China
Recycling the trash
12/17/2010 ChinaChinese mythsQingdao
In Japan, and several other countries, household trash needs to be separated into various categories and those categories of trash are put outside for collection on predetermined days. Common categories may be metals, plastics, glass, combustible, noncombustible, etc. The main reason for this is to increase the amount of recycling and decrease the amount of trash that ends up in landfills. Here in Qingdao though, all trash can be thrown out together on any day of the week. That makes life much simpler for the average household, who probably wouldn’t separate it anyway, and means that the trash is collected daily. But, what about recycling? How can glass bottles, metal …
Problems with landlord – Part 2
12/01/2010 ChinaChinese peopleQingdao
Following on from before . . . After leaving China on the 30th August with the landlord threatening to have a locksmith open the door and change the lock, I returned to a busy schedule in Japan. Two lawyers and the real estate agent assured me that not even this crazy landlord would be so stupid as to have somebody open the door without my permission as that would be a clear breach of several laws, and that the only way he could gain access to the room was if I were to open the door. Since there was no way I was going to do that, I felt sure …
Old Stone Man, Qingdao
10/22/2010 Qingdao
Shilaoren, which means “Old Stone Man”, is one of Qingdao’s most popular tourist beaches. It was named after the shape of the prominent rock outcropping located just off the Shilaoren Peninsula. The rock is said to resemble an old fisherman waiting for his daughter to return from beneath the waves. The daughter was taken by the dragon prince who later turned the waiting father into stone.
Simplified Chinese
10/05/2010 Chinese language
Chinese has two main character sets: traditional and simplified. Most of the simplified Chinese characters used now are due to the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the 1950s and 1960s. However, the simplification of Chinese characters has its origins long before the formation of the PRC in 1949. When Chinese is written in cursive text, there is almost always some simplification of characters. This has been true since as early as the Qin Dynasty (221 – 206 BC). The People’s Republic of China announced its first two lists of official simplified characters in 1956 and 1964. You can see from this newspaper that traditional characters were …
Drink menu
09/24/2010 TranslationChina
This is part of a drink menu from a large Chinese restaurant in Dalian. Two things jumped out at me. First is the fact that the only local beer is in fact a Japanese beer. It is, no doubt, brewed locally, but . . . The second curious item on the menu is “Soda Water (no gas)”. What is soda water if you take the gas out? [ Click for a larger image ]
