Chinese Hospitality in Changchun
“Do you have a hotel?” our now-ex-landlord asks, as her husband, Xiao Feng, chauffeurs us 45 minutes across town to the brand spanking new Harbin...
Category: Travel Lifestyle
In Which We Hit the Road Again
It’s a wrench leaving Harbin, more than I’d thought it would be, and in the week running up to leaving I’m almost in denial. I...
Long Term Family Travel FAQs
There are thousands, if not tens of thousands, of families out there around the world who are doing, or have done, long term travel –...
A Swimming Date in China
The lesser spotted tween, and its larger relative, the greater spotted teen, are elusive creatures in urban China. You might glimpse one between 6 and...
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...
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,...
Skiing China 5: Our Own Private Mountain
And, as if by magic, with a little lot of help from Ski School videos, everything comes together. It’s snowing! It’s snowing, for this arid...
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 – 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,...