Skiing China 6: Happy Days in Beidahu
There’s not a lot to Beidahu: two hotels, some half-built condos, and a ski centre, an hour and a half’s drive from the centre of...
Category: China
Trains, Stations and the Narrative of Power
Harbin Xi railway station sits way out in the west of town. It’s an enormous red brick affair, a grandiose arch that towers over windswept,...
We Find a Chinese School
A bit of English language Googling around bilingual schools in Harbin finds a site for teachers of English as a foreign language, and a job...
The Other Doctor Mengele – Unit 731, Harbin
Among the unremarkable apartment blocks of Ping Fan, an unremarkable suburb of Harbin, sits an unremarkable low brick building, muted against the snow. This...
The Quest for Chinese School
“I called the school for you,” Huaze reports back. My Chinese really isn’t good enough to do anything but the most basic of basic conversations...
Skiing China 4: Sun Mountain Yabuli
We awake to a blanket of snow, carpeting the shrubby elms and larches and softening the contours of the disappointing hills, chow down on our...
Skiing China 3: Only in China…
You may have noticed, gentle reader, that I have a tendency to embark on insanely difficult projects without adequate research, and then whine about it....
Skiing China 2: In Which I Attempt a Slalom
“The black run is short,” Li explains. “After, blue.” “What about that one?” I say. “Dangerous! Lots of rocks!” Well, I think stoically, that’s one...
Skiing China – Episode 1 – Getting Yabuli Wrong
The Chinese are the most inventive nation on earth when it comes to winter fun, but skiing in China is a very new thing. And,...
The Harbin Ice Sculptures – a Winter Wonderland
What’s it like seeing the Harbin ice sculptures when you’ve dreamed of seeing them for over a decade? Jaw-dropping. The Harbin ice sculptures are the...