Ten Reasons You Should Totally Visit Hangzhou
To Chinese, the city of Hangzhou, a budget airline hub that’s under an hour from Shanghai by bullet train, encapsulates the cultured, artistic leisure of...
Tagged: china
Hong Kong – Island of a Thousand Stories
For a city-state that dynamited two mountains and pushed the shattered remnants into the sea to grow its airport, for an engine of global capitalism...
Welcome to Mongolia
The language barrier at the border is sudden and absolute. Chinese trains, buses and finally a taxi have brought us to the border, but we’ll...
In Xanadu…
There are some places on this earth that have a magic in their name. Samarkand. Timbuktu. Xanadu… And, as Xanadu is pretty much on the...
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...
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...
Getting the Seasons Wrong in Wudalianchi
“Can we see the cranes?” I ask Zhang Wei, in my still resolutely rubbish Chinese. “They’re not here,” he replies, driving at a pace so...
Signs of the Times: Chinglish Edition
The Communist Party of China, in its infinite wisdom, is about to remove one of the most reliable sources of visitor entertainment, the Chinglish sign....
Why We Won’t Continue the Chinese School Experiment
We committed to Chinese school for Zac on the apparently random basis that we would reassess when the time came up to renew our lease....
Some Thoughts on Chinese Algebra
Watching Family Guy last night, we hit the episode where Tricia Takanawa says: “Hi! I’m here with Stephen Hawking, the only white man I’ve ever...