-
Curious Cuisine in Hong Kong – Hong Kong
Curious Cuisine in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
“Bite and suck,” Tami tells me, her umber eyes wide with anticipation.
Using my fingers, I pick up the kiwi sized chicken foot from the hot metal bin on the table. It’s seasoned yellow skin warms the pad of my thumb. The clangs of dishes
-
The Silk Road Pit Stop – Silk Road, Urumqi, China
The Silk Road Pit Stop
Silk Road, China
Food seller at Central Asian BaszaarI hate to stop. I want to go, go. And, a good road trip has as few banal stops as possible. It moves, flows and slides; it does not stop. There is only one good reason to stop a road tripping frenzy; food. For a love-ha
-
In the Shadow of Progress – Kaifaqu, Yantai City, Shandong Province, China
In the Shadow of Progress
Kaifaqu, Yantai City, Shandong Province, China
In the Shadow of ProgressAs I peered out through the curtains of my room on the fourth floor of the teachers’ accommodation block, it was as though I had crash-landed on a lunar landscape or been sent forth into the
-
Eye Love Shopping – Beijing, China
Eye Love Shopping
Beijing, China
On a recent solo trip to Beijing, I was told that the Eyeglass Market was the place to buy inexpensive prescription sunglasses. I asked the hotel tour desk to write the name and directions in Chinese for the taxi driver. She knew of the market, and said I was in
-
Swallows in Yunnan Province – Jianshui, China
I've been in Jianshui (pronounced jienshway), which is known as one of the places where Confucius (really called Cong Ze) set up a school. It is also close to a cave where thousands of swallows migrate at a certain time of year. My friend, James, arrived and I saw many of them swirling roun
-
Japa…er…Golden Directions Hot Springs – Anning, China, Asia
God Bless You, Chinese Rosewater
Anning, one hour southwest of Kunming in southwest China, is a hot springs town. It is sleepy and certain of this theme. Walking around the green hills, there are signs everywhere: stone-bottomed hot springs, mud-bottomed hot springs, a hot springs hospital, e
-
Chinese Cultural Quirks Exposed – China, Asia
Tai Chi is practiced in English tea gardens. Mahjong tiles are clunked down on Las Vegas casino tables. Shaolin Kung Fu is taught in Bolivian martial arts schools.
It seems China's unique cultural traditions have spread the world over. Have they all? Let's take a look at some obscure Ch
-
Hainan Island: The Hawaii of the East – Hainan Island, China, Asia
Curiosity MissionI had heard a lot about Hainan Island – mostly from Chinese friends praising its beautiful scenery, using the usual rhetoric that you find in Chinglish tourism publications. I had met few people who had been there. For a land filled with so much potential – all the
-
Beijing: Where the Streets Are Paved with People – Beijing, China, Asia
The Mauling of Beijing – not reallyBeijing has been mauled by the hand of tourism and sprinkled liberally with the gold dust that accompanies MacDonald's, Starbucks and all the other icons of Western consumerism. To many, this has been the ruination of Beijing as a holiday destination
-
Linfen, China: Ancient City to Apocalypse – Linfen, China, Asia
Springtime in China should be scenic. But the sky is grey. The persimmons are leafless. The sweet twitter of swallows has been replaced by the harsh blare of truck horns. This is Linfen, Shanxi province, possibly the world's most polluted city, now a byword for China's environmental woe
-
The Fisherman of Erhai Hu Lake – Dali, China, Asia
More Dog Than HumanHe's poor, unsmiling, wears a frayed jacket and a blue cap from Mao's era, covering salt and pepper hair, wafer thin trousers, ironed. He's poor, decently poor. Not knowing a word of English, he's eeking out a living babbling to tourists, sipping on lattes. He
-
Field of Dreams – Waqie, China, Asia
The bus dropped me off at the junction, next to a collection of identical, nondescript roadside restaurants, then disappeared over the rise in a cloud of diesel smoke. The village I'd come to see was about a kilometre away. I strolled over to the nearest restaurant, and in slow, textbook Ch
-
Why You Should Go To Yunnan – Yunnan, China, Asia
I try to be sparing with use of the phrase "you should", but the Yunnan province of China warrants it – seriously.
Introduction to YunnanGranted, my introduction to Yunnan in the form of a 22-cum-24 hour bus ride from Chengdu to Lijiang wasn't that great. I found myself in
-
The Back Side of the Mountain – Lhasa, Tibet, China, Asia
Tibet is a traveler’s paradox. Besides the philosophical, ethical and political considerations concerning China’s annexation of this region, there is also the harsh reality of climate and geography.
Lhasa, the former capital, takes all of your senses at least one step beyond comfort. Is it
-
The Yin and Yang of China Travel – Asia
China is in a complete tither, on fire for the 2008 Bejing Olympics. With their great engineering prowess, the Chinese are constructing stadiums to rival the planet's best. China's English news channel, CCTV, regularly inundates us with glowing reports.
On fire for the 2008 Bejing Olym
-
Lhasa to Xining via the Qinghai-Tibet Railway – China, Asia
Lhasa railway station (altitude 3,500 meters) competes with the mountains in size. Made of tinted glass and marble, it is galactical, standing arrogantly on the Tibetan Plateau surrounded by nothing except the distant barren mountains. Inside, x-ray machines peer into your luggage, escalators e
-
Chinglish: Language of the Heart – China, Asia
I received an email two days ago from my friend who just landed in Kunming, China. He's lamenting that "nobody speaks English"! My reply to him was, "Well, you're no longer in Kansas, Dodo. Imagine that, people in China speaking only Chinese, what a shocker!"
The Chi
-
Changing China in 2007 – Asia
There's a sophisticated supermarket around the corner from where I'm staying that's filled with things mostly far healthier and fresher than in an American market. But the presence of this market doesn't preclude numerous mom and pop vendors along the way. A pretty walkway plac
-
From Tiananmen Square to Red Square – Russia, China, Mongolia
“There really is no other journey like it”, gleefully proclaimed the jolly provodnista, as the train headed deeper into far-flung Siberia along the Trans-Siberian Railway. Spanning some 5,772 miles, eight time zones and three vast routes across Russia, China and Mongolia, I couldn’t help but ag
-
Between Yantai and Dalian: Across the Bohai – China, Asia
Xinran and I sit on the lowest bunk. We are in the middle of China heading for the coast. We eat deep fried tiny fish out of a greasy plastic bag and spit the bones out the window (broken, held open with a Carrefour bag full of bananas). We share the cabin with men that pull sweaty feet out of
Total
543 -travel
FirstPage PreviousPage NextPage LastPage CurrentPage:
15/28 20-travel/Page GoTo Page:
