Articles from this Category
5 April 2025
Yellow Crane Pagoda E & BW had arrived late last night and despite the late night arrival, they were ready at 0830 to begin the day with breakfast at Hubu Alley before heading to Yellow Crane Pagoda. BW is fluent in Mandarin and can read. Until now, I was the best Mandarin speaker amongst us […]
4 April 2025
Qingchuan Pavilion With my bodyclock on New Zealand time, I woke at 0540, lazed around before having breakfast of muesli and coffee (from the machine in the lobby). I arranged to meet KL & M at 0900 downstairs before going out to explore Wuhan. First up, we took a car to Qingchuan Pavilion. There we […]
3 April 2025
Continuing to Wuhan On the flight from Auckland to Haikou, I had about 4h30 sleep then sat with my eyes closed for a further 1h30. We landed about an hour earlier than the scheduled time of 0500. Immigration at Haikou was super-fast. KL & M had missed the arrival cards on the plane as they […]
10 December 2024
Arriving in Hong Kong My flight landed in Hong Kong at 0600. One set of immigration queues were closed, leaving the remaining one backed up. Despite that, I was outside in about 45 mins waiting at the pick-up area. Alice picked me up and took me to her nearby apartment about 10 mins away […]
11 August 2024
Train to Urumqi I walked to Hami’s railway station around 0900 after breakfast in my room. I didn’t have to wait long before the queues formed for boarding the train to Urumqi. Departing at 1010, time went quickly as I attended to online chores on my phone. I chose to arrive at Urumqi South where […]
10 August 2024
Hami’s sights are concentrated all in one place in the south-west of the city which I reached by taxi. Kings’ Mansion I lined up to buy the ticket for the Mansion (or palace) of the Hami Kings just before it opened at 1000. Like my old guidebook said, it is a bad recreation of the […]
9 August 2024
Flying to Urumqi I had the alarm for 0445, time for a pre-arranged pick-up at 0530 by a taxi. It was a fixed rate arrangement, with probably a 50% premium, as I was worried that taxis may not be available at this ungodly time, especially when people consider 0530 to be 0330. Waiting on the […]
8 August 2024
What I’m not doing I’ve done most of the things I can do in Hotan. There were a couple that I decided against doing: Mazar of Imam Asim: This mausoleum lies out of town and Uyghurs used to pray here. More recent reports have suggested that the area is off-limits to foreigners. Yue Tu Gan […]
7 August 2024
Train to Hotan I took a taxi for Kargilik station at 0815 for my 0919 train to Hotan. At the security checkpoint for the station, they had trouble summoning a cop and I had to wait about 20 mins. When boarding came, I noticed they had trouble locating my train booking at the turnstiles. I […]
6 August 2024
Train to Kargilik After one night, I’m on the move by train again, this time to Kargilik (Yecheng). I left the hotel at 0715 by taxi for the 0819 train. This time it is only a 50 ride in the hard seat class. With locals observing a 2h unofficial time difference, this ride is bloody […]