Background: For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. After World War II, the Communists under MAO Zedong established an autocratic socialist system that, while ensuring China's sovereignty, imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. After 1978, his successor DENG Xiaoping and other leaders focused on market-oriented economic development and by 2000 output had quadrupled. For much of the population, living standards have improved dramatically and the room for personal choice has expanded, yet political controls remain tight.
April 20th 2008Asia » China » Inner Mongolia » Baotou Okay what better to do after getting BBQed then go to the dessert, right. Or maybe the desert...
Well we have seen a lot on our trip but we haven't seen a desert so it looked appealing. Since our ... 5 photos[full story]
April 20th 2008Asia » China » Inner Mongolia » Hohhot I wish I could say the BBQ was a good experience.
The first night we arrived in Hohhot at 10 pm. Having just missed the shuttle bus to town we tried our luck with the taxi cabs. Up to this point w ... 5 photos[full story]
April 17th 2008Asia » China » Inner Mongolia » Hohhot The spring is here!!!! It feels like only a few weeks ago that it was -25 at night and -15 during the day.
And now; A whole week of +25 degrees!
That should be an indication of wha the summer is li ... 11 photos[full story]
April 9th 2008Asia » China » Inner Mongolia » Baotou On Tuesday April the 8th, I woke up to a rainy, cloudy day. Nevertheless, a day off. Seeing that our school's busiest days are the days that regular Chinese have off, we get our free time on Mondays a ... 20 photos[full story]
January 12th 2007Asia » China » Inner Mongolia At the the beginning of our trip Craig and I had planned on visiting every single province in China, excluding those we had already been to during study abroad. Perhaps this wasn't the best goal, con ... 7 photos[full story]
April 8th 2008Asia » China » Inner Mongolia » Baotou Before I left for China everybody asked the question, “why China?” What should have been an easy question to answer was difficult for me. China was a culture and society I knew very litt ... [full story]
March 18th 2008Asia » China » Inner Mongolia » Hohhot For the ones of you that have read some of my other blogs from Hohhot...; The capital of Inner Mongolia has many spellings that are all right, you name it, they're all one and the same..... Just thoug ... 15 photos[full story]
March 5th 2008Asia » China » Inner Mongolia » Hohhot Sharing the same name, one ancient and one brandnew, I decided to visit both locations in one day with a friend.
One's a 7-storey octagonal tower, built in the Liao dynasty, the other's an airport br ... 13 photos[full story]
February 11th 2008Asia » China » Inner Mongolia Enjoying my last days off, I decided to wander through Hohhot a bit. First took a taxi to the north, by pointing in the direction of the mountains. After getting out, it was still a long walk to the m ... 10 photos[full story]
February 6th 2008Asia » China » Inner Mongolia Having finished work and now getting a week off for Chinese new year festivities, I'm in a very good mood.
Tomorrow (07-02) is new year's day, so at the moment there is loads of fireworks being fired ... 6 photos[full story]
Map of China
China's Flag
