Since being here in China, and even before arriving, I have been interested in learning as much as possible about the Middle Kingdom. The Internet has been a valuable source of information. There are numerous places to get facts about China i.e. Wikipedia, Ask.com, Google. There are also a few blogs that are pretty good and gives one a personal perspective. Of course there is Amanda's blog, http://www.mandachino.blogspot.com/. She usually posts a lot of her pictures there, and she and I can take the same subject and write about them from vastly differing points-of-view. You might also want to check out http://www.vivrant30.blogspot.com/. It is a newer blog, by a young lady who just arrived in China last month. Her experiences have so far been funny and insightful. I came across a German blog that is terrific, (http://www.chinasplumpsklo.blogspot.com/) other than the fact that I can't read the language. It's format has given me a lot of ideas. I use it to try to learn a little German, to look at the pictures, and to see other places in China that we might visit or other things that we might do.Writing a blog can be a difficult process. Setting up the blog is simple. Sites, like blogger.com, do all of the formatting for you. Making it interesting is the part that takes a lot of work. (Take this post as an example.) Sometimes, there just doesn't seem to be anything of interest to write about. So I often visit this site: http://www.oneminutewriter.blogspot.com/. The purpose of this blog is to post subjects for others to write about. I like reading what is written because it sometimes will get the creative juices flowing. As for inspiration, let me pose this question to the readers. What would you like me to blog about next? What aspect of Chinese life would you be most interested in reading about? Give me your thoughts. Please post your answers by using the "comments" link. I will review them, and choose a few for a future post. - Frank
The first step in blogging is not writing them but reading them.
Jeff Jarvis
