EdgarinChina

It’s difficult to talk about the environment in China and not feel completely worried about how on earth anyone could possibly sort this mess out. What stands out the most to the outside observer is that the land, this country, is here for the benefit of man. It’s as simple as that, or so it would seem. The Chinese have been shaping and controlling the environment here, in often ingenious and creative ways, for eons, but nonetheless it has been bent and buckled and stretched and swamped, drained and flooded, mined and filled in, and we only need to see Michael Jacksons face (RIP) to see what happens when one goes too far in trying to fix what wasn’t broken in the first place. Eventually it caves in, bits drop off that weren’t meant too and ... read more

My 5 hour bus ride to Chongqing was very uneventful. I had the usual Chinese stares from everyone else on the bus who look at you at first presumably thinking you got on by mistake, but when it becomes evident you’re staying, they forget about you and you become accepted into the circle. So the journey went, and the familiar ache in my neck let me know that at some point I had fallen asleep against the window. I had a mild feeling of panic about halfway when it occurred to me that no one had told me what to do when I arrived in Chongqing - indeed, I didn’t know the name of my boat, or even which port I was supposed to be sailing from. Hmmm. This could prove tricky. I needn’t have worried. ... read more

Blog 12: Highway Robbery, High Walks and High Hopes. If there’s one thing you can say about Kunming, is that it smells nice when it rains. It truly does. I have now been on a train for 26 hours. I think that’s plenty of time to be on a train, so Richard Branson, if you’re reading this, I would like a special card please that I can use when I’m on trains in the UK. If they get delayed, I can use it to get flown out by private helicopter, because quite frankly, then it comes to train travel, I’ve done my time. And to make my time on the train EVEN more exciting, I got the top bunk of the hard sleeper, which is a little shelf resting about 7 or 8 feet up, right ... read more

Blog 10: It's just a few steps....and then there were angels. Well I'm telling you, it isn't. Not by any stretch of the imagination is it just a few steps. Huang Shan. Or Yellow Mountain if you prefer. FMG. Seven days ago, I undertook to go up Huang Shan. This is what happened... I got up early as you know dear reader, I had 6 hours and 3 buses to catch. Well I was happily on my way on the bus to the mountain armed with the knowledge there were shuttle buses taking you from the town Tankou to the base of the mountian. About half an hour to go, a young girl came and sat with me and started chatting. Turns out she worked in a restaurant come travel agents and advised I should get ... read more

Blog #8: July 7th - 14th: Shanghai, Qingdao and on being a victim of crime. Well dear readers...where have we got to? I left you in an internet cafe in Shanghai...so from there I will pick up my story. Tuesday 7th I cooked a meal for the 4 of us to say thanks for letting me stay at your flat. As I only had a 2 burner gas stove, the inside of a rice cooker and the smallest frying and saucepan in the world, I did quite well to muster up lime and garlic prawns with a kiwi fruit and lettuce salad followed by sweet and sour pork noodles. We all dived in, it all got eaten, thats the end of that story. Wednesday 8th, I got up early and went into Shanghai...its so ridiculously hot, ... read more