August 26, 2004
Chopsticks and Train Tracks
DAY 306: I woke up early that morning in Ulan Baatar to catch my 8:05 a.m. train to Beijing, China. Everything was packed and read to go by seven -- except for one thing: my watch....Read this entry
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ENTRIES FROM THIS CATEGORY
- Chopsticks and Train Tracks
- Money, Lodging and Beer - Forbidden No More - The Fantastic Wall - No Common Denominator - No Summer Coincidence - The Zoo Debate - Workin' For The Blog - He Said, She Said in Xi'an - The Farmer That Found A Warrior Within - Big Wild Goose Chase - Sichuan Style - Porn For Pandas - Chicken Styrofoam - Submerged - Gorgeous Gorges - The Tower in the Detroit of China - Mistaken Identities - A Couple of Monkeys - Chinese Spider-Man - Dishes - Forgotten Names |
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Read this entry Money, Lodging and BeerDAY 307: "Did you see The Wall?" Colombian Pilar from Barcelona asked me in the early afternoon as I entered the dining car -- a new Chinese dining car that had been swapped for the Mongolian one during our overnight...Read this entry August 27, 2004
Forbidden No MoreDAY 308: At the heart of Beijing lies the Gugong, the Imperial Palace, more commonly known as The Forbidden City. Why it was still known as The Forbidden City I don't know -- they just let me (and hundreds of...Read this entry August 28, 2004
The Fantastic WallDAY 309: I remember watching a television special as a kid in the 1980s when hotshot magician David Copperfield performed a "magic" illusion in which he walked through The Great Wall of China. Actually, from what I recall, you never...Read this entry August 31, 2004
No Common DenominatorDAY 310: What does a dead body, a heavenly temple, a lama, an old wise man and a dozen girls on a bike have in common? I've asked myself the question over and over trying to find an angle for...Read this entry No Summer CoincidenceDAY 311: "If there's anything I've learned [in my travels so far], it's that nothing is coincidental," my American roommate Paul from Kansas said as we entered a sort of deep conversation about the meaning of Life -- perhaps to...Read this entry September 01, 2004
The Zoo DebateDAY 312: Zoos are controversial things. One on hand, they aim to bring wild animals from faraway lands to urban areas, so that city folk who don't have the time, money or courage to see them in the wild can...Read this entry Workin' For The BlogDAY 313: Everyday when I'm behind on The Blog I tell myself, This is the day you'll just stay in and catch up, Erik. You become a writer when you write because you have to, not because you want to....Read this entry He Said, She Said in Xi'anDAY 314: Xi'an, the former imperial capital for eleven dynasties since China's territories were unified by Emperor Qin Shi Huang of the Qin dynasty, lies about a third of the way westward from the eastern Pacific coast. Here, the Great...Read this entry The Farmer That Found A Warrior WithinDAY 315: In 1974, a group of peasant farmers in a remote countryside of the Shaanxi province were digging up a well. Instead of water, they stumbled upon something else: without aiming to do so, they had found one of...Read this entry September 06, 2004
Big Wild Goose ChaseDAY 316: Xi'an's center is surrounded by a moat and a protective wall that was originally built to fortify the city during the era of dynasties, but nowadays it just sort of separates the city from the suburbs in the...Read this entry Sichuan StyleDAY 317: Chengdu is the capital of the Sichuan province, the southwestern province before the Chinese occupied territory of Tibet. Chengdu is a modern metropolis as most Chinese capitals are, known for its famous school of traditional medicine, its panda...Read this entry September 07, 2004
Porn For PandasDAY 318: When you look at a panda, chances are you don't think of it as a "sexy beast." That sort of description goes to a sleek animal like a panther, not that I've ever had the urge to spoon...Read this entry Chicken StyrofoamDAY 319: I was awake at 6 a.m. before most people in the Dragon Town Hostel were awake. I was down at breakfast by 6:30, when I met the only other guy up and ready to go: Wayne, an Australian...Read this entry September 08, 2004
SubmergedDAY 320: Taking a river cruise on the Yangzi River, the world's third longest, was one of my must do's in this first visit to China for me -- it's impossible to see everything in one trip -- since a...Read this entry September 09, 2004
Gorgeous GorgesDAY 321: The Yangzi River stretches for over 3,960 miles from the western mountains of Chinese-occupied Tibet all the way to the East China Sea, but it is the 215 odd miles between Chongqing and Yichang that most tourists travel...Read this entry September 10, 2004
The Tower in the Detroit of ChinaDAY 322: Wuhan, the capital city of the Hubei province, is another big "generic" modern Chinese metropolis, an inevitable stopping point for anyone traveling through the region; it is not only a place of industry but a major transportation hub....Read this entry September 13, 2004
Mistaken IdentitiesDAY 323: As an American born from a bloodline from the Philippines -- the southeast Asian archipelago country once colonized by the Spanish -- I have a certain façade that has been mistaken for other nationalities, depending on what country...Read this entry September 14, 2004
A Couple of MonkeysDAY 324: I've racked my brain for two days trying to find an funny angle for this Blog entry, and why exactly I don't know -- there are monkeys in this entry! I've always thought monkeys were funny ever since...Read this entry September 15, 2004
Chinese Spider-ManDAY 325: The summer before I left for this trip, my friends (and Blogreaders) Cheryl and da Rzz had started to get into indoor rock climbing, going practically every weekend to an indoor rock gym in northern New Jersey, somewhere...Read this entry September 16, 2004
DishesDAY 326: When I arrived in Yangshou three days prior, I was approached by a tout trying to sell me on the perks of his hotel, so that I might give him business instead of giving it to a place...Read this entry September 17, 2004
Forgotten NamesDAY 327: "I know you," I said to a passer-by in the restaurant/cafe next to the hostel the night before. We had made eye contact two nights prior at the hostel's little computer area. "Yeah, last night at the internet,"...Read this entry |