You’ve all heard of the Peking Opera, right? If you follow “The Amazing Race,” it was featured on a recent season, with competitors having put on all their fancy makeup and costumes. Well, that’s not the only famous Chinese-style of opera! I speak, of course, of the Sichuan Opera, which I got a brief taste […]
Category: China
Panda’s are absolutely adorable, right? They look so soft, cuddly and gentle in those pictures you’ve seen on TV. Their unique pattern has become so well known that the World Wildlife Fund has adopted them as their logo. China has always been thought of as the land of the Pandas (the government here recently took […]
Ah, China. Though I left your borders a month ago, it feels as if I never left, even down to the chilly temperatures that we are experiencing here in Chengdu, the capital of the famed Sichaun province. From the stark language barrier to the only TV option being the state run media and Mao’s mini […]
My self-imposed last night in China is upon me, as tomorrow morning I will be boarding a bus bound for Luang Nam Tha in Laos (which will be an odd feat of de ja vu, as I spent several days in Luang Nam Tha 3.5 years ago). I’ve been meaning to make this short hop […]
In my time abroad, I’ve seen many a toilet or two. And trust me, they differ from what us in the Western would consider to be a proper toilet. Of course, the most basic toilet is simply a hole in the ground. That’s a given…bury your waste, just like animals (well cats) do. Here in […]
I stated in my first post from Jinghong that this city feels a heck of a lot more like Southeast Asia than it does China and that is, in large part, because Buddhism has quite a large presence here that the rest of the China I’ve seen lacks (think of a period in China’s history […]
Jinghong is the first Chinese city I’ve been to where I’ve discovered the local market. I just happened upon it right around closing time and it was quite special! While most regular stalls had closed up shop for the day, the produce and food stalls were still going strong. Live seafood swam in tanks as […]
Greetings from Jinghong (Geeng-hawng), capital of the Xishuangbanna (Shee-shwaung-baw-naw) minority region of China’s Yunnan province. It’s quite interesting because this town feels a heck of a lot more like Southeast Asia than it does China! I here this morning after a very nice 10 hour journey on a Chinese sleeper bus! Now just what is […]