Back In Changchun – Closing Ceremonies
Coming back to the La Tour Morgan Suites after my 2 week sojourn to Beijing and Qinghai, was a bit like coming back to school. I was glad to be met at the airport by my trusty interpreter, Sunshine. She had arranged a swish committee SUV to collect me and glide me back into the […]
Making Buddhas By The Yellow River
Waking up in the drab, decaying, government hotel could have dampened any solo travelers spirits. The CCP standard hotel room layout (it was exactly the same as our hotel in Tong ren) has been left behind in China’s reinvention of itself. The bath-tub was rusty, half the lights didn’t work, nor the television, there was […]
Travels In Qinghai Province
We are leaving town early, on the advice of the driver who is anxious the road ahead may be bad. It is a beautiful morning, the sun just creeping over the valley walls. We boiled water and milk, ate bland fried bread, and left the hotel smoothly. The shops haven’t opened yet, though the street […]
The Qinghai Quanxi – Travelling In China
It is one of the real joys of traveling, when one finds ones self in a string of friends, families, contacts and compadres! This is guanxi. It makes all the difference. I had a pretty stressful departure from Beijing, where I timed my airport arrival to perfection, to find that I had got the wrong […]
The Artists And Artisans of Beijing
One of the key pleasures and insights of staying with my friend Simon in Beijing was being able to get a chance to meet a few of the big name contemporary artists he deals with on a regular basis. His many years of experience and totally immersed language and cultural skills have put him right […]
Writing In Taxis In Beijing
Beijing is massive, as you might expect. The centre of the vortex in many respects …and on many levels. The capital city of the words biggest population and the soon to be, (if not already), the worlds most powerful global empire could not be anything but what this is. A labyrinth of human activity on […]