Blogs from China, Asia - page 10

Travel Day This day was a travel day, memorable for very little other than getting from Hefei, where I currently live, to Urumqi where I was to meet my companions and join the tour. The flight was a direct flight about 4 hours long. The airline food was not spectacular. Out of the window I could see lots of dry arid land. The normal signs of human habitation, roads and buildings, small towns. At one stage a series of what I took to be wind power generators and oil fields. On the approach into Urumqi there were snow capped mountains. (It is currently the height of summer). Back on the ground I was first off the plane, called out by the airline staff while the other passengers waited. It was my first introduction to the local ... read more

This was on a short trip around the north west side of Kong Ming Shan, in an area that I had not explored before. It's an area of mixed farming: rubber, tea, fruit, maize, etc.... read more

A couple of photos from some recent trips into the tea mountains around Jinghong.... read more

I headed back to Nanshan to try a different hiking route. On a side note the toilets at the start of the hike are probably the nicest and cleanest I've come across in all my time in China. I decided to take the trail up that I had taken down the first time I was here. I did think that this route was easier, but going up I changed my mind. There were some pretty lanterns near the start of the trail to mark the new year. It was only a few steps to the first pavilion, which since I'd just started, I didn't take a break at. Since it was the holiday, it was busier than the last time I was here. I hiked up and up the stairs were pretty steep and each set ... read more

The walk from Xianhu Road subway station to the entrance to Fairy Lake Botanical Garden was about ten minutes. There wasn't much to see as it was through a residential area. I had already bought my ticket online through their WeChat account, and it looks like this is the way to go as the ticket offices are closed due to Covid. The ticket was 15 RMB. I made my way through the large gate and scanned my ticket and started my walk to the centre of the park. There are buses that take you around the botanical gardens if you don't want to walk. I followed the path for about ten minutes or so. There were some nice little boardwalks that branched off from the path so you could walk through them. I had spotted a ... read more