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Asia 2010 China

Old Towner

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 […]

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Asia 2010 China Health Travel Stories

My Night in a Chinese ER!

Hospitals are supposed to be impeccably clean and highly organized, right? Unfortunately, this was not what I found when, much to my surprise, I ended up at one last night! You see, I have asthma. I’ve always had asthma and it’s never a problem for me unless I’m sick with a respiratory infection, much like […]

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Asia 2010 China

“Shangri-La”…Supposedly

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 […]

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Asia 2010 China Crazy Road Trips Travel Stories

The Time the Bus Got Stuck in the Snow…

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 […]

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Asia 2010 China

Tashi Delek

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 […]

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Asia 2010 China

Tibet Lite

Well, I’m definitely not in Kansas anymore… Greetings from what may as well be Tibet…minus the actual border (and all the bureaucracy associated with it)! I’m in a beautiful little city called Kangding (pronounced kawng-deeng), my first stop on the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, which eventually leads all the way to Lhasa (though I hear that at […]

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Asia 2010 China

Gentle Giant

Meet Dafo. He’s just a regular, ordinary, guy. Don’t tell anyone, but I think he’s just a little bit tall. And by tall, I mean he’s kind of a giant. After all, he’s only 71 meters or 233 feet tall! Dafo is the claim to fame of Leshan, a smallish city a couple of hours […]

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Asia 2010 China

Spiritual Awakening

Remember Bhutan’s Tiger’s Nest Monastery? Yeah…that was a warm-up for what I accomplished over the past two days… China has four Buddhist peaks dating back to the 7th Century, when Buddhism first arrived in this country. One of the more famous, Emei Shan (Mount Emei), is located a couple of hours south of Chengdu, so […]