Okay, East Asia 2018. Let’s get started! Of course what I’m calling my trip to East Asia was really my trip to Taiwan and South Korea. 6 days of sightseeing in each. Hiking and national parks were featured [Read more…]
Introduction to East Asia 2018
San Francisco 2016, Chinatown Revisited
There were a few spots in Chinatown that were closed when I went to visit them on Day 7. I decided a return visit was in order. I was able to return pretty easily, considering that according to official San [Read more…]
7 Ways China Exceeded My Expectations
The language issue was a challenge during my trip to China. And I did have some culinary frustrations. But China exceeded my expectations in so many ways. Perhaps my expectations were needlessly low. It didn’t help that my phrasebook had some helpful expressions such as, “What time does the hot water come on?” and “There is a rat in my room.” I read so many warnings about China before my trip. I was sort of expecting the worst. But those [Read more…]
China, A Little History, Part 12
Red China
Civil War, World War II, and Back to Civil War
Back in 1934, the Chinese Civil War between the Nationalists of the KMT and the Communists of the CPC was in full bloom. In October, the KMT overwhelmed CPC forces in southern China. The CPC began a long, slow retreat of over 5,500 miles to northwestern China. This “Long March” (actually a series of retreats) took over a year and cost many lives. As many as 90% of those who initially escaped the KMT didn’t make it. But the CPC grew in isolation [Read more…]
China, A Little History, Part 11
Second Sino-Japanese War
The bloodiest war of 20th-century Asia was the Second Sino-Japanese War, or as it’s known in China, the War of Resistance Against Japan. You know it as World War II. (Okay, technically it eventually became part of WWII, but you get it.) Notice the word “Resistance”, reminiscent of the European resistance against the Nazis. Like Germany, Japan was looking to absorb neighboring lands to access natural resources needed to fulfill the needs of its densely [Read more…]