VirtualTourist Member hailun
| Page Views: 46,839 | Nice to meet you ..... :)) by hailun - last update: Apr 14, 2008 |
Let me introduce myself ....... | Hungduan, near Banaue. Rice Terraces. Philippines |
My name is HELEN. My VT name HAILUN is a Chinese interpretation for my given name HELEN. When I was in China, I was called and identified as "Hailun" So I am very comfortable with being called Hailun.
I often wonder if living on an island (Australia) creates in one the desire to reach out and travel beyond the seas? As an Island, we have no land borders -- and I think that that fact is what gives me an undying desire to go to border regions when I am travelling overseas. Just the ability to look over a river, or over a mountain, and see another nation where the people speak a different language is mind blowing to an Islander such as myself.
The world is full of wonderful cultures. Let's all strive to preserve, respect, and tolerate our differences. Differences are not something to be ashamed of, or to feel superior or inferior about. The world would be so predictable and boring if we were all the same .. and what would be the point of travelling if the place we were going to was identical to the one we were coming from??!!
Ever since I was little, I loved to look at maps of the world, learn the flags of different countries, learn history and culture, and daydream about adventures in far away places. Every time I go to an airport, I watch other travellers and wonder where they have come from, where they are going, and what draws them to a particular place?
I love foreign languages and cultures. I love written languages which use different scripts to the Romanised alphabet, such as Chinese, Russian, Uighur ..... I also love the Latin languages. I am currently learning Spanish and Italian.
Estudio espaņol. Me encantan estudiar idiomas y viajar!
Studio italiano! Miei nonni (di mi madre) sono nati in Montagna in Valtellina e Roncaiola, La Valtellina, la provincia di Sondrio, Lombardia.
There are some Sneak Previews of my pages in the Albums below. Go on, take a peak! |
| Kashgar, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, 2000 |
|  | MY LOVE OF CHINA AND ALL THINGS CHINESE I have always had an insatiable, mysterious, magnetic pull to China and Chinese culture. It is not easy to explain to a person who does not also have a pull towards a particular country, continent, group or culture. But for those of you who also have a feeling of belonging to a culture entirely different to your own, then I trust that you will know what I mean and how I feel! That is not to say, though, that I am blind to faults of my beloved China and its culture.At Uni, I studied Law and Mandarin Chinese. In 2000, I lived and worked in north-east China, and now, in spare time, I continue to study Mandarin Chinese - with particular emphasis on the reading and writing. To me - a key to understanding China is through its written language. The characters tell so much of the customs and beliefs. In the past, I have spent a year in China, and travelled to several places there, including the fantastic Silk Road. I have travelled to other countries in Asia, and some places in Europe, South America and North America. There are so many other horizons I am longing to explore.My newest page here is my PHILIPPINES page. PHILIPPINES If I may say so, I think that the soul of my pages tends to be in the TRAVELOGUES. Of course, they cannot be rated like TIPS can, but for me, VT is about so much more than ratings. It is a chance for me to share and relate my experiences for my own satisfaction, as well as for my friends, family and anyone else who wants to visit my pages online. |
LOVE OF MUSIC Simply, I LOVE listening to music. I fall asleep listening to music, and wake up to the radio. I listen to music on the way to work, using my ipod. I enjoy listening to soul, r & b, hip-hop, blues, Latin (in Spanish, Italian and English), ballads, romantic love songs, Andrea Bocelli, sad songs, reggae, some soul/rock like Hootie and the Blowfish.
For me, the LYRICS are very important. It turns me off if the lyrics are stupid, repititious or entirely lacking. And it is for that reason that I find Techno not worth my time listening to, because often, the "song" consists of one or two lines repeated ad nauseum, with a just-as-repititious beat blaring away.
The VOICE is also very important to me. I am drawn to a strong soulful voice, and a singer that can show emotion in their voice. I like to hear the feeling, the pain, the sincerity, the joy - if it is in the lyrics, then it needs to be in the voice. Listen to songs by Otis Redding, Boyz II Men, All 4 One, Anastacia, Deborah Cox, Marvin Gaye, Johnny Gill, Percy Sledge, Ricky Martin's beautiful ballads in Spanish, Luther Vandross, the lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish, Andrea Bocelli and you have all that and much more. | | | Uluru Australia November 1999 |
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| Me at the Roman Baths in Porto Torres, Sardegna |
| | BIT MORE ABOUT ME AND MY HERITAGE I was born in Sydney, Australia.
All 4 of my grandparents were born overseas and migrated to Australia at different times in the 1920s and 1930s.
My background is rather mixed.
Both of my mother's parents were born in La Valtellina which is in Sondrio Province, in the region of Lombardia, far northern Italy.
My "nonna" (grandmother) was born in a tiny Valtellinese village called Roncaiola which is in the mountains, looking down upon the city of Tirano and Madonna di Tirano. It is in walking distance from the Swiss border. "Il trenino rosso" or Bernina Express starts/finishes in Tirano, Italy and goes through Switzerland. It is 2 hours of stunning scenery from Tirano to St Moritz. Tirano is 3 hours by direct train from Milano. (Or you can change trains at Lecco). You pass the Lakes (Lago di Como etc) along the way.
