Liuzhou Meet & Learn

Everyone loves KTV. Everyone. If you don't like sitting in a dark, enclosed space, listening to your friends murdering classic mandopop hits at ear splitting volume, there has to be something wrong with you. I've heard people ask what the point of learning to read Chinese is, what with the use of pinyin as a phonetic system, and the ability to use your phone to translate text. The answer is obvious: if you can't read characters, how will you sing Chinese songs at KTV? In China, and across Asia, KTV culture is huge and, if you want to engage with life here, learning to sing a couple of songs in the local language will get you a lot of kudos. At Liuzhou Meet & Learn, we organise regular KTV evenings, and I'm always surprised by how good people are at singing, particularly our local Chinese members - unfortunately, us foreigners don't always hold up our end of the bargain and I've witnessed some performances that made my ears bleed. I admit to bei...

One of the great things about Liuzhou Meet & Learn is the variety of people that get involved; not just in terms of nationality (though we have members from nearly 20 different countries) but in terms of people's backgrounds, employment and interests. One of our members is a sailing fanatic and president of the local sailing club, allowing us the opportunity to go sailing on the 柳江 Liujiang river as it winds it's way through Liuzhou. Following a late decision to get out on the water, due to an earlier thunderstorm, we made our way to the riverside at 3:30pm. Though the rain had moved on, the high winds remained and, coupled with decent cloud cover, made for perfect sailing conditions. This being China, where they aren't huge on health and safety, we got just two pieces of advice before setting off: 1) the boat can't capsize, so don't worry; 2) keep your head lower than the bottom of the sail. Right, off we go! All in all, it was a fantastic afternoon...

One of the great things about living in a smaller city like Liuzhou is that the countryside is never too far away; it's so easy to get away from the city and relax. The Chinese say 民以食为天 which could be roughly translated as "food is the god of the people" and this really stresses how important a part of the culture food is here - it permeates all aspects of life in a way which could never happen in the UK. Most social activities revolve around food so, when the weather is good, what could be better than going to one of the nearby national parks to have a BBQ with friends? Luckily, the local government here provides 烧烤场 spaces for residents to BBQ surrounded by the stunning local scenery. At Liuzhou Meet & Learn, we chose 三门江国家森林公园 Sanmenjiang National Forest Park which is to the east of the city. Building on our previous success, our second big BBQ event had more than 30 members in attendance and it was a great afternoon. On the menu this time, an obscene amount...