What I'll Miss & Sending Postcards

So what are some of the things I'll miss about China? To prevent this post from becoming a book, I will only briefly list some of the things i'll miss along with some personal pics. Drum roll please...............

1. Cheap food, as long as it's in a Chinese restaurant. Foreign owned restaurants are very expensive.

Gong pao chicken, tofu, rice, tea and cold water for less than $3

2. Hospitality of locals. People dine out very often here and so it's very common for them to treat each other or a guest at one of their favorite restaurants. Since a lot of business deals are done in restaurants, most of my first meetings with a potential student or employer are often in a restaurant. And because I leave soon, many friends have been "treating" me lately :) 

Hot Pot in Xi'an with Aiesecers

3. Having fun can be free or cheap!

African Village at World Park Beijing

4. Interesting people you meet. Expat community in Beijing gives you the opportunity to meet professionals in different fields from all parts of the world. You also meet people from countries you didn't know existed.

5. BIG multi-floor restaurants with creative (traditional or modern) interior design. I also like the fact that you can try different kind of restaurants from all parts of the country.

4 storey traditional restaurant. I never ate here, so I don't know the kind of food served there.

6. Cheap phone cards. a $9 phone card can last me about 1month if I don't send international text or talk for too long.

7. Cheap public transportation (buses, subways, trains and taxis). Cost of buses 40cents, subways-2RMB.  Also, China's extensive and cheap railway system makes it convenient and economical to travel across the country on land.And so it's common for travelers to take a weekend trip to a nearby city and be back by Monday morning. Also, the bullet trains travelling between major cities makes a long trip such as Beijing to Shanghai just as fast as taking the plane.

China's railroad map

8. My churches. I go to two  international churches for different fellowships, I have met christian friends from across the world at these churches. 

A  Chinese church which I only attended once or twice.

9. My two favourite shopping websites; amazon.cn and vancl.cn

10. Funny things the locals do and say here

"The Beijing Belly", only visible in the summer

11. Novel foods, fruit, vegetables and spices. I only try "interesting looking" foods at the restaurants as I wouldn't know how to cook them if I were to buy them raw at the supermarkets.

Dried goods

12. Teaching English to my students, both young and old as well as cultural exchanges through class discussions and talking to parents.

Kids with their moms and grandmas learning their ABCs before preschool!

***

From China with love, Postcards giveaway: To thank my readers over these past few months, I have decided to send postcards to 10 lucky readers or less.

How to enter

1. Be a follower, I currently have 15 followers, so chances of receiving a postcard is quite high

2. Leave a comment below about this post 

3. Comment by Tuesday, July 17th (China Time +8GMT)

I will contact randomly selected winners by Wednesday to ask for the address you would like the postcards to be sent, I'll then send the cards by Thursday.   

I look forward to reading your beautiful comments.