Guan Fang Kunming

... towards the coach. Apparently, tourist luggage must be stored inside the coach.<br>Now, assuming this route and bus would be for tourists - I was quite looking forward to the journey, but boy were we wrong. Everyone was Chinese, not a single person - drivers included speaks English and I was one of three women. My heart sank - another night and day or spitting... brilliant! But, we're not finished yet.... a lady got on helping a man - who was not old, but ...

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... He recalls visiting the artists' town in Songzhuang, on Beijing's eastern outskirts, which has become one of the centers of the city's burgeoning art scene over the last 10 years, drawing artists with its cheap rents and proximity to the capital's growing markets and galleries. But he disliked the atmosphere. "An artist needs quietness and loneliness. I prefer staying here," he says. Everyday he rises early, spending half the day painting and the other ...

... So I get there and it all looks possible for the 10th in three days time. After several meetings, cash payment, plane time changes, changes from direct to non direct through Quijing, changes of departure date it finally looks as though I might finally be going but still cannot be certain as I do not have the tickets or an exact departure time. "You must go to the man with the board when you get to Lhasa. It is not good to enter Lhasa by yourself and the ...

We moved into our apartment, it's nice, quiet area, wooden floors, fully furnished, 2 bedrooms, lounge, kitchen, a tiny bathroom, but we are afraid to use the shower, more on that later. I am really enjoying Yunnan food, it is awesome, I cannot believe I am saying this myself. It really puts Taiwanese ...

... s pretty friendly. Her cooking is also remarkably good. Aside from this, on weekends I head out into the city to eat. Kunming's most famous dish is called Cross the Bridge Noodles. The story has it that it is named for a woman whose husband was studying for the imperial exam. Everyday he went to an island in the river to revise for the exam and every lunchtime his wife crossed the bridge to bring him lunch. His favourite ...

... through "Three Cups of Tea", but I'll write more on this incredible book later, before I met Shaked (Israeli), Jenni (Finnish) and Samir (Egyptian) for a game of cards. We played the equivalent of Chinese deuces as I got to know these three English teachers in China. I learned a lot about teaching English abroad, and how the system works in China. Most schools require an ethnically-Chinese teacher to chaperone the classroom (though Samir, with four years of ...

... days. Also, and this ranks as almost unprecedented in my previous experience of China, the sky is regularly blue here! This weekend I decided to have a look around a bit more of the city, and having already located "useful" things like the local DVD shop and the Carrefour supermarket, I went in search of a bit more authentic culture. This took me to the Yuantong Temple, Kunming's main temple. After a few navigational hiccups, it became apparent that I was ...

After rushing through Vietnam I'm glad to be back on my old schedule - no schedule. The rush was due to the timing of my Chinese visa. I obtained the visa in Cairo when I thought I was taking the trans-mongolian and arriving in China much earlier. The catch is that you must use a Chinese visa within 3 months of receiving it. My time was about to run out and I caught myself stewing about missing the entry date all the time. It would have been easier to just blow off the ...