Yeah, I’m not suppose to be using the computer, but this was too cute not to post.

Sports Day Opening Ceremony, 2008.

CHINA: A handsome and fearless Canadian Grade 1 teacher announced earlier this week he is taking a break from his online life. The Stevo, aka Sti Fu, aka Teacher-teacher!, aka that prick with the camera, has temporarily hung up his spurs. Chief Editor and bottle washer of the hugely popular China Travel Blog, asianramblings.com said his health has been affected by logging too much computer time.

“Who knew staring at a small screen could be bad for you,” he said, “I suppose the next bombshell will be that smoking and booze aren’t good for you either.”

Sti Fu, after being diagnosed with a neck malady which resulted in limited use of his left arm and hand, issued a statement informing all and sundry that asianramblings.com will start publishing quality articles and photographs for its huge base of readers. With the help of the best writers and photographers in the blogosphere, the site will publish material with fewer grammatical errors and typos, and will continue to do so until feeling returns to his arm, the pain killers run out, or he get really really bored.

“I’ve taught Grade 1 for so long I have a very short attention span,” he said, “Four minutes, maybe five, and I have to do something different. That’s what’s great about…. About…. What were we talking about?”

Stay tuned, he urged the million readers that visit asianramblings.com each month. Good stuff is on the way.

Not as bad as Starbucks in the Forbidden City, but a close second. Don’t get me wrong, I like Ronald and his beefy friends, but there’s a proper place for everything. Shame on you McDonalds China. Tsk tsk.

Captured: October 24, 2008, Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, China.

Learn more about travel photographer Ron Dubin. See an in-depth interview:

Big Bolivian Sunsets: Interview with Photographer Ron Dubin.

Public School Halloween Party, Shenzhen, China

We all have to suffer for beauty, no? At least it’s not footbinding. Who knew that Halloween, even Halloween in China, could be so painful?

Captured: October 29, 2008.

It’s 6:21 am and I’m drinking Irish whiskey. I’ve worked the past 16 days, straight thru. A group of visting British middle school students has been visiting, with me as their tour guide. I have shown them my domain, the grandeur of the Middle Kingdom: The sites, the temples, the 5,000 years of history.

They boarded their bus at 5:30 and I’m knackered. Sleep is in order. Have you ever been so tired you don’ know which way is up? That’s me. I wish myself sweet dreams.