August 31, 2006
Foreign Interference?
I am in Oregon for the next 10 plus days...running errands and picking up my car to drive back down to Oaxaca. The night before I left Oaxaca a Mexican...Read this update
August 05, 2006
One East On Third
On the e-hotelier.com web site a friend found this description of son Josh's restaurant in the Hilton Hotel in Beijing where he is the Chef de Cuisine: Hilton Beijing stars...Read this update
June 14, 2006
University Contacts In Beijing?
My son Josh Goetz, 33, who has been a chef in Manhattan New York for the last five years has accepted a position opening a new restaurant in the Hilton...Read this update
March 15, 2006
"Letters From Thailand"
"Letters From Thailand" is a lovely novel wrtten in 1969 by "Botan", a pseudonym of the Chinese-born Thai female writer, Supa Sirisingh, and recently translated into English by Susan Fulop...Read this update
December 23, 2005
More On Mao
We are grounded by the subway strike so have been reading more of the biography of Mao by authors Jung Chang, the author of the wonderful three-generation epic "Wild Swans,"...Read this update
December 17, 2005
Human Rights In China
Yesterday, as Bob and I stepped out the door of the Thai Consolate on E 52nd St. where we were applying for our visas to Thailand, we were met by...Read this update
November 27, 2005
Deep Into Mao & China
It's cold and snowy outside and right now I am deep into the recently published biography of Mao Tse Tung by Jung Chang who also some years ago wrote the...Read this update
July 14, 2005
"11 Minutes" Outranks Mao
On my way to my BTS Skytrain station, I stop for lunch at The Emporium, an upscale indoor shopping mall where there is a variety of restaurants on the 5th...Read this update
December 13, 2004
Jinghong
While I was in Guizou Province, Bob headed off for Putuashan Island and then circled back to Shanghai via Hangzhou...then flew to Jinghong to meet me at the Banna...Read this update
December 10, 2004
Camellia Hotel In Kunming
Was really fun to spend time in the Camellia Hotel compound in Kunming, familiar from our 2002 visit to China, and fraternize with all the Western travelers and trade...Read this update
December 08, 2004
Miao Village In Guizhou
In Shanghai, exploring the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree web site, I noticed a query from a young woman from Kaili in Guizhou Province who was offering to arrange a...Read this update
Miao Village In Guizhou
In Shanghai, exploring the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree web site, I noticed a query from a young woman from Kaili in Guizhou Province who was offering to arrange a...Read this update
December 07, 2004
Shanghai
Spent about 3 weeks in Shanghai in a lovely small hotel behind the Shanghai Library on a tree-lined street of the former French Concession. The US Embassy was next...Read this update
December 06, 2004
Yangshau
Currently in a delightful city (Yangshau) that is on the Yangtze River about 100 miles north of Shanghai. China's autumn has been fantastic, the people interesting (and challanging) and...Read this update
November 15, 2004
Yangshau & Shanghai
E When I sent e-mail had not seen your messages. Your place sounds great--will spend a couple more days here before moving on--would like to access your place. gonna...Read this update
November 14, 2004
Tai Shan Sacred Mountain
Located midway between Beijing and Shanghai, "Tai Shan" is probably the most famous of the five sacred mountains of China. According to legend Tai Shan represents the head of...Read this update
November 03, 2004
"No Foreigners Allowed"
Travelled last p.m. from Tengshau to Yangzhau--train left at 7 p.m.--reported to be a 10 hr ride--however was aroused at 2 a.m. by the train mother that it was...Read this update
October 31, 2004
Lao Shan Mountain Climb
Spent 3 days in Quin Dao...one in new part of town, one in old town and one on a mountain north of town called Lao Shan--subsequently took train to...Read this update
October 30, 2004
Kindred Spirits
Walking by the Foreign Language Bookstore in Quindao, just up the street from my comfy clean hotel room that a tout from the railroad station led me to...80 yuan...Read this update
October 26, 2004
Pissing Match & Fast Food
Yesterday, off the train in Quin Dao, the station workers weigh by bags and want to charge me money...for having my baggage on the train! I get my back...Read this update
October 24, 2004
Overnight Train to Xuindao
Xuindao is also spelled Quindao From Beijing, I take an overnight train alone to Xuindap. Quindao is a weekend getaway for well-to-do Communist party cadres and the train is...Read this update
October 23, 2004
Coffee Taxis & New Friends
I take a taxi to the upscale Lufthansa shopping centerin Beijing to see if a bookstore had the Lonely Planet "Shanghai." They didn't of course...there were a few Lonely...Read this update
October 20, 2004
Tiananmen Square
I had read that Tiananmen was the biggest square in the world. However, Mao's huge Mausoleum takes up about a third of the square...almost right in the middle...so the...Read this update
October 17, 2004
Great Days Great Wall
E found the website (www.wildwall.com) and the adventure offered intriguing potential...off the beaten track, away from the Chinese tourist groups that follow a guide with a microphone and colored...Read this update
October 16, 2004
Hutongs in Beijing
Quin-dynasty Beijing was redesigned with mazes of mud and brick walled courtyards after Genghis Khan's army reduced the city to rubble and is "now the stomping ground of a...Read this update
October 15, 2004
Far East Youth Hostel
The last time I was in China it was freezing cold in January 2003. The weather is fantastic this October day in 2004. After slogging it out across Russia...Read this update
January 08, 2003
Zhangziajie
Bob and I said goodbye to Jana who would leave later in the day on a train to Shanghai and then home from Hong Kong. The next day we...Read this update
January 07, 2003
Off The Boat...Where?
