If you would like a closer look at some of these photos included,
please feel free to click on them.
I was going through my photos this afternoon and I stumbled across some photos that I had originally wanted to share with everyone. When I first came to China, I got locked out of my WordPress account because I had enabled Two-Factor Authentication. Instead of using my Google Voice phone number, I used my local Ting number (back in the USA) to set up two-factor. Just a friendly reminder, don’t set up two-factor if you might lose access to your phone number. I kept my Ting account back home, but their service does not support international roaming. Anyway once I got access back to my WordPress website a couple of months ago, I just now realized there are so many things that I have not shared with you all back home or my other friends around the world.
火龙果 or Huǒlóng guǒ or Dragonfruit is a fruit that I always thought was kind of weird looking. I really had only seen this type of fruit when I traveled to Hong Kong or Mainland China, so for all I knew, this was an Asian fruit. My current place of employment was so kind enough to organize a special retreat for all our teachers to travel to a farm that specializes in organic Dragonfruit. It definitely was one of the prettiest farms or plantations I have ever been. I was having a conversation with our head supervisor, Amos, and he mentioned that Dragonfruit is not indigenous to Asia, but actually Mexico. He said that the Spaniards during the Age of Exploration had brought the fruit to Asia to trade for other commodities that only were available in Asia. He also told me that the pepper was not originally native to China also, which equally surprised me. I thought it was interesting to see how globalism has really impacted a country and it’s cuisine. When we think of Szechuan or Hunan cuisine, we think of super spicy peppers. But to think that it was because of globalism that really brought these foods to another continent and allowed parts of the Chinese culture to adopt it into their everyday life, it’s pretty cool.
As you can see, this was really a breathtaking sight. I also learned that Dragonfruit is actually a member of the cactus family. This particular cactus grows along the ground, but there are some insects that will eat away the Dragonfruit if left on the ground. This particular farmer built these concrete constructions in order to secure his crop from spoiling. This was a very nice destination I got to travel to in Guangzhou when I first moved here. I hope you guys learned a little and enjoy the photos! I have some exciting posts that I will be working on in the upcoming weeks! I am looking forward to sharing them with you all! So please stay tuned!
I thought I would do this blog post to help those thinking that they want to buy an Apple iPhone or other Apple device here in China. Let’s learn from my mistake. Most of you know that not only does the Great Wall exist here in China, but also the “Great Firewall of China”. There is a big misunderstanding of the Great Firewall, most Americans or Western news outlets report on the side of China not allowing social media sites like Facebook or Twitter. These are not the only things that are blocked in China, the real truth is that a large majority of websites or content is blocked that originates outside China. This would include academic websites, news outlets, certain games or apps, and even some banking websites. Some of these sites or content may not be blocked, but the traffic to those websites are slowed down to a crawl.
