Author Archives: Mark Griffith
Camping at the Great Wall
ad•vent•ure an exciting or very unusual experience a bold, usually risky undertaking; hazardous action of uncertain outcome We’ve been in Beijing for three months and while I been lucky enough to get out for a couple of hikes (1, 2)  on the Great Wall I hadn’t been camping for around 6 months, the longest time … Continue reading
The Great Wall – Gubeikou to Jinshanling
The Great Wall is an icon in China, one of those cultural legacies that is a symbol of national pride. And its on everyone’s list to visit when they come to China. (There are over 435 thousand photos on Flickr as of this posting of the Wall). There are photos of the wall packed with … Continue reading
Carnival of the Animals
The elementary school at Beijing City International School (BCIS) had a show on Friday called the Carnival of the Animals. Each grade dressed in costume as different animals and preformed a song or a dance. Â The costumes were very elaborate and I am sure were all hand sewn somewhere here in Beijing. Â There was everything … Continue reading
Chinese Drivers License
Getting your Driver’s License in China for a foreigner is a three step process : Get your eye exam at an approved hospital Visit License Bureau to pay fee and schedule time for test Take the written driving exam I had the help of the local company (Asian Tigers) as part of my settling into … Continue reading
Becoming Familiar
With most new situations in life you have two basic ways you can react : you can cope or go crazy. Accept and embrace or reject and hate. Find the adventure or only complain. The old adage of “attitude determines your altitude” holds true. But it’s not called culture shock for no reason. Reacting to … Continue reading
Guilin and Yangshuo
When you visualize the iconic images of China what do you think of? In the top 4 have to be Mao Zedong, The Forbidden City, The Great Wall and finally Guilin with its fantastic karst mountain topography. There is a common saying in Chinese : 桂林山水甲天下 : Gulin’s scenery is the most beautiful under heaven. … Continue reading
Guilin or Bust – Busted
Our first domestic vacation in China started out way too early and entirely on the wrong foot. Originally I had thought that I was booking the flights for 7:30 in the evening on Friday but it turned out they were for 7:30 am. When I realized this on Tuesday this started a series of time … Continue reading
Student Led
I’ve had the opportunity over the past several weeks to spend several visits at the kids school, Beijing City International School. I had the chance to meet twice with an education consultant, John Littleford, the school had hired to do an assessment. He conducted a series of interviews I’ve already written about. I also had … Continue reading
The Familiar
Many folks back in the states seem to react in shock at times about our decision to move to China. I still meet people here (at work) who are visiting from the States : “Hey what are you doing here? (Cause they expect to see me in Seattle not Beijing) “I live here.” “You do?” … Continue reading
Biking to Work
Traffic in Beijing This is a video taken while biking to work. It’s shot with a GoPro HD camera that I’ve mounted to the handlebars of my bike. I live around 1.6 miles from work and biking usually takes me around 10 minutes. Biking in Beijing is generally very safe once you adapt to the … Continue reading