The retirement age in China - Jin

The age of retirement has been a controversial topic in China which almost been questioned in every National People’s Congress (the highest authority body in China). According to the related law, in China, all males retire at the age of 60 while females retire at 50 or 55 depending on their work. It seems a little bit complicated. As a white-collar, the retirement age is 55 in addition to this, a blue-collar worker quits the work at 50 which means as a woman, if you are a blue-collar, the time of your career is 10 years shorter than a man.

In the early yeas the government set different retiring ages for men and women to protect women’s interests on account of the strain of bearing as well as rearing children. Even so, with the development of society and the improvement of women’s education, more and more women don’t want to give up their job so earlier compared with men on the grounds that job is the essential part in their life which means you are demanded by the society and can contribute to the society. On the other hand, due to the improvement of people’s living standard, the present physiology and psychology conditions of women make them have the ability to prolong their own careers. Furthermore, the most important is women should enjoy the equal right with men which is a basic state policy.

"Krating Daeng" The most successful company in Thailand

By and large, most people might exclaim that “I have never heard of this name” How about another name of it, which is called “Red Bull”. Surprisingly enough, Krating Daeng, which translates as “Red Bull” was introduced in 1987. Believe it or not, Thailand was the country of origin. Without a doubt, it is the most popular energy drink in the world so far. Looking back, The company was founded by Thai national Chaleo Yoovidhya and Austrian national Dietrich Mateschitz.  The former name is the second richest business people in Thailand with an estimated net worth of $4.0 billion.

Emily - Working In Korea

Asia countries people have longer working hours a day and strict rules in companies more than western countries people. Along with the fact, Koreans work longer and harder, and prefer to work bigger companies owing to good salary and reputations.

Broadly speaking, people who have received higher education tend to get better job in Korea, which means what university you have graduated is shown more important than individual potential at the first impression of interviews very often. Despite the tendency, there are some vocational schools from high school in Korea. Some students who are not interested in studying choose to go the schools, but it is still difficult to get better job than them believe it or not.

Moreover, the Koreans retirement of ages is disposed to be younger, which is around 60 year-old and 50 year-old among men and women respectively and it has caused lots of competitions between colleagues in companies as a result. Seemingly, when an employer makes redundant workers, its meaning is the same as fired in fact.

In my opinion, Working in Korea has more difficulties than NZ apparently because Kiwis can work flexibly depending on their given conditions.

The most successful company in Hong Kong(Candice)

Cheung Kong (Holdings) Limited is one of the famous companies and largest developers in Hong Kong. Why did I take this for my example? The director who called Li Ka Shing is the top10 of riches in all over the world. Surprisingly enough, not having his father’s support, he owns many different kinds of subsidiary such as some of Hong Kong infrastructures, Hong Kong electric services, telecommunication services and property development. Basically, the group has over 240000 employees worldwide.

Some of the people think his power can affect Hong Kong economy. To a certain extent, his investment can stimulate the economic growth but his stocks and shares are unstable during the economy recession.

Biggest company in Korea. written by Min

Hyundai Motors is one of the biggest companies in Korea. Apparently, Samsung is the biggest one in Korea but in recent, Hyundai Motors has been rapidly ascend, both in quality and global presence. Since 2007, Hyundai has been the 5th largest automaker in the world, with 75,000 global employees. Hyundai vehicles are sold 193 countries in the world and its size and influence are getting greater.

Aramco company - SAMI

Saudi Aramco company is by far the largest petroleum company in the world. It is a global petroleum enterprise and a world leader in exploration and producing, refining, distribution, shipping and marketing. It has one of the largest tanker fleet to transport the oil to all world's countries. The company produces  about 10 million barrels of oil  everyday. The story of this company started in 1933 when an american company discovered the first oil well in the east of the country. However, Aramco was completely owned to the american company until 1973 when the Saudi government bought 25% of the company. In 1980 the company became Saudi 100%. During the last 16 years, Aramco has been given awards for being the biggest oil company in world. About 55000 employees are working for Aramco now.

Emily - About Samsung

There are some successful companies in Korea, such as Samsung, LG, Hyundai Motor and Kia motor. Obviously, Samsung is the most successful one, but, in fact, Samsung’s popularity is marginally better than LG’s.

Samsung is famous for electric appliances, like mobiles, computers including laptops and so on. If I compare with Sony which is one of the biggest companies in Japan, you will see how a large enterprise is more clearly. The two companies have similar pattern of the growth industry. At the beginning, it tended to follow to make goods on the model of Sony’s, but after few years, its management the business attained great prosperity more than Sony in the world because they pursued the creation of product, in contrast, Sony pursued the global standard, which is a point of the big difference up to now. For example, since 2002, it has been symbolized wealth in advanced nations, which means that some of well-known hotels, like Hilton, have preferred to decorate rooms with Samsung’s product. This caused a great deal of the success; furthermore, it has become a national undertaking company in Korea.

In my opinion, despites these facts, Samsung has less popularity than Sony in the world so far, so they have to appeal to the world in different ways, and try to rise their industrial growth rate.

the company in china..luffy

Most of big companies are the state-owned enterprises in China, and the biggest is the Sinopec Group—an oil company, I am sure that mostly students never heard this company’s name. Actually, it was a biggest market value company over the world before, but it is not useful, the oil price still expensive in China now.

Surprisingly enough, even though people always scold those twins oil company (another is called CNPC), but a majority of job seekers want to join those two companies because of the good salary and company’s welfare.

