Pops Adventures

Looks like Pop enjoyed his day out

Elizabeth, Claire and Pop! Outside the Confucius Building in China

3 hours to spare in Dubai..... hm..what to do?

Please Liz...... don't put me on the plane this way

Off on my way ... stopping in Cardiff for a bit of cake then onto the megabus to London Victoria

to be safe of identity theft I've pasted out my passport number and any other sensitive information.

See picture 1 for an example of how to fill in a visa application form for China :) Picture 2 for an invitation example - remember invitations must have your passport number and date of birth on to be valid for the visitor visa application if going for a study.

Soooo the journey begins.......

When applying for a Chinese visitor VISA

As seen in the pictures attached there are many forms to fill and details to find before applying.

Documentation or things you will need:

1. Passport
2. A recent passport photo ( from the last 6 months ). - unlike pop make sure your not wearing any hats or hoods
3. A payment authorisation form - this means that the embassy can take the money owed once everything is cleared.
4. Declaration form
5. An invitation letter and agenda - if on a study ( the invitation letter should have your passport number and date of birth attached ).
6. Include a return envelop with your address.
7. Special Delivery mail service.

To apply for a visa to go to China click on the link below.

http://www.visaforchina.org/MAN_EN/

Suggestion: download the visa tick list first and then you can make your way down the list. Page 6 shows an example of how the visa application form should be filled in.

During my stay in Bangor I learnt some Mandarin and how to form some of their Chinese characters.

As one kind of the most ancient characters, Chinese characters have played a significant role in the development of Chinese culture. Originally, ancient Sumerian and ancient Egyptian symbols existed, but only Chinese characters remain today.

Based on pictographs, Chinese characters combine shapes with sounds and connotations to form unique, block-shaped characters that carry meaning.

Archaeological researchers discovered many such signs carved on earthenware excavated from Banpo Village in Xi'an City and Jiangzhai Village in Lintong. The etchings were carved 6,000 years ago. More than 4,000 years ago, people living in Tai'an area of Shangdong Province also carved signs on earthenware.

The character "旦"(dàn),meaning dawn, for instance; the sun (日) rises upwards, crossing the mountains and passing through cloud layers to tell people a new day has begun. It is safe to say that the earthenware signs are the first Chinese characters, which originated from drawings.

The most sophiscated and earlist Chinese characters are the inscriptions on tortoises shells and animal bones called Jiaguwen(甲骨文) of the Shang Dynasty (17th-11th century BC) that resemble drawings. To date, China has unearthed 150,000 pieces of an animal bone and tortoise shell, including more than 4,600 distinctive Chinese characters, among which more than 1,700 have been identified. The inscriptions on bones and shells consist of phrases and simple sentences, providing much insight into the Shang Dynasty. Modern Chinese characters top 60,000 among which about 3,000 are commonly used.

Picture 2: Water
Picture 3: China
Picture 4: man
Picture 5: panda cat ( The Chinese don't like bears so they call pandas cats )

GANGGU

The body of this Chinese drum, also known as gang-gu or da-gu, is shaped like a flower vase, and usually decorated with floral patterns. A stretched-skin covers each open side of the wooden body, where the lower skin is typically "half to three-fifths" the size of the top skin. In the orchestra several sizes of the flower drum are arranged together and often perform melodic solo passages, having a characteristically "mellow" tone

Pops will be at the Bangor carnival where the Bangor confucius centre have prepared a drum dance ( 6th June 2015 )

Check out my new tux ready for the summer palace in July

My first game of scrabble