In Search of the Harbin Ice Sculptures
We haven’t, frankly, had the best start to 2013. Or Harbin, for that matter. Among other observations on life in minus 30, I can confirm...
Category: China
10 Random Observations on Life in -30
1: Your Body Acclimatises When we first arrived in Harbin, the cold seemed so biting that I couldn’t believe locals would go out without gloves...
The Songhua River
One of the few details of primary school history that sticks in my brain – well, apart from Elizabethans using white lead on their faces...
Finding Home in Harbin?
It’s all too predictable that, after a 5000k trip that’s taken us south from Beijing, around -10°C (14°F), to Hong Kong and Shenzhen, in the...
Flat-Hunting in -30, in Chinese
And here we are, in Harbin, which is, if everything goes to plan, our home base for at least three months. We push through the...
Our China Odyssey Part 2: Shenzhen to Harbin
Our unplanned day in Shenzhen passes in what I guess you could call serendipity. We weren’t hugely whelmed by 798 Art District in Beijing, so...
Our China Odyssey – Part 1: Shenzhen
Despite the pleasures of Hong Kong, I am beginning to panic absolutely bloody terrified about the impending arrival of Chinese New Year. Folk in Beijing...
Ocean Park! Woot!
If there’s a better place to celebrate FINALLY scoring a Chinese visa than Ocean Park Hong Kong – at least when you’re a single mother...
In Which Things Fail to Go to Plan in Beijing
After a week spent sorting out Chinese visas in Kathmandu, plus getting stuck in Lukla on the back of Everest Base Camp, my projects for...
Ice Skating in Beijing
When it comes to ice skating, like everything else, the Chinese do it differently. Very differently. And ice skating in Beijing is really something else....