Blogs from Hunan, China, Asia
May 8th 2012
Having lived in China for three years, we have seen all of the major cities and taken many tours. We have moved our travels to other countries in Asia thinking we have seen the best of China. I was at an Expat coffee one morning and picked up a brochure for Weekend Gataways in China. The one called “Finding Avatar” promising to explore the real “Pandora” looked extremely interesting. Our weekend trip ended up beginning on Sunday night and ending on Tuesday night due to work conflicts but it was well worth the effort in scheduling and traveling during the week. The Zhangjiajie area is known for producing mushrooms so our dinner Sunday night was at a mushroom restaurant. We love most Asian food and this was no exception. The meal was delicious and was a ... read more
April 9th 2012
They say, once you fall in love for the first time, you never forget it. Even when a second love comes around, it's not quite as pure as that initial one. They also say if you love something, you should let it go. If it's meant to be, it'll come back to you. But if you love something so deeply, even if you let it go, it's impossible to completely release your heart from it. Even if the thing has long since disappeared into the distance, hidden in the setting sun, you can still feel it, just waiting for you to catch up to it. So, this is me here in China, sitting down with my first and my second passions in life and wondering which one I should really dedicate myself towards. With the first, ... read more
April 8th 2012
A teenager in Hunan Province sold a kidney for an i-phone this week. Trafficking organs for luxury goods reveals the priorities of young people born in the current century. Reuters quoted Xinhua news as the original source. It reminds me of the days when American kids would shoot each other over expensive sneakers over 20 years ago. In 2010 the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen was in hot water after several employees comitted suicide. A small cluster Hong Hong labor activists started boycotting Apple products as a result. Electronics are a major drive for retail tourism which has kept Hong Kong's economy a... read more
April 6th 2012
After doing all his internet research, Tom chose two towns that were hard to get to on public transportation: Zhangjiajie and Fenghuang. To get to Z (my abbreviation), we had to take two trains and travel (for 20 hours) about three-quarters of the way around a circle of cities in southern middle China. To get to Fenghuang, we had a five hour drive on poor roads each way. Was it worth it? You bet! Z is a new city, only about 25 years old, and seems to have been built as a jumping off point for the parks and “scenic places”. We stayed in the Dacheng Shanshui Hotel, which boasts 2358 rooms(!) and an interesting “food street” restaurant. Although we sometimes had to compete with hundreds of unruly guests for our buffet breakfast, we got personalized ... read more
March 18th 2012
Hi All, With all the rain, fog and general dampness here in Hunan at the minute Shaoyang is not exactly looking at her best. The streets are just covered in mud and there seems to be rubbish everywhere. It does get you down a little bit to see the city in such a state. For all the Chinese nationalism they really don't seem to care what the city in which they live in looks like. The photos are from a walk to the supermarket and the DongTa park. Enjoy the photos Jah Bless... read more
February 17th 2012
It was upon watching a movie with my dear friends about a young man trying to prove he was responsible enough to expand on his family's business by going to rural China that I suddenly realized that was the very place I wanted to go. After much talk and consideration, and nearly ultimately deciding against it (for my initial experiences in Korea weren't good), I changed my mind and signed the contract. The university was persistent and my curiosity wasn't subsiding so off I went. First, of course, I went to Korea. After that first night, the rest of the trip was actually amazing. I realized a whole other side to the country that I'd either let or made myself didn't exist in my lifetime there. Seoul though, and this visit I had the privilege of ... read more
January 28th 2012
http://s251.photobucket.com/albums/gg311/draftwrite/China-Hunan-2012/ ….. the continuing story of a journey across China in search of balmy weather, sun, golden sand & a swim in azure waters. We've given up that idea, given that it's the middle of winter, has led us to Hunan province, about halfway back to Yangzhou & where there is no hope whatsoever of any of these things. To recap from last week's blog we finally arrive in cold, grey, wet & miserable Changsha, Hunan's provincial capital, more than 4 hours after the appointed time, about 20 hours on the bus. However we need to be in Jishou, about 400km west, where we would have ended up IF Sunshine could have bought train tickets in Beihai. My friend from the small Hunan city of Jishou, Mr. Xiang Kuan Yu, has send a friend t... read more
September 15th 2011
Hi All, So the holidays finally came to an end. Visitors went home to the UK and Dany went back to Italy to see family and friends. We've decided to stay here in Shaoyang for another year so that we can visit Sichuan next summer. Changsha was the last stop on the 2 week whistle stop tour of Southern Hunan. We visited the Provincial Museum to see the Duchess mummy and the City museum to see where Mao lived when he was younger. We had hot-pot in the evening. Boy it was spicy!! I went with Dany to Shanghai. Coming back I had a 14 hour hard seat train ride. I wanted to kiss the platform when I got off the train. Anyhoo next time it'll be a blog from Shanghai Enjoy the photos and Jah ... read more
September 14th 2011
Hi All, It's been a while, in fact I've been a little lazy since going back to work. So my some of my family came over to see us here this summer. My mum, dad and youngest daughter Keeley were our guests. It was fantastic to see them. So we went to Xiaoshajiang to where me and Dany went to in July. I asked our friend, thank you Rebecca, to write down in Chinese that we wanted to hire a mini van and travel around the sights for a day. The hotel manager did us proud. A guy and his daughter took us around to what was some jaw dropping scenery. The photos really don't do the scenery justice. The rice terraces appeared to be clinging to the mountain sides by their fingertips. After lunch we ... read more
September 14th 2011
Hi All, We had a wander around the city on a couple of days, it was very, very hot though. Some photos of friends and family Enjoy. Jah Bless... read more
