Tag Archives: This is China

Corn on Pizza

We lived in Dalian, China for 2 years. While there, my family looked forward to having the occasional meal that reminded us of ‘home’. One of those meals was pizza.

Pizza Hut was around the corner, and for special occasions we’d go there. We actually celebrated Christmas there both years… my wife and kids both hate turkey.

One thing that seemed odd was that corn was like pepperoni… it was on almost every choice of pizza on the menu. And, when you can’t speak the language, you order food based on pictures on the menu. We started to enjoy it! Ham, pineapple, and corn actually tastes great on pizza, although I doubt that it would still be called Hawaiian. Meanwhile, there are people here in North America that think pineapple doesn’t belong on pizza!

Another odd topping we’d see was on desserts. Here in Canada, we routinely see cherries and strawberries on chocolate cake, but not cherry tomatoes, (which are considered a fruit in China). I can’t say that this combination was as good as corn on pizza.

Potato chips were a whole other experience. While ‘lemon and pepper’ was something that I might get at home, ‘shrimp and onion’, or ‘small spicy fish’ would be a little more difficult to find here. Snacks in general were a fun new experience and I was often surprised by what I would like and what I’d never buy again.

When I go to a favourite restaurant, I’ll often get the same meal… when you find something you really love on a menu, the other items are usually a disappointment in comparison. However, beyond my favourites, I love to explore and try new things. Food can always be an experiment, and a new experience.

Where in your life do you create the space to try new things? I’m not just asking about food, but where are you open to ‘corn on pizza’ kind of opportunities?

T.I.C. – This is China – Blocking still works

Congratulations to the Great Filter Wall… it is alive and well, and doing it’s job. 

I’ve only heard rumours about why things are so slow here now, but I’m guessing they are right… It’s hard to create a digital ‘movement of the masses’ when connecting digitally, (and especially to the spaces where this happens), is painfully difficult. 

VPN’s (that bypass the ‘Great Filter Wall’) have been hit hard, even mine that has been stellar so far required me to get a new address from support to link up. Instead of linking through Hong Kong, my connection must now go through Los Angeles to connect. The slow internet, plus the longer connection route means it takes longer to connect, longer to load pages and impossible to do things like watch a video.

Teachers here with Yahoo or Hotmail will say to me, “What did your email say? I can get into my inbox to see you’ve sent an email, but I can’t open the message.”

I created a “Funhouse” for our club days, for a group of primary kids, and they have seen it, but not visited it yet. I did get to read the scrolling book that I pre-loaded the first day, but since then the internet has been useless and sending them to image-rich websites would be a useless activity. (I loaded the Funhouse link above to get the address to link it here and the page has yet to load as I type this.) 

So, blocking works. But at what cost. I’m scared to introduce Weebly to my staff because although it’s a great blogging platform that works here, I can only seem to get the editor to work after school when no one else is on the system. I know someone at Intel who says he can’t even upload work related photos on his home line. How many other businesses that rely on the internet are pulling their hair out? How do you do business in a connected world when the connection is severed? 

I don’t turn on Tweetdeck at work anymore because I don’t want updates to steal bandwidth from my teachers. I’m a disconnected principal that enjoys being a connected principal. 

The reality is that I’d like to think that information is free and accessible to all, but 1/5 of the population of the world have a filter on information, news… and learning!

T.I.C – “This is China” – Midnight Chinese New Year Fireworks


I was in Beijing for New Year’s Eve, December 31st, and midnight came and went without a single firework going off. I looked out my window of the 20th floor and saw one building that had a “Happy New Year” Sign down it’s side… that was it! Last year we were home in Dalian from our holidays on the Saturday after the Chinese New Year, the first set of fireworks went off at 4am, the constant noise of fireworks started at 6am, and I think at about 2:30 in the afternoon I looked at Ann and said, “I think we just went 3 minutes without hearing a firework go off”. Seconds later they started again, and I don’t think we had another 3 minute break until 1am! But, we were not treated to the visual bonanza Heather got at midnight in Beijing on Chinese New Year this year. Thanks to Heather Davis for sharing the video!