May 03, 2005
Certifiable madness
We had to have been certifiable, crossing the border between Guangdong and Hong Kong by bus on the morning of the first day of one of China’s largest public holidays, May Day. May Day heralds the start of ‘Golden Week’...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 06:05 PM |
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Yum cha equals home
Okay, okay, I admit it: there might have been another reason why our final stop in mainland China just happened to be Guangzhou. And that reason would be yum cha – aka dim sum. Those of you who know Andrew...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 05:55 PM |
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Durian breath and the city: Guangzhou
Guangzhou is the contemporary name for the place English speakers used to call 'Canton'. Canton lives on in our word for the language in these parts - Cantonese - but other than that, it's now firmly Guangzhou all the way....Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 05:49 PM |
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May 01, 2005
I do so like green eggs and ham
I love air travel. I love it in a 'Green Eggs and Ham' manner: I would like it here or there, I would like it anywhere. Indeed, I like it here in China very much. My ardour is fervent, ridiculous,...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 11:46 PM |
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April 28, 2005
Litany of sins
Entrancing as the cartoon was, I felt kind of sad about some of its messages. Some were indisputably good, but others made me want to say, 'No way! Don't change that! That's China!' The cartoon was playing on a flatscreen...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 07:55 PM |
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Back in the northern capital
And so it is. We find ourselves back in Beijing, land of giant things. Big blocks, big buildings, big roads, big dust. We’ve spent the past ten days with Andrew’s sister, Isabelle, and Jasper and Dom, two other friends from...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 07:16 PM |
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Streetscapes of Chengdu
Chengdu is the place we were staying in prior to THAT forty hour train trip. In spring, there is a whole world spelled out in the streetside vendors' produce alone. I have to describe them to you, these springtime streetscapes,...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 07:03 PM |
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April 23, 2005
Leisure-wear series continues: No. 2, 'The ManJama'
Don't say I don't take care of you: spotted more pyjama action yesterday, and snapped it so that we could share. I like to call this one the ManJama - casual man-styling with a hint of old-school masculinity in the...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 10:41 AM |
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April 21, 2005
Pyjama fashion hits the streets of Shanghai
It's cool, it's hip, it's Asia: I LOVE this region! What mysterious forces drive this phenomenon, I can't say. All I can tell you is that we've seen it time and time again in Asia. From Vietnam to Thailand to...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 05:31 PM |
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Spring is fickle
The snow came down whilst we were at Jiuzhaigou, making the trip out of there along the mountain pass very cold indeed. One's steaming breath, the chill of a wet, red nose, and the ache of legs clad in...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 02:57 AM |
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April 20, 2005
And the other thing is ...
I mentioned that the bus-ride to Jiuzhaigou was hellish. I've also done everything possible to put off writing about it. I delayed when we were there. I delayed when we returned to Chengdu. I delayed when we caught a 40...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 07:24 PM |
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April 19, 2005
Not-Lilliput*
About a week ago now, Andrew and I travelled to Jiuzhaigou from Chengdu, and back again by bus. The ride there was hideous. It was, in fact, the worst busride in recent memory on this RTW trip. It was perhaps...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 09:37 AM |
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April 18, 2005
Yes, Virginia, fabulous soupy dumplings come from here
The shophouse in Jiuzhaigou town is small. Spare. Walls which were once in the ballpark of white bear the scungy marks of accumulated cooking stains and grime. The tables are small and greasy, and the 'chairs' are blue plastic stools...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 05:17 PM |
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Squishy stuff (on skewers and off)
As I let Shanghai swoosh around me, and prepare to settle back into the rhythm of this place (much the way one might settle into a plush piece of 1920s furniture mouldering in the back of a pub), let me...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 04:18 PM |
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Fed and watered
Forty hours is a long damn time, but the best part of it has to be stepping into a hot shower when it's all done. No more train rollicking, no more instant noodles, no more people camped out on my...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 02:18 PM |
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April 16, 2005
Spicy means spicy (and long means forty hours)
I am rushing - somehow one full day left in Chengdu has withered away to nothing, and we have exactly four minutes to leave this internet joint, jump in a taxi and head to the station. 'The station' being the...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 05:22 PM |
