Ruth Lor Malloy |
China Guide China Travel Current Information |
I travel to China several times a year mainly for fun but also to check out hotels and new tourist attractions for my book.
The following information is not in my 2002 book.The following items are dated with the month the information was obtained. Everything is subject to change but this should give you a good idea of what to expect. Please also look at our collection of photos from some of these places.
Vertical Layout Slides - Landscape Layout SlidesThe last update for this page was 12/31/08
Planning Your Trip
Health Precautions, (page 69, 2002 edition). IAMAT, the International Association for Medical Assistance to Travellers, now lists western-trained English-speaking doctors in 28 cities in China. It would be wise for travelers to join this organization and get the 2003 edition of its world-wide directory before you leave home. It's free and IAMAT accepts no fees from anyone for this service. It depends on voluntary contributions.
Prices for the IAMAT-listed doctors are usually lower than that of the international clinics in China that seem to cater to expatriates on expense accounts.
For more information on memberships and leaflets on How to Protect Yourself Against Malaria, etc., write 40 Regal Road, Guelph, Ontario, N1K 1B5, Canada or 417 Center Street, Lewiston, NY, 14092, U.S.A. E-mail: info@iamat.org or website: www.iamat.org . Offices are also in New Zealand and Switzerland.
More Chinese Movies (page 59, 2002 edition.)
Balzac And The Little Chinese Seamstress: This very good film set in Sichuan province near the Three Gorges during the end of the Cultural Revolution has enough humor to make a movie of that terrible period actually pleasant. The beautiful scenery is a plus. -
There's also Together with an unconvincing plot about a brilliant 14-year old musician brought up in the countryside who gets to study with Beijing's top teachers and play with a symphony orchestra. The Tchaikowsky is great and the Hutong scenery plentiful. - RLM-DATE, July, 2003
Back to the Updates IndexAdoptions in China
If you have or are planning to adopt a Chinese child, there's a website for you: Families with Children from China is at: http://fwcc.org/. This wonderful site is full of information and links to everything you need. It's got uptodate regulations, descriptions of cities in China where
children come from, and support groups.
Back to the Updates IndexTeaching in China
I haven't had a chance to check this out but people interested in teaching English in China might write to the Peaceclub@usa.net for information. It pays a salary, and it's located in beautiful little Zhuhai on the Macau border. I probably won't be back there for a few months. -- RLM, Dec. 1999.* * *
I took my own advice (page 84) and started asking hotels if they needed a teacher of English in return for room and board. Fortunately, the Garden Hotel in Taishan (page 608) said yes. Having just spent four weeks there, I have no hesitation about recommending such an experience for others, even if they've had no teaching experience. But I don't guarantee it'll be so wonderful and happy.
I worked six days a week with four hours of classes in conversational English a day. Preparation took several more hours a day, but would have been less if I had earlier found the cheap text books China publishes.
I was lucky because the manager Alan Ng was so supportive. I had the use of the office computer, printer, and photocopying machine. The food was good, my room clean, well-air-conditioned, and overlooked the pool. The hotel also did my laundry and provided a steady supply of fresh flowers and fruit.
I was also included in excursions to nearby Zhuhai and my farewell banquet with 11 staff members was in an almost 5-star hotel in Kaiping.
I started out with over 75 or so students. Fortunately, some American guests also volunteered to help. The numbers dwindled to more manageable sizes as discouragement took its toll when students realized they couldn't learn a language in a couple of days. Work too kept numbers down. A busy hotel meant missing classes and it was hard to catch up. And of course, with a full work load, students were too tired to study. A couple fell asleep in class.
I did learn that a fear of being embarrassed kept others from the classes, especially managers in front of their subordinates. We ended up with classes fluctuating between four and fifteen. Fortunately for my teaching ego, a loyal group kept coming to all my classes, obviously anxious to learn, asking questions, and finally towards the end, engaging in real conversations.
Most of the students had only had middle school English, not enough to give them confidence enough to speak in it.
For me, the rewards were immeasurable. Taishan is my father's home county and I spent Sundays visiting relatives with the hotel providing reduced taxi fares. Students took me sightseeing. I met a doctor who spoke excellent English through the hotel, and also Chinese teachers of English. While Mr. Ng was the only person fluent in English in the hotel, these others gave me a happy social life.
And going for early morning walks in this very pretty little city was a sheer joy. I had time to watch the lotus flowers bud and then blossom in our hotel's garden, to discover one morning, the heavy scent of jasmine flowers, where none had existed before.
The weather ranged from 28C to 32C with lots of cooling rain while temperatures in New York and Toronto went up to 40C.
I had a chance too to observe the results of the one-child family, to see the changes even in such a short time, in the standard of English. It certainly is still not fluent, and I hope that future visitors will challenge the staff to practice their English.
Hotel managers like to have volunteers because it saves them the hassles of getting someone through official channels. A short term like a month is preferred by some. Such teachers are primarily "tourists". RLM. July, 1999* * *
To contact: Global Volunteers in the story below, email@globalvolunteers.org or http://www.globalvolunteers.org.* * *
We are now back in the US after an excellent five weeks in China... We especially want to thank you for your correspondence before we went. It was immensely helpful and made us not only more comfortable but also more eager as we planned our trip... We flew into Hong Kong and had two nights there before flying to Xian where we stayed for three weeks. In Xian we worked with Global Volunteers teaching English (see page 85), an excellent way to begin our time in China.
We found teaching English a terrific way to feel connected and somewhat grounded in China. Each person's experience was different. For example. I, (Ann) taught in a middle school where I worked with the five English teachers, assisting one each day of the week in their oral English classes (50+ students in each) and in correcting student essays. At my own request, I had an after-lunch open discussion time for any students who chose to come back early. I was the only volunteer working in that school.
George worked at a university with one other person from Global Volunteers where they had different groups ranging in size from about 12 to 20. These groups were not part of regularly scheduled classes and George and his partner planned the discussion topic or activity themselves.
YES!! I would recommend that other North Americans also teach through Global Volunteers if they have the 19 days to spend, and we arrived two days early, which we would strongly recommend.
The program started Sunday evening, but we flew in from Hong Kong on Friday morning.
That allowed us to get settled, participate in tai chi early Saturday and Sunday mornings, visit the history museum, walk the wall, and find the nearest Internet cafe. (We'd recommend setting up a"hotmail.com" Internet account before leaving the US. !!!).
Teaching through Global Volunteers cost US$1995/person for all Xi'an expenses, except for weekend tours. Travel afterwards is extra.
All Global Volunteers-related expenses, including travel, are tax-deductible. About half the people hadn't taught much before. You do need energy, imagination, and flexibility. Our training? On Monday, we spent the morning in orientation, and by afternoon we received our assignments to various different schools. Formal training was really not possible because of very different settings and expectations. But it seemed that everyone did well overall; most people did some group singing and the important point was to speak, speak, speak, focusing on difficult sounds wherever possible. Many of our students had five-six years, but mostly in structured lesson plans. Many had difficulty in spoken English.
--George and Ann Levinger, April/May, 1999Getting to China
Passengers on China Southern Airlines (page 92) from Los Angeles to Guangzhou can get boarding passes upon check-in at Los Angeles
International Terminal Five, for their same-day domestic China Southern flight. Once arriving passengers clear Chinese customs and
immigration, they can drop checked luggage off at the airlines' Transfer Desk adjacent to the customs reception area in Guangzhou. RLM..
Back To Ruth Lor Malloy Home Page
Copyright © 2009 by Ruth Lor Malloy. All rights reserved
Web Site Design and Maintenance
tdc Marketing and Management
Consultation