THE GREAT WELCOME MAT OF CHINA

Hey Hey & A Big Aussie
G'Day to Ya Mate

I welcome you all to the Great Welcome Mat of China. To help keep it clean and user friendly I've moved all the hyperlinks for my time in Guangxi, Yunnan, Sichuan and Gansu to seperate Welcome Mats and have created another for my present journey in life...in the lush greens of Fujian Province.

At the bottom of each Welcome Mat you will find a selection of my favourite photos for each 'time period'.

So if you scroll to the bottom of this Welcome Mat you will find 'THE SELECTION' of my favourite photos from when I returned to China at the beginning of 2005 until now, 2009. They are a selection chosen from the thousands of photos I've taken during all my adventures that have taken me from the east coast, across the south to the west and then all the way to the middle north.

I HAVE ALSO WOVEN ALL PHOTO'S FOR EACH ENTRY TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE. SIMPLY SCROLL DOWN TO VIEW THEM!

It's been one hell of a journey my friends.

I've allowed my lifes dream to become a reality and have chosen to say 'Seeya Mate' to my beautiful homeland 'Down Under' to spread the good word of 'G'Day Mate' to as many people possible here in China.

I invite you to grab a beer and journey with me as I continue to throw my back pack on and venture to as many schools and diverse places as this wonderful country has to offer an Aussieroo from the Land Down Under.

Beers N Noodles To Ya Mate
PS: a wiseman once said to me: Rememeber my friend, lifes just one big long noodle!

Continue to scroll down for the 'Great Welcome Mat of China'



Life prior to China
2005: My life living on Queenslands Gold Coast prior to a life eating noodles in China
2005: The Rockin N Beering of it all in Melbourne Australia
2005: Of all places in the world, why I was crazy enough to choose China
2006: My month of 'Stardom' on Travelpod. To be serious, it was an honour. Click here and scroll to the 'In Your Words' section near the bottom
 


Information on Teaching In China: All The Blaa Blaa Blaa
2006: Contracts Money Accommodation Recruiters etc



THE WELCOME MAT SITS BEFORE MANY DOORS IN LIFE
CHOOSE FROM THE LIST BELOW TO OPEN THE DOOR AND JOIN ME ON MY ADVENTURES AND LIFE EXPERIENCES PAST AND PRESENT IN THIS CRAZY DIVERSE YET BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY

THE GREAT WELCOME MAT TO MY LIFE IN GUANGXI & YUNNAN
February 2005 to 30 June 2006
This will open the door to my first year and a half in China.
Come through and take and adventure or two with me somewhere in Guangxi and/or Yunnan Provinces.

THE GREAT WELCOME MAT TO MY LIFE IN SICHUAN & GANSU
1st July 2006 to Mid December 2006
This will open the door to my time spent travelling in Sichuan Province and teaching in Gansu Province.
Come through and share a beer or two. Lifes pathway took me from the lush greens of the south to the bare hills of the middle north.

THE GREAT WELCOME MAT TO MY LIFE IN FUJIAN PROVINCE
Mid December 2006 to June 2008
This will open the door to my time spent travelling and teaching in the beautiful south eastern coastal province of Fujian. Come through and lets share some seafood over too many beers. Life returned me to the lush greens of the south where I belong.

THE GREAT WELCOME MAT TO MY LIFE IN SHAANXI PROVINCE
1st July 2008 to Present
This will open the door to my time spent travelling and teaching in the awesomely historical middle province of Shaanxi. Come through and lets share a beer during a visit to the Terracotta Warriors. Life took me from the coastal monsoons to a mixture of both destert and subtropical climates to drink my beer and eat my noodles in


Eddakath On Walk About - There N Back Again Travelling China Stories.
Some Strange, Some Even Funny & Some Just Plain Stoopid!
2005: May Day Beers N Noodles Adventure
The 1st day in a week long local adventure to Pingguo, Loyer, Hor Mai, Cunden and Lingyun

2005: Summer Beers N Noodles Adventure
The 1st day of my adventures travelling from Guangxi's coastal city of Beihai to Guilin, Ping'an, Yangshuo, Nanning onto Yunnans Kunming, Dali, Lijiang, Qiatou, through the Tiger Leaping Gorge and walked to Haba, to Zhongdian, Deqin, up to the Mingyong Glacier and back to Kunming

2005: National Day Beers N Noodles Adventure
A new bike for Shane and a week in beautiful Lingyun

2005: A Beers N Noodles Adventure in Jingxi
Jingxi has one of Chinas most wanted and photographed pagodas

2006: Winter Beers N Noodles Adventure
The 1st day of my adventure spent in paradise in Yunnans Xishuangbanna where I visited Jinghong, Mengla, Menghai, Menghun, Mangshau, Nanluoshan, Gasa and the freaky Damenlong

2006: May Day Beers N Noodles Adventure
The Great Chinese Vietnamese seafood N BBQ border adventure where I visited Xialei, the Detian waterfalls, Daxin, Pingxian, and the costal border city of Dongxing

