Tag: china
-
China 2010: The Return to Hangzhou
Ah, Hangzhou, what to say about Hangzhou. Those first two weeks travelling just felt like being on holiday. It was nice to discover that my Chinese (such as it is) came back to me really quickly. I was ‘a bit slow’ the first few days but don’t think I’ve actually forgotten much. It was also…
-
China 2010: Zhongdian
Click here to see the full set of photos on Flickr. Finally, we went Zhongdian (now, somewhat unfortunately, renamed to Shangri-la). Ascending (it’s at 3300m) to Zhongdian felt like entering a different place – everything changed, the landscape, the people, the buildings, the farming practices. I’ve not been to Tibet but I imagine that Zhongdian…
-
China 2010: Tiger Leaping Gorge
Click here to see the full set of photos on Flickr. Tiger Leaping Gorge was one of the real highlights of the trip for me. We hiked from Qiaotou (1800m) to the highest point of the trail at (2650m) and on to a guest house where we overnighted before decending back to the road and…
-
China 2010: Lijiang
Click here to see the full set of photos on Flickr. Lijiang was great. I expected touristy which probably helpded, it is FULL of domestic tourists but that somehow didn’t detract from the charm of the place. I really enjoyed it for it was. We took a bike ride out to a nearby village Shuhe…
-
China 2010: Guangxi Province
Click here to see the full set of photos on Flickr. So, China. Well, I guess after my pre-China post I owe you an update on what it was actually like going back. So first things first, we spent the first two weeks out west in Guangxi and Yunnan provinces. I’d not been anywhere near…
-
Moving On (Up)
Moving on (up) Well, my dear reader(s) this is one them posts you rarely get, that’s actually about my life. The sort of post I feel that I should be writing but never do. So the headline, in case you’ve not heard, is that I’m leaving Hangzhou and moving to Prague. Why? Well, as you…
-
Feeling Fitter
So since we last spoke the sun span on its axis and arrived back for the 10,958th time at the same point it was at when I entered the world. If you prefer, the earth returned for the 30th time to the point in its orbit of the sun that it was at when I…
-
Beware Wild Boar Traps
As most of you are aware by now, I’m involved with a running group here in Hangzhou called the Hash House Harriers. So it was that I came to be out in the hills behind Lingyin Temple on my own on Sunday setting a trail that the rest of the group would be following a…
-
I eat hills for breakfast
Some people who are much more experienced than me said it was the hardest course they’d ever run. I believe it. It was hard. I ran 17km of the full 42km course, it took me 4 hours and 20 minutes. It was hard. I’m actually not convinced that it was only 17km. The ipod (which…
-
Shanghai Half Marathon
Apologies for blog lag but it’s been a busy few days, yada yada. Two hours, four minutes and some seconds. I don’t have a terribly accurate time as the official time (two hours 9 mins) is way out. We got stuck in the queue for the loos at the start (more loos please) and ended…