China Travel Blogs

We are sadly leaving the wonderful, friendly, green area of Yangshou to return to busy, noisy, crowded Beijing.   We were in Yangshou so long the vendors recognised us and stopped to talk.   Several restaurants knew us and spoiled us when we came in.....  back to …

People i met here, who contributed to and improved my trip: Juliana (Russia) My first impression of China was a positive one, a border town that was clean, friendly and modern, something that i really wasn't expecting. We managed to find a guy who took us to a bank to get some money, then a restau…

I have had a few people ask about what is happening with my move overseas to teach English.

“Do you have any books or magazines?”. Darn it!  Rumbled right away.  Barely have I had time to form the thought “So am I in China yet?” and the game’s up.  No enquiries from the border guards as to whether I might be packing knives, a gun, drugs, explosives, noxious body …

I'm now heading to the airport in Shanghai and not looking forward to returning to Guangzhou because from that point on I will only be going in the direction of home (west) ... it's not that this full trip is over, I still have over 2 weeks left in B.C. Canada ... but the really big part …

~ May 5th-6th ~ Journey Day One ~ Getting up at 4am was by no means an easy task and was made no lighter by the fact I had become very sick too. With some helpful encouragement and a great leap of faith I rushed down to Toronto to catch my flight to Beijing China. Having never travelled internatio…

It's our last day in China. I spent the morning acting as travel agent, researching future accommodation options, checking flights, and day-dreaming about Bali. At some point in the mid morning I mentioned I’d like to go to Bally’s for a last workout, and Steve responded by rushing to get his w…

so the great three reunited once again after the infamous trip in london journeyed through the perilous metro system and headed for the mountains to see the mystic budha.  we had to take a sky lift there which was great cause there was spectacular views of the water and the city and mountains.…

Tuesday night turned out to be a really great night.  So good it seemed my run-in with the would be thief was in the distant past.  Not really, but it was nice to be out enjoying myself and not festering over it.I met up with Bev, a friend of my friend Lisa's, whom I electronically reache…

At least this flight wasn't delayed! Flying another almost 6000 miles over the Pacific and I arrived back in San Francisco airport about 12 hours later. Time to unpack and look through my photos and update my blog. This trip took me almost 2000 km or 1200 miles by train and bus, and 2 domestic fli…

 Our driver took us next to the Beijing Zoo, where he dropped us off out front so we could buy tickets, while he went in and parked in the lot  (presumeably to have another nap)   We bought our entry passes, and went to our first stop..the Panda House!  You could just …

WE ARRIVED EARLY ON TIAN'ANMEN SQUARE TO VISIT THE FORBIDDEN CITY NOW OFFICIALLY RENAMED THE PALACE MUSEUM,GUGONG IN CHINESE.IT THE WORLD'S LARGEST PALACE COVERING MORE THAN 70 HECTARES (960 METERS LONG,750 M WIDE) AND HOME TO MORE THAN 9000 ROOMS.BUILT IN THE EARLY 1400s.SURROUNDED BY WIDE AND DEE…

Well, it's a long day! The road to the Ching east tombs was not straightforward to say the least. There were some really poor road conditions due to trucks carrying construction material, rocks, sand, etc. so that the air was so think with dust, it was pretty amazing. The trees at the side of the r…

My train journey from Hong Kong to mainland China is a breeze; in an hour-something I'm in the Peoples Republic of China, worlds most populous country, economic powerhouse, manufacturer of half the things in your house. Probably. I'm on my way to Guangzhou, capital of the Guangdong province and cen…

Back on the train again, for the final stretch: 33 hours to Beijing. It was at the train station where we had our first and only negative experience in Mongolia. When we arrived at the station there were two porters came up to us offering to carry our bags on a trolley cart. Since we had a few eu…