Archive for November, 2009

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Watch CCTV Online

November 30th, 2009

CCTV_Logo

UPDATE: As of 2/15/10 this method for watching CCTV online no longer works due to some change CCTV has made on their end regarding streaming. Once I figure out how to fix this, I’ll post another update.

There’s nothing like a lazy-Sunday of simply laying in bed or on the couch and flipping channels all afternoon. Unfortunately this becomes boring quickly when you only have 2 channels like I have. I guess I could buy myself a satellite dish but I can’t justify the purchase. Fortunately I stumbled across a great blog post from Bill Glover, another expat from the UK. Bill had discovered that it was possible to watch CCTV streaming live online.

For those of you who are interested in learning Chinese, watching CCTV can be an invaluable resource. In fact, students ask me how they can learn more English and I recommend watching some easy TV shows and movies. So it only makes sense that we Chinese learners should do the same.

A quick and dirty way to watch CCTV: use VLC Media Player

  1. Open VLC
  2. File > Open Network
  3. Copy URL of the desired channel into the dialogue box
  4. Click “Open” and enjoy
Channel Category URL
CCTV 1 General mms://cctv-live-cctv1.wm.llnwd.net/cctv_live_cctv1
CCTV 2 Finance mms://cctv-live-cctv1.wm.llnwd.net/cctv_live_cctv2
CCTV 3 Arts, Entertainment mms://cctv-live-cctv1.wm.llnwd.net/cctv_live_cctv3
CCTV 4 International (cn) mms://cctv-live-cctv1.wm.llnwd.net/cctv_live_cctv4
CCTV 5 Sports mms://cctv-live-cctv1.wm.llnwd.net/cctv_live_cctv5
CCTV 6 Movies mms://cctv-live-cctv1.wm.llnwd.net/cctv_live_cctv6
CCTV 7 Children, Military, Agriculture mms://cctv-live-cctv1.wm.llnwd.net/cctv_live_cctv7
CCTV 8 TV Series mms://cctv-live-cctv1.wm.llnwd.net/cctv_live_cctv8
CCTV 9 English Channel mms://cctv-live-cctv1.wm.llnwd.net/cctv_live_cctv9
CCTV 10 Science, Education mms://cctv-live-cctv1.wm.llnwd.net/cctv_live_cctv10
CCTV 11 Chinese Opera mms://cctv-live-cctv1.wm.llnwd.net/cctv_live_cctv11
CCTV 12 Society, Law mms://cctv-live-cctv1.wm.llnwd.net/cctv_live_cctv12
CCTV News News mms://cctv-live-cctv1.wm.llnwd.net/cctv_live_cctvnews
CCTV Children Cartoons ?
CCTV Music Music (opera) mms://cctv-live-cctv1.wm.llnwd.net/cctv_live_cctvmusic
CCTV HD High Definition mms://cctv-live-cctv1.wm.llnwd.net/cctv_live_cctvhd

Unfortunately, I think this method is a bit tedious, so I’ve simplified it by creating an M3U playlist, which can easily be played in Windows Media Player, Winamp, VLC, etc. This makes it much easier to “channel surf” and enjoy watching TV again. Grab the playlist here: http://drop.io/cctvplaylist

To give props, where they’re due, check out Bill Glover’s site: http://billglover.co.uk/

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Thanksgiving in China

November 26th, 2009

First of all, Happy Thanksgiving to those of you reading this. Thanksgiving has been a different experience for me this year. In a country thatBeijing Duck doesn’t celebrate Thanksgiving, and a turkey is hard to find, my colleagues and I have had to make sacrifices. That includes working on Thanksgiving, and having Beijing duck for dinner instead of turkey. It’s a great meal, and hey, it’s a bird too, so that’s like 2 out of 3 right?

Either way, I’m disappointed about missing Thanksgiving at home for probably three reasons, in no particular order. (But if I had to choose, it’d go 2, 3, 1)

1. Impromptu Jamestown all-class reunion: go out on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving and everyone you know is out at the bars, including the people you never see, and the people you never want to see.

