China
Travel Blogs from China, China
Guests of the Aini
... on sunscreen and insect repellent and chew on individually-wrapped snacks. Dan and I can no longer count ourselves the fastest hikers in China. That title must go to our Abu, the local guide we picked up in Menghun, a smaller market city in ...
Caving and Mud Baths
Slept in again!! When we finally managed to get out of the room we went to reception and rented two bicycles and bought tickets to a water cave just outside of town. We got onto our bikes and started off in the direction the desk clerk pointed us. We had ...
Just a little one
... ... but the Indian food and cheap wine was worth it :) We also took a trip to the observation level in the bank of China building for some pretty nice views....and took the star ferry to hong Kong island to get to the peak tram.... the tram taking you ...
Forbidden City
We got up later than we wanted to but after breakfast and a grueling two hour game of UNO that just wouldn't end we finally managed to get to the Forbidon City. When we got there we were greeted with a rediculously large line-up for tickets and ...
In The Words of R Nixon "That Was Some Great Wall"
So I, James wake up with a headache because I have no alcohol tolerence left..... after 4 beers, damn. After a breakfast of eggs and toast we got picked up by a coach bus and spent the next 2 hours with our driver playing chicken with ...
Summer Palace
... the girl from the netherlands to go out for peking duck as none of us had tried it yet and it's a big thing in China. After finally finding the restaurant that our hostel suggested we just pointed to the menu and hoped the waiter got our order ...
No permission
I continued for the next day, only to after a midday stop in larger military town called Miling to discover the next piece of road was being rebuilt. It was so bad that I my rear tyre that was pumped up to maximum pressure and laiden with the ...
Macao
... blocked off for that, and we heard racing crews talking in the customs and immigration lines while leaving to go back to China proper. Macao is famous for its gambling as well, trying to style itself an Asian Las Vegas. We didn't go ...
Getting our Bearings
... the food was pretty good. I'm sure there will be a LOT more of this pointing and crossing our fingers style of ordering food in China. During our search for supper and looking around in awe of all the people around us we compared all the foot traffic to a ...
Flowers, Fish, and Birds...and Lots of Them!
We slept until around noon, which was very nice, before heading out towards Kowloon (the part of Hong Kong attached to the mainland; we were staying on Hong Kong Island) and doing a tour of all their different street markets. We started with a flower ...
Lazy Bums
Another very uneventful day of being lazy. We just hung out in the room reading, watching tv and talking to the other guy in our room. We did go out for dinner to a spaghetti house with him and then we also wandered out for supper later and found a cheap ...
The Shark Lady travels on
From Kala Pattar we returned to Lobouche, this time staying the night in the very lovely Sherpa lodge. The day stayed clear, and sunset was spectacular, with Lhotse glowing gold like molten metal. The weather held the next day, and I have to say I have ...
Fame and Fortune in Foshan
Day One in Foshan, China "China is famous for - people," our director states with a giggle. Dan and I are goggle-eyed, staring out the side windows of the school van at our new home and trying to maintain a conversation with our new coworkers at ...
Sunday morning Shanghai
My host and interpreter on this trip, Yang Kai, is a very thoughtful young man. He's done a lot to spruce up the Shanghai office to make it comfortable. He purchased a very nice duvet for me to sleep in, set the heater to 30 celcius, even bought a box of ...
The Himalayan M25
We made the most of our early awakening at Tengboche and set off. Guess the direction? Yes, up! We were on the trail by 8- 9 being our usual- and soon worked out the big plus point of a slightly later start when we got caught in the Himalayan equivalent ...
Wild Elephants Couldn't Drag Us
For once, I'm excited to be woken up. It's 2:30 in the morning and the quiet flashlight-wielding man outside our tree house has just made my heart beat fast: "Da xiang," he says. "Da xiang." Dan and I put on our shoes and coats and tiptoe ...
A week in Shigatse
This was to prove an interesting week! Most traveller's spend the night in this town, which is the old capital of Tibet. Not a lot of people know that! There was actually a lot to see, and I was fortunate to have the companionship of Lopsang and ...
Hainan Five-O
... she played guitar. For ambiance, this was my favorite night. The third day we made it to Sanya, the southernmost city in China. The vegetation on the way down was decidedly jungly, and the scenery classically Asian. I about snapped my own neck trying ...
A Journey East--In Search of the Hakka
... country was a diversion of our original plan. We had planned to go to Yunnan province, the farthest southwest province of China. Our guide book paints beautiful imagery of wild elephants, steep mountains, and matriarchal societies. Dan and I had ...
China: Nanning, Guilin, Yangshuo
Version traduite plus bas Feb 1, China : Nanning, Guilin and Yangshuo I still cannot get over the fact that from one country to another, there are so many discrepancies and I wonder why one government would not check out what works with their neighbours ...
Letters from Listeners
"When you get food in China, do you always get Chinese food?" You get the Chinese interpretation of food. The other night I ordered a burger from room service. The first thing I saw when I took the lid off the plate was a fried egg. The cook had ...
Lanzhou
... was economically very poor, heavily industralised and one of the most polluted I'd experienced in all my years of travel in China. The rivers were black and disgusting, the sky filled with ' yellow sandstorms' common to this area! Counting down the ...
Happy Christmas, Mouse
... , the two-week period following the New Year according to the Chinese lunar calendar. Every Western holiday we've experienced in China has had such rich contradictions and melding. Last year I was surprised by the shop fronts we passed that put ...
The Shadow of Buddha, and, What my Students Want
... We took a ferry over from Central in Hong Kong harbor to Tung Chung, a village on Lantau (called a village, but, as everywhere in China, with a population exceeding most cities I've been to in the USA) and then a bus up to the giant Buddha. Like many ...
Olympi-mania
Good news! Only 309 more days till the Summer 2008 Olympic Games! Wait, you're not excited? Well, Beijing is, and the city and its residents are flying high on Olympic enthusiasm. In Guangdong province, where we live, ...
Facemask as pret-a-porter?
Surgical masks may be associated with paranoid, aging Asian immigrants back home, but I'm intrigued to report that in Hong Kong you can be young and trendy and still wear one. I just rode an escaltor with a young woman wearing fringed suede boots who ...
Days in Transit
May 2 We spent the last day we had in Yangshuo resting from our bike ride and packing up our bags for the trip to Guilin. We did meet a couple from the Netherlands in the lobby and went to supper together. They told us all about Chengdu and Xian and we ...
Happy Birthday China
... off work this summer, Dan and I now have another ten days free to wander Guangdong Province. Today was National Day in China, the start of our vacation for the mid-autumn festival, and celebrated nationwide by throngs of people enjoying a rare day ...
Hiking in High Heels
... Buddhist monk spiritualizing this experience for us, or a crazy man singing off-key Chinese pop. This is Dinghu Shan, allegedly China's first nature reserve and the home of an important Buddhist temple. The name means "Ceremonial Pot Lake Mountain," ...

