Topic #9 – Love (postponed from 2012) – complete Topic #15 – Urban Life – complete Topic #16 – Numbers Topic #17 – Statues Topic #19 – Long and dark nights Topic #20 – Zoos Topic #21 – Mexico Topic #22 – Wildlife Topic #23 – Coffee Break Topic #24 – Wheels Topic #25 –…
29 July – Unsuitable clothing
First Published – 29 July There is lots of unsuitable clothing worn here. Very high heels, worn at all times including when walking for hours. They also seem to like layers upon layers of lace and on Sunday, they seem to wear a lot of white and cream dresses which are a bit bridal-esque. The…
29 July – Exploring Chengdu
First Published 28th July Day 3 here and we headed out to see what Chengdu had to offer, and walked towards Renmin park. It was a nice park, if a little noisy. But then that’s all relative, China is an inordinately noisy place. In the park there were people dancing, mainly middle aged ladies with…
28 July – Du Fu’s thatched cottage
Du Fu was a poet, he lived around 750AD. Apparently he lived in a cottage in west Chengdu, for 5 years. We were told that we absolutely had to visit his house, his actual house from 1200 years ago. Hmmmn. We in fact visited a replica cottage. This cottage may (or may not) have been…
28 July – Attempting to shop
Stopping in China is over whelming! The choices are so numerous that I am put off before I even get started. Each department store is a giant mass of choices. Then there are numerous department stores to chose from which makes things even worse. This is a country that is totally obsessed with shopping. In…
27 July – Going to visit pandas
First Published 27 July 2012 Because of flooding we didn’t go to the Wolong panda reserve today as planned. Instead we got a taxi to the panda breeding centre on the outskirts of Chengdu. Our taxi driver was good. I liked his attitude to using the horn. At every and all opportunities. Beep beep beep. He used…
52000words #14 – Rural Life
BBC Theme: Rural Life First posted 22 December 2013 Two weeks before I head to my childhood home in rural Norfolk for a new year holiday is a nice time to reflect on rural life. I’ve lived in Leeds for 13 years with the exception of one year back in Norfolk and away in France,…
26 July – Journey to Chengdu
First Published 27 July 2012 We had an 11.05 flight to Chengdu from Shanghai Pudong airport. After checking out of the hotel, we braved the rush hour metro. Loaded with backpacks this was a bit of an adventure. Our ticket cost 7 yuan (70p) and took around half an hour. It was busy ,and really…
24/25 July – Day 2 & 3 in Shanghai
First Published – 24 July 2012 Day two in Shanghai we met Querida, from couch surfing. She is 19 and studies English at Shanghai university. We went to the Jingan temple, and then she took us to a few different districts. We end up in Dapuqiao – a really cute market with narrow streets, that…
Chinese toddlers don’t wear nappies…
Nope. They just have shorts with a bum hole cut out. Then they poo or wee anywhere they like.
52000words #13 – Holidays
BBC Theme: Holidays First posted 16 Dec 2013 It’s late, as always but here’s the entry for ‘Holidays’ … For my last two holiday’s I’ve been to Spain. Which is surprising because, barring a brief trip to Lloret Del Mar in 2009 I’ve never been to Spain. You’ll know if you’ve ever been, that Lloret…
23 July – Day 1 in Shanghai
First Published 26 July 2012 We had sensibly arranged to meet a local to show us around. Linz and I met a girl called Kun, after she offered to show us around Shanghai, we’d met her on the travelling website CouchSurfing. We meet her in the morning and we walked down People’s Street and then…
EasterlyMoves 