Confucius Says. . . Not Much at All These Days Kong Fu Zi, the venerable Master Kong (Confucius is the Anglicised version of his name) , was born in the year 551 BC in the town of Qufu. He was an educated man who worked up from his lowly status (he wasn’t from a rich family by any measure) to very high official positions within the government of the time. He was renowned for being honest, hardworking, a model member of society and an excellent teacher. When he died he was very respected by his students but he was by no [View Full Entry]

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Garden City After five buses (three of which went in the wrong direction), a taxi ride, a long walk, a look of confusion when I passed two separate Ferrari dealerships, and a lot of sweating I arrived in Hangzhou: the city touted as the most beautiful in all of China, thanks to West Lake. Xi Hu, or West Lake as it is translated, is a massive lake which sits in the middle of Hangzhou and it is surrounded by immense parklands on all sides, and in its middle as well for that matter. The name “West Lake” is by no means [View Full Entry]

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Note Before: I've finally gotten around to adding the remaining photos (44 of them) to my last Yangshuo journal. Lot's of sunsets and scenery, and seeing as you all only look at my photos I suggest you click this link, , before even bothering to read further here. The Ethereal Mists of Huang Shan Nestled in the southern reaches of Anhui province is one of the most beautiful places in China, if not the world: Huang Shan. A mountain of such magnificent wondrousness that poets, painters, artists, thinkers and travellers alike have flocked to it’s slopes in the h [View Full Entry]

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A Lesson in How To Make the Best of a Bad Situation Wuyuan is a part of north-eastern Jiangxi province known for having a collection of relatively unadulterated and authentic Chinese villages. Only recently being discovered by tourists, the area promised a great deal of relaxing old world Chinese-ness so I added it to my agenda without much argument. However, I was still in a hurry to make my way north so I limited my stay to just one village. I thought that if I explored one place thoroughly, rather than six places half-heartedly, I might get an idea of what [View Full Entry]

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Jiujiang: The City of My Dreams I like cities with quirky charms; places with intriguing subtleties. Places where the little green man at road crossings doesn’t just idly stand around but instead runs (not walks, runs) across. Furthermore, the green men in Jiujiang run faster and faster as the end of their time in the spotlight approaches finally ending up in a full on sprint that puts elite sportsmen to shame. When you cross the road here you don’t consider walking slowly, the green man demands that you do as he does: get across as fast as you can. This is [View Full Entry]

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The Road Away From Hong Kong, Wherever It Leads I have to get out of Hong Kong, it’s killing my budget, not to mention the way it’s keeping me stuck on the right side of the continent (I will never leave China at this rate). I’ll say goodbye to the Austrians the night before, I’ll stay at home that night, no partying allowed. I’ll make a clean escape early in the morning so that I can actually get somewhere interesting. This pathetic use of forward, premeditated planning was clearly doomed to catastrophic failure of the most dire and horrific kind. [View Full Entry]

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Accidentally Ending Up in Hong Kong Three Austrians kidnapped me. Honest. Three big ones too, I swear one of them was at least half my size! They tricked me into getting into their van with candy and tricksy words. Ok, maybe the van was a bus, and maybe they didn't own it. Ok, alright, the candy was actually a beer which I had asked for, and I suppose the tricksy words were more along the lines of "you should come to Hong Kong, it'll be fun". Nevertheless, I maintain that I went to Hong Kong entirely against my will. Completely against [View Full Entry]

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I Think I Went to Yangshuo but I'm Not Certain I fear this could be a boring journal, I really do. That is of course to say that I am irrationally not fearing that all my journals are boring, but for the sake of self indulgence I'll keep on writing anyway. The thing is though, I don't have much to say for myself due to several factors. The primary factor is of course that I am a lazy sod, something that anyone who has ever met me will testify to. This was exacerbated by the fact that I had spent two [View Full Entry]

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Rule #1: Failure, Sort Of My travel needs a direction, a goal, or a theme. Drifting around the world might be perfect for some people but I can't do that; I need to have something driving me along. This time around the concept was to travel from Bangkok to London without flying and I've been succeeding in that aim despite my circuitous path. But then something got in the way. . . China is currently in the middle of it's biggest travel season, students are travelling to and from their homes, jobs and schools, plus many more are on holiday. This [View Full Entry]

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The Dread Pirate Roberts Welcomes You To Shanghai How often can you say that you are living in a pirate ship? Not often, so when you are you have to make the most of it and living in my hostel in Shanghai was like having "International Talk Like a Pirate Day" every day of the year. The place was called "Captain Hostel" and for somewhat unexplained reasons the place was decorated like a ship: knots on the walls, a helm hung behind the desk, the staff uniform was white and blue with sailor hats, I slept in the "Sailor's Bunks" in [View Full Entry]

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