2006: Summer Beers N Noodles Adventure
The 1st day in my adventures that took me from Yangshuo back along the trail through Dali and Zhongdian. From there I took the mountain journey to Chengdu visiting Xiangcheng, Litang, Kangding, Ya'an, Leshan and Emei Shan. Then it was up to Songpan for a horse trek, then to Langmusi, Xiahe, Langzhou, Baiyin, Xian and back to Yangshuo

2007: Winter Beers N Noodles Adventure
The 1st day in my adventures that took me along a beautiful part of Fujians coast and inland. I romanced in Xiamen, slept in Minority Peoples Huge Earth Buildings, Temple walked in Quanzhou, walked the streets of a small Ancient Walled town in Chongwu, spent a night in Fuzhou, ate Spring Festival lunch in a small village and spent time in a small Tea House in Sunchang with a beautiful girl and her friends

2007: May Day Beers N Noodles Adventure
The 1st day in my adventure that took me to the coastal futuristic modern city of Shanghai.
I walked, I talked and I got to drink foreign beer and pay foreign prices. I did my usual Temple Walk and got to see how many of the cities inner suburbs change in appearance and vibe. I spent time with the millions walking down Nanjing Road, trying to take photos from The Bung of futuristic Pudong and did 301kms on the airport train on the way home.

2007: Summer Beers N Noodles Adventure
The first day of my adventure that took me along the middle of China across to the east coast and then back down to Fujian Province. It all began in Xi'an where I stayed with my Xian/Aussie family with whom I headed to Louyang with. We sadly parted due to a family tradegy and I then headed to ancient Kaifeng and found a beautiful girl to call my own. The adventure then headed to Zhengzhou, Bozhou, Hefei, Nanjing, Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Zhouzhuang, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Wenzhou and Fuzhou. AWESOME!

2007: National Day Beers N Noodles Adventure
Pretty much a short run down on my relaxing week off where I spent most of my time on my bike far out into the fields. It is Autumn and that means its time for the farmers to harvest the rice fields which are all full of beautiful colours. For photos of the fields you will have to check out the following entry.

2008: Winter Beers N Noodles Adventure
Sadly having no Passport due to my VISA Expiring half way through my break I had to post my Passport to my boss prior to the beginning of the Winter Break. Even sader was the fact that what should have taken only several weeks ended up taking about a month and a half. What a bugger for me! I pretty much slept many of the days away and partied through the nights with different friends. On a happier note, Luo Wei (Amigo) came to visit me twice and stayed for a month in total.

2008: Summer Beers N Noodles Adventure
This will take you to my first day where I headed back to the ancient city of Xian in Shaanxi Province. I then headed to the ancient romantic walled city of Pingyao in Shanxi Pro ince and after a over bearing stint on the famous Wutai Mountain I met up with Luo Wei. Together we headed first north and then west to the dry northern provinces of Inner Mongolia Province and Ningxia Province. We then headed back east to her home province of Henan Province where I spent a week relaxing on the very beautiful Jigong Mountain, which surprise to me came filled with European architecture.

2009: Winter Beers N Noodles Adventure
This will take you to a page full of information and photos on Cantanese Cuisine. It will also take you to my first day in a gloriously warm and sunny month that I spent in Guangzhou City which was once known as Canton City. As my passport was running out I had to choose between freezing cold Beijing and sunny and warm Guangzhou to have my passport renewed. Obviously only an idiot would choose freezing cold Beijing. After Guangzhou I headed back north to spend some time with Luo Wei in Kaifeng City.

2009: Summer Beers N Noodles Adventure
This page will take you to the first day of my adventure that took me from Xian across to Qufu city (where Confucius lived and taught) in Shandong Province and then to the east coast to check out Yantai, mythical Penglai and beery Weihai before more beers in Qingdao City. Then down to Anhui Provinced to climb mysterious Mount Huangshan and have fun around the Tunxi area. I then headed west to Jiangxi Province to visit several ancient villages in Wuyuan County, which is said to be the most beautiful part of China. I was then glazed in Jingdezhen city (the porcelain capital of China) and it was then a little north for a Yangzi adventure in Jiujiang city and to end it all in the colonial retreat on Mount Lushan.

CLICK HERE FOR A SELECTION OF MY FAVOURITE WEBSITES
There really are some helpful sites here that I use all the time

* A great selection of exciting & helpful Travelblogs
* All Things Aussie: Aussie Dictionary & great Independant Radio sites
* All Things Chinese: China's train time table, population by province,
   top 49 attractions to Chinese/English Newspapers and Magazines
* Free software sites
* Plain stoopid or freaky sites
* Sites helpful to travellers: world weather & holiday index, info on the Trans
   Siberian, how to offer a room to a fellow traveller and how to find one for yourself
* For those who love to cook a great site on World Recipes
   and more etc etc!

The World of Wiki Sites - Click here for a detailed list to choose from