ByGD
I have written before about the time I got bumped from a flight out of Shanghai and the airline put us up in an airport hotel of sorts. The hotel seemed fairly nice, except for a couple of sketchy elements – like the no prostitution sign inside the hotel room door. I regretted that I didn’t take a picture of that sign. Then later I found it. Proof that prostitution is not permitted at hotels near Pudong airport. So reassuring.
ByGD
This week (starting April 27) was supposed to be the week the schools reopened. But oh well, we’ve got a pretty good system in place now. The schools have stepped up their remote teaching, and I’m filling in the gaps with things that are lots of fun – including history lessons based on Chinese dramas. Here’s how we rocked the seventh week of pandemic homeschool (sixth week of instruction).
ByGD
At Thanksgiving my family went to Hong Kong. Fortunately, our trip fell during a rare week of safe travel. We visited during a lull in protests after the local elections and before the pandemic. Even though the timing of our trip was lucky, getting to Hong Kong was hard.
ByGD
For the most part, I was impressed (or maybe overwhelmed is a better word) by how much money there was in Qingdao. Everything seemed shiny and clean and either new or delightfully vintage.
But on one charming little street I saw this nest of wires. It reminded me of the power poles in India. I don’t know if it’s still the case, but when I was there 20 years ago, it was common for entire villages to steal electricity by climbing the power poles and connecting wires unofficially.
I don’t know if that’s what’s happening here or if there’s another, less dangerous explanation. For the most part, I try to avoid the sort of value judgements inherent in phrases like “developed nations” and even “rich societies.” There’s enough wrong with my culture that I’m in no position to throw stones (or snide comments) at the way people do things elsewhere.
But I’m glad that scary-looking nests of wire are not part of my everyday life.
ByGD
When we traveled to Qingdao, China in 2007 to meet our daughter, we stayed in the Crowne Plaza. I’m not really a hotel person – most of my travel has involved youth hostels – so I had never heard of the place before. It was comfortable and fancy but hardly registered at the time because we had big emotional stuff going on.
The only thing about it that really stuck in my mind was the tagline on all the stationery and swag:
Crowne Plaza – a place to meet
When I went back with my daughter in 2015 to visit and explore, I chose a much more quirky and historical hotel as our base of operations. But one day, as we wandered around the city, we stumbled on a family historical site – the Crowne Plaza Hotel we stayed in on the trip when we met our daughter.