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April 15, 2005
Where poets once walked
Both these images were taken because I liked the textures, and because you cannot visit the exquisite grounds of a poet's thatched cottage (sited next to 'Flower Washing Brook') and not become obsessed with texture, colour and form. (But...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 09:58 PM |
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Those edible greens have to dry SOMEWHERE
In truth, this is one of the less strange places I have seen the green veg strewn here in China, but it did catch my eye as we walked past!...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 09:11 PM |
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April 14, 2005
Chairman Mao avoids a perm (the sequel)
As I said, something, ANYTHING, had to be done. The great Sichuanese hair debacle of '05 was upon me. We walked far, far away from our guesthouse to a trendier part of town. We happened upon a paved pedestrian mall....Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 06:12 PM |
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When I stole Chairman Mao's hair (the hideous story)
We were back in Chengdu, and back to our old tricks: cards, tasty eatin' and lazing in the teahouse garden. It seemed like eleven months of travel had finally broken our will to move on to new places every other...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 05:34 PM |
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April 09, 2005
Cubicle dreaming officially fulfilled
At one of the fabulous places I worked in the lead-up to this trip, there was a poster on the wall of the room that housed the printers and photocopiers. The poster depicted a turquoise lake surrounded by majestic trees...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 07:15 PM |
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April 08, 2005
World's most surreal Sheraton hotel
I can't properly post at the moment, so you'll have to forgive me that. The reason is that we are up a mountain....Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 09:46 PM |
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April 05, 2005
Cuisine of fire, tea gardens of delight
Sichuan province is renowned for several things. Its mountainous regions are the last remaining home of wild pandas, its cuisine is spicy like fire, and its teahouses are the envy of China. These factors entwined have conspired to make Chengdu...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 08:11 PM |
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Mah jong's wily attractions (part five)
The skill and poise we do not yet possess: But be aware that this is Stealth Mah Jong. Only two days before snapping this pic, we saw a hardcore Mah Jong Bust by the police on the streets of Chengdu....Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 06:39 PM |
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Mah jong's wily attractions (part four)
One still-drunk Japanese man, many cigarettes, and a lesson in etiquette Inspired by our earlier Yangshuo lesson, we decide to take things a step further. This time, we’re going to seek instruction from a local. Enquiring at our guesthouse (the...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 06:08 PM |
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April 04, 2005
Mah jong's wily attractions (part three)
The twittering of the birds We have our first lesson while we're in Yangshuo. We are hanging out with Bill and some friends of his from his small tour group. They've all had lessons provided to them by a local...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 08:46 PM |
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Mah jong's wily attractions (part two)
In which Andrew reveals his dark past That's it. The gloves are off. Andrew has confessed to me a matter of great importance to this on-going mah jong quest. The problem is this: he now reveals that he comes from...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 08:30 PM |
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April 03, 2005
Mah jong's wily attractions (part one)
I was so excited when Andrew told me that his Chinese grandma had taught him to play mah jong when he was little. Ah hah! I immediately envisaged Grandma Kok teaching me as well. There would be intricate battles waged...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 05:19 PM |
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April 02, 2005
Pandas black, white and red: The unbearable cuteness of being
[The second half of that title is such an AWFUL pun, but I have decided to leave it standing as when it popped into my head it was merely a very bad play on Kundera. Now it's a bad play...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 08:00 PM |
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Chinoiserie-retro
This has all been percolating in my head for some time now. It began when we went with our friend Bill to see the Shanghai Acrobatics Troupe perform in that city several weeks ago. Andrew and I had been to...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 06:40 PM |
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March 31, 2005
Don't put dunnage on the armrest
Just DON'T (because whatever it is, it sounds BAD and people could get hurt) ......Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 07:56 PM |
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This candy tastes like jumping (presumably)
(Actually, why lie? I tried it and it wasn't like jumping at all. Where's consumer protection legislation when you really need it, huh?)...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 07:45 PM |
