to quickly summarize things. The 2nd post of 1st Week in Caen, France is because I needed to address a sensitive topic in the post.

So to summarize, I am doing my best to keep this blog in English, so please subscribe or come back if you like it. Of course you are more than welcome to learn Chinese as thousands of international people are already doing it;).

A few food highlights of the week:

  1. Baguette:Baguette the famous French Stick bread. Tastes much better here in the local bakery shop than the ones sold in Carrefour in China. My recommendation: buy a baguette from a bakery here in France, then walk home with it in your hand (apparently everybody does that here, sometimes people hold 2 baguette in their hands), only then you can declare you have been to France;).
  2. Tripes à la mode de Caen:tripes Yes! we found the butcher who sells the best Tripes à la mode de Caen in Caen (according to my dear colleagues here:)). The recipe is here. Fortunately, the tripes is already prepared. We only need to heat it at home and bon appetite! in Chinese it is the famous 卡昂牛肚. Hehe. Quite tasty, though my Chiense colleagues find the taste not strong enough.

Weekend in Changsha

Thursday, August 16th, 2007

I will be flying back to my home province Hunan right after my work today. Spend the weekend there. See you guys next week. I will take my camera with me. I will upload pictures next week. Enjoy the summer holiday.

Back from Nanking

Monday, March 19th, 2007

check out the web album

Pros

  • Nice bullet-train ride from Shanghai to Nanking(though not as fast as bullet-trains in the rest of the world, well, not yet). 300KM in 2.5 hours, 3 stops in between.
  • Hunan Rd is nice in the evening for food (if you like real Chinese food).
  • Confucius temple, Qinghuai river are nice

Cons

  • Youth hostel close to Confucius temple under poor management.
  • Not as clean(organized) as other neighbouring cities

Rating: 3 out of 5
Conclusion: old capital, so it’s old. Somehow not well maintained and developed in my opinion

Back from Ningbo (宁波)

Tuesday, February 6th, 2007

last last weekend, 2 days trip in Shanghai :) Pictures 2be uploaded later.
last weekend 2 days trip to a 4 hours away from shanghai city called Ningbo.

High

  • Seafood is SOOO GREAT. I was so hungry and I keep eating eating and eating, so no picture of food taken this time. My apologies
  • City is great too. A good escape from the hustle and bustle Shanghai.
  • People are greater:). Nice and friendly (though I had a little water-fight using my paddle with a couple of local boys on the other boat)
  • Taxi drivers are good. I mean they drive like F1 driver, yahoo!

Low

  • A city like this should be 30 mins maximum from Shanghai~!
  • Night life isn’t as fancy as Shanghai
  • There might not be enough high-end jobs for young professionals

Rating
4 of 5. Definitely a recommend if you have a few days to kill. I will visit there again, when there’s plenty of seafood in autumn.

Check out the web album

Back from Wuzhen (乌镇)

Sunday, January 14th, 2007

Extremely low budget trip to a old town. 140 KM to the west of Shanghai

Motivation: a TV soup (似水年华) was shot there.

Schedule:
S at, Jan 13th 14:50 Shanghai->Jiaxing (1h Train) 16:50 Jiaxing->Wuzhen(1 1/2 h Bus)
Sun, Jan 14th 12:50 Wuzhen-> Shanghai(3 h Bus)

Highs:

  • Buildings & Old looking streets on the sides of the river (canal).
  • Friendly local folks.
  • Free sample of local distilled liquor.

Lows:

  • Packed with tourists from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m most times of the year.
  • Expensive entrance tickets.
  • Most buildings and streets are (re)built in year 2000 with the old looking according to a local lady:(.
  • “official” lodging and food inside the “scenic” area way to expensive
  • The rest of the town is just as plain as other un-developed area in China.

Rating & Conclusion:
2 of 5. I would recommend you to take the day return trip from Shanghai, Hangzhou or other close-by city, if you insist to go there.

Online album.