Jin's plan

People’s plan varies from person to person, even for one people plans are various on different stages in the life. Several months ago, when I was preparing documents for my visa to New Zealand, I hoped I could live in New Zealand with my family in the future. It looked like a long-term plan. Since I arrived in New Zealand in August, I have been in this country for almost three months. I must admit something changed which doesn’t mean I gave up my plan. At present in my view, to a certain extent, the short-term plan is more important than the long-term one. It has no hope of achieving the future plan if your present plan is failed. For example, only I pass Advanced or IELTS, there is every chance that I will start my major and other long-term plans. So I prefer to concentrate on every present plan rather than the day-dream about future.   

VW - Germany's biggest company

Germany’s biggest company, according to the height of its revenue, is the car producer Volkwagen with revenues of $US 146,205 million. Regarded on the global scale, the company is located in rank 16. It employs 368,500 worker and has sold 6.3 million cars in 2009, more than ever before. 

In the year 1934 it was Ferdinand Porsche, who was asked to develop a car that was affordable for the whole nation in the former Third Reich, ruled by Hitler. In 1946 the first product was launched on the market. t was the model “Käfer”, which later on was to be a legend. From then on the company rapidly grew into a globally represented firm and currently absorbed the “Porsche” corporate. 

Law and order in Vietnam

Recently, there has bees growing tension between many countries, so it makes many countries loose their friendship. Personally, I think Vietnam is quite a safe country because terrorism never happens in Vietnam and the government always tries to establish, maintain, uphold law and order.

Being a poor country, so the crime rate in VN is still high. Specially, heist rate is always in an emergency. When you live in VN, you should be careful with your value property such as motorbikes, handbags, jewelries because if you neglect your own property, it is a good condition for thieves operating. Following the Vietnam's law that you can not carry any kinds of gun, so this is very safe when you go out. However, you should be careful at night because if you are unlucky you might meet some crazy people who carry a knife.

Despite of these disadvantages, Vietnam is still peaceful and safe country.

Laws and regulations in Saudi Arabia (By:Alan)

in my country we have some strict roles which is to whom is not familiar with could be conceder hush, but through our life experiences and our knowledge of the Quran we know that it is fair and for the best, for example the stealing punishment is cutting the hand but it is rurally used because there is not many cases.

Unfortunately some people mixed up realign roles with cultural traditions which not always right, and sometimes send the wrong message about the flexibility and easiness of the Islam.

Definitely not all the regulations are based on realign like speed limets, treading roles and travel instructions.

Low and Order in Saudi Arabia

Being a religious country, Saudi Arabia is taking its low from the holy book of Islam"Qu'ran", which we believe that it is from God and we have to follow it. Islam is an Arabic word which means peace so Islam aim to set peace and justice. Life is sacred in Islam so if anyone kills a person it would be as if he killed all people and if anyone saves a life, to would be as if he saved the life of all people. Capital punishment is a penalty for killers if it was premeditated murder. As a result, the rate of crimes is significantly low. In terms of stealing, the punishment of that is person but if he steals many time and steals value things, the penalty might be cutting his hand.

Yi’s plan

Before I went to New Zealand, I had made a detailed plan for myself which included what I should do in NZ, even the specific time, and at that time I thought that as long as I followed my plan, my dream would come true in a near future. Having studied in NZ, however, I found that everything is not as easy as I thought before. I still clearly remember the day when Carolyn talked to Jin and me and told us that our English would improve sharply after studying in NZ. I was really excited and self-reliable, at that time I believed that my English level would improve dramatically one month or two months later. But now two months have past, I haven’t noticed any sharp improvement. I am so worried and confused.
I’ve got a long term plan which is do my diploma next year, and try to find a good job after graduating from university and my short term plan is to pass IELTS which is the most important for me, because I clearly know that every item of my long term plan can never be happen until I pass IELTS which looks like a wall standing in front of me, I have tried to cross it so many times and always failed. So now I can’t be bothered to think about my long term plan. Making good use of everyday to study English is what I should do now.

law and order in Saudi Arabia by Osama

law and order in Saudi Arabia is islamic law which called (sharia). This is set forth in the Qur'an, and Sunnah which is the sayings and example set by the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. As a muslim I beleive that it is a good way to control the country and decrease the rate of crime in any Islamic country. Moreover, despite the fact that the capital punishments up to death, many people think it is the only way to decrease the number of crimes in the country. For instance, if someone killed anybody he will be killed by the law. Also , if somebody stole smoe thing his hand will be cut by the government. It is hardly ever to find a theft in Saudi Arabia. It is believed that Law and order in Saudi Arabia is hard to live with it. However,Crime in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is relatively low when compared to some developed nations.

Law and order in China (Compulsory Education, Mark)

As early as 1986, to guarantee citizens’ rights to receive education and improve the scientific and cultural quality of the nation as a whole, the Chinese government guaranteed free education to all school-age children through grade nine. Education is compulsory between ages 6 to 15 in every province in china, except for Hong Kong and Macao, where the compulsory age are 18 and 17 respectively.

Before compulsory free education existed, many children had no entrance to basic education because their parents could not afford the tuition or there was no need the children to work instead of going to school. As a result of compulsory education, a big drop in the number of illiteracy. By the end of 2009, china had virtually made nine-year compulsory education universal, covering 95% of the population, and basically wiped out illiteracy among the young and adults, reducing the rate of young and adult illiterates to less than five.

It is believed that compulsory education has played a positive role in the education field of china.

Law and order in Hong Kong(Candice)

The Hong Kong government struggled to maintain law and order. It not only establishes the equality law, but also arranged well-trained policemen to prevent and detect crime. According to the Basic Law, which provides constitutional protection for the rights and freedoms of Hong Kong's residents. There is no dead penalty for a convicted murderer in Hong Kong. The most serious situation is that they are sentenced to life imprisonment. Giving an opportunity for the inmates to understand their wrong is one of the corrections. Nobody can kill others. If people commit a petty crime which are not considerably serious than the former one, it is necessary for them to do the community services or send to jail for a short period of time. Residents must obey government’s rules and regulation. On the other hand, having an eight months training, Hong Kong policemen can cope with the problems and handle the crisis successfully.

