Hi Steemit!

Lotus Garden, Baoding (first place I want to go to when I get there)

http://i63.tinypic.com/2hwfmlk.jpg

I’ve been sitting on some news over the past few weeks that I’ve been dying to write a post about but I had to keep it quiet until it had been made official. I’ve have been offered a job as consultant Senior Animation and Post Production Lecturer at HBU UCLAN University in Baoding, China. The University is in partnership with my old Uni, University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN). The course I shall be running will be the same degree I completed in 2010. All university courses are taught and delivered in English.

Mark @bobbins and I are scheduled to move to China next month. We’re going to be using Steemit to document our adventures. We haven’t even visited China before so this is a big move for us but we are very excited. We’ve been skyping new colleagues to find out what the living situation is like where we’ll be staying (the lecturers all live in the same building block) and everyone sounds great. We can’t wait to get over there.

I’m going to be showing Steemit to my students as a way of them documenting their work. Part of their course requires them to run their own blog alongside their work.
 
A bit about Baoding.

Baoding is less than an hour on the bullet train from Beijing and is one of China’s ten largest cities with a population of over ten million. Baoding is within the province of Hebei in which The Great Wall of China runs through. Baoding had some bad press for its pollution levels and was slated on various news sites leading up to the Beijing Olympics. The news does tend to go hard on any country hosting the Olympics; however, since then there has been a lot put in place to clean up the air and China are working very hard to find solutions to the problem. We’ve been told if we see locals wear masks we should follow suit.

You have probably guest that Baoding Balls originate from Baoding. Baoding Balls improve dexterity and keep your hand joints relaxed and nimble. They work in a similar way to western stress balls and have been around since the Ming Dynasty.

http://i66.tinypic.com/28jcd1u.jpg

Image found on keywordsking.com website


Places we would like to visit whilst in China:

As we haven’t been to China at all we are casting a wide net. There will be a lot of work to do when we get there but we are hoping to take in as much as we can whilst we’re there. Here are some places we have been researching. I’ve fallen in love with some of these places already just scrolling through the pictures. I can’t wait to share our actual experiences with you when we’re there for real!

Guilin

Situated on the west bank of the Li River Hunan border. Known for being one of the most picturesque parts of China and it's scenery of Karst Typography (landscape of soluble rocks such as limestone).

http://i63.tinypic.com/2hewoqa.jpg

Guilin (Li-River) Photo taken from the chinahighlights.com website.  


The Forbidden City, Beijing

Houses centuries of artworks and artefacts belonging to the various Emperors and leaders who lived there. We are only an hour away from Beijing so we will be able to explore the city in detail during our weekends. As well as being home to ancient traditions Beijing is famed for moving with the times and has many modern wonders we're keen to visit. 

http://i63.tinypic.com/2up48z8.jpg

Photo taken by photographer Katherine Belarmino. 

 
Chengdu

Chengdu now serves as the capital of China's Sichuan province. Home of the Panda protection and breeding facility. Generally I'm skeptical of animals being kept in unnatural environments but in this case it seems that the organisation do their best by these animals. We shall find out more when we get there. 

http://i63.tinypic.com/2gy7mmd.jpg

Photo taken for The Guardian website. 

Shanghai

Known for it's impressive skyline, museums and historic buildings. We are interested in seeing the beautiful Yu Garden but like many tourist spots in China it is apparently packed with people so we'll have to research the best times to go. 

http://i65.tinypic.com/3166b8k.jpg

Picture taken by Rem Sapozhako 

XI'AN Terracotta army

Created and placed to continue to fight for the Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. the Terracotta Army held more than 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses and 150 cavalry horses  

http://i68.tinypic.com/2nolky.jpg

Picture taken from The Guardian
 

 *When we get over there we are planning on using our original images, photographing our own experiences.


Looking forward to sharing our adventures with you all and using Steemit to document our experiences. 


Thanks Steemit!

Charlotte :)