Blogs from Jiangsu, China, Asia - page 9

Geo: 32.05, 118.78Let me explain. I usually never use an hair-dryer. Few reasons for this: first it makes my hair very static, second it takes times and third I don't onw an hair-dryer (that's probably the main reason). However since I have reach the Chinese winter I have found myself actively looking for an hair-dryer. One reason for this, it is real cold here and they don't really have the heater inside... I can actually see my breath in the bathroom. In fact I feel usually colder in the evening when I am in the hostel than outside during the day. Thanks god they kind of heat the dorms. So for the past two nights I took refuge in there, under my duvet. That's the only way to be warm. Last evening I did some laundry ... read more

I wish you all a Merry Christmas. xxx Je vous souhaite un joyeux Noel à tous. La bise.... read more

So we are now starting the last leg of our journey. It's incredible how the time has flown. We wake in Nanjing, but we will not spend too much time in this city of 4 million with its wealth of history. Breakfast at the hotel, which makes a few concessions to Westen tastes but is mostly Asian. My new experience for the day is Mung bean porridge, which turns out to be fine with milk. On the bus with Jack as tour guide. It is overcast but mild. As we drive through the city, we garner impressions of Nanjing. In some indefinably way, it feels old. It has lots of older, faded buildings, many falling into decrepitude. There are frequent vacant lots where buildings have clearly had to be knocked down. At the same time, lots ... read more

I didn't do much on my last day in Xian, mostly trying to organise stuff on the internet. I did go to the Bird Market which was a few streets away from my hostel. The first sellers I passed mostly had lots of canaries and budgies, a few Bengalese and some Gouldian finches, with just one having wild-caught birds (a cage packed with yellow-bellied tits). As I got deeper into the alleys the wild birds started appearing, with cages crammed full of Mongolian larks, Siberian rubythroats, redstarts, Pekin robins, yellow-bellied tits, white-eyes and, surprisingly, tree sparrows. Those were all in big numbers; in lesser numbers were bluethroats, hill mynahs, hawfinches (including some dyed ones), niltavas, red-tailed minlas, elegant buntings, crested tits, hwameis, Chinese bulbuls, blackbirds, skylarks, a few spot-necked doves,a couple of azure-winged magpies and just ... read more

Theway for a tourist to see Suzhou is by rickshaw so this morning we were all taken in convoy around the canals. We went early, to avoid the heat of the day, but even so we felt bad for the poor rickshaw drivers, lugging us lazy tourists around - in fact it felt a bit embarrassing when they came to a slope and some had to stop to walk the rickshaw up, as we were too heavy to cycle. It was interesting to see the alleyways and backstreets behind the canals, and we also stopped at a local market, where the most talked-about sight was the fish which are kept alive in small tanks of water until they are purchased, when they are bloodily killed by having their heads chopped off, and it is possible to ... read more