Anhui: Home of Huizhou and Huang Shan
Tuesday, October 16th, 2007No loose ends to tie up in Shanghai… all business and preparations taken care of… It’s back to another fresh start in traveling! [read on]
Articles Tagged ‘– Transport & Travel’
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Chinese Sex Culture
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007After being in Suzhou for a week, I have seen many things that distinguish this city from its brothers and sisters throughout China. Everything from the gardens and historical districts to the broad, tree-lined avenues is remarkably well kept. [read on]
Suzhou Satisfaction
Sunday, September 23rd, 2007The longer I remain in this country, the more merit I find here. I partially attribute this to the slow acclimation and inevitable desensitizing to the oddities and initial culture shock. However, it seems that as I move onward through China, I am also ascending the ladder of quality in its cities and economic stability. Whilst I was first assaulted with poverty, dust, grime and pollution in the North, I am now surrounded by attractive avenues, fresh foliage and charming canals. The spitting and public defecation have all but faded and it appears the citizens here mostly enjoy a more civilized cosmopolitan demeanor. This is a pleasant change which is leaving me increasingly less anxious to leave China. [read on]
Only 48 Hours in Nanjing
Friday, September 21st, 2007I only stopped in Nanjing for 48 hours. It seemed like a pleasant city, but wasn’t attractive enough to detain me longer. The time on my visa is running short and there are still too many places to visit in China before my three months are up. It is starting to appear that every country I visit will find a way to secure my interest until they’re obliged to kick me out. [read on]
Xi’an：Armies, Mountains and New Ink
Tuesday, September 18th, 2007It has been nine days since I left the Kung Fu school and thankfully, the experience is quickly fading into a distant past. Every facet of life that was lacking during my time there has returned in full force. Due to the hardships I recently endured, my sense of appreciation has also been greatly enhanced to enjoy it all the more! [read on]
Liberation
Monday, September 10th, 2007Ah, freedom… I can taste it again! I am happily writing this on my way away from Songshan and the hellish Kung Fu training experience endured there. [read on]
Pingyao’s fifteen-hundred years of history
Thursday, August 23rd, 2007After a hellish first experience with third class travel in a developing nation, I literally squeezed myself by force out of the overcrowded train car and into the dusty streets of Pingyao. The first impression was of a more polluted but slightly smaller scale version of Beijing. Clouds of dust kicked up by a constant rush of motor-carts, bicycles and motorcycles. I heard this was an ancient walled Ming Dynasty City, but here I find myself in near third world urban sprawl?!?
Luckily the impression faded after passing through the city walls. Inside is a straight up third world city still hanging onto an era long passed. Old crumbling buildings covered in age-old dust wrapped around the random twists of cobblestone alleyways. This is the type of place I’ve been waiting for since I started my travels. [read on]
The Yin and Yang of Beijing
Saturday, August 18th, 2007Would I ever want to live in Beijing? Not even a possible consideration! It is polluted, grimy, overcrowded and excessively hot. After seven days here, my throat is sore and nose is stuffed from the smog. Two showers a day would be barely sufficient to cleanse the filth from your skin, and fighting through the swarms of human traffic can be downright uncivilized at times.
Would I visit again? Definitely! Balancing all of the negative aspects is a city full of exotic culture, excitement at every corner, abundance of interesting excursions and endless supply of enticing cuisine. [read on]
Character Development
Monday, August 13th, 2007Five months deep into this adventure has taught me more than I could have learned in five years stagnating at home. I do know I am still far from an experienced traveler, but it is safe to say that I’m at least no longer wet behind the ears. It has been almost a month since I left the comforts of Gangneung, and I’ve found less and less time at a computers to update this blog.
So what has been keeping me so busy? Life… the way I want to live it. The weeks I’ve spent in Seoul kept me preoccupied with friends, playing music, taking photos and visiting the must see sights. I also took a twenty-five hour ferry into China and have been exploring Beijing for the last few days. Now I’m sitting in a quiet pavilion hidden in a secluded corner of Temple of Heaven Park and have pulled out my journal for the first time in weeks. [read on]
Goodbye Gangneung
Friday, July 27th, 2007The last two weeks in Gangneung have been like a vacation from traveling. Hanging out with Melissa and her friends at the beaches and suburbs was reminiscent of a summer at home. It has helped me to shake a bit of funk that has been building up during the last four months on the road. I was getting a little disillusioned and burdened by time limits and dwindling finances, so it was great to live a stressless life with no real agenda for a change. A lot of my time there was spent wasting time in internet cafes and playing with the kids at Melissa’s school, but I did get into a couple photo explorations during my last week in town. [read on]
Adam Shane