Blogs from Nanning, Guangxi, China, Asia - page 4

Hi all, Another brief note to say we're now spending our final night in China in the town of Nanning which is near the Vietnam border. From Hong Kong we got the train to Guangzhou, where we stayed one night, and then yesterday we took a 13 hour (!) train journey to Nanning. Our first impressions of China were not great, as compared to Hong Kong, Guangzhou was much dirtier and polluted with a lingering smog which meant you couldn't see more than about 50 metres. All of a sudden there were no English speaking people, no English translations and no other English/Western people apart from us! So we left Guangzhou pretty quickly, and thankfully Nanning is a much cleaner, friendlier place, full of trees and green (ish) avenues. Although everyone still stares at us as ... read more

Habe mich heute mit Cloud getroffen, einer chinesischen Travellerin , die ich über Couchsurfing kennen gelernt habe. Sie möchte mit mir gemeinsam nach Vietnam reisen. Sie stammt ursprünglich aus der Nähe von Beijing ist aber zur Zeit auf Reisen und war schon in Indien, Thailand, Nepal und natürlich China. Seit einem Monat ist sie in Nanning. Ich habe die Gelegenheit wahr genommen und die Sprachkenntnisse einer Muttersprachlerin dafür genutzt,mir eine neue und bessere Kamera zu kaufen. Dank Cloud konnte ich (oder besser: sie) den Preis von ca. 2200 RMB auf 1700 runterhandeln, ein Schnäppchen mag das nicht gerade sein, aber immer noch billiger als in Europa für eine Kamera made in China bezahlt wird und die Verkäuferin hat noch zwei wiederaufladbare Batterien, ein Ladegerät und eine 4MB-SD-Karte mit Cardreader dazugegeben. Ach ja, noch eine positive Nachricht. ... read more

Top 10 Sights 10. Oriental Plaza/Wangfujing Food Market, Beijing 9. The Bird's Nest Stadium, Beijing 8. Seven Stars Cave, Guilin 7. Terracotta Warriors, Xi'an 6. Forbidden City, Beijing 5. Summer Palace, Beijing 4. Light Show, Yangshuo 3. Dragon's Backbone Rice Terraces, Longji 2. Mountains of Yangshuo 1. Sherpa's Great Wall Top 10 Things We Will Miss About China 10. Really, really good yogurt 9. Cheap hostel breakfasts (usually including yogurt) 8. No tipping anywhere, for any service 7. Sniggering at the fashion statements 6. Strolling through the supermarkets and laughing at the funky flavors 5. Amazing architecture everywhere you look 4. The ability to hike/walk anywhere, anytime - no fences or "no trespassing" signs 3. Laughing at really bad "Chinglish" signs and menus 2. Real, actual, honest-to-goodness authentic delicious ... read more

In February, I bought a book. “Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos”. During the whole semester, it has been fighting for place in between of the fat, uninspiring Chinese grammar books. The original plan was to make use of this book in March. But somehow, I felt so happy about being back in China after my work-holiday in Norway - why go anywhere? I dislike tropical landscapes. Or maybe not really dislike. But I find them less intriguing than the vast steppes of Siberia, the crisp, shivering air in the Central Asian mountain ranges, the calm softness of the Mongolian grasslands, the dense, cool taiga or the slim, gracious birches in Russia; Silence. Melancholy. The introversy of the landscape. That’s my thing. So what am I going to Cambodia and Laos for? Mindwork: From procrastination to action ... read more

As I move on from Chongqing to Nanning, I recall what I said of Chengdu...that it absorbed me and excepted me regardless of my place of origin and my language. Chongqing was not so kind...I had to try to become one of it's sons....I ordered seafood dumplings ( being a ' seafood/fish only/vegetarian ' type of an eater ) and I repeated at least five times ... " seafood.." reply.. ' yes ' ... " seafood.. " ' yes ' ... yet in my very first taste, there was the distinct taste, smell and texture of pork. After years and years of not eating that type of meat, I was ill for the first time in my trip. It was the first time I took medicine to make it stop...not even the ' hell-fire ' hot ... read more