English teacher in China
Exploring Wuhu city
September – December 2005
The story…
In 2005, I taught ESL (English as a Second language) at the Traditional Chinese Medicine College in Wuhu, Anhui province, China for a 3 month period.
I left South Africa in June of 2003 to go and teach ESL in Taiwan. I stayed for 18 months in Taiwan and then decided to experience mainland China in addition to Taiwan.
I stayed a period of 19 months in mainland China, mainly working for one company called Delter-Telford International Business Institute. I was fortunate to move around China with them, staying and teaching in 4 different provinces: Nanjing, Wuhu (Anhui), Liuzhou (Guangxi) and lastly Shanghai.
Anne (Canadian) and I were the only expat teachers at the Chinese Medicine College in Wuhu. We lived on campus in small apartments just below the men’s hostel. We could eat our meals at the Cafeteria on campus, but after I ate dog meat accidentally, I tried other options.
It was winter in Wuhu at that time and Anhui being an impoverished province, campus made for a sad and depressing scenery. I had wonderful students. I had a class of nurses who taught me to speak Chinese and took me on sightseeing outings in and around Wuhu. One of these trips they booked a mini cruise for us on the Yangtze River. I also had a bicycle which I sometimes took out for a spin to take pictures of the countryside.
Anne, an elderly lady, and I had a standing Saturday morning arrangement to go and eat at a restaurant in Wuhu and do our weekly shopping. I also traveled during my stay in Wuhu and visited tourist destinations in Anhui province, such as Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) and the ancient villages of Hongcun and Xidi.
During my stay in Wuhu, I also undertook a tour of the North-Eastern part of China, including places like Qingdao, Liu Gong island, Yantai and Dalian.
The photo exposé paints a picture of life in Wuhu and the wonderful experiences I had.
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| Street market adjacent to Canal - Wuhu |
About China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia. It’s the world's most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing.
It exercises jurisdiction over 22 provinces, five autonomous regions, four direct-controlled municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing) and two mostly self-governing special administrative regions (Hong Kong and Macau). It also claims sovereignty over Taiwan.
It covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometers. China is the world's second-largest state by land area and either the third - or fourth-largest by total area, depending on the method of measurement.
China has a vast and diverse landscape, ranging from the Gobi and Taklimakan Deserts in the arid north to subtropical forests in the wetter south. The Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir, and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia.
The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third- and sixth-longest in the world, respectively, run from the Tibetan Plateau to the densely populated eastern seaboard. China's coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long (Wikipedia).
About Wuhu
Wuhu (literally "Weedy Lake") is a prefecture-level city in south-eastern Anhui province, of China. Sitting on the south-east bank of the Yangtze River, Wuhu borders Xuancheng to the southeast, Chizhou, and Tongling to the southwest, Hefei to the northwest, Ma'anshan to the northeast, and the province of Jiangsu to the east, and is approximately 90 km south-west of Nanjing.
By the end of 2017, the total population was estimated to be 3,842,100，of whom 1,665,000 live in the 4 urban districts and the others live in the counties. The city has over 47 ethnic minorities present — the largest being the Muslim population. There are other ethnic minorities with over 500 inhabitants in the city: Yi, Tujia, Miao, Zhuang, and Manchu.
Wuhu is known to have been inhabited since at least 770 BCE. It became a strategically important town during the Three Kingdoms period (220-280 AD) when it was controlled by the Eastern Wu. Under the Ming dynasty, Wuhu developed into a major commercial center and river port and since that time has been known as a center of the rice trade.
The city is the second largest economy in Anhui, after Hefei, the provincial capital. In 2017, Wuhu’s GDP reached RMB 306.552 billion. Wuhu's per capita GDP was RMB 83880.
Wuhu Economic & Technological Development Area in the north of the city launched in 1993 is one of the first state-level economic and technological development area in Anhui province. It has the only export processing zone in the province. Chery Automobile and Anhui Conch Cement Company are headquartered in this development area. (Wikipedia).
Wuhu street scenery
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Family bicycle - My favorite photo I took in China.
I cycled behind them when I took the pic. |
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| Just the two of us |
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| Street vendor - Wuhu |
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| Sidewalk street food restaurant |
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| Sidewalk boardgames |
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Mobile food kiosk
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Transportation
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| Downtown Wuhu |
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| Wuhu streets |
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| Wuhu Taxi Tuk-Tuks |
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| Various modes of transportation - Wuhu streets near the port area |
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| Charcoal delivery cart- Wuhu |
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| Impoverished community - Wuhu |
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| Freight trike & Red Wuhu Chery taxi |
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| Street maintenance cart |
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| Tuk-Tuk taxi |
Shopping & Markets
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| Street market adjacent to Canal - Wuhu |
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| Wuhu shops with accommodation on top |
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| Wuhu Fruit and veg market with fruit & veg garden |
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| Street market |
Parks & Recreation
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