I really love the train trip between Sydney and Newcastle, except of course when there's track work, and you're transported by bus instead. It's only happened to me once. The train trip is, by world standards, already quite slow (almost three hours to travel 150 km), but when you also have to get on and … Continue reading Between Two Worlds
Tag: China
Have visited China twice now (2010 and 2014) but there is so much more to discover. I’ll be back.
When my friend Sue first spotted the "Nexus Holidays China Sampler" late last year, we both thought it sounded "too good to be true". For about the cost of a return flight from Sydney to Beijing (about $1200-$1300), the sampler price also included an internal flight from Beijing to Shanghai, accommodation in "five star hotels", … Continue reading Nexus Holidays China Sampler
There was a moment today when the guy sitting behind me, Paul, said “You know I think I wouldn't mind living in Shanghai for a year of two”. Without hesitation, I told him I'd thought the same thing earlier in the day. It's odd, of course, because we'd only been in the city for less … Continue reading China – Shanghai
I learned more today about green tea than I have my entire life. Our day started with a visit to a nearby village of Mei Jia Wu, where they seem to grow nothing but tea. Amongst the things I learned included: how the different size of tea leaves produce different flavours; how the spring harvest … Continue reading China – Tea Plantation
Earlier in the trip I wrote about how the “shopping parts” of the tour were the ones most likely to divide the men and the women of our group, including the jade factory, the silk factory, and the copper art works. But even if the blokes weren't all that interested in the finished product, there … Continue reading China – Shopping and Travel
Partly by design, and partly by chance, this ended up as a “shopping day”. The planned part was a visit to a “silk worm factory” in Suzhou. And when I say “factory”, I really mean showroom. The unexpected shopping expedition was when we went looking later in the afternoon for somewhere to have my haircut … Continue reading China – Shopping Day
I never thought I'd ever find much interest in silk embroidery images of the Mona Lisa and Chairman Mao, but somehow today I did. We're spending the night in Suzhou, the silk capital of China (apparently) located about ninety minutes by bus from the centre of Shanghai. The day started early. Really early. A four-thirty … Continue reading China – Surprises