What shop is that?

How difficult is it to exist in China without understanding Chinese? Earlier I promised to post a range of photos showing shop fronts. I defy anyone who has no Chinese to identify these shops. Hint: most of them are restaurants and liquor/gift stores. And one is a foot massage shop - look for the feet!

These oldies don't need the internet

These oldies don't need the internet. They can get their (not really free) news, for free!

How many mobile phone subscribers in China?

574 million

English as it is pronounced

You've just got to smile when you hear on the normally excellent CCTV news, a story of the Olympic Torch being carried by "the Torch Burier" [berry-er].


Well, I guess that would have to be the end of that torch.

Skype

The cheapest way (ie free) of communicating (if you have a computer and broadband) is through Voip technology - eg Skype. The software is free to download. Click here to learn more. It helps if you have headset with microphone (cheap to purchase).

My Skype address is deedubble.you
Remember that I am 3 hours behind Australian Eastern Time. I am unavailable Tue to Fri until 6pm, although I may be home on Wed and Thu mornings. I look forward to connecting with you!

Contact!

It still took several days before I was able to work out how to get them to ring my apartment from Australia using a phone card bought in Australia – by far the cheapest way. No less than 40 digits to press makes it a bit of a challenge.
Still no internet connection in the flat, though.

The caretaker woman insists all we need to do is enter an IP address on our computer. When requested to do so, she couldn’t. It is an ongoing saga, and quite frustrating, as my reliance on the internet for so many things, least of all lesson preparation, is considerable.

Postscript: all is now working - persistence has paid off! Thank you all, for your messages of support - they are very much appreciated.