China 13: A day beside the canals of Suzhou
With promises of oldness and canals we were looking forward to Suzhou. Read more
Posts tagged ‘2014’
Feb 6
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China 12: Bullet train and a night with friends
One important part of our itinerary was visiting friends who were living in China and one of the exciting apects of that was getting there via bullet train. Read more
China 11: Final day in Beijing – palaces, temples and curiosities
It was clear we’d be leaving some things unseen in Beijing but we’d saved a couple of biggies for the final day. Worn out feet would have to hang in there a bit longer (they could rest the next day) as we first headed to the Summer Palace – a far more sprawling location than the name suggests. Read more
Christmas traditions
An interruption to the China series for something a little more topical. Hello from my hometown of Helensville (technically, the small adjacent settlement of Parakai) where I’ve spent Christmas with my parents and grandmother. Christmas nowadays gets shared between Wellington and Auckland in a mixture of new and old traditions. Read more
China 10: Amazing cloisonné, dodgy driving and holiday festivities
After the big excursion up on the wall it’s fair to say we could’ve flopped for the rest of the day. Instead there was a shopping mission, the drive back to Beijing and since it was a public holiday, a nosey back at the popular lakes area. Read more
China 9: The Great Wall
A really, really long time ago a myriad of wall fortifications began to appear in the north of China, partly to protect against invaders from Inner Asia. Over time some of these were joined up to form one massive Great Wall. We couldn’t go to Beijing and not get up close and personal with one of the most incredible man-made structures ever built. Read more
China 8: A glimpse of old Peking
The area south of Tiananmen Square is a good place to get a flavour of commercial Peking/Beijing from Ming dynasty days. The modernised shopping streets carry a heritage vibe though beyond them are the best bits – old, far more original neighbourhoods. Read more
China 7: Beijing city wall ruins
One of Beijing’s most fascinating historical aspects for me are its fortifications. Most of these have been obliterated from existence but among the few remains is a section of the old inner city wall. Read more
China 6: Of exercise and heavenly temples
On our third day we spent an incredibly interesting couple of hours at the Temple of Heaven park watching morning exercise and recreation rituals and, as you might guess, seeing temple-y things. Read more
China 4: The Forbidden City
From Tiananmen Square it was a natural progression north into the Forbidden City. Again due to my own lack of research prior to the trip, I was a bit unprepared for the absolutely stunning scale and architecture of the place. Read more
tall tales 