Monthly Archives: December 2007

Heading home for the holidays

Well folks, as of next writing I’ll be back in the land of William Lyon Mackenzie King, trying to explain to Maggie why most of us Canucks go by two names, and he went by four. Alright, I’ll spare her the Canadian politics – I don’t want to inundate her with too much too fast, …

December 14, 2007
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The Chinese Alphabet – it’s not THAT big

For as long as I’ve been in China I’ve been told, and have told others, that the reason the Chinese language is so impossibly difficult to learn is because of its alphabet of 50,000,000,000,000,000 characters, each strokingly more confusing than the last. However, I think it’s time to set the record straight. Comparing the number …

December 7, 2007
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Cart before horse in Chinese-Canadian tourism

Letter to the Welland Tribune Editor: Upon reading Corey Larocque’s recent piece on Chinese criminal Lai Changxing being the biggest obstacle in opening the flood gates to Chinese tour groups onto Niagara, I couldn’t help but laugh. Not at Larocque, he’s swell, but at the idea that China’s Approved Destination Status (ADS) is the obstacle. …

December 5, 2007
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