Back on the boat from the little gorges tour, a woman appears at our cabin door...in her little English she says I have a hotel for you...a bus will...Read this update
January 06, 2003
Down The Yangtze
Side Trips on The Way At 6:05am a tour guide knocked at the door...follow me, follow me now, he says! We saw the ghosts...a series of temples in the...Read this update
January 05, 2003
You Can Always Fool a Foreigner
Down the Yangze River From itís origins in Tibet through Tiger Leaping Gorge to Chonqing every Chinese calls China's longest river Chang Jiang and at 6300km is the third...Read this update
Email From Paul
Before we left Chongquing Jana and I got an email from Paul, one of the Ruili kids. Jana and I were both very touched that these kids considered spending...Read this update
January 03, 2003
Chongqing
This is San Francisco...so hilly there are no bicycles, colored lights...lively with people walking through the pedestrian malls that fan out from Liberation Monument at the center...originally built to...Read this update
January 01, 2003
Panda Research Base
An early morning one-hour ride on Sam's Guesthouse bus took us south of Chengdu to the Panda Research Base where China is trying to keep the Giant Pandas from...Read this update
December 31, 2002
New Years in Chengdu
The sleeper train from Kunming to Chengdu takes about 18 hours and passes through more than 200 tunnels. It took 10 years to build the railroad...mostly by political prisoners...and...Read this update
Perspective On China
China is big. The population is staggering with a billion and a half people. It's a matter of getting perspective. Our home state of Oregon only has about 1.5 million...Read this update
December 28, 2002
Ruili
Coming down out of the mountains we were happy to see Ruili lying in the green lush valley below...a larger city than I thought...a Chinese/Burma border town with a...Read this update
Bob's Thai Village Visit
While Jana and I were playing with Chinese teenagers in Ruili in the south of Yunnan, Bob spent some time in an ethnic village in the mountains in Issan Province...Read this update
December 25, 2002
A Merry Christmas Wish
Today, Christmas Day, we will take Jana's Blessing and a van back to Tengchong and catch a bus for Ruili on the China-Burma border. While we sit here at...Read this update
December 24, 2002
Xmas At Re Hai Hot Springs
We went to Re Hai Hot Springs..a short half-hour bus ride from Tengchong. The Asian and European continental shift also resulted in over 80 crystalline hot springs...grand Boiling Hot...Read this update
December 21, 2002
Volcanos in Tengchong
A young Chinese woman on the bus had struck up a conversation in English...telling us about the sights around Tengchong. We thought that maybe we could pay her to...Read this update
December 20, 2002
My Name is Zhuy Yu Ping
On the way to Tengchon, the bus climbed high up into the Gaoligong Shan Mountain Range on a winding narrow two lane road...dropping down and then higher up again...beautiful...Read this update
December 19, 2002
Domestic Fight in Baoshan
The Lonely Planet description for finding Huacheng Binguan was difficult...the hotel name was the same but the street was different...two Dutch travellers sitting in the lobby with their backpacks...Read this update
December 18, 2002
Big Noses In The Back Again!
