Blogs from China, Asia - page 6

I woke up early but didn't rush to get out of bed. This trip was all about taking it easy. I heard the cock crowing outside, but I was already awake. I pottered around for a bit before getting myself sorted and ordering some food for breakfast. I ordered a breakfast set from a porridge place; porridge, soy milk and youtiao (fried dough stick). It didn't take long for the food to turn up and I happily dug in. You can't go wrong with porridge and youtiao, it's one of my favourite meals and I enjoy it at anytime of the day, not just breakfast time. When I was finally ready, I headed out to the bus stop on the main road which was a two minute walk from my hotel. I had decided to go ... read more

New year, new places to explore. Today I headed to the former Kingway Brewery site in Luohu to see how it has been preserved and regenerated. Having visited and lived in China for a few years, I have never heard of Kingway Beer before. I've read that it was a leading beer manufacturer in China, but it must not be up there with the likes of Tsingtao or Harbin, or I have just never opened my eyes enough to see it (that's probably the right conclusion). The brewery site has been transformed into a cultural platform for art and design exhibitions. It was about a five minute walk from Tai'an subway station and I hadn't read up much about the site so didn't really know what to expect. Since it was a holiday, it was quite ... read more

I came across Luohu Greenway online and it looked like a nice walk. There wasn't too much information online about it, but with the help of my map app, I was able to find the start. I made my way to Buxin subway station and then walked for about 20 minutes or so to the start of the trail. It was a nice sunny day as I made my way up the hill and along a very quiet road to the start of the trail. I was surprised at how quiet the area was, as there were a few communities of high rise apartment buildings. Maybe everyone was inside suffering from Covid as this was roughly when Shenzhen hit the peak. The entrance to the greenway surprised me as I had imagined it to be totally ... read more

I had been meaning to visit Nantou Ancient City for ages and the new subway line made it much more convenient. It was late afternoon by the time I got there and walked through the old city gates. Since it was a Saturday and the weather was nice and cool, it was packed. We headed off to the backstreets that surround the main area, as it was quieter here. There seemed to be no remnants of the ancient city here. Instead just regular daily life was on display, lots of little stores selling daily essentials, small restaurants, washing hanging out, alleyways filled with e-bikes and motorised carts, and people going about their day to day things. After circling around, we ended up on the main street, which was filled with people. I didn't really like it ... read more

Another week, another park. This week I had decided to visit Donghu Park as I had read that it was a smaller, older park and not too far from where I live. The subway journey was uneventful and from there it was about a ten minute walk to the park. I flashed my green code at the security guard on the way in and came to a nice circle of palm trees surrounding a grassy area. Since it was still fairly early, it was empty, but I could imagine later on it would fill up as it looked like a nice area to chill and have a picnic on with family or friends. Nearby, there was a path leading to the lake and since the views were nicer, I walked along the side of the lake. ... read more