The Moslem Quarter This is October 1st 2009, the 60th anniversary of the The People's Republic of China. So what better way to spend the day than watching the parade on TV and then go shopping. Who would have thought every one else would have the same idea? There's not much to tell of the day other than we have the best time. Joel and Anna joined us too before they were to leave by train to Chengdu. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves. So the day went like this. A slow rise because it was a big day at [View Full Entry]

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Well, we set of early for Huashan, one of the five sacred Tao peaks like Taishan, in our secretly hired mini bus with our secretly hired mini bus driver. Chatter started early and we soon found ourselves at the ticket station before we knew it. Even though it took about 2 hours to get there. We sort out the tickets for entry and the bus and head in to the National Park, only one entry though and special equipment was used by the security to check if there were any terrorist style devices on board. It is the National Holiday week [View Full Entry]

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The Terracotta Warriors We decided to see the most famous attraction in these parts early in the week. We joined a group tour and headed out after a delicious breakfast. There are times when you know that your group for the day will be a good mix of people and you'll all have a good time. AND there's a point when you know almost immediately who the idiot is who'll ruin the day for everyone else. (Experience on a package trip to India many years ago). Luckily for us we had the good mix. Everyone was laughing, friendly and chatty. [View Full Entry]

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It all began when the dates were being organised for the Golden Week in October. The drama for the Education Department was the extra holiday of Mid Autumn Festival and trying to prevent the spread of H1N1. The Chinese celebrate many weird and wondrous things and the mid autumn festival is one of them. It's really just the middle of the Chinese Lunar Calendar Year. So, why not celebrate with fireworks and moon cakes which are a heavy pastry filled with various things...fruit..nuts or both...meat etc of which no one really likes anyway but it's tradition to eat them at midnight. [View Full Entry]

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I decided to head south to Shanghai after our Summer English Camp was over. That was a very busy 6 weeks. Certainly not used to working 6 days a week anymore but we had plenty of fun and it was over very quickly. So I hopped on a 'D' Train with hundreds of other holiday goers as it's still peak season here. Mmmmm....the smells, the noise, the chair kicking again, all my favourite things on a 6.5hr train journey. But the feeling of joy when I see that the train is travelling at 235kph boosts my spirits knowing that the it [View Full Entry]

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I decided to visit Beijing again to explore a little more. Mostly to visit the Forbidden City. And it was a good opportunity to have a break before the onset of Summer Holidays and full time work at our school. 6 days a week for 6 weeks. Gee, I was getting used to 3 days a week work. I stayed at a different place this time, southwest of Tian'anmen called The Emperor's Guest House. Difficult to find as the street was under repair. Not just resurfacing but a 10 foot ditch that runs for 200 metres and the only way along [View Full Entry]

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It's 11pm and I have just arrived at the Qingdao Train Station. That's pronounced chingdow. All is good as far as the train trip went. I slept most of the way in the first class carriage with only about 6 people in it. But, as is my luck, I get someone behind me who likes to kick the back of my chair. And I can't move to another seat as the porters like you to stay where your ticket says to. So I escape the station with all the other holiday makers and look for the taxis. I find one easily [View Full Entry]

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I travelled up Mt Tai (Taishan) today. I've been wanting to do it for some time. Obviously Dave is still reeling from the mountain in Costa Rica so I invited one of my colleagues at work, Jojo, to join me. Her animal sign is the Ox and it's considered lucky if she climbs the mountain in 'her' year. The day was long. It took us 5 1/2 hours to climb to the top gate (of course, I'm stopping every 5 minutes to take pictures) and then a couple of hours around the little town and up to the highest point. Then [View Full Entry]

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This is an introduction only to the new solo travelblogs that I'll be writing. Thank you all for keeping up with the davidnlynne blogs. I hope you can all keep up with my travels and maybe enjoy a little of what I am experiencing on my adventures. I have included the solo trips already that were in the davidnlynne travelblog. Please ignore them. Keep in touch and I hope to see most of you when I come back to Oz for a visit in February 2010. My new travelblog name is The Dangling Carrot. The emails might go to your spam [View Full Entry]

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