Underground Museum, Zhanjiawan Village, China Read More…
Tag Archives: China
Underground Museum 7 Mar, 2009
Risk Factor 9 Apr, 2007
Every place has its stories of muggings and murdered hitchhikers. The difficulty when traveling is in separating hype from reality in any given place. After talking with some fellow travelers, I decided to test my feeling that China was relatively safe. I left a 1 yuan banknote conspicuously sticking out of my back pocket to […] Read More…
Maonia 9 Apr, 2007
It’s funny that Chairman Dictator Mao is on all the banknotes in China. Germany didn’t put Hitler on the Deutschmark, and Chile doesn’t plaster Pinochet on its peso. I wonder at what point China will be forced to take an honest look at its past.It’s also interesting that plenty of tourists seem to buy Mao’s […] Read More…
Blog Dump 9 Apr, 2007
I’ve been in India a week, and now that I can kick back at my parent’s house I’ve been slack with the blog. I meant to post these next few before leaving China, but things slipped.Perhaps to demonstrate their opposition to oppression, the Chinese population uses its freedom to smoke to the fullest. Education on […] Read More…
Missed Adventures in Cuisine 2 Apr, 2007
I’ve had enough of illnesses and disasters on this trip, so I’ve been a little more cautious in the things I’ve chosen to eat while in China. In more adventerous days I might have tried “strange flavour meat from lamb’s head,” but not anymore. Other choice menu items I have restrained myself from eating include […] Read More…
Finding a Purpose 27 Mar, 2007
You could describe a trip like mine as being a tourist for 10 months, and that wouldn’t be too far from the truth. But because a 10 month vacation sounds rich and lazy, I’ve been trying to find some excuse so I can say I got more out of my time than simply sightseeing.The fruit […] Read More…
Heading South 27 Mar, 2007
Before I got on the train to Guiyang, I was dreading the prospect of 26 hours on a hard straight-back seat. With no other classes of travel available, I had no choice but to book it to get where I want to go in south China. I climbed on at the platform in Xian, the […] Read More…
The Great Wall 25 Mar, 2007
Several days before leaving Beijing I visited the Great Wall. Like a lot of other things in this country, the scale of it is immense. As I was standing in the cold and misty winter grey looking at it wind its way up and over steep hills, I couldn’t help but wonder how insane you […] Read More…
Losing Control 25 Mar, 2007
I don’t like not being able to speak at least a few words in the language of the country I’m visiting. Granted, I never learnt anything in Finland apart from the essential curse words, but given the no-smile policy in effect throughout stores in that country, it didn’t seem to matter if I said “perkele” […] Read More…
Something Unexpected 18 Mar, 2007
If the children I’ve seen playing in the street are any indication, badminton is popular in Beijing. I don’t know why I find it surprising - maybe because I always imagined that the only people who play badminton have names like Percy or Cecil, and grew up attending posh schools in England set on large […] Read More…