Aaron's Worldwide AdventuresIf you had an 8 hour layover and didn’t need a visa for the country, would you stay in the airport? That was the very thought running through my head as I was booking my return ticket to New York from Shanghai. See, I was due to spend a significant amount of time in Seoul, […]
Shanghai. The mere mention of that name evokes images a modern, cosmopolitan city…a far cry from the “traditional” China that so many travelers seek. A walk down Shanghai’s bustling shopping street, Nanjiang Rd or through its business district, Pudong simply reinforces that view. A sprawling example of China’s dramatic growth, Shanghai (pronounced SHAWNG-hai) serves as […]
Cities certainly have redeeming qualities, even after they’ve chewed you up and spit you back out again! Such was my first experience in Kunming, the capital of China’s Yunnan province, nearly 2 months ago, when I had an amazingly frustrating day trying to figure out how to get out of this place. Then, I did […]
What is it about fame that changes people…or towns for that matter? As if I hadn’t experienced enough of a town gone famous in Lijiang, I’m now getting a full dose of it in Dali (pronounced Daw-lee), another of Yunnan’s “must see” sights. Touristy barely begins to describe this town (and Lijiang, for that matter); […]
Picture, if you will, that vision of ancient China you’ve always had. Tiny stone streets that weave their way from one plaza to another, passing endless Chinese-style buildings with that oh-so-distinctive style of roof. Now what if I told you I was standing in the midst of a Chinese town that looked just like that […]
Greetings from Shangri-La. No, really. I’m actually in a city called Shangri-La! That name seems to illicit the same response from people unfamiliar with this part of China, one that cannot believe that there’s actually a place called Shangri-La. “Shangri-La” is, of course, a fictional place from James Hilton’s fictional novel “Lost Horizon.” So how is […]
You know, last time I checked, intercity buses did not come with 4-Wheel Drive… Though after two days on (in the eloquent words of Lonely Planet), “ass killing roads” on the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, I suggest that the Chinese government may want to work on developing them! My journey began yesterday in Litang, where I had a free […]
Behold, the striking view that I see out of the window of my cozy, yet chilly room. This is Litang (pronounced lee-tawng), a relatively small and incredibly Tibetan town in the western portion of China’s famed Sichuan province. With its surrounding valley and high altitude of 4,014 meters (13,169 feet…which, I might add, is even […]