Zairan - Law and Order

It is well known that there are so many people in China.In order to reduce the population, China has drawn up a policy for family planning. It means that each family can have only one child. If you have a second birth or more, which is breaking the law and you need to be fined. While many Chinese people have the patriarchal mentality, and assert only men can continue the family line. Because of it, some want to have a boy at all costs no matter how much the fine is.

In recent years, the population has been decreased gradually.Basically,many families have only child, except for some remote areas.For the modern couple, if both of them are the single child in their families, the government can allow to have two childern.However, born in 70s and 80s people who do not like too many childern, and the idea is different from that of people in the past.

law and order - Jin

To be honest, the topic of “law and order” is a little professional and sophisticated for me. If someone asks me this question about China, I can’t say anything expect “Yes, our life is peace and quite.” It seems I have paid little attention to it before.
I think because of cultural feature in China people used to prefer to govern the country with the moral rather than with the law, which results in a large number of serious problems in the past. Some laws could not be obeyed strictly and amendments of laws could not keep up with the developments of our life, which makes someone not be responsible for his crime sometimes. Correspondingly, as a respectable and promising job in other developed countries, the lawyer is not popular in China.
Fortunately, more and more people have focused on such a problem, realizing laws are the base of running a state, only which can make a country in order.

law and order - luffy

China is the one of countries still using death penalty, even though around the using death penalty, it has been arguing in the world, but it is not a too controversial topic in China. China has been using strict laws since ancient time and it look effective for social stability. Nevertheless, at present, death penalty is not easy to pronounce because the government also increasingly attention to reduce death penalty, from other way to punish the criminals. The laws suit on the death penalty has already significantly cut down, only the criminals really make a serious criminal and make a ruinous influence, and then they will be applied to death penalty. And the common courts can not judge the case except the Supreme Court. Nowadays the way to execute criminals is considered by humanistic increasingly; the execution by lethal injection has been widely put into effect.

Law And Order In Korea - Hoon

Although most of korean people obey their law and order, there are some events happening illegally because of the special situation of Korea. One of them is about Korea military service. In Korea, every man must join the army and do their duty roughly for 2years. This is because Korea is divided into two countries and we are still in war. Eventhough the military law is quite strict, some of people try to avoid the duty illegally. They offer a medical doctor some money to get their fake medical opnion, because if they are regarded as a disabled, they can be exempted from millitary service. For an example, lately, a famous singer was prosecuted for avoiding the military service by faking his dental illness. Since Korean army was established, this has been a big problem all the time.

In my opnion, to be honest, I have no alternative to solve the military problem but no one wants to be forced to join the army so if it is really necessary, this should be fair to all men.

Emily - law and order

The one of the most important things of law and order in Korea is that if I should compare to other countries, arrest rate in Korea is pretty higher. In my opinion, there are some noticeable reasons.

Firstly, the base of police system has organized very well, which means that they have our all of the individual records, such as fingerprints, family register and etc. When we are 18 years old, we have to make our National Identity Card, which is supposed to get our personal and biological things.

Also, having developed IT industry in Korea, we have lots of advantages. When they are investigating some difficult case, they have help from the technological development very often. It causes better the public peace and order. However, it has sometimes suggested that they need to take charge of our records more carefully in case it can be used in a bad way.

Law and order in Peru

Talking about law and order in my country is not really my favorite topic specially if i am far from it and more than that comparing to my current location New Zealand, which is by far the most transparent and non-corrupted one.

It is been said that there is permanent smell of something "under the table" which could make you feel sick and tired.It seems as if the majority of Policeman in my country have an amazing ability to interprete all the rules and regulations for their own benefits. In the view of many people Lawyers have a tremendous capacity for vending the facts and regulations corresponding to their own vested interestes. Injustice is certianly a form of violence, which leads to more problematic situations.There has been have many idealistic people who wanted to changed these, and everybody knows is a dunting field.Generally speaking the main issue is that society has assumed this pattern as a normality: you can break the rules, just make sure you got the money to fix it up.

Gratefully there has been an increasing percentage of people, particularly among the young generation who is more conscious about the legal rights and forsee the need for making a decision once and for all.

Thailand – Law and Order

Under the constitution, every human being in Thailand must observe a statute without exception, the only one who can asserts above the law is the king. Even though it specify explicitly, the politicians tend to get a prerogative, which has occurred frequently since Thailand converted dominance from an absolute monarchy to a democratic system.

About 5 years ago the morning, every newspaper gave the headline news that a Thai tourist was shot inside a night club. Because of obvious evidence, it was believed that one of a suspect was politician’s son. As expected, he had released from an accused before was inquired.

From above it obviously seen that the rule lack of equality and impartiality.

Yi’s report – Law and order

Having a big population, China has many transport problems, the most serious one of which is drunken driving. During the past two decades, with the proliferation of the private cars, the number of traffic accidents increase sharply, the main cause of this phenomenon is that people drive after drinking. However, there was not a strict traffic rules to punish those who drunken driving until this year. New traffic regulations have been carried out on First of April, which is more specific on the drunken driving and new punishment measures will be strictly enforced on the drivers who violate these new regulations. Having got a drive license, in China, the drivers have some score which can judge a person if he or she has ability to drive on the road, and the score is 12 in total. However, the drivers who drive after drinking will lose all of the score, which means this driver have to sit test for driver’s license next year. In my opinion, implementing the regulations strictly can reduce the possibility of traffic accidents effectively.