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March 29, 2005
Pickled items, problems with
In an earlier entry, I had cause to blog about the highly amusing fact that airlines in India do not permit the carriage of certain pickled items. O! for those simpler days, when life was so carefree ... As of...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 05:58 PM |
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Too little time, too much China
China is still big. Three days after my last post, size continues to be an issue here. There's just too much STUFF. It starts to make me crazy, when I think about it for too long. What to blog, what...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 05:32 PM |
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March 26, 2005
Live Life Large
Beijing is big, way big. It's big enough to make me wary of saying flashy and dramatic things about how much I love big cities. Instead, like an overstuffed five-foot-high plush panda won at a seedy funfair, Beijing's girth makes...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 09:42 PM |
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March 20, 2005
Punk is not dead (and other tales from the Beijing subway)
These guys materialised on the Metro platform in front of us tonight. Wearing their jackets emblazoned with references to the Sex Pistols, and their hairdos spiky as weaponry, they caught my eye among the sea of neat-and-prim 'winter casuals'...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 10:06 PM |
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March 18, 2005
The strange things you see ...
... in a capital city far from home. In no particular order, these have caught my eye in the past two days: A bevy of dwarves (or little people, if you prefer - but the setting is so unbelievably exploitative,...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 09:43 PM |
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Wintertime dag
Not coming from a cold weather climate, I am a bit befuddled by all the gear that's necessary just to get through the day here in Beijing without one's extremities freezing off and falling to the ground. But now having...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 09:21 PM |
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March 17, 2005
Beauty, coldness and rose-tinted glasses
China is a strange destination in many respects. Just when you think you have a handle on things, it turns around and slaps you in the face. As much as anything, it's China's ability to confound that has drawn me...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 11:54 PM |
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Pepsi as a heated beverage
As offered on the menu of the trendy Cantonese restaurant we ate in tonight: Hot Pepsi with sliced Ginger. My thoughts? 'That's weird.' Andrew's thoughts? 'That sounds just the ticket for curing my cold!' He duly ordered it, and reports...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 11:09 PM |
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March 16, 2005
Beijing goes Russian
On a previous trip to Beijing, we got to check out the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace. We sampled Peking Duck, and ate the world's most delightful dumplings by the steamer-load...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 06:59 PM |
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Beijing shopping disaster No. 2
Yesterday was given over to making 'travel chore' type arrangements - a task which, in China, can rapidly spin from everyday dullness into a something that foments a kind of pent-up rage at the seeming idiocy of things....Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 06:00 PM |
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Beijing shopping disaster No. 1
It is fatal, absolutely fatal, to think that you can come to China and 'just pick up X'. For example, if you buy an outrageously expensive goosedown jacket before you come, then you may well see equivalents being sold at...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 06:00 PM |
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March 13, 2005
Hello, I think I love you
This man called out to us as we were strolling down a Shanghai street. He wandered over, stiff with age and the confines of his padded jacket, but all eagerness to talk. He wanted to know where we were from,...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 02:15 PM |
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Not your average truck-stop
It was a nice re-introduction to China. For a start, the bus actually stopped about as often as you'd want for toilet breaks. But then came this. We were ushered off the bus when it reached Shantou, and saw we...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 02:14 PM |
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March 12, 2005
Ginseng: longer, harder, uncut!
I know, I know. The deal with Ginseng is that it's supposed to look like a person. What I didn't realise was that that would mean that its GENITALIA would feature quite so prominently ... For those who want to...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 11:19 PM |
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Eternal East Bus Company returns us to the Middle Kingdom
We are riding a vehicle belonging to the Eternal East Bus Co, and we're en route from Hong Kong to Xiamen in Mainland China. We cross the border in the early morning, having left Hong Kong's darkened streets at an...Read this update
Posted by Tiffany at 11:00 PM |
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