My "nonno"/Pop was born in a (bigger) Valtellinese village called Montagna in Valtellina which is reached by road from the city of Sondrio. Sondrio is two and a half hours from Milano, by train, and half an hour away from Tirano by train. As you walk up the road to the town centre, you see Grumello Castle.
My dad's parents were born in Perthshire, Scotland and Yorkshire, England. And of those born in Yorkshire, England, there is also Irish ancestry. |
LITERATURE IS A GREAT TEACHER I think of literature as a tool by which I can learn about a society and an era other than my own. It is educational as well as entertaining. Literature has the power to provoke thought. Whilst reading, I also keep in mind that what I am reading has been written by a particular person for a particular purpose, and for a particular audience, and like all humans, the author's views have been shaped by their experiences. I thoroughly enjoy reading biographies and autobiographies, and stories discussing the fight against injustices such as racism and sexism, and struggles for freedoms and human rights. I love reading about history and social movements.
I love the Russian classics by the greats Dostoevsky and Tolstoy. I love modern Chinese novels set during the turbulent 20th Century. I love to read both fiction and non-fiction books set during, or which are about the Slavery system, the American Civil War period, and the African-American Civil Rights Movement. I enjoy reading books set in different nations, and books set during the World War Two period - not because I like war, but because I dislike it, and I believe books give an insight into history, and history in turn shows us all the things we ought not to do if we do not wish to have a repeat. I have read many books written by survivors of the Holocaust, some of whom are now in my country. I have been lucky to have read many inspirational books by inspirational authors covering the above mentioned topics. Their words always remain with me, because their stories have touched a chord within me.
If these topics interest you too, then maybe we could exchange some good titles! | | | Bucharest, Romania December 2002 |
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| Budapest in the morning January 2003 |
| | FAVOURITES IN LITERATURE BOOKS
The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh
Cancer Ward by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
Destined to Witness : Growing Up Black in Nazi Germany by Hans J. Massaquoi
Half of Man is Woman by Zhang Xianliang
The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Adam Bede by George Eliot
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Riding the Iron Rooster by Paul Theroux
Wild Swans by Jung Chang
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Color of Water by James McBride
X - The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley
PLAYS
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Othello by William Shakespeare
The Crucible by Arthur Miller
POETS
John Keats (English)
Robert Lowell (American)
Pablo Neruda (Chilean) |
OTHER INFO Fave things in no particular order:
Travel, languages, maps of the world, photography, reading, books, history, architecture, music, astrology, trivia, games, different cuisines, sports, clothes, animals, natural landscapes, solitude, quality time, good company, movies/DVDs.
Inspirations
People who are not afraid to try, people who commit to fighting injustices, and helping the disadvantaged, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Frederick Douglass, Che Guevarra. | | | Harbin, Heilongjiang Province,China Snow Sculpture |
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WHERE TO NEXT ....... ? If I start listing places, I may not be able to stop ..... and there are many journeys I would like to undertake and many destinations I would like to reach, for various reasons.....
In February I went with cavite_cowboy to the wonderful PHILIPPINES. I have just completed my page, which includes 9 TRAVELOGUES.
I am also in the process of researching and planning a train journey from Moscow to UB to Beijing -- starting in Australia, and taking the advice of GYuriFT and getting a ticket from Slovakia, through the Ukraine, into Russia, and onward eastward .... Members aurorae and cavite_cowboy are planning all or part of this with me.
CENTRAL ASIA, SILK ROAD ROUTES, and the -STANS hold infinite fascination and appeal for me!
EUROPE -- it goes without saying --- it is a continent I will always love returning to.
And the list does go on and on !!!
SOMETHING TO NOTE
When building pages, I have NOT included countries or cities in which I have merely landed at the airport or been in transit at the airport.
So, when I have passed through airports etc in Bangkok, Singapore, Auckland, Osaka, Tokyo, Dallas, LA, Sao Paulo, Frankfurt, Munich, Brunei, Shenzhen, I have not added and included those stops as visits and have not built pages to say that I have been there. |
 hailun's Albums | | | |
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 Comments for hailun | | | | |
AusPinay Sun Jul 13, 2008 12:14 UTC
Lovely to meet up with ya again even for a short time dear! Take care and regards also to Dennis! | monina_c Sun Jul 13, 2008 05:36 UTC
:) Helen please say hello to Isa for me! I am glas she arrived safely. Tell her we got her text before she boarded the plane last friday. | Kisses&Co Wed Jul 9, 2008 00:37 UTC
Hi Helen! How are you?? Having a great evening?? :-) | Helenbb Sat Jul 5, 2008 02:29 UTC
ni hao ya :)) zhu ni zhou yu kuai.. here in shanghai is really hot ... today is 38c.. wowowowowo... i almost faint. haha..but its the season for ice cream.. not bad :)) |
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