Driving in Vietnam

The population in Vietnam is more than 87 millions. Being a huge population , transport systems in VN is a big problem. Although the government has tried many ways to deal with transport problems, they are still terrible.
The population is growing up everyday, but the roads and streets are still small and have not been upgraded, so transport jams always happen in the rush hours.Many roads are also run-down because they are too old, it makes many people get accidents. In NZ, using cars to travel is a good idea, however in VN, you should use motorbikes because if you use car in the rush hours, you will stuck in there for very long time. Personally, if you don't want to waste your time, you should use motorbike in VN. When i was in VN, i saw many Western people who worked in Vn, used motorbikes to move. Even though, using motorbikes is quite dangerous, its still a good idea in Vn because Motorbikes are very cheap and convenient.

Driving in RUSSIA

When I first came to New Zealand,driving on the left side of the road was unusual for me, because in Russia we drive on the opposite side. In my country you can get the driving licence only if you are 18 years old or above. Also in Russia there is only one type of licence and it is very hard to get, because we have more road signes and more complicated traffic-control-system at the intersections. In fact, in my country we have plenty of free parking everywhere, which is really comfortable when you have things to do in town.
Unfortunately, in most of the country roads are not in a perfect condition. Considering the cities the roads in the living areas, for example inside the blocks, have enormous amount of holes and curved surfaces. When it comes to driving, people are getting rude. For instance, nobody would conced in giving way for others. Most Russian people are not really bother about speed limits,because the prises for fines are not so high, therefore we have a lot of hoons in the streets.
As you can see, NZ driving in comparison with Russian driving is comletely different. In terms of, roads, parking, way of driving and rules.

Driving in Thailand

In Thailand, transportation is one of the biggest problems. One of the reasons is Traffic laws, which are many loopholes and the large number of lawbreakers, who are not observe a Traffic law austerely.
The most severe problem all of the period is “drinking and driving” even though lawbreakers will be severely punished and confiscate a driver’s licence, the number of them are not decrease. Especially, in Thai new-year. Every Thai new-year, the large number of people who suffer or death owing to drinking and driving is peak in this day
In terms of speed limit, it is separated into 2 zones (motorways and city), which are limited of speed at approximately 120Kh and 60Kh respectively.

Driving in Korea - Patrick

Driving systems in Korea are obviously different from in New Zealand on the ground of population density. Especially in Seoul, the population of density is roughly 150 times higher than the one in Auckland(130/㎢). It seems to me that you can not imagine how awful the traffic congestion there as opposed to here is. Therefore, a bit exaggeratingly, most Koreans tend to drive a vehicle everyday like warriors. What is more, interestingly, motorbikes are not allowed on most of the motor ways. I do not know exactly but the reason seems to protect motorbike’s drivers.

In terms of car insurance, all compensations are focused on human life. Let us suppose someone is crashed by car on the road when he is going across the road. Even if it was not on the pedestrian, the driver had had the responsibility for the accident. For this reason, when I was warned that all walkers were responsible for the accident on the road except on the pedestrian in New Zealand, it was too hard to understand for me accustomed Korean system.

Driving in KSA by Osama

Driving becomes very important in Saudi Arabia in last a few years. Petrol is marginally comparative cheaper than petrol in New Zealand but the system of transport is not as good as the one in Auckland so many people travel by their privet cars. Despite the fact that my country does not have drinking and driving ,it has a big rate of car accident because people drive too fast and some young drivers are under the age of driving which is 17 at least so many citizens and foreign die as the result. Moreover, there are many traffic jams in the kingdom so it is believed that if the government let the women drive, they will increase the rate of the vehicles in the roads. What I like about driving in Saudi Arabia is that many expensive cars and sports cars are driven in street. Also, police officers, check points and CCTV (Saher) almost everywhere to make sure drivers are fallowing the rule of driving in the country. However, there are some place which dangerous to drive at because some young drivers are showing off their friends how are they good in driving by drafting or racing cars. The following website will give you an example for this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xu7PmZIxAY&feature=related

driving problems in Hong kong(candice)

Nowadays, drinking and taking drug after driving are serious problems in Hong Kong. According to the government accident statistics, the number of drivers who drive their car after drinking increase dramatically, especially the age of 18-30 drivers.

Crash is due to their unconsciousness. In order to this reason, government has taken immediate action which is arranged policemen to patrol near the pub areas during the night time. In addition, drivers have to accept the test of alcohol to traffic polices on the road. When their level of alcohol is over the standard, driving points might be deducted. If they lead to any passengers or pedestrians lose their life during the accident, the driver must be sent to a jail. It is obviously to avoid the accident happen.

On the other hand, it is decidedly more difficult than before for the beginner to pass the drive exam. They should follow the traffic rules and regulations. To be honest, I do not have driving license so I cannot mention the figure of car speed on the road or highway. Using a private car is considerably troubled than taking a train or bus for me because Hong Kong has developed a good infrastructure.

Driving in China (Jin)

As everyone knows, the bicycle has been the major vehicle in China because of its convenience and cheap, however, driving has been a popular issue in recent years which is due to the improvement of living standard in my view. Compare with other countries, matters concerned driving have far too differences in China.

Driving license are divided into A, B, C. If you only want to drive a private car, you can get C license from the age of 18. Before getting the license, everyone has to pass the theory and practice exams in the specific school which are various in different areas. Frankly, according to what I have known from my friends, getting a license in city is nowhere near as easy as in countryside, however, which can’t represent the corresponding driving ability. In fact, driving accidents were terrible in the big city which were the focus in China and leaded to the relevant driving policies regarding the stricter punishment than it used to be in last years.

