by Alison | Jun 17, 2026 | Blog, Just Life, Travels
I love hiking, and I’m thankful that Guangzhou has so many places to go hiking. When I need some time alone in nature, I usually go to Baiyun mountain (白云山) because it’s right beside my house. It only takes about 10 minutes to walk to the gate, and I have a delightful...
by Alison | Jun 10, 2026 | Blog, Just Life, Travels
Last month, at my book club, a friend from Hungary mentioned that there was a nice Georgian (the country in Eastern Europe/Western Asia) restaurant nearby. This month, our friend who is unofficially in charge of choosing the restaurant chose this Georgian restaurant...
by Alison | Jun 3, 2026 | Blog, Just Life
This semester, I had a dream come true—a good dream! During my first year teaching in China, more than a decade ago (Yikes! It feels weird to say that!), I taught spoken English for English majors. I loved it. We had lots of fun practicing random role plays and...
by Alison | May 27, 2026 | Blog, Chinese Language and Culture, Just Life
In the Chinese literature class that I’ve been auditing, we spent several weeks looking at Tang and Song Dynasty poetry. I never imagined that I would enjoy poetry from these periods. I can barely understand English poetry unless someone explains it to me, but the...
by Alison | May 20, 2026 | Blog, Chinese Language and Culture, Travels
I may have mentioned before that I really enjoy hot pot. China has many different flavors of hot pot. Different areas often have their own specialties. Sichuan and Chongqing hot pots are both spicy but with different degrees of spiciness and with different...
