Blogs from Yunnan, China, Asia - page 152

Some observations about color in China If you were a child in China, you might grow up thinking that all trucks are blue. Seriously, almost every single truck that I have seen here has been blue. Sure, I’ve seen a handful of green ones, but they’re few and far between. Trucks here also move pretty slowly here, and they have these smaller, ‘tractor’-like trucks here the move _really slowly. I think these things have like 2-cylinder engines, you can hear the pistons just firing. Ok, can you guess what color that flowers are here? That’s right, red and gold, like on the flag. Of course, this could be for the national-day holiday, but we’ve seen displays all over, and yup, they’re all red and gold blossoms and blooms. If you’re a pink, purple, or blue flower, ... read more

We're still here. China that is. For better or worse we're still exploring this mystifying country. As an exhibit, a few days ago Sherry and I were sitting in a cafe that served western food. On the menu: beef burger, cheeseburger, vegetarian burger, potato burger. I ordered the cheeseburger. It was a grilled cheese on a bun. Tasty, but honestly, I was expecting the burger part too, the meat! We're in Lijiang which is in very NW Yunan province, which puts us in very SW China. Here we're not that far from Burma, from Tibet, from Laos. This is another very touristy, and touristed, town. Especially this week, the holiday week. There are tons of Chinese tourists here. They have an old town here, kinda like Alexandria, only older and less yuppies. Today Sherry and I ... read more

Dagen startede med en tur til den gamle bydel af Lijiang, dette er hvad byen bestod af foer 1999. Byen er en gammel handelsby, saa her er de typiske forretninger vi ser over alt, originale ! Som byer over det meste af verdnen, er Lijiang bygget op omkring en markedsplads. hvor der har vaeret en maengde boder der solgte alt mellem himmel og jord. Efter en travl dags handel, var pladsen ret beskidt, saa derfor lukkede man en sluse i den kanal der foere en lille baek gennem byen, hvilket fik den til at flyde over, oversvoemme markedspladsen, og skylle alt skidt vaek. Indtil det blev forbudt for et par aar siden, var der stadig masser af boder, men siden her er begyndt at komme turister, har de stort set kun solgt suveniers. I dag er ... read more

Tidligt op igen i dag Joergen (vores rejse leder) er en haard hund, vi skulle ud og se sten skoven, inden der kon for mange turister. Vi koerte af den nye motorvej ud til omraadet, det to ca. 1,5 timer. Sten skoven er et fantastisk omraade, paa over 21 ha, med op til 32 meter hoeje kalkstens stensoejler, der er eroderet ud af kalklaget fra en gammel havbund. Soejlerne har nogle fantastiske forvredne former som de typisk for naar vandet faar lov til at arbejde i fred over millioner af aar. Vi var rundt og se en pa en del af skoven, og vi mente at der var en masse mennesker, men Joergen forklarede at paa det tidspunkt hvor vi forlod omraadet, var det store ryk ind ved at ankomme. I sten skoven, lever en af ... read more

I present the dumb traveler award, I meet an old guy from Wisconsin on the Laos side of the Chinese border. It took 4.5 hours to travel 50km in the back of a cold rainy pickup truck, not a journey you would ever want to make twice. I exit the truck and he appears, my new best friend, we get stamped out of the Laos side and he asks me what we are going to have to pay to enter China, a little mistake that will take 3 days of bus travel over shite roads. Of all the countries in Asia which two can you think of that wouldn't issue American visas on arrival? Never seen a face get so white. Only 2.5 Ks of travel to get my first taste of a famous Chinese toilet. ... read more