In terms of driving ability, Chinese might be the “best” driver in the world which is the conclusion after I have been in New Zealand. In New Zealand the cars are accustomed to let the pedestrian cross the road advance, the situation is absolute opposite in China which means a pedestrian is always waiting for a long time until he can’t see any cars, then he has the opportunity to cross the road. It seems as though the most important thing for Chinese drivers is that you must insist on your lane, maybe take other lanes sometimes, which is the reason why my Chinese friends in New Zealand say they don’t drive when they come back to the hometown.

The other serious problem is the overspeed especially for young males, although there have been definite regulations on different roads such as 60-80km in city and 80-120km on the motorway. In my view, young men enjoy the excitement from the higher speed which makes them feel powerful and unique. In China, the private car is not only a kind of transport but also a symbol of one’s status.

In fact driving is a controversial issue in China. On one hand it is a tendency reflecting the development of our life, on the other hand it contributes a series of problems which are involved in pollution, traffic congestion, traffic accident and so on.

Driving in Saudi Arabia (Alan's Country)

Unlike New Zealanders in my country we drive on the right side of the road and we have been doing that for around 100 year when the first car came which was an American ford.

Females In my country was not allowed to drive expect for special needs, which Is in my opinion is a treating of a princesses where her father, brother, uncle, son and son in law responsibility  to be her privet driver and body grad, which will not change even when she start driving by herself her males are more than welcome to do their role. Despite that I have tutored my younger sister how to drive when she got 18 in case of emergences

man In my country gets his first driving license at the age of 18, with this license he is only allowed to drive locally till the age of 20 when he gets his full license, which nowadays are in both Arabic and English and can be used instead of the passport in some of the gulf countries like Bahrain and UAE.

Speeding in my country used to be a big problem, but in the last couple of years many new speeding cameras were installed and new secret police cars were add, the max speed in residential areas is 60 m/h while in the motor-way it’s between 100-120 m/h .

and i live you with some pictures:

Driving in The kingdom - Sami

In Saudi Arabia we drive on the right side of the street and the steering wheel is situated on the left side of the car, just like the United States system. Only men who car driving  while  women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia except in some rural areas. I think one of the reasons of banning  women to drive is the way that men use it when they drive especially young people, they drive their own cars in fatal speed, the do not care about the traffic rules. The other reason belong to the custom of the country. Recently, women driving became a big issues in Saudi Arabia and in my opinion they will be able to drive in the near future. Getting a driving licence in Saudi Arabia is by far easier than New Zealand and it can be gotten at the age of 18.  The speed limit in the motorway is 120 kilometers per hour while in the cities  is depend on the street and it is between 50 to 90 kilometers per hour. The accidents rate in Saudi Arabia is  very hight according to the department of traffic police's statistics. Some of the reasons of the accidents in Saudi Arabia are the speed and using the mobile during driving. The number of the car accidents that happened in 2009 was  485931 and the number of people who died in the accidents was 6458, this means 13 deaths  everyday . The material losses because the car accidents were 5 billion dollars. 

Overall, driving in Saudi Arabia is nowhere near as safe as New Zealand and the high rate of the accidents would make me more apprehensive about driving in my country.

Driving in Japan

In Japan, we can get driver’s license over 18 years old, but we can get only a motorized two-wheeled vehicle license over 16-years old. If we want to get that license, we must enter a driving school to study driving lure and law. Usually, we spend four or five months to graduate this school, but people who have much free time can graduate it only one month. However, we must graduate it within one year. In case of the motorized two-wheeled vehicle license, we do not need to spend such a long time. It takes only one day. We take an exam and if we pass it, we have a lecture how to ride a motorized two-wheeled vehicle after that, we can get license.

Another peculiarity of Japanese driving rule is speed limit. In Japanese load, there are speed limits in normal roads and highways. In normal road, they are about 60km per an hour and in highway, about 80 to 90km per an hour. However, some crazy drivers do not keep this rule. If the police find them, they will be caught and they have to pay a fine.

 I think Japanese driver and load is safer than New Zealand because we have to spend time more than New Zealand driver and almost of Japanese driver keep the rule.

"Trafikaos" by Eric

When you drive in Lima you learn the real meaning of the word dangerous and sometimes driving in Peru is like extreme sport, but often quite a risky adventure.
Driving in Peru, and particularly in Lima is a real challenge. The roads and the vehicles are poorly maintained to start with. Furthermore, many drivers have unsafe driving habits. For example they ignore the rules of the road or do not consideration for others. Because of this there are many accidents causing injury of even death, which happen all the time.
As the traffic lights are often not respected police women are controlling the speed limit and charge fines. The speed limit in the city is up to 80km/h and up to 100km/h in the motorway. In past times policeman were controlling speed limits, but this has changed because research findings by specialists on traffic showed that policewomen are less corrupted or not corrupted at all. But sadly a high percentage of these women are killed in accidents. This happen particularly by people,  who are driving under the influence of alcohol.
As in Lima the traffic is often congested or there are traffic jams, it is always a good idea to avoid the peak times from 7.00 to 9.00 in the morning and 6.00 to 7.30 at night.
As I did not drive myself by a car in Lima, I used taxis. This saved me from the stress of dealing with the chaos of the traffic (which is actually called by Peruvian “trafikaos”) and finding a parking place. However, as taxis do not have meters, the prices must be fixed in advance. Finally, to ride a bike is not really an alternative, since pollution can make you sick easily. 

