Blogs from Chaoyang district, Beijing, China, Asia - page 4

Well guys here's the latest from far far away! Beijing Right it's now the 20th so I definitly can't remember what happened day by day but hopefully I can remember at least a bit (which also might be difficult due the amount of brain cells I've been destroying over the last fortnight). So, basically we got to the youth hostel in a little back alley in Beijing and it was busy. The little bar was full of young white people, it was a new experience wandering into the hostel with a lot of 'big eyes' staring at you, who's the new guests? After sorting ourselves out we headed downstairs to the bar quickly as happy hour including food just started, so to make full use of the 70 yuan (quai) we just spent each we managed ... read more

For many years I’ve been interested in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) or at least alternatives to Western medicine. In my other life I was a medical laboratory technologist. For that I studied physiology and various aspects of Western medicine, so I had that knowledge base to begin with. However it was a long time before I had a chance to have first-hand experience of Oriental medicine. I had an accident when I was trekking in Nepal two years ago, in November 2009. I tripped on the path and fell down a rocky slope. A few days later I met my niece, a Buddhist scholar, in Katmandu where she was acting as an interpreter for a Tibetan woman doctor. She suggested that I have a treatment from the doctor so I underwent “cupping” while my niece took ... read more

As a child, I made my brother believe that if we could dig a hole that was deep enough, we could tunnel our way through the core of the earth all the way to China. (I also made him believe that if he could swing high enough on our backyard swing set he could fly to heaven and that my bedroom closet was an elevator, but that is beside the point). We spent many hours happily and fruitlessly digging in the backyard (okay, he spent many hours digging while I "supervised"), making sure to cover up our handiwork any time one of the parental units came to check on us. Come to think of it, I am quite impressed that neither of us ever fell in the gigantic hole cleverly disguised as a leaf pile ... read more

Once upon a time, there was a young woman fair with golden hair and green eyes. She had been living in the Middle Kingdom for nearly four years and had decided it was time for a lifestyle upgrade. No more was she content to ride the subway or take the bus to her destination. She had realized that there was so much more to see and experience in her kingdom than the sweaty rush hour crush of humanity on Line 10. So she decided to buy an electric scooter. She began her search at a local electric scooter shop in her neighborhood, per the recommendation of one of "the family" (as her close group of friends in the kingdom were known). The door to the shop was open and so she walked right in. There were ... read more

After a 24 hour journey door to door we have arrived for our first day in China. The journey consisted of two planes, a pitstop in Finland (where we bumped into Adrian Charles, how random) and an argument on arrival with the hostel we are staying in, of which I will talk about later. It wasn't quiet the same as flying into Indonesia or Viet Nam, the sky was bleak and looked like wet concrete for most of the day but on leaving the air conditioned airport that sticky sweet smell of heavy humid air clinging to your skin hit us and it was then that it hit me that I was here, in China, back on the Asian continent with Bert the backpack and ready to explore! We contemplated waiting for a bus but as ... read more