Hongzhou's China Pages

Most people with a vague awareness of China have largely heard of the famous online retailer Alibaba and of course, it's founding entrepreneur Jack Ma. Part of the Alibaba groups growing number of services is now a application known as " Alipay ", which as the name suggests, allows you to make payments in a similar light to what western companies such as Paypal do, but with far superior convenience attached to it. Along with its counterpart Wepay (attached to Wechat), the service has revolutionized commerce in Chinese society by making cashless payments widespread in numerous contexts. In order to live conveniently as a foreigner in China and maintain access to a number of services which increasingly rely on cashless transactions, you will need to make sure you get Alipay on your phone. Here, our handy guide details how to get Alipay and how you use it! What you need: A Chinese phone number and bank account In order to set up Alipay, you first need two t

Earlier we wrote about the life of Confucius and his legacy in Shandong province, tied with the opportunity we are offering to study in Jinan University. If you're planning to stay in Jinan, about an hour south of the city by High Speed Rail sits a small city, largely obscure to the outside world. Its name is Qufu 曲阜 (“Crooked Hill"), sounds unextraordinary right? Although small and seemingly low profile outside of China, the area is in fact of a large historical significance. It was the home town of Confucius himself, the place where his teachings began and also, his final resting place. With a short trip to Qufu, visitors have the opportunity to discover and retrace the life of China's most famous sage, as well as that of his descendants. It is a trip worth getting into to absorb the vibe of local spirit and learning. Getting there Getting to Qufu is straightforward. The city has a high speed railway station situated on the Beijing-Shanghai high speed line,

Chinese is one of the world's most iconic languages. In it is embedded a culture, a beauty and a existential history. Its symbolism and calligraphy has made it not just a matter of everyday speech, but an iconography in its own right and a representation of Asian culture. As a result, learning Chinese becomes a fun, rewarding and exciting challenge. Of course, it is not without its challenges either. Mandarin is in contrast to many non-Asian languages, unique and requires a great deal of effort to learn. Some students of it may complain that it is difficult, simply because of the entire new system which needs to be learned in doing so.  However, here at Hongzhou learning we want to encourage rather than put people off learning Chinese. We want to share the message that although it may seem time consuming and challenging at first, once you get into the rhythm of learning Mandarin and adopt useful strategies, this language is no longer is difficult or imposing as it looks.