Destination: China

The Good Vibes of Shanghai

Fri, 6 Jun 2014 | By goingsolo | Views [636]

Shanghai was bustling and busy but had a beautifully frenetic vibe about it - the city was alive with people. A lot of people.  The expat culture was also youthful and vibrant. I could tell this was a place of abundant opportunity - people came ... Read more >

Tags: alcohol, architecture, big city, expats, restaurants, shanghai

Kung Fu in China Weeks Thirty-Nine and Forty

Mon, 26 May 2014 | By korric | Views [923] | Comments [4]

In my last post I mentioned that I carried someone on my back up the temple run, but did not do so during the heavily staired portions so I felt like I hadn't pushed myself as much as I could have. The following Friday, I carried Kegan from Canada in ... Read more >

Tags: china, martial arts

Part 2 - Weclome to Beijing

Mon, 19 May 2014 | By magnificent_glow | Views [481]

We are in the sprawling capital of the Peoples Republic, Beijing, as part two of four in a horse shoe adventure from Nepal now to China and around through to Mongolia and into Russia.   We clear customs and walk out into the terminal. We blew ... Read more >

Photos: Changing face

Fri, 16 May 2014 | By misbah-h-k | Photo Gallery

Round abyss

Thu, 15 May 2014 | By universal_traveler | Views [311] | Scholarship Entry

He has no arms. What’s left from the limbs barely covers the armpits. He’s probably around 12 years old, lean and tall, wearing nothing but knee-high shorts. He’s facial expression lets me observe without guilt, it says something like “don’t you dare ... Read more >

Tags: 2014 Travel Writing Scholarship - Euro Roadtrip

If I Should Feel Chilly

Thu, 15 May 2014 | By thisgypsyheart | Views [307] | Scholarship Entry

Seat 34C welcomed me stiffly with a packaged blanket and cracker crumbs engrained into the cushion. I slid my worn messenger bag under the seat in front of me and pinched off a piece of watermelon gum to placate my nerves. In Chinese, the air stewardess ... Read more >

Tags: 2014 Travel Writing Scholarship - Euro Roadtrip

In a moment

Thu, 15 May 2014 | By natania_tanbabe | Views [295] | Scholarship Entry

Plain. Real, I’m not making this up. Because this would be easier to forget. If one could. The Taiwan-style fried chicken sizzles in its paper packet, two sets of wood picks digging their way in and out. I half concentrate on surroundings, half on the ... Read more >

Tags: 2014 Travel Writing Scholarship - Euro Roadtrip

An Obvious Foreigner

Thu, 15 May 2014 | By josiah | Views [264] | Scholarship Entry

Open my eyes. I don’t recognize this room. Stone floors, brick walls, steel bars. Apparently I’ve been imprisoned. My head is throbbing, feels like I went mano y mano with a baton. I think I’m concussed. How did I end up here? In the days before I had ... Read more >

Tags: 2014 Travel Writing Scholarship - Euro Roadtrip

Screenshot in Jade

Thu, 15 May 2014 | By aimei_leau | Views [206] | Scholarship Entry

Between Hong Kong and mainland China is a long highway with a series of stops and checkpoints. The landscape of vine-wrapped bridges and buildings, strangely flat yet verdant with green and white, passes with a strange dreaminess accompanied by the breathy ... Read more >

Tags: 2014 Travel Writing Scholarship - Euro Roadtrip

In Exchange

Thu, 15 May 2014 | By dayofjanuary | Views [269] | Scholarship Entry

The metallic smell of industry and modernization, of rot and smoke—a lazy haze that curled against my skin and diluted the pinks and purples of the sunset with a tinge of grey—saturated the city. I took a measured breath and the air seared my throat, ... Read more >

Tags: 2014 Travel Writing Scholarship - Euro Roadtrip

The Language of the Soul

Thu, 15 May 2014 | By mr-challenge | Views [195] | Scholarship Entry

On the 7th day of travel through Tibet, I arrived to a Monastery lost within mountains inhabited by 120 teen monks being watched after by a dozen of senior lamas. I was astonished by the beauty of the place and mystic charm of the situation but, once ... Read more >

Tags: 2014 Travel Writing Scholarship - Euro Roadtrip

A Journey in the Night

Thu, 15 May 2014 | By chinauncovered | Views [193] | Scholarship Entry

How did I end up here? Barrelling down the wrong side of a freeway into oncoming traffic, with no idea where I was going or who the man was that was driving the car. After waiting nearly an hour and a half for my ride to pick me up at the airport, I ... Read more >

Tags: 2014 Travel Writing Scholarship - Euro Roadtrip

Roots

Thu, 15 May 2014 | By maaike94 | Views [268] | Scholarship Entry

I wonder how old he is. From his face I’d have guessed at least ninety. It looks like a face carved out of wood, with the cracks where nature forced rainwater and wind between the splinters left in. They spread out from his eyes like wings. He looks completely ... Read more >

Tags: 2014 Travel Writing Scholarship - Euro Roadtrip

Conversions

Thu, 15 May 2014 | By yoshke | Views [193] | Comments [2] | Scholarship Entry

He looks at my passport, and I know something is not right. The bank teller stares at my currency exchange form and gives me a look I can’t decipher. My stay in Zhangjiajie is ending, and I need some yuan to catch the last train out. His fingers tap ... Read more >

Tags: 2014 Travel Writing Scholarship - Euro Roadtrip

First sight

Thu, 15 May 2014 | By jennyc | Views [254] | Scholarship Entry

I’ve spent months on the build-up, getting an internship at a magazine telling people all the great things I’m going to do and see, when really I have no idea what I’m doing- am I doing the right thing? As the flight descends through the smog the communist ... Read more >

Tags: 2014 Travel Writing Scholarship - Euro Roadtrip