2. Second Thanksgiving at Dave’s: the eighth annual Thanksgiving leftovers and getting drunk party is a sad one to miss, especially if there will be “food-shots”. Apparently Schloegel and Dewald are going to fight (it was promised, and never materialized last year) and I want to see who wins. I put money on Dewald, based purely on his spite of Dave. Check out the promo video by @codymick.fight

3. Family: of course I’m going to miss Thanksgiving with my family. As much as everyone might dislike their relatives, you probably really like to see them, at least for a few hours. Well, unfortunately, I don’t even get that kind of opportunity. Not to mention I definitely won’t be having any of grandma’s pumpkin pie. That pretty much ruins Thanksgiving for me right there.

Too Much Sauce

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Chengdu: Du Fu’s Cottage and Going Home

November 22nd, 2009

Tuesday was our final day in Chengdu so we awoke rather early in order to see what we wanted to see before having to find the bus to the airport. Upon leaving the hostel we realized it was finally a beautiful day, the first one since we arrived, and unfortunately the one we wouldn’t be able to stay and enjoy. First thing’s first, and that’s breakfast. We found some noodles for breakfast, not what I always like to have for breakfast, but definitely not unheard of.

Following breakfast we walked wandered around the park just west of Jinli street where I saw many retirees dancing, and practicing Tai Chi with fans,Tai Chi and swords. We then looked at a small temple, nothing too amazing, but some very nice scenery.

After the park we headed to Du Fu’s Thatched Cottage, a site that my Chinese father had suggested we see. The cottage was the home of Du Fu, a very famous Chinese poet of the Tang dynasty, over 1000 years ago. Along with the cottage remains, is a beautiful park, as well as the Gong Bu temple. Seeing the remains of a Chinese homestead from over a 1000 years ago gives an interesting perspective as to how the people lived in that time.

Finally it was time to head for the airport, our plane was leaving in 2 hoursLeaving Chengduand we didn’t want to miss this it. We headed back downtown near Chunxi Lu and found the bus to the airport.  The rest of the trip from the airport to home was rather uneventful, but I was certainly happy to be home. Chengdu was great fun, but who knew tourism could be so tiring?

See the Chengdu pictures here.

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Chengdu: Pandas & Jinli Street

November 21st, 2009

Monday I got to sleep in a little bit, and by little, I mean like 7:30 AM because I convinced Jinfei that she should shower first. After the previous miserably cold and wet day, I didn’t even want to leave the hotel if it was raining, so I looked out the window. It was raining. Despite not leaving the hotel until 8:30 AM we were clearly the first ones to leave because the front door was still locked. Then again, there’s a good chance there wasn’t too many people staying at the hotel that night. Jinfei and I joined Zhu Mangqi for breakfast again, some vegetables, a boiled egg, a few baozi and we were ready to go. Fortunately while we were eating breakfast the rain stopped. I remember thinking that it could actually be a pleasant day!

A couple bus rides, and about an hour after breakfast the three of us arrived at the Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center. It is here that many of the only 1000 pandas that exist were conceived, born, and raised. I was pretty excited to see some live pandas and because it wasn’t raining. ThePandasPanda Breeding and Reasearch Center was like a large park, with habitats for the adult and sub-adult giant pandas (the black and white ones) as well as the red pandas. There was also a nursery which housed the baby pandas until they were old enough to live in their habitat outdoors. The baby pandas we’re probably the coolest, and cutest thing I saw the whole day, but unfortunately they wouldn’t allow pictures of them.

» Read more: Chengdu: Pandas & Jinli Street

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Chengdu: Guanxian Dam & Qingcheng Mtn.

November 21st, 2009

Early Sunday morning I was awoken by my alarm at 6:00 AM, it was too early to be awake, but I took the initiative to get in the shower. We had a long day ahead of us and needed an early start. Restrooms around here are often referred to as the WC (water closet), thanks to the Brits. Well the bathroom in this hotel was a literal water closet; a closet sized room with a squat toilet in the middle of the floor, a shower head over it that drained into the same hole and a tiny sink off to the side. It was functional, you just had to make sure when showering you kept your eyes open and maneuvered around the hole in the floor. I’m a little disappointed I didn’t get a picture of it actually.

After showering and grabbing some quick breakfast with Zhu Mangqi at her University cafeteria, Jinfei, me and Zhu Mangqi all headed for the bus. A bus ride, a taxi ride, and another bus ride later we finally arrived at the entrance to the Guanxian Dam park. Chengdu has had a promotion going on since shortly after the earthquake to promote tourism in the area, the Panda Card. I had read online that they stopped selling these over a month ago, but lo and behold, there are people everywhere around the touristy areas trying to make a buck by selling them at 3-4 times face value. I decided it’d be a good idea to pick one up, even paying 40 yuan (4 times the face value of 10 yuan) was still a good deal considering we’d be going to a few sites of interest and most of the admission tickets at these sites were 50-90 yuan each.

