Browsing Category

China


VIEW POST

View more
China Shanghai Zhujiajiao

SPRING IN ZHUJIAJIAO

on
May 30, 2014

Shanghai can get pretty frantic with all the skyscrapers and crowds. If you are in need of a quick change of pace, a good choice is the quiet “water town” of Zhujiajiao, about an hour from the city by bus.

The area around Zhujiajiao was settled thousands of years ago, and the town itself has been around for about 1700 years, new in Chinese terms. Formerly a trading center for cloth and rice, it is now a getaway for tourists and locals who come to enjoy the peaceful watery setting.

Read more
Share this:


VIEW POST

View more
China Pudong Shanghai Yu Gardens

SHANGHAIED?

on
September 4, 2013

“Hello! Where are you from?

Ah, have you seen Sleepless in Seattle?

Please come with us for the folk dancing. It’s just a little way from here. You’ll really enjoy it when we explain everything.”

 

We were getting annoyed by the young couple who were clinging to us like overcooked noodles. But they kept on with the questions and the importuning: “Please follow us.”

Finally we walked away. I could see them begin talking to another obviously American couple.
Read more
Share this:


VIEW POST

View more
China Great Wall

FOOTSTEPS ON THE GREAT WALL

on
July 2, 2013

 Instead of the sound of millions of tourist feet pounding the section of the Great Wall closest to Beijing, there were only 160 – that is, those belonging to 79 people and me to the section known as Hangyaguan, two and a half hours from the port of Tianjin.

 

We stopped for an early lunch in Jixian, a scruffy city and a marked contrast to glitzy Shanghai. Piles of rubble were everywhere, as if the city had been bombed.

Read more
Share this: