David, my brother at the West Lake

When the moon ate the sun and the world didn't end.

---

July 24th 2009
I wrote the words, Eclipse of the Sun on the whiteboard. "Can anyone tell me, what the word 'eclipse' means?" "Sir! Sir! It's when the Moon eats the Sun!" I'm back in Indonesia teaching English after a brief holiday in China. There were two highlights of my trip to Hangzhou - seeing my brother David and witnessing the longest total eclipse of the century. It was night time in the middle o ... read more

Asia » China » Hangzhou

---

For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. A... ... read more