Explore the great cities of the world!
Today was the day for the highlight of my trip: my visit to the Great Wall of China. Coincidentally, this was the second time that the highlight of my trip was also the literal high-point of my trip. The first was [Read more…]
In the morning, it was the apple’s turn to be picked from the fruit bowl in my hotel room. Then I was off to the Temple of Heaven. It was another bitter cold morning in Beijing. So I was thrilled when I stopped into a gift shop at the Temple of Heaven and saw these hot filled steamed buns (bao) for sale. I got one, and it really hit the spot.
During the second half of the 19th century, while China was reluctantly opening and modernizing, Japan’s modernization was going from zero to sixty. (That’s zero to 100, if you’re using the metric system.) Moving up in the world, the Japanese were eagerly looking beyond their island shores. They particularly turned their eye towards very close-by, resource-rich Korea, which had been under under China’s sphere of influence for centuries. Both [Read more…]
Welcome to Day 7, the day I fell and hurt my back. I was afraid the rest of my trip could be in jeopardy. It was also the day I paid an emperor’s ransom for some goofy pictures of me. Despite some mishaps, it [Read more…]
Here are some fun (fascinating, actually) facts about China and Chinese.
Ever heard of China referred to as “the Middle Kingdom”? I had heard this but didn’t really understand what it meant. It turns out, the explanation is surprisingly simple. As I started to understand as I was planning my trip, the [Read more…]
