China Travel document for kids

It’s been a while but I thought I’d share my experience of applying for the China Travel document from abroad-hopefully someone will find this information useful:)Let me start by saying that the process of applying for this document is not an easy one but it is definitely doable and it will make all international (where one spouse is Chinese) couples’ lives much easier in terms of traveling in-and-out of China with young children.

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I’ve always been a firm believer in the motto above so when an opportunity appeared right in front of me to get my hands into something completely different, I couldn’t say no, could I?

Long time no seen..

So I have disappeared for a really really long time. I know and I’m sorry. I can’t even promise it won’t happen again in the near future as my life is so busy right now! It’s mainly down to the course I’m doing whilst working full time but also due to wanting to enjoy life a bit more and being out more often than before.

I’ve always been a fan of the concept of rental bikes but am now a complete convert thanks to the dirt cheap scheme running in Guangzhou. There are quite a few competing companies offering VERY cheap rental, and apparently there are even plans to makes the bikes free in the future! I love it as it is great for me personally because it feels much more pleasant than exercising in the gym and is easier to do, plus I get to explore areas of the city I would have never been able to get to on foot or by any other transport. It is also fantastic for the city, less pollution, less crowds on the metro and public buses, less cars on the roads, brilliant!I just wish so many people wouldn’t abuse this scheme and keep stealing the bikes or, worse, destroying them or plainly throwing them away e.g. into a river just for kicks.

My OH and I have managed a few cycling trips so far but with our busy schedules it is proving harder to plan than we initially thought. Nonetheless, we have discovered some very interesting sight around the city, true hidden gems of buzzing communities or quaint parks. Here are some photos to display our discoveries:

Stumbled upon this misleadingly empty house very near to the modern centre of GZ

Right outside the university campus

Lovely cycling route by the Zhujiang River

Public Hospital in China Part 2

…The mad queuing started to make sense, kind of, once we found ourselves sitting in front of the doctor’s room, waiting to be called in or for my name to appear on the screen. You see, in China they don’t seem to have quite grasped the whole concept of following the order of appointments. To my utter astonishment I soon discovered that those, who queued up first, felt they had the right to walk into the room before those, who actually had earlier appointments!

Public hospital in China, Part 1

Queues at Chinese hospitals. Photo: China Daily

Occasionally, my stay at the local hospital did feel like a joke but not so much like a ‘haha I can’t control my laughter’ one, more like a frustrating, bemusing and perplexing kind of a joke.

Privacy? What’s that?!

Instead of spending my Saturday morning in a productive way – reading materials for my assignment and making notes – I decided to indulge and treat myself to some utterly delicious waffles in my favourite cafe in Gaungzhou, Maan Coffee. Bad decision…

Work, work, work…

Hello! Long time no seen! I haven’t updated this blog for absolute ages, I know, but I haven’t forgotten about it or given up on it. In fact, just the opposite, I have kept collecting stories and photos for future posts.

Laters China!

Dear readers, later today I am going away on my annual trip back home to Poland to visit my family and spend some quality time with them. Wechat, Skype and Facebook (thank you VPN!) are all great but there is nothing like catching up with relatives face-to-face.

 

Gulangyu

In my last post (here) I described the amazing birthday surprise my husband planned for me. It was a totally unexpected trip to the city of Xiamen and the nearby island of Gulangyu.

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Let me start of by saying that the last few weeks have been crazy! Extremely busy at work and at home, what with preparations for my summer holidays. To add to that, quite unexpectedly, I happened to do quite a bit of traveling, too. This weekend is probably the first one in ages when I don’t actually have anything planned. However, the bright side of this madness was being able to visit some of the most beautiful places I’ve seen in China.