Bus to Dali As we pulled ourselves up into the luxury express bus we felt that we were living large...we wouldn't have local color but we would have comfort...Read this update
December 16, 2002
Koor Yi...Ok Ok
Monday December 16 OK, OK, OK, (koor yi in Chinese) the woman taxi driver giggles as we pull out of Old Town Lijiang on the way to the bus...Read this update
Conversation With Roland
Had a final dinner at familiar and cozy Sekura's Cafe in Old Town Lijiang...splurging on Western food...sharing our beer with Roland, a 30 year old economics teacher in a...Read this update
Chinese Mysteries
The Chinese have incredible confidence in themselves...and consider themselves unquestionably the most superior people in the world...mostly due to their long history. We Westerners are the barbarians. (So we don't...Read this update
December 15, 2002
What We Miss About Home
I have been asked about this so here it is: After nearly a year, the thing I miss the most about living in the States is EFFICIENCY. Everywhere in the...Read this update
December 14, 2002
Conversations In The Gorge
Wednesday Dec 11 In Old Town Lijiang, Bob joined us for breakfast at our hotel at 9am; met Li at her hotel at 10:30 for minibus trip up the...Read this update
December 13, 2002
Pissing Match
When Bob took a box of purchases to the Old Lijiang post office they asked him to take everything out one by one. This had not happened when we...Read this update
December 10, 2002
Echo & Li...Competitors
Monday Dec 9 2002 In Old Town Lijiang, we are woken up by a knock at the hotel door at 8am. Two couples from Taiwan were on their way...Read this update
December 09, 2002
Naxi Old Town-Lijiang
Lijiang has been designated a World Cultural Heritage Site by the United Nations. There are two kinds of Naxi dwellings built with wood, clay tiles, earth bricks and hard...Read this update
December 08, 2002
The Wonderful Naxi People
Once in Lijiang, we dumped our luggage at the Shangira Hotel (Y80 or about $10 for a double) that was recommended by Echo. I suspect she was getting a...Read this update
December 07, 2002
Tiger Leaping Gorge
China's greatest river, known by Westerners as the Yangtse, is called Jinsha Jiang by the Chinese. It's origin is in Tibet and runs through Tiger Leaping Gorge near Lijiang,...Read this update
December 06, 2002
Zhondian to Baishuitai
Friday Dec 6 2002 There were no street lights so we walked the equivalent of several blocks to the Zhongdian bus station in the dark to catch the 7:50am...Read this update
December 05, 2002
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain
Bob took a flight south to Mangshi and then on by bus to Ruili near the Burma border. Jana and I left Kunming on a Yunnan Airlines flight to...Read this update
December 03, 2002
End of the Burma Road
Sunday Dec 1-3 2002 Arrived at Kunming from Guilin after 23 hours on the train. We had gained considerable elevation throughout the night. We took a taxi to the...Read this update
November 30, 2002
Cormorant Fish Festival
Friday November 29 2002 The annual Fish Festival began today. The fish festival celebrates the Cormorant fisher birds who dive for fish from fishermen’s boats they perch on but...Read this update
Posted by laughingnomad at 08:02 PM |
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November 26, 2002
Mobbed at Yangshuo
Southern China Yunnan Province Tuesday Nov 26, 2002 At Yangshuo we were mobbed by women selling hotel rooms. I stayed with the backpacks while Bob and Jana looked at...Read this update
November 23, 2002
Adoptions
In Guangshou we moved to Shamian Dao Island and stayed in the Shamian Hotel...right across the street from the White Swan Hotel where Communist dignitaries used to stay. Of...Read this update
Posted by laughingnomad at 12:40 PM |
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November 22, 2002
To Guangzhou
Friday November 22 2002 Hong Kong to Guangshou Across the street to noodle shop for breakfast. Sat with woman who worked as a buyer for a British department store...Read this update
November 21, 2002
Westerners Go In The Back
Thursday November 21 2002 Reading “The Coming Collapse of China,” a book written by a Chinese American economist...a dissenting opinion...he gives China five years to get their banking system...Read this update
November 20, 2002
Hong Kong
Wednesday November 20 2002 We flew to Hong Kong from Bangkok on China Airways at 3pm...a one hour time change. We noticed the metal spoon and fork that came...Read this update
Secrets I Will Never Know
Major Cities We Visited "The opening up of China is a stirring idea," Lonely Planet says. A foreigner traveling alone today is privileged to see more of China than...Read this update