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 …
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Galen was out of commission that day. He had spent all night in the bathroom, fighting with what he referred to as General Tsou’s Revenge, so I was visiting the sites solo that day. (By the way, if you find yourself in the center of the planet’s largest continent, I would recommend avoiding the all-you-can-eat …
From Galen: Sitting on the soothingly cold floor of the washroom, I felt fortunate that fate decided to let me go for quite some time before catching up with a vengeance. Engaged in an activity I cordially refer to as “returning my food to the wild,” this catch and release is more enthusiastic than I …
Silk Roaders: If you haven’t already seen it, check out the interview I did for Global Atlanta, a magazine about Atlanta’s connections with the world: http://www.globalatlanta.com/article/27041/uga-alums-hitchhike-silk-road-to-explore-chinese-views-on-nature/ I really appreciate Trevor Williams, the editor of Global Atlanta taking the time to talk to me, and John Shiffert, for putting me in touch with Trevor. Fun story, …
I had looked over the maps and found the highway that looked like it cut closely to where we wanted to go, the Mati Temple. We took a bus to the edge of town, a dusty strip of car repair shops and dirt parking lots, and began to try to hitch a ride. We stood …
In Zhangye, we were back on the traditional Silk Road, with no more excursions into Tibetan lands. Zhangye is a midsized town located in the center of the Gansu Corridor, the spit of land running between the Qinlian Mountains and the Gobi desert that formed a passageway from inner China to the Taklamakan Desert. We …
I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited, but I couldn’t stay away, couldn’t fight it… Adele, Someone Like you If you haven’t read the two previous posts, make sure to check those out here and here before reading this one. We got out of the white SUV and the driver, the pudgier …
Make sure you read the previous post here before you start this post. We hopped into the back of the two Tibetans’ white SUV. The one in the passenger seat turned to us and asked, “Do you smoke?” holding out two cigarettes. They were both well-dressed, and, driving this kind of car, well-paid. “No. Thanks.” …