Destination: China

13 - There's a first time for everything

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 | By piglet | Views [2841] | Comments [1]

And today's first was donkey meat.  Served with noodles (soup-less), as well as plain sliced.  The noodles are the same type of noodles as used in a Lanzhou beef noodle soup, except it is coloured with a natural plant extract which makes the ... Read more >

12 - More noodles (and mutton too)

Sun, 9 Sep 2012 | By piglet | Views [9621]

As we leave central China, distinctly, we seem to be straying away from rice country into noodle country.  And there seems to be an assortment of noodles to sample, ranging from Lanzhou beef noodles 牛肉面, to Bang Bang Noodles (chinese characters ... Read more >

11 - The End of the World

Sun, 9 Sep 2012 | By piglet | Views [2615]

Jiayuguan 嘉峪关 was regarded by the Ming Dynasty as the border of China separating "home" from the western barbarians.  Today, Jiayuguan city is a small industrial town largely populated by immigrants from all over north and western China.  It ... Read more >

10 - Approaching the end of the world (with a sci-fi twist)

Sun, 9 Sep 2012 | By piglet | Views [2313]

Leaving Zhangye (张掖) with a goodbye wave to Marco Polo. Yes, there is a statue of the man in the centre of town. Apparently he lived in Zhangye for almost a year whilst waiting for permission to enter China proper. See - another bit of evidence for my ... Read more >

Our crazy first week

Sat, 8 Sep 2012 | By mmanddb | Views [588] | Comments [1]

So wow. Sorry for the lack of blog the last week and a bit, we have kind of been dead to the world because school has taken up all our time. It has been crazy with multiple freak outs, more illness and extremely long to do lists. Very glad it is Saturday, ... Read more >

9 - No - those are not worms!

Sat, 8 Sep 2012 | By piglet | Views [12479]

This is a speciality noodle in the town of Zhangye (张掖）- translated as "kneaded fish noodles" (搓鱼面）because the noodle is kneaded by hand to be shaped like little fish.  They are deliciously light and slightly al dente, served dry but eaten ... Read more >

8 - Night outing in Wuwei

Sat, 8 Sep 2012 | By piglet | Views [6947]

Set out to visit the second set of historical buddhist caves and carvings on 6 September - the Binglisi Grottoes (炳灵寺石窟）.  (First was the Maiji Mountain grottes). Turns out to be a really long and dull car ride from Lanzhou to a dam along the Yellow ... Read more >

7 - Onwards to more caves and mutton

Thu, 6 Sep 2012 | By piglet | Views [3203]

Have finally crossed the border into Gansu province today.  On the road towards 兰州(Lanzhou), the capital of Gansu, I stopped at Maiji Mountain 麦积山 where there is a very interesting set of grottoes with buddhist cave paintings and mountain sculptures.... Read more >

6 - Departing Shaanxi

Thu, 6 Sep 2012 | By piglet | Views [2483]

It turns out that I was still sleeping in Shaanxi last night in the one-horse town of 宝鸡 (Baoji) which is on the border between Shaanxi and Gansu.  As you will see from the photos, I stayed at the very international "Vancouver International Hotel".... Read more >

5 - You can't take it with you...

Mon, 3 Sep 2012 | By piglet | Views [3703] | Comments [2]

That's the moral for the day after visiting first the Han Emperor's tomb and now Qinshi Emperor's tomb (or rather the location where thousands of replica people and animals have been bured to keep the emperor company).  Impressive no doubt, ... Read more >

4 - First stop Xian

Mon, 3 Sep 2012 | By piglet | Views [872] | Comments [1]

Arrived at Xian on a sunny and dry afternoon.  Absolutely wonderful weather - I can tell as I have volume in my hair, which isn't sticking to my head limply as it normally does in Hong Kong...  Left the Xian airport and went straight to ... Read more >

Food, traffic, school

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 | By mmanddb | Views [592] | Comments [1]

My phone was a worthy investment to bring along, even if it wasn’t working. The dictionary app I downloaded has become very useful in communicating. So through using that and a lot of gestures (that you hope are not offending anyone) we can communicate ... Read more >

So busy!

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 | By mmanddb | Views [831] | Comments [1]

Yesterday was a long day!!!! Full of more and more waiting, almost as tiring as the flight, uhg. We had to go get our residency permits, and with the thirty of us it took a while. A lot of people did not have their medical forms filled out correctly ... Read more >

Photos: Wuhan

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 | By mmanddb | Photo Gallery

A productive day

Sun, 26 Aug 2012 | By mmanddb | Views [878] | Comments [3]

It is our first day off and there is sooo much to do! We went to this enormous mall which makes cross iron mills look very tiny, for some groceries and shopping. Then we went and got massages from this hotel near by, which were awesome and only cost ... Read more >