A beautiful sunny day, so I headed to the coast. I have been meaning to visit Yantian Boardwalk for a while, but I've either been busy or the weather has been terrible. It was really easy to get to, taking line 2 to Haishan Station and then a straight walk down the road to the water. There were quite a few people at the entrance to the boardwalk and here the boardwalk juts out into the water more, so lots of people were there taking photos. There was even a wedding shoot going on. There was a cute looking café/restaurant there too. I could just imagine sitting in the shade of its terrace and enjoying an iced coffee there. The entrance to the board walk was kind of in the middle, so I had to decide ... read more

Since I'd been feeling a bit under the weather, a nice and easy relaxing stroll/hike was what I needed and Bijiashan Park fitted the bill nicely. It was a short hop on the subway and and about a ten minute or so walk from the subway to the park's (east?) entrance. I passed an abandoned apartment complex that was getting ready for demolition, I would have loved to have had a look around and get some photos, but it was all boarded up and there were a few security guards looking after the place. At the entrance there were lots of nicely shaded places for people to sit and relax. I had read that there was a small hill to hike which offered some views of the city, so I followed the signposts for that. I ... read more

Exploring another area of Shenzhen. Baoan is pretty far from where I live but new subway lines have made it more accessible and slashed travel times. We started at Baoan Farmers Trade Wholesale Market (that's the translation of the name, which is why it sounds a little strange). The market was really big, bigger than I imagined it would be. We started in the outer ring, which was filled with shops selling dry good such as rice, spices, cured meats and fruits and veggies. Since it was the afternoon, it was pretty quiet. Because the market is in Shenzhen, it's a bit more high tech as each vendor had a tv screen outside their store that displays what I think was their prices. After walking the outer ring, we headed into the centre of the market ... read more

Nanshan Museum had been on my radar for a while, but when I tried to get tickets in Covid times, there were never any available. Now that's over it was super easy to reserve a spot on the museum's WeChat mini programme. The museum was easy to access as it was about a ten minute walk in a straight line from the subway station. I scanned my ticket at the entrance and was free to wander the museum. I don't really know too much about this area of Shenzhen apart from it is central and pretty rich. The museum had both permanent and temporary exhibits, so I started with permanent ones. I decided to work through them chronologically so started with 'Ancient Nanshan'. I passed a gorgeous wooden folding screen with gold lacquer work as I ... read more

I spent the second part of my lunar new year holiday in Hubei visiting friends. Since all Covid restrictions had been lifted recently it was still a novelty to be able to travel hassle free. However, this trip didn't go as planned but that due to my Chinese friends lack of planning and last minute changes rather than any major events. I had intended to spend all my time in Wuhan but ended up spending the majority of it in Huangshi, a smaller city nearby that is my friend's hometown. I think Huangshi's only claim to fame is that it was the second or third city to get shut down back in January 2020 when Covid started becoming more prominent. Anyway, I've broke the trip into a few different sections. Transport: I flew to Wuhan with ... read more