China

Articles from this Category

Big brother fallacy

Local and Foreign Companions Yesterday’s transport arrangement worked well and we enjoyed each other’s company. It was a nice blend of foreign (Brit) and local (Fuzhou) company. So we agreed to sight-see together again today. Like Indonesia, I get a semi-local experience through my ability to converse and interact with the locals. It was a […]

Read more

The real China

This is the real China I woke at 0530 (to the sound of someone chopping firewood) due to jetlag which I fully intend to use this in my favour with early buses and trains ahead. I had slept very well despite the bed being so hard. It felt like a plywood board padded with blankets.  […]

Read more

Moving to the Jiangxi countryside

Prices in the new China I set off with my daypack today for a 3 night trip to the Wuyuan area which is about 6h (less 20min rest break) bus journey away. The bus journey was uneventful as the roads were either motorway or very good. This is the new China. Sadly the new China […]

Read more

Old and new meet and merge

After a good night sleep I felt like new again. I thought it would be a good idea to but the tickets for the bus tomorrow to Wuyuan. I did this at Shanghai South Long Distance Bus & Railway Station. It was all very painless except travelling by metro and foot takes forever as distances […]

Read more

Bouncing back from misery

Sleepless flight We had the weirdest and shallowest take off out of Auckland. We seemed to hover over the lights of South Auckland and it took quite a while before we were away from suburbia. This must have been the Boeing 777 that thought it was an propeller aircraft (or an Airbus A340). I had […]

Read more

Leaving China

Thoughts on Leaving China Today I left Yangshuo for Hong Kong via Guilin (city and airport).  I’ll miss the cheap eating … up to two big beers and three ice creams per day: A 600 ml beer is CNY5 (about EUR0.50) for locals and 2-3 times the price for tourists.  There’s now a good choice […]

Read more

Disappointing day

Today I decided to take another bike trip this time south towards the Big Banyan Tree and Moonlight Mountain.  I didn’t have a good start as the road was very busy with buses and trucks … and hence dusty.  It could have been worse as I met some people who said they were white (from […]

Read more

Rafting, cycling and a nuclear scientist

Big day out Today I have a cycle and rafting combo trip organised.  The man that sold it to me said I’d start by getting on a bus with the bike to an out-of-town point before rafting and cycling back.  After breakfast I picked up my mountain bike (EUR1 per day) and cycled to the […]

Read more

Sunset on the Li River

I slept till 1000 today.  My weariness is catching up.  Or maybe it’s because I’ve got a light case of the tummy bug.  Besides I have a beeauuutiful hotel room for about EUR 12.50 per night  just off all the eating areas  🙂 In the early afternoon, I took a bus out of town to […]

Read more

To the backpacker paradise

I woke up early-ish at 0645 at Cheng Yang Bridge accommodation.  Today I’m bound for Yangshuo via Guilin.  I had to first wait by the road for a bus to Sanyang where I changed promptly for Guilin.  The road was terrible en route. At Guilin it was another quick change for Yangshuo.  I arrived after […]

Read more
Go top