About Me

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Valeria Teo is a writer, a travel planner and an owner of private accommodation. Her passion for travel has taken her to nearly 30 countries since 1992. The trip to Croatia in 2007 has brought her a husband and her first Chinese novel. Valeria has published two Chinese novel sets in Croatia and a collection of Chinese essays. Besides being a regular blogger for the Hong Kong travel site UTravel and GOtrip, she writes for various organizations and online publications, in both English and Chinese. Having appeared in two Hong Kong on-line radio travel programmes featuring Croatia, Valeria was also consulted by one Taiwanese and one Hong Kong TV station for shooting travel programmes in and around Croatia. Her particular connection with Croatia has led her to create Croatia Independent Travellers (www.croatia.com.hk) with two partners. The on-line platform specializes in travel planning and custom-made tours for those who want to create unforgettable travel experiences of their own. In the summer of 2014, Valeria realized her long-term dream of running her own private accommodation in Split.
Born in Hong Kong, Valeria now resides in Split, Croatia.

My Published Articles

THE CHINESE AND THE CROATIAN JIUZHAI VALLEY in travelculturelanguage The U.S. News includes the Plitvice Lakes National Park of Croatia in the article “World’s Prettiest Places”. While the author acknowledges that the most popular tourist destination in Croatia is still largely unknown to the Americans, people in the Greater China region (China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) often refer to the Plitvice Lakes National Park as the Croatian Jiuzhai Valley. 

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ON WRITING GOOD CHINESE in Foreign Languages and Culture Despite the great differences between English and Chinese, William Zinsser’s article “Writing English as a Second Language turns out to be equally useful for improving Chinese writing.

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THE MANY VERSIONS OF SPOKEN "CHINESE" in Foreign Languages and Culture People often ask me how to say certain phrases or words in Chinese. My immediate response is always a question back to them: in Cantonese or in Mandarin?

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MY DREAM DESTINATIONS IN CHINA in Foreign Languages and Culture With 40 sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List, China offers visitors cultural diversity and scenic variety. Planning a trip to China can be quite a daunting task.

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HUANG YONGYU AND HIS BELOVED PHOENIX in travelculturelanguage I have longed to visit Fenghuang (literally means “phoenix” in Chinese), a small ancient town surrounded by forested mountains along the Tuo River in Hunan Province.

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SU SHI IN THE PARADISE ON EARTH in Foreign Languages and Culture Marco Polo, the first Westerner to set foot in Hangzhou at the end of the 13th century during the Yuan Dynasty, described her as “the finest and most splendid city in the world”.

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THE DIFFICULTIES OF READING AND WRITING CHINESE in travelculturelanguage
Non-Chinese may find reading and writing Chinese particularly difficult.

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THE ENDEAVORS NEEDED FOR LEARNING CHINESE in travelculturelanguage
Learning to speak Mandarin or any Chinese dialect is often not the most difficult part even though many non-Chinese speakers may struggle with the tones at the beginning.

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HOW TO LEARN CHINESE FAST in travelculturelanguage
Many people have asked me this question. Having pondered it repeatedly, I am inclined to think that perhaps Chinese is not meant to be learned fast.

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FOLLOWING MONET'S IMPRESSIONS OF ÉRETAT in TRAVEL THRU HISTORY
I had always dreamed of seeing the scenes Claude Monet portrayed on the canvases with my own eyes. The natural beauty itself is one reason. But the yearning to see through the master's secrets of colors, brush strokes and representation was even stronger. Normandy was one of the ideal areas to pursue my impressionistic dream.

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THE CIDER ROUTE IN NORMANDY in TRAVEL THRU HISTORY
“Normandy is proud of their apple trees,” my French friend told me. There was certainly ample truth in it as the Cider Route (La Route du Cidre) was proposed in 1973 to let people discover and appreciate the great quality of the wine in the region of Pays d’Auge.

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ÐAKOVACKI VEZOVI: Embroidering a Colorful Croatian Festival in TRAVEL THRU HISTORY
This is Ðakovo’s biggest traditional festival in the summertime. Ðakovacki Vezovi literally means "Ðakovo Embroidery" because Slavonian embroidery is a well-known Croatian craft.

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