By now I have arrived in Luang Prabang, Laos, after what can I call a bumpy ride through the sky, but more about that later on. Let me go back in time a little to the beach in Danang, Vietnam. And what a beautiful beach it is. I managed to take my motorbike out on a few occasions but did spend most of my time on the beach. The first day I headed towards the headland at the northern end of China beach; Monkey Island. A beautiful brandnew coastal road follows the side of the hill, with stunning views over Danang [View Full Entry]

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Finally, a well deserved 17-day vacation. On the 1st of June, after finishing work at 17:00, I flew to Beijing where I stayed for a day. My god it's big..... On the 3rd I flew Shenzhen airlines to Nanning, in the far south of China, just accross the border with Vietnam. And that was also my destination. Nanning was nice enough and the room at the hotel for 90 Yuan was a bargain. The next morning at 08:00 I took the local train to Pinxiang which took only 3 1/2 hours. The border formalities went fairly quickly (I picked up my [View Full Entry]

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Ofcourse we all know about the horrible eartquake that destroyed so many people's lives in the south of China. I happened to be on Qinhua square in central Hohhot for the first of three consecutive days of national mourning, on which each day at 14:28, the exact time of the earthquake in Sichuan province, three minutes of 'silence' is held to commemorate the lives lost. In China this is done by sounding the alarm and all traffic sounding their horns. It was actually a good experience to be there at that time, It really felt like this huge populous country was [View Full Entry]

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The spring is here!!!! It feels like only a few weeks ago that it was -25 at night and -15 during the day. And now; A whole week of +25 degrees! That should be an indication of wha the summer is like around here! Night temperatures still drop to around 5 degrees though, Hohhot being at an elevation of over a 1000 metres. So me and my colleague went out and rode our bikes down south, some 10 km's south of Hohhot is the so called Zhajun tomb. Built over many years, with brick and mud, it stands 33 metres tall [View Full Entry]

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On Tuesday April the 8th, I woke up to a rainy, cloudy day. Nevertheless, a day off. Seeing that our school's busiest days are the days that regular Chinese have off, we get our free time on Mondays and Wednesdays. And there I was, waking up to some Chinese 'talkshow' radio station at 7 in the morning! Aaargghh! For a good reason though; There was a minibus ready and waiting to take us all on a staff trip into Hohhot's suroundings. Itinerary: Mengnu milk plant, China's most known milk brand, situated for a large part in Inner Mongolia, Mei Dai Zhao [View Full Entry]

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For the ones of you that have read some of my other blogs from Hohhot...; The capital of Inner Mongolia has many spellings that are all right Huhehaote, Hohhot, Huhhot, you name it, they're all one and the same..... Just thought I'd tell you, don't want anyone to be confused now... I've recently bough an electric bike which is absolutely great! I'm so happy with the newly acquired freedom that every chance I've got (which basically means my days off) I drive it out the city to explore. And therefore a new blog. I decided to record some of the cultural [View Full Entry]

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Sharing the same name, one ancient and one brandnew, I decided to visit both locations in one day with a friend. One's a 7-storey octagonal tower, built in the Liao dynasty, the other's an airport branding the same name and only finished it's first expansion recently. Bai ta, also known as 'the white pagoda' is 18 km's east of Hohhot, or some 4 km's east of the airport. With a height of 55.6 meters, it stands quite tall in the surrounding flat landscape, dominated by brick walls and dry land. The Liao dynasty took place somewhere between 907 and 1125 A.C., [View Full Entry]

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Enjoying my last days off, I decided to wander through Hohhot a bit. First took a taxi to the north, by pointing in the direction of the mountains. After getting out, it was still a long walk to the mountains, and even then I didn't manage to actually get to the foot of them. After having been to Datong, I really appreciate this city now, It really is a beautiful city, modern, developed and especially at night when all the lights are on, it's a great pleasure to walk through the streets. This last week, temperatures have finally gone up to [View Full Entry]

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Lucky for me, the train from Hohhot to Datong only took 4 hours, so that's not too bad. Upon arrival in Datong I sort of immediately knew that I wasn't going to like the city. The Lonely Planet says the following about Datong; Datong isn't going to win any beauty pageants, but who needs good looks when you've got art? And that's very right, the city is just a big industrial coal mine city, (and the taxi drivers don't put their meters down!) whilst the sights around it are amazing. On our first day we decided to visit the Yungang caves, [View Full Entry]

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Day two was reserved for the famous hanging monastry, located some 65 km's south east of Datong, and build into the Heng Shan sacred mountain. It's a pretty impressive sight, although very touristy. The weather on this day was absolutely freezing, so my enjoyment of the monastry was tampered a bit by not being able to feel my hands and face. Taking photo's becomes slightly difficult as well, but luckily I didn't drop my camera for a second time. To get to the site, we took a bus from Datong to the town of Hunyuan, where a short taxi drive takes [View Full Entry]

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