We just made it back from Huangshan, an amazing mountain peak located in Anhui province in east central China. We had never heard of the place before coming here, but along our journey had heard so many people talking it up that we were ripe to go. There's no rail connecting Wuhan (where we were last staying) to Huangshan so we had to bus 4 hrs to Jinliang, 3 hrs. to Jingdezhen, train 3 hrs to Tunxi, and minibus an hour to Tangkou. A lot of work to get here, but it was well worth it. Chinese poets and painters throughout [View Full Entry]

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Our whole concept of good and evil in this world has been completely up-ended. For the entire first month, we've been coming out of each train station barreling through the throng of groping hotel hawkers and tour bus drivers who try to grease you with their car-salesman smile and luring English. They know just enough words to get your attention-- in a world of unrecognizable "bawkwai's", and "xiazhan's", you hear a "hello" and even though you KNOW it's from some sleazeball swindler, you're momentarily transfixed. And these guys have perfected their trade- they see your face relax for a sec [View Full Entry]

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So we made it out of Mongolia, though it took a bit of work. Last we wrote, we were on our 5th bonus day in Ulaan Baatar with no prospects of getting out. The last day we went to the station at opening as per our daily regimen, and were denied for the 4th straight time. A few days earlier, when the agent couldn't find us a ticket we thought we heard her mention something about going directly to the Station Director for help, but being one step above deaf and dumb when it comes to Mongolian, we passed it off [View Full Entry]

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Carolee and I are presently going through this Bill Murray/Groundhog Day nightmare where for the past 4 days we've woken up to find ourselves impossibly still in Ulaan Baatar. We rush to the train station to see if we can get ANY available ticket to China, receive a taunting "Ugui" (negatory) from the agent, then try to figure out how we will spend yet another remaining 10 hours in this city. Inevitably we succumb to our routine of finding a meal that doesn't include mutton or horse milk and spend a forced 2 hours on the internet before finally going back [View Full Entry]

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The Gobi is one brutish beast of a desert. That's not referring to the drastic climate changes we encountered (mid-60s by day, low-30s by night) or the vast remoteness of the area (about 1000 miles of barren landscape from the SW to NE). Its traversing through the hellacious terrain of marred dirt and rock in a minibus that battered us so severely it felt like Ike Turner had given us a once over (that one's for you Jamey). For 6 days we traveled in a 1970s VW Combi throughout the SE of Mongolia. They call them roads, but they're really just [View Full Entry]

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We've had a wrenching stomach ache the last few days and they both started at the same time which leads us to believe it was one of 2 things: The apples that the nice elderly folk gave us on the train that were bought straight off the street and thrown into a dusty bag though they warned us to wash them, we were on the train using recycled water from the communal vanity room where I wouldn't be surprised if the sink shared the same pipe as the toilet. That or the coconut creme cookies purchased from the train station general [View Full Entry]

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A few years back in the US there was this rumour that went around that one of the fast food joints had served up a chicken nugget that still had a beak and the little rooster mohawk. I'm not sure if it was just urban myth but I've actually seen a photo of it. Terrifying isn't it? That's value meal #4 here. Last night in Xian went to this family style restaurant and as per our normal order process, just pointed to an appealing soup dish. Only when we dipped the ladle in to serve it up did we notice the [View Full Entry]

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We're now in Xian. and are now leaving Xian. Got here 2 days ago and the only train we could get to our next destination, Shanghai, was for today so we're forced to high-tail it out. Pretty nice town-- large-- I think they say population of 4 million. We've seen a few familiar faces from Beijing so it looks to be we're all rolling the same number on the dice. The last day in Beijing was spent at the Antique Flea Market where they have the absolute best deals on artwork, antiques, sculptures and knicknacks with no need to haggle...though I [View Full Entry]

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A few days have passed- kept busy trying to hit all the sights. on Tuesday, we got to Mao's Mausoleum only a half hour earlier than the 7:30 opening and so expected the huge line we encountered. It was a bit intimidating as honestly we were about 1200th in line (about 300 positions back and they stacked people 4 to a row) but it was so well organized that once the line started moving you didnt stop until you exited. In the end it only took us about 25 minutes to reach inside. I would love to see this kind of [View Full Entry]

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woke up at 5:30 this time (getting worse) and hit Tian'anmen Square, Tiantan (Temple of Heaven) and went to see a Chinese Opera. We got up early to go to Tian' anmen to try and beat the line to see Mao and found out the mausoleum was closed on Mondays. So we went to the Forbidden City-- the stomping ground for Chinese royalty for the last 500 years, closed to the public (hence the name) until about 50 years ago. An immense parcel of land lining up 8 massive pavilions with a football field-sized courtyard b/w each of them. We got [View Full Entry]

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