Driving home from Sanjiango (sp?) this evening. The landscape is forever changing and each new view is just as amazing as the thousands that went before it.
Spicy boiled animal parts
Does anyone like spicy boiled animal parts? Including tripe, brain and liver, plus some other unidentifiable parts. I tried a little but only the safer parts!
China 2017 – The journey begins
Saturday 29th July 2017 dawned and “China 2017” was underway. A quick taxi ride to Blackpool North train station. A train to Manchester Airport, which got delayed and then terminated at Manchester Picadilly. We’d left plenty of time so just waited for the next train and we got to the airport about 20 minutes later than planned. This year we …
Preparations for China-2017
Departure day is getting closer. Flights and train tickets are booked and the taxi has been ordered for the trip to the station. It’s starting to feel real. The journey begins at 07:15 on Saturday 29th July with the 11 hour flight direct from Manchester to Beijing leaving at 12:15. We’ve not flown on Hainan Airlines before and hadn’t even …
West meets East
No matter how many thousands of years of amazing culture you have, the grass always looks greener on the other side so the Chinese want to adopt other cultures too. English is the second language of the country and in recent years the government has encouraged everyone to learn English at school. In practice this usually means learning to write English because there are …
China – 2015
2015 was my first opportunity to visit the Far East, specifically The People’s Republic of China. My girlfriend (Yanan) was going back home to visit family and friends and invited me to join her. I guess I’d always wanted to visit China but the language barrier put me off. I’m not a linguist and even European languages where I recognise …
Chinese Food 101
Chinese food in the areas I’ve travelled in isn’t like the food from Chinese restaurants and takeaways in the UK. To me the food in China is quite bland and relatively plain, but then I’m a fan of spice and heat in food. There seems to be little spice used in Guangxi, but they love chilli in Hunan province. Meat …