Guanxian Dam is located on the northwest outskirts of Chengdu. The MinjiangGuanxian Dam River splits into four tributaries near the town, two of which flow on either side of Chengdu. Over the centuries, a series of water systems have been developed at Guanxian, the first as far back as 350 BC The water has been diverted from Minjiang River to the nearby plains for irrigation. The Guanxian Dam area is largely a tribute to Li Bing and his sons who took it upon themselves to begin to dig diversions to bring water from the river to the villages nearly 33 centuries ago.

» Read more: Chengdu: Guanxian Dam & Qingcheng Mtn.

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Chengdu: Arrival & Chunxi Road

November 19th, 2009
Chengdu: Chunxi Lu
Traveling to Chengdu this past weekend was my first time “jet-setting” across the country just to spend a weekend hanging out and experiencing another city. Chengdu is actually in the Sichuan province just south of Shaanxi, about 700 km away by car and about an hour in the air by plane. You may remember hearing about the Sichuan province due to the massive earthquake that occurred about 80 km northwest of Chengdu in May 2008.
Due to the fluctuating cold and warm weather lately there has often been quite a bit of fog in the mornings, and Saturday when the flight was supposed to leave was no exception. Upon arriving at the airport I discovered that there were people that had been waiting up to 36 hours to get on a flight out of Xi’an. This didn’t look good.
After being delayed for about 2 hours, they decided they could let flights to Chengdu check in. First come, first served. Fortunately Jinfei was able to work some magic and bat her eyelashes enough that the ticketing agent checked us in almost immediately while others continued to wait. We left the Xi’an airport in chaos about 90 minutes later.
An hour later the Airbus 319 landed in Chengdu and we caught a bus for 15 yuan to the downtown area. Upon our arrival we met up with one of Jinfei’s best friends, Zhu Mangqi. Zhu took us a few blocks to Chunxi Road, while it is a real road, is is most commonly known for the large pedestrian mall with a variety of shopping, and typical “only in Sichuan” snacks directly next to it.
On Chunxi Road I had amazing snacks such as spicy duck neck (very spicy, very excellent!), as well as an assortment of super spicy pork on a stick, and tiny, deep-fried baozi (typically a stuffed, steamed bun).
After getting my fill of spicy snacks we headed for Zhu Mangqi’s university. I thought my university was out of the way, but her’s was worse. It didn’t take as long to get to, but it was more of a hassle. There’s only one bus to take, and it only goes about half way there, so we had to stop at a bus stop area where taxis often waited. By taxis, I mean guys who happened to own a van and will drive places for a fee. These taxis would drive us the rest of the way. So getting to her university was a bigger hassle and also cost quite a bit more than the 1.5 yuan i’m used to paying on the 336 to SUST.
After the long day of waiting around in the airport, and walking Chunxi road, Jinfei and I found an inexpensive hotel near the university and got some rest for the next day.

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of posts about my 4 day trip to Chengdu. The remaining posts will come in daily intervals over the next week.ChengduMap

Traveling to Chengdu this past weekend was my first time “jet-setting” across the country just to spend a weekend hanging out and experiencing another city. Chengdu is actually in the Sichuan province just south of Shaanxi, about 700 km away by car and about an hour in the air by plane. You may remember hearing about the Sichuan province due to the massive earthquake that occurred about 80 km northwest of Chengdu in May 2008.

Due to the fluctuating cold and warm weather lately there has often been quite a bit of fog in the mornings, and Saturday when the flight was supposed to leave was no exception. Upon arriving at the airport I discovered that there were people that had been waiting up to 36 hours to get on a flight out of Xi’an. This didn’t look good.

After being delayed for about 2 hours, they decided they could let flights to Chengdu check in. First come, first served. Fortunately Jinfei was able to work some magic and bat her eyelashes enough that the ticketing agent checked us in almost immediately while others continued to wait. We left the Xi’an airport in chaos about 90 minutes later.

» Read more: Chengdu: Arrival & Chunxi Road

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