Silver Seas International Hotel Yan'an

Yin, the Chinese tourist/hiker who shared our minivan yesterday, found one we could share this morning. We left at 9:30 am and went on a bumpy dusty road under construction to Bamei. From here the road was paved and it was 83 km more to Danba. 4.5 hour trip total. Unfortunately, I'm in the back seat with tinted window which only open alittle so I can't see much.

In Danba, we get taxi to a fancy hotel but they won't come down at all from 400Y even though ...

I am writing this from the east peak of Huashan, waiting for a father and his son to clamber down to a pavilion at the top of a cliff. I am not courageous enough to do it myself because you need to wear a belt thing to do it and I am simply not brave enough. To get here I already had to climb/pull myself up some pretty much vertical steps/a chain. All the Chinese who were not brave (or stupid) enough to do it cheered me on from the steps nearby. They were close enough to see I was worried ...

The first few weeks I spent in Xingping, trying to work out how to get out. Perhaps I shouldn't have done that. Perhaps I should have spent time finding what I was looking for inside Xingping... but it reminded me too much of Westhoughton. I had to leave it. Since London will hopefully be my home for the next four years, it seems fitting to find the closest thing around here, which is Xi'An. It is a wonderful place and, strangely enough, has a ...

Where else, but in China, can you have a ride on the back of a motorbike bike, streaming past strange tractor-bike vehicles, brand new Audis, buses, and the ubiquitous bicycles? Probably a few places, actually, but where can you do all that on the same day as having tea with the director of a chemical plant and his family? That was one of the days this week. Speaking of roads and road manners, I don't think the Chinese ...

We arrived in Chengdu after a 15 hour train journey. The journey was quite eventful, as we were in separate cabins due to our late booking, and so we were both sharing with lots of Chinese people. David had the man who made noises like a pig all night, and so got no sleep, and Angela had the very friendly people who kept giving her food. Firstly one of the men handed me what I thought was a plum, but it had no stalk and was very smooth. I ...

8 hour bus ride...kidda like taking a bus from Chicago to somewhere in Montana....cold and out in the middle of nowhere...no offense to those who are particular to Montana. But we had a GREAT time. We did some sightseeing at a lot of communist sites which included lots of cave houses(home in the dug into the side of the mountain). The next day we had some free time so a bunch of us went on a hike with Dr. Moline and then near the end we were at the edge of town and he ...

Get up early to get the bus to Taiyuan but have a bit of a nightmare as we go to the wrong bus station, people try and help us but make us more exasperated, we eventually get a taxi to the correct station and land on our feet as we have the best bus i've ever been on. The journey to Taiyuan is a doddle, only get to see a small part of the city but it doesn't look impressive. Getting a train to Pingyao is a little troublesome with practically a whole family ...

Datong, onze eerste halte in de Shanxi porvincie, is op zich niet echt aantrekkelijk. Ooit de hoofdstad geweest tijdens de Wei dynastie (tot 494), is nu een drukke industriestad met relatief dure winkelstraten. Guesthouses bestaan hier niet, dus dan maar een goedkope hotelkamer (de eerste van zovelen??) Niet echt aan te raden, maar na Mongolie kijken we zo nauw niet meer. Comfortabele bedden, een Westers toilet en stromend warm water... pure luxe gewoon, wat ...

Tren saatinin uymamasindan folayi otobusle gelmeyi tercih ettigimiz icin cok memnunduk. Yukarsindan ruzgar ufleyen koltuklar normal sartlar altinda ortalama bir konfor iken, bize o anda olaganustu bir luks gibi gelmisti. Luoyang a vardigimizda asiri kalabalik otobus istasyonundan buyuk, agaclikli bir caddeye ciktik. Troleybusleri, motorlari, bolca taksisi olan, sikisik gurultulu bir trafigin arasindan karsiya gecmeyi basardik. Otelimiz otobus istasyonunun tam ...

I took a bus to Yan'an, because of bad roads and trafic jams the bus took hours longer than expected and I didn't arrive until late at night. I ended up staying at a "hotel" that had probably not had foreign visitors before. The family was very nice and the ...