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.
May 15th 2008Asia » China » Sichuan » Chengdu A lot of things have happened since my last blog entry, not all good, but I'll start from where I left off.
We arrived in Kunming about 11 days ago to lovely sunny weather and made our way to the H ... [full story]
May 15th 2008Asia » China » Sichuan » Chengdu So, thanks to everyone who expressed concern after this huge earthquake that struck Wenchuan 汶川 County here in Sichuan. I am perfectly safe and was never in any danger whatsoever. I figu ... 6 photos[full story]
May 14th 2008Asia » China » Sichuan » Chongqing Hi Everyone. We are still alive and well. Luckly we were on a boat on the Yangzi River when the earthquake hit so we didnt feel a thing!, although we were slightly worried that the Three Gorges Dam ... [full story]
May 12th 2008Asia » China » Sichuan » Chengdu ~12:15 UTC (05:15 Pacific; 20:15? China)
The adventure of this trip is still all virtual (haven't even bought the air tickets yet) - but notable. Today a magnitude 8 (!) earthquake is reported in ... [full story]
May 12th 2008Asia » China » Sichuan » Chengdu First of all, we're OK.
We felt the quake today on our way home from Cody's university. We were riding the 38 bus and our fellow companions were just as baffled as we were, as earthquakes in Chengd ... 3 photos[full story]
May 7th 2008Asia » China » Sichuan » Chengdu It has been 51 days since our last post. 51 days that have been jam-packed and eventful.
We'll give you a rough outline of what we've been up to, but you'll find most of the details in the captions ... 51 photos[full story]
April 27th 2008Asia » China » Sichuan One of the high points of the entire trip was the opportunity we had to travel to Mt. Emei in China's Sichuan's province, located in the west-middle of the country. We stayed at a Buddhist convent, t ... 6 photos[full story]
April 18th 2008Asia » China » Sichuan » Songpan I left campus at about 4:45pm on Thursday. 7 Hours later I was in Chengdu singing a Chinese song to the employees of the KFC in the Chengdu airport as I waited for Walid's flight to get in. This was m ... [full story]
March 27th 2008Asia » China » Sichuan » Chengdu I now find myself in Sichuan province or as it's often commonly known "the land of plenty" or "Heaven on Earth" More specifically I'm in Chengdu which is apparently China's 5th most populous city, hom ... [full story]
March 18th 2008Asia » China » Sichuan » Songpan In the morning we had cooked breakfast - on the gas cooker ...as it was not only warm but it was a means of getting our hands defrosted.
Next step was to meet the horses, Reni's first reaction was a ... [full story]
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