Luffy, driving in china

In my country, the citizens are allowed obtain a driver’s license when their reach 18 years old, and compare NZ, it’s not easy to get it, especially in recent years. Motorway is a exciting and easy way for driving, because in city center there are too serious traffic jams, while in the rural place, for the safety, the average limited speed is always controlled from 60-80 km/h. We are allowed to drive from 90 to 120 km/h normally; it’s depending on which kind of motorway. For me, I have drive license, while before I came to NZ, it was confiscated by the police officer, because I got too many tickets. Actually, I think in China, the traffic accidents which get by middle age are nowhere near as many as young man, because they have more banquets to entertain guests for their business, in those conditions, they are always have to drinking.

Emily - Driving in Seoul

Prior to writing this one, I honestly should say something. After getting my drivers license in Korea, I have never driven so I have very low common sense about driving, but I will try to describe it in Korea.

We are allowed to get the license from 19 years old, which is the same tendency in drinking. I think driving test is quite strict and expensive, but it has a bit flexibility which means that the cost of the test is a little different from areas. Also most of men feel the driving test is easy, but some of women try to get the license several times.

In terms of driving accidents, a beginner of woman drivers tends to have more accidents because of unskilled driving. However, in my opinion, most of men have fatal accidents because they usually drive fast and try to pass the car ahead all the time while they are driving. Moreover, at night juvenile delinquency drive motorbike illegally too fast without any license, which has been becoming serious problem in Korea.

Lastly, there are different speed limits on the road. I am not sure about it, but if I try to say something, we need to drive approximately 60~80km on the normal road like downtown. Also we are allowed to drive over 120km on the motorway.

Yi's report - Driving in China

In China, we have speed limit, according to China Traffic Regulations, the speed can up to 70km/h on city road which include two lanes per direction, but driving on national highway, the speed can up to 80km/h, regarding the motorway, the maximum speed is 120km/h. However enforcement of these rules usually depend on road condition, for example driving on some dangerous road such as hilly road or spiral road, the speed cannot be higher than 30km/h, this rule can protect drivers who might be badly injured and even dead if they don’t keep this rule. However tragedies still happened during past several years, some drivers neglected this regulation and drove in a high speed or others nodded off when they drove.

As well as this, bicycle is another problem. I studied in Tianjin for 5 years, the number of bicycles in Tianjin were considerable more than these of in other cities, for people in Tianjin usually went to work by bikes. During peak time, a great deal of bikes plus a vast number of vehicles which might lead to traffic accidents easily. But such accidents rarely happened during the past five years, because we had bicycle lanes where people rode their bicycles and a lot of related measures were strictly implemented which can protect pedestrian and bicycle riders to large extend.

Driving license is one of the most important qualifications which can prove certain person who has ability to drive. In China, people over 16-year-old can apply for a drive license. Prior to getting a drive license, people must pass some exams. However there are some problems, 16-year-old people are too young, they haven’t formed a right attitude to driving, for the most part, they drive because they want some thrill which is the cause of terrible accident.

Osama's City – How has been improved:

My hometown is Baha, where I lived around 20 years. What I like about it is that my city is a quiet and cute city. I am sure if you been there, you would love it because people are very friendly and generous. Despite the fact that this city is not as modern as the capital city in Saudi Arabia, it becomes more modern in the last a few years. Moreover, people are becoming more educated; the facilities and infrastructure have been improved as a result.

 One of the most noticeable things is that many parks and old building have been demolished to make way for motels and a mega mall. Also, the king Fahd hospital and the biggest two hotels in the city have been upgraded and modernized as well.  

Driving in Germany

I don't know whether I should already publish my paragraph, as there might still be texts on hometowns, but anyways, here is what I can tell you about the topic:

To start with, I presume that it is quite hard to pass your driver’s licence in Germany. It is necessary to take a certain amount of theoretical lesson (14) as well as practical training, before you are allowed to sit your driving test. I was told that only half of the people sitting their driving test in my hometown, were successful and passed it. Contrary to public belief, there are still terrible drivers on Germany’s streets, although they might be marginally better than the Italian drivers. (I hope I do not offend anybody!)

However, exceeding the speed limits is regarded as a minor offence and thus occurs frequently. Those crimes are punished with payments and points. People with a certain amount of points subsequently have to hand out their licence to the police and are prohibited to drive for the next months. Drivers that currently passed their driving test are neither allowed to exceed the speed limits nor to drink a single drop when driving. When they are caught red-handed they directly have to take an expensive course in order to regain their driving allowance. 

Regarding the speed limits, you are allowed to drive 50 km/h in towns, whereas outside of the towns’ boundaries on roads with only one lane for each direction the speed is limited to 100km/h and on motorways the recommended speed is 130km/h unless otherwise noted. 

Eventually there are, as foreigners seem to approve of, unlimited passages on motorways, allowing you to drive as fast as you want. This is, without a doubt, the thrilling experience for car enthusiasts and one of the reasons why travelling Germany by car is fast and convenient. 

Milena

Alex's city - How it has changed

My hometown is Zhengzhou in China, which is a small city, but there is a large population. I lived there until I was 15. Over the past twenty years, it is experienced a large number of changes. One of the most noticeable things is that many of the old buildings have been demolished to make way for newer ones. Also, many of the other buildings have been upgraded. The city used to a much greener area with a lot of trees, but most of trees were cut down and replaced by cinemas and restaurants so the city looks modern , but it is not green any more. There was a river which I used to swim with my friends when I was young. Such a thing will not happen again because the water has been polluted by several factories which have sprung up beside the river. I think the city has definitely become more multicultural in recent years and it is good for city’s economy, but I still like the city which it used to.

