Blogs from China, Asia - page 2226

For me Beijing was a fantastic few days of historical culture.... well, Ming and Qing dynasty which is 1368AD to 1911AD ish. I'm writing this in X'ian where everything is Shang - Qin dynasty (1700BC - 207BC) so I'm starting to re-evaluate my concept of old and historical.... but that's another blog ;0) And of course I was meeting Ann who was coming out for a wee visit from Blighty!! I was also keen to see how things had changed - I came to Beijing one New Year with Colette, a friend from work. It was freeeeezing cold then so I was looking forward to seeing how different things looked in the summer. Ann and I planned to rendezvous at a hostel I'd booked - I arrived on the night train from Suzhou and she was ... read more

May 17 The flight from Detroit was so nice In fact, we all did it twice The wheels didn't retract so we had to go back Dumping fuel in the air like black ice. May 18 So in Tokyo we all had to stay On our very first tour day delay We slept and we ate And went back to the gate As day turned to night turned to day. May 19 We're here in Beijing at long last Some touring we had to do fast The Square we did see And the Royal City Then had duck with the OAT cast. May 20 Today it was off to the wall Too awesome to really tell all Steps we did climb The view was devine It made one feel so very small to be continued... We ... read more

"The bathroom's open now." "Go. Go. Go" he says in a very flat voice without even looking at me or making any motions. He's been translating for the past twenty minutes and I'm not even really sure why. Granted some of the translation has been helpful as he's translating Cantonese to English but a lot of the times it's completely worthless as he's translating Mandarin to English as well. I have to say people translating to me is sometimes extremely annoying. First of all he's translating what Camillo and Akun are saying. I've been hanging out with Camillo for ... oh .... about eight months now, and I've been hanging out with Akun for ... one month off and on. I know what they're saying if they're speaking Mandarin, and my Mandarin is better than his ... read more

We are back in civilization.....Lijang in fact. It's a cute little town with traditional chinese rooftops and cobble stone streets.....really touristy but nice. There's your movie set red lanterns and little bridges with koi swimming under them and every corner you turn there's a different color flag and a tour group wearing red hats following it like a guiding star. Another traveller we met correctly dubbed it, "ethnic Disney Land. Tiger leaping gorge: The drive into the starting village was a bit annoying since i was bombarded with the habitual beginning- to- bitter- end cigarette chain smoking that chinese men do. We arrived at Jane's Guesthouse because the lonely planet said it would be a nice place to stay and that she would be helpful in assisting us towards the trail. Turns out Jane is a ... read more

The train ride to Pingyao was not as comfortable as the overnighter to Xian but the good news is it was a little shorter. Left at 8:30 at night and arrived in Pingyao at 7AM, greeted by a sign directing us to the "Underground Funnel" to avoid walking over the tracks :). Pingyao is pretty small and a very traditional village. We spent the day on our own visiting various sites and museums and temples in the town; today we headed out to see the house of a very wealthy gentleman - the details of which I will post later. Suffice to say it was the size of a small town and quite incredible. While walking the walls around the home you could see cave houses built into the mountainside. These are actual caves that have ... read more