The Terracotta Army

May 30, 2009

This is one of those great archeological stories: back in 1974, a farmer near Xi’an was digging a well and found the shattered remains of some life-sized terracotta statues. Word quickly spread, archeologists got busy, and one of the biggest tourist attractions in China was born. You can read the whole story online, but here’s […]

Read the full article →

Tour de Xi’an

May 29, 2009

The capital of China for many centuries, Xi’an is more like what I expected China to be. People here are a little more relaxed – I even saw a few people smile. I was hoping there would be less pollution here – no such luck. But there did seem to be more charm to this […]

Read the full article →

The Other Wall

May 28, 2009

The Great Wall wasn’t the only wall we hit on our trip through China. After nearly 7 months of traveling, we also hit the proverbial wall – we were getting tired. The last couple of weeks had been a little grueling, and for some reason Beijing was just rubbing us the wrong way. I found […]

Read the full article →

A Little Too Ironic

May 28, 2009

While doing a little research about Chinese gift giving etiquette I came across something that said blue and yellow together symbolizes death. I can’t help but see the irony. Tweet

Read the full article →

Cultural Exchange

May 27, 2009

We had met Mrs. Wang at Behai park a couple days before, and were taken aback by her kind and easygoing nature, a stark contrast to most of the Beijingers we had encountered. So when she invited us over for dinner, we eagerly accepted. Of course we had no idea what to expect, and it […]

Read the full article →

Meeting Mrs. Wang

May 27, 2009

As much as we want to, we can’t ignore the fact we’re still tourists. Traveling for longer doesn’t really change that, perhaps it only makes us a bit more jaded. No matter where we go, we get “asked” to buy something, go into this store, take this tour, or just give some poor self some […]

Read the full article →

The Forbidden City

May 26, 2009

At the center Beijing are two of its most famous attractions: The Forbidden City and Tianamen Square. They’re a little hard to make out for all the people, though. Most seemed to be part of huge package tour groups, led by guides with little flags. We were on our own, making us easy targets for […]

Read the full article →

Mutianyu Great Wall

May 25, 2009

Easily the best part of our trip to Beijing, the Great Wall was one of few major tourist sites on this trip which actually lived up to the hype. We took the advice of some fellow travelers and went to the Mutianyu section, about a 2 hour drive from Beijing. It was worth the trip. […]

Read the full article →

Beijing Culture Whack

May 21, 2009

Is it just me, or is Beijing the rudest place on earth? That’s the question I found myself asking as we began to explore this city. The answer is yes. Yes, to the uninitiated, people in Beijing are shockingly rude, especially compared to the ultra-polite Japanese. And yes, it’s just me – most of the […]

Read the full article →

Reflections on Japan

May 20, 2009

On our last day in Tokyo, little flurries of falling cherry blossoms were everywhere. Just like the sakura season, our visit here was beautiful and all too brief. Tokyo wore us out. It’s just so big and there’s so much to see and do – in the end, we had to leave a lot of […]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →