http://blogofdreams.com The China Photo and Travel Blog Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:28:28 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en A Chinese auto company said on Sunday it had adopted Tai Shan, a much-loved panda that has just arrived in China from its birthplace in the United States, in a US$60,000 (S$85,308) corporate deal. The animal arrived in southwestern Sichuan province on Friday from Washington - where its departure nearly five ... http://blogofdreams.com/2010/02/08/chinese-firm-adopts-panda/ China's top universities could soon rival Oxford, Cambridge and the Ivy League, the president of Yale University has warned. Professor Richard Levin, speaking to the Guardian on a trip to the UK, said Chinese institutions would rank in the world's top 10 universities in 25 years' time, squeezing out some of ... http://blogofdreams.com/2010/02/04/chinas-top-universities-will-rival-oxbridge-says-yale-president/ JIUZHAIGOU, CHINA — By noon, the tour buses that ply the length of this U-shaped limestone valley are packed tight. Elbows are up. People are pushing. “Are you going to walk?” someone hollers. “Don’t bump!” comes the reply. It’s a common scene in any major Chinese city, but here in northern Sichuan Province, ... http://blogofdreams.com/2010/02/03/chinas-new-travelers-arent-far-from-home/ A photographer shoots up close a replica Terracotta warrior coated with chocolate powder during a press event for the World Chocolate Wonderland theme park in Beijing, China, on Friday. Chocoholics, rejoice!  A chocolate theme park opens next week in Beijing that will feature life-size replicas of the Terracotta warriors and a slice ... http://blogofdreams.com/2010/01/24/new-chocolate-theme-park-in-china-will-include-replica-of-great-wall/ WASHINGTON — Thousands of public schools stopped teaching foreign languages in the last decade, according to a government-financed survey — dismal news for a nation that needs more linguists to conduct its global business and diplomacy. But another contrary trend has educators and policy makers abuzz: a ... http://blogofdreams.com/2010/01/22/schools-stop-teaching-foreign-languages-%e2%80%94-except-chinese/ BEIJING — China's top leaders bid a final and sombre farewell Wednesday to the eight nationals who died in last week's devastating earthquake in Haiti, where four of them had served as UN peacekeepers. In a ceremony broadcast on state television, the eight were buried at the Babaoshan cemetery in western ... http://blogofdreams.com/2010/01/21/afp-china-mourns-eight-martyrs-killed-in-haiti-quake/ Speak2Me Registers 1,000,000th User January 13, 2010: 10:13 AM ET // < ![CDATA[ cnnad_createAd("232017","http://ads.cnn.com/html.ng/site=cnn_money&cnn_money_pagetype=article&cnn_money_position=220x200_ctr&cnn_money_rollup=markets_and_stocks&cnn_money_section=quigo¶ms.styles=fs","200","220"); // ]]> Lingo Media Corporation (TSX VENTURE: LM)(OTCBB: LMDCF) ("Lingo Media") a leader in online and print-based English language learning products is pleased to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Speak2Me Inc. ("Speak2Me"), a state-of-the-art online English language learning community, has achieved ... http://blogofdreams.com/2010/01/14/speak2me-registers-1000000th-user/ Four Manalapan High School students and science teacher Heather Sullivan have returned from a 15-day trip to China, where they studied kung fu at a martial arts school, rode in rickshaws, and scaled the Great Wall of China. The all-expense paid trip was organized by Discovery Student Adventures, the Discovery Channel's ... http://blogofdreams.com/2009/09/04/adventures-in-china-remain-with-students/ This fall, Texas State students will be able to take Mandarin Chinese for academic credit as the Department of Languages unveils its newest course listings. The classes are made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department of Education to Texas State’s Center for International Studies. The grant is in support ... http://blogofdreams.com/2009/08/25/texas-state-says-ni-hao-to-mandarin/ One of the projects we have worked on for over a year to develop is an IELTS training program for China. It begins this week in Guangzhou in conjunction with Broadlearn and Queensland in Australia. Using Cambridge and Queensland University content the Dreamblogue is delighted to be part of this ... http://blogofdreams.com/2009/08/20/%e9%9b%85%e6%80%9d%e5%9f%b9%e8%ae%ad%e5%b9%bf%e5%b7%9e/ The IELTS and TOEFL exams are known and feared by English language students worldwide. Both exams are used by universities to assess the English language ability of applicants. IELTS is widely used in the UK and Australia and also recognised by most American and Canadian universities, including Harvard Business School; ... http://blogofdreams.com/2009/08/20/ielts-and-toefl-what-they-are-what-they-mean-to-you/ Trainees from a makeup school put on makeup for model brides at the 2009 Central China Wuhan Wedding and Tourism Expo held in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, Aug. 15, 2009. More than 100 companies in photographing, catering, wedding arrangements etc. participated in the expo to provide the ... http://blogofdreams.com/2009/08/17/wedding-tourism-expo-held-in-wuhan-china/ Three weeks ago The Newzealand Herald invited readers to send in their best international travel photo, giving them the chance to win one of three Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT1 compact waterproof cameras, worth $800. Twelve finalists were chosen and readers were invited to vote for their favourite of the 12 images. The votes ... http://blogofdreams.com/2009/08/11/winners-of-the-newzealand-heralds-travel-photo-competition/ The United States isn’t the only place grappling with the best way to teach students another language. Eight graduate students from the University of Texas at Brownsville/Texas Southmost College traveled to China earlier this summer with their instructors and others to learn more about Chinese culture and how schools there teach ... http://blogofdreams.com/2009/08/05/graduate-students-travel-to-china-to-learn-more-about-bilingual-education/ The opening of the fifth China Shanhaiguan International Great Wall Festival was held in Shanhaiguan on July 29th. Meanwhile, the Museum of the Great Wall Shanhaiguan  also opened its door to the public for free. The Museum, in which relics in Shanhaiguan - the essence of the Great Wall -  is ... http://blogofdreams.com/2009/08/01/the-fifth-china-shanhaiguan-international-great-wall-festival-opened/ There is growing speculation of a casino revival in Macau with the election of a new leader, Fernando Chui. It is expected that Chui will smooth relations with mainland China thereby paving the way for new policies on the gambling zone and lifting visa restrictions on mainland visitors. The election result ... http://blogofdreams.com/2009/07/30/new-macau-leader-sparks-speculation-on-casinos/