Yuta hometown Saitama

Saitama, where is really close to Tokyo, is my home town. My hometowm has dramatically changed when we had the Japaneses sports competition in Saitama.That competition has a lot of kinds of sports, so the city which helds it has to make many hotels, new station, and so on.

 Before we had the competition, there were a lot of forests and many parks, but after deciding that competitiom would be held in Saitama, these green area were cut dowm to make new hotels and station. This development helps us to live and enjoy our life in Saitama. We can go to Tokyo easily, in terms of my hometown, I can go to Tokyo in 30minites by train. On the other hand there is a probrem was made by that development. We do not have as many plases as before, so children who are living in Saitama now can not enjoy their age as mush as us.

Threfore, my hometown got a huge population and good transportation, but we lost many forests.

Emily's hometown - Seoul

My home town is Seoul where has been capital for over 6000 years in South Korea. As the capital city, it experienced a lot of changes, especially, during 20 years period.

The most striking one is that most of the trees along the River Han were cut down to make way for skyscrapers. As well as this, new bridges were built, and a new stretch of railway was constructed across the river.

In terms of the area north of the river, most of the woodland along the river was cleared to prepare new space for some park. Further development was the construction of the main soccer stadium near the north-west of the river in 2002.

In terms of the area south of the river, the town was a considerably greener area with a number of trees and individual houses, but over the next 20 years the town has a lot of changes. The most noticeable one is that most of individual houses south of the river were demolished to make way for the main area of business in Korea. Accordingly, lots of tall buildings and factories sprang up, and many new hotels and restaurants are being built.

"Lima: the city of gardens" by Eric

As in former times because during the time of colonialisation Lima was made the capital of "New Spain", most of the urban areas, including its parks were designed following the archetypes of a Mediterranean city in the Nineteenth Century.
The main square is surrounded by exquisite colonial architecture and most of the buildings have been restored for prolonged use such as governamental organizations, cultural centres, museums, social clubes, libraries and cafes. The Cathedral and some other religious buildings have been upgrated with latest techniques for preservation of historical monuments and a lightning project had been installed creating a special atmosphere at night, it is just a pleasure to walk around these side of the city percieving History and sense for details. Most of the woodland has been cut down to make way for new public spaces like the big park called "El parque de la Reserva" which probably is one of the best contemporary landscape projects because it makes use of hidraulic energy in order to create water sculptures at different intervals of times.Lima was always considered as the city of gardens even if there's not as much sun during the year, more than that, it never rains! However the government has improved the public budget and many parks and gardens have sprang up. The most dramatic change was that the railway ("Tranvias") had been replaced with the motorway ("Via expressa") which has been recently extended 3 km South-West and 2 km North-East. Somehow the transport system has been improved but still not enough for such a huge city.
Overall, Lima is a city plenty of contradictions. I remember the long winters with gray sky all the time, but its warm-hearted people make a big difference.

Leo prefers a countryside than a city

My hometown is Ho Chi Minh city which is the biggest city in Vietnam. I have lived there for 18 years, before I came in NZ. I have lived in NZ for a year so i really miss my family, my friends, my house and my city where I had many memories in my youth., however, nowadays my hometown has changed very much.

One of the most noticeable is that many farms and fields which many farmers and also my grandmother had grown rices, have been cleared, and many cottages have been demolished and replaced by houses and trees. In the heart of my city, most of run-down old buildings have been knocked down and rebuilt by skyscrapers and modern buildings. Many night clubs and restaurants have sprung up around my city and every night the bars and restaurants are always packed because people in my city really like night life. Specially, two new bridges have been constructed and many new roads have been built. It's quite convenient for transports.

Although, my city became a modern city, I still prefer a countryside because when I stay there, i can breath the fresh air, play traditional games such as fishing and enjoy a tranquil life without bustling and pollution.

Minyi's city: Guangzhou

Guangzhou, where is in the south of China, is my hometown. It’s one of the most famous cities in China. In the following, I’ll tell you about the changes in Guangzhou between 2000 and 2010.

In 2000, there were a lot of factories in Guangzhou, but it also had a lot of trees in the north of Guangzhou. In the following 10 years, my city has changed a lot. The most noticeable one is that the Pearl River used to be polluted, but now it’s getting clearer and some people swim in the river in summer. Some of the woodland in the north of Guangzhou was cleared to make way for the individual houses and factories. As well as this, a new airport was built in the south-west of Guangzhou.

In terms of the area south of Guangzhou, only a few trees remained. Most of the individual houses were demolished, and a new individual estate with factories and skyscrapers sprung up around the parks and zoo. Further developments are the construction of a stadium for the Asian Games and a new stretch of subway running directly north-west.

Overall, a comparasion of Guangzhou between 2000 and 2010 shows that Guangzhou will become a international city.

Mark’s city -How it has changed (Taiyuan, China)

My hometown is Tai Yuan which is locates at the middle region of Beijing and Shanghai. So the city has been an important stage from the ancient time. Taiyuan was a small city with natural all around it. Over the last 20 years, especially since the introduction of reform and opening-up policy, significant changes have taken place in there. The quadrangle where I lived has been demolished. Trees were cut down and were superseded by skyscrapers and factories. Hundreds of new cars are rushing into the expressway everyday. The city is becoming an industrialized metropolis.

The ceaselessly changing society brings us not only opportunities but also problems: environmental problems. I know that the city need development, but we can’t ruin the environment as price of the development. I hope they will be solved in future years.

Candice's city:how it has changed

My hometown is Hong Kong. There are many famous travel destinations to attract visitors. Tourism is not only representing Hong Kong, but also is the most important way to earn money from foreigners. According to this reason, government have planned to improve transportation and facilities over the past two decades.  Take Hong Kong Disneyland as an example, they had decided to cut down a part of natural trees and were demolished some of houses  to build this theme park in south-west. In order to connect it with city, there was an extension of the subway network. In addition, subway services have included all of the area in Hong Kong wherever south-west of airport, north of Mainland China and south of Hong Kong island. Comparing the routing before and after, there were dramatic changes from a simple infrastructure to a convenient city with good transportation development.

