Seven ways to enjoy Central Taiwan
*The following post was written for the Taiwan Tourism Bureau. Some readers aren’t too fond of sponsored trips- if you’re one of them, go here to read a personal account of my recent (self-paid) walk in...
Category: China
Beijing, late afternoon
I arrived in China by train from Mongolia at the end of September last year. I found the weather a bit strange then; it was surprisingly warm for autumn and on a day...
Leaving Yangshuo
The minibus from Yangshuo was not a minibus; it was a rickety, shuddering box on wheels which creaked every few minutes. I had to settle for a hard wooden seat which creaked just...
This week’s photo: Man on the Great Wall
I bumped into this man while walking on the Great Wall of China at Mutianyu. We had just turned a corner and climbed up a few steps when he appeared out of nowhere. He...
Niujie Mosque, Beijing
China has had associations with Islam since the fifth century when Arab envoys first crossed its borders. Although Muslims can be found almost everywhere in China, most of them reside in the Xinjiang, Yunnan...
Not in China anymore
Coming out of Nanning train station was like seeing children rush out of their classrooms on the last day of school. All I saw was a sea of black heads, streaming down the steps...
In other news…
The purpose of this post is to prove that I wasn’t lazy during my trip. I actually did some work. (No, really. Seriously). While I was travelling, I wrote a weekly column in the...
Shanghai
When I began planning for my St Petersburg-Kuala Lumpur overland trip, my original route through China was supposed to be Beijing-Nanning and from there, Hanoi. I still had that same route in mind after reaching...
Where to see the Great Wall of China
Hello again, you great big long wall, you. I was at Mutianyu, a village about an hour and a half from Beijing, visiting the Great Wall for the second time. Unlike the first time...
Beijing, revisited
Something’s missing, I thought. It’s not the hutongs, it’s not the Great Wall, it’s something else. It was my second time in Beijing and something had changed. The city was different. It annoyed me. It...
