This post is both exciting and disturbing, but, to understand it, you will need some background. To understand the authority under which the police apprehended us, read this post on hotels and foreigners. To understand the day before, make sure to have read this post about how we got into this particular hotel. We were …
Continue reading ‘Ride in the Paddy Wagon – Subei Part III’ »
We were in the tiny town of Subei, which I discussed in the previous post. During our explorations of Subei, we were walking along a country road lined just past the edge of town when a man pulled beside us on a little motorscooter. He just barely kept pace with us, wobblingly maintaining his balance …
Make sure to check out this earlier post explaining why many hotels do not allow foriegners to stay. As I mentioned before, we had been trying to get into the wilds of the Qinlian Mountains that ran along the southern end of the Gansu Corridor, marking the northern-most extent of the Tibetan world. From Google …
When we came up on the Crescent Lake, Galen’s disappointment was palpable. Hordes of Chinese tourists in bright orange sand boots milled about. Galen took a few pictures and then shrugged. He asked me to get a video of him being disappointed. I was more prepared. I have walked into too many Chinese tourist traps. …
Continue reading ‘Crescent Lake and the White Horse Pagoda’ »
Make sure to read the previous posts: here is the first, the second and the third post. These three posts will give the background necessary to understand this sad post, the final in the series of post at Lily’s house in Drink Horse One Army. On our first evening in the village, Lily’s father took …
Make sure to check out Part I and Part II before reading this post. Lily’s mother was waiting for us in the basketball court as Mr. Gao’s van pulled up. She was well dressed for a middle-aged village woman, wearing tight pants, high heels and pearls. I greeted her warmly, and she welcomed us into …
Make sure to check out Part I of this story. We arrived in Yumen, Jade Gate, a tiny Silk Road town that, like so many places in China, had no vestiges of its history remaining. I called the number Lily had given us, and, a few minutes later, Mr. Gao appeared with his van. We …
Since we had arrived in this touristy Silk Road town, I had been trying to figure out how to get to the Qinlian Mountains, the white capped peaks beckoning us from a distance. The mountains were beautiful and looked wild. Only fifty miles away, no one had any idea of how to get there, not …
China has long had a law allowing foreigners to only stay in hotels approved for foreigners. Yet, despite this law being on the books, I had never been turned away from a Chinese hotel in the two years I lived in this country, from 2006 to 2007 and then from 2009 to 2010, no matter …
History is history, facts are facts. No one can change can change history and facts. – Xi Jinping, Head of the Chinese Communist Party, President of China, in remarks directed at Japan on the 77th anniversary of its invasion of China. The rebuilt Wall is better than the old one. If we did not rebuild …
Continue reading ‘Camping at the Great Wall – Fake Histories’ »