Having explored Chengdu in Sichuan province for a day, we needed to decide how to spend the next 3 days before we caught our train to Guilin just before the Golden Week (the first week of October), which is the annual biggest migration of the Chinese not counting the Chinese New Year. Emeishan, the holyContinue reading “Mt Emei: Stairway to Heaven”
Monthly Archives: September 2011
Two Ancient Cities and Two Epic Train Journeys
China’s two ancient cities: Pingyao and Xi’an, used to be important cultural and commercial centres. Being located along the route of the Silk Road, both cities thrived with the exchange of new ideas and goods. The ancient city walls surrounding Pingyao and Xi’an were built in the Ming dynasty and stood the test of timeContinue reading “Two Ancient Cities and Two Epic Train Journeys”
White Man in Datong
Arriving in Datong by train in a soft sleeper with almost no people in the carriage, we felt like VIPs and this feeling remained with us for the next 3 days as the Chinese in Datong greeted us warmly with hellos and waving in the street. Long stares with turning heads were quite common asContinue reading “White Man in Datong”
Room with a View of the Great Wall
The plan was to hike along the unrestored part of the wall from Jiankou to Mutianyu in 5-6 hours and get to Gubeikou, but it was verified by the weather and our hike with a night stay on the Wall extended up to 24 hours. The beginning was quite smooth, we reached Huairou, a nearbyContinue reading “Room with a View of the Great Wall”
Through the Looking Glass of Beijing
How to survive in China nearly 2 months with only a few words of Mandarin? We’ve spent in Beijing and surrounding area 5 days so far and we’re doing… pretty well, I think, not counting being charged double for one of the first breakfasts and instead of regular tea being served beer or iced lemonContinue reading “Through the Looking Glass of Beijing”
Off Road with Kimchi and Boxes
We got our Chinese visa and practically we could leave Mongolia anytime, but the experience of this country would not be complete without horse riding. During our Gobi trip we met a Finnish couple who recommended us a good family-run company which organises horseback tours near the White Lake in Central Mongolia. Without a furtherContinue reading “Off Road with Kimchi and Boxes”
Gob(i)smacked M&M’s
Gobi, which means ‘great desert’ in Mongolian, is 1000 miles long and 500 miles wide of open space free from human interference, unchanged for hundreds of years. Sandy areas constitute only 3% of the Gobi Desert, the rest is pebble and tuffs of grass. Driving through the Gobi you pass roughly one or two gerContinue reading “Gob(i)smacked M&M’s”
M&M's let loose 