In-cheon -Min-

My hometown is In-cheon which is the second biggest city in Korea and located next to Seoul. It has changed constantly to a international city since i was young. There has been sprung up many modern buildings such as stadiums, skyscapers, departments, apartments which are normally over 20 floors and the one of the greatest international airports in the world called In-cheon airport. Moreover, the Infrastructure in In-cheon has upgraded considerably. For example, we can take a buses or trains without waing over 10mins and possibly go to anywhere by them. All of these things have been appeared instead of extremly large fields. Furthermore, lots of old houses were demolished to make way for being a modern and international city. Following the developments, population of In-cheon also has been going up steadily. However, in terms of pollution, it is being spread due to many sorts of constructions. that is why the city council has been increasing a green areas.

Sami's city - how it has developed

Mecca is the city where I was born. It was quite small in terms of area and population. Over the last two decades especially when the country became more wealthy,  the city experienced big changes in different fields, such as the transportation , the education , the health and the buildings. In terms of the transportation, Mecca is a mountain city so moving from place to other was taking long time, but now the government digged  number of tunnels to make the traffic more smoothly. A high speed train station was built in the middle of the city to help people to avoid the traffic jam. A number of skyscrapers sprang up  recently and the most important one is   called " Abraj Albait" which is the highest tower in Saudi Arabia. In terms education, A new building of the university of Mecca was constructed in the south of the city and the old building of the university knocked down and replaced by a big public library. As well as this, many schools built in most suburbs of the city. The health care in Mecca was improved dramatically, the construction of the medical city of king Abdullah was one of the huge projects in the country which has all the medical specialisations.

overall, the city experienced a lot of changes over the last  twenty years and all these developments occurred after the improvement that occurred on the country's economy.        

Alan's City: through the factor of time

My hometown Al-Dammam where I have lived for nearly 20 years, And over the last couple of years it had some small and major changes throughout the city, many parks got upgraded  and a great number of restaurant have sprung up from many different countries offering some new kinds of cuisines , but the most noticeable change is the demolishing of many streets and buildings in order to establish a high road across the city connecting the capital of my country Al-Riyadh to our neighbouring country Al-Bahrain, and the other major change is the re-naming  of the streets and suburbs  around the city “I got confused at some point when I came back after six months” .
But sadly I have been away from my city for the almost last three years but I have been told by some of the people who have just came from there that some more restraint have been build and some unpleasant parking machines have been add .
So at the end I am looking forward to experience those changes by myself this New Year

I live you with some pictures:

Changes in Jin's city

With the development of economy, great changes have been taken place in my hometown over the past decades. My hometown has been best known for its agriculture in China, however in 1990s local government focused more on the industrial development which was thought of as a rapid means to raise living standard at that time. Following consequences were that the city was expanded into surrounding countryside and farms were cleared to make way for the industrial park. Old buildings were demolished all over the city where tall buildings and great mansions were sprang up in short time. Modern supermarkets were built in the center of residential area.

The development was happened in my hometown at an amazing rate which causes some problems on the other hand. A large number of people have come to the city from rural area which leads to boosting population in the city. The improvement of infrastructure and transportation could not keep up with the increasing population and the terrible pollution problem, which seems very common for every city in China.

After experiencing such a period, different changes have arisen recently. The division of the city district has been much clearer instead of disorder expansion. More woodlands have been established around the residential area as well as city squares. Some old monuments have been preserved well as attractive resorts. Of course there still have been a couple of problems in my hometown, however in my view it has become more and more comfortable.

How my hometown has changed (Lee)

Everything has dramatically changed in Korea for nearly 10 years. Especially, my hometown, which is the south-east to Seoul, has had a great deal of changes since I was young. As Cheon-an has not been developed a lot compared with other cities, there was demolished and many facilities have sprung up. As an example, there has been expanded a subway from Seoul and soccer places have constructed.

Another change is that a population has been going up. It was around 450,000 people in Cheon-an before 10 years but has changed to approximately 510,000 since that time. As one of the global companies, which is Sam-sung’s factory, came into my city, a number of workers, who used to live in other city, have been coming with factory. So, it is the one of reasons why the population have increased.

Zairan' city- how it has changed (Shi jiazhuang, China)

My hometown is not a big city, but with economic development it has made many changes in recent years. Because of influx of the population and the increase of private cars, many streets have been increasingly able to meet the needs of people no longer. Some narrow streets have been expanded its area and old roads have been renovated. Furthermore, my city' tourist industry develops rapidly, that' why a great deal hotels have been built to replace the ole ones, which are demolished in large area. With the seriousness of air pollution, many industrial factories have moved to the suburbs to make way for shopping malls, schools and hospitals. A decade ago, the infrastructure was too bad, but rencently our city has constructed a lot of new infrastructure.

Golf’s city - how it has changed (Bangkok)

Over the past two decades, Bangkok has been considerably developed from a green residential area to a dispersion of industry around the town. The large number of individual houses have been expropriated and demolished and replaced by commercial buildings for support Economic growth. Also, many department stores have sprung up around the city and neighbouring provinces and the historical places have been renovated by government sector and private organization.

Thai international airport was changed to another place, which connects to a modern moterway and the former airport is used for traveling in the country

In terms of transportation, it has been continually improved by constructing the Skytrain, Subway and the avenues have been decorated with street lamps and trees along the way.