Without a doubt the most important date on the Chinese calender – the Lunar New Year and the beginning of the Spring Festival. This year it falls on February 3. Most all workers will get 7 days off work and head home for celebrations and reunion with family. Read More.....» »

This was my second trip on a train in China and again it’s an overnight train with the trip taking just over 10 hours. I would be travelling on the D305 which leaves Beijing South station an 9.40PM and arrives in Shanghai at 7.52AM. Read More.....» »

It started from the minute I walked out of the Beijing train station, as soon as my foreigner face was hit by the Beijing sunshine, or lack of, there was some one hustling for access to my wallet. ‘Hellooo, taxi…taxi, sir’. where do you want to go?’ said the suspiciously casually dressed man hoping to snag an overpriced fare. Read More.....» »

The Lama Temple in Beijing is a functioning lamasery for Tibetan and Mongolian monks practising Tibetan Buddhism. It’s open to visitors, and is a very popular tourist attraction featuring well preserved ancient architecture and artifacts, along with friendly monks roaming the grounds! Read More.....» »

As the tour bus left the Ming Tombs the guide started talking about jade (an ornamental stone), and then tea, my eyes rolled into the back of my head….to explain; its quite common for tour services to take gullible foreigners to ‘jade galleries’ and tea houses featuring ‘genuine green tea’ for sale. The guide started with a big long story about how important jade (an ornamental stone found) is in Chinas history, which it probably is, and then how theres ‘good and bad’ jade, blah. blah…and then, so lucky for us, there happens to be an exculsive jade showroom just around the corner! Read More.....» »

Still feeling pretty ordinary and very tired I chose to join a tour group to see the Great Wall rather than go through all the challenges of how to get there and back. I asked the tour desk at the hotel and the got me into a tour the next morning. Read More.....» »

The Summer Palace is an imperial garden built by Emperor Qianlong in 1750 to celebrate his mothers birthday, it was later used as a garden where emperors and empresses would escape the heat of Beijing’s summers. Read More.....» »

Tian’anmen Square has had it’s moments in history, but in front of me today I see a massive public space, full of people enjoying themselves in what is the heart of Beijing. Read More.....» »

The Forbidden City was once the imperial palace of the Ming and Qing Dynasties and was originally constructed in early 1400′s. The city was once off limits to the general public and home to 24 successive emperors. Now, it is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the world attracting over 7 million visitors a year. Read More.....» »

Beihai Park in Beijing is over 1000 years old and covers an area of 690,000 square meters featuring a large peaceful lake, ancient temples and an islet featuring a 36m high buddhist shrine in the form of a Tibetan Dagoba. Read More.....» »

After nearly one month on the road things had started to catch up with me, I was tired. Apart from being on your feet 12 hours a day, walking up things, down things, getting lost then more lost, there’s also the mental load as you never stop thinking. Even simple tasks become complex in country where you don’t speak the language. Read More.....» »

Jingshan Park in Beijing is located in front of the north gate of the Forbidden City and is well worth a visit if only for the view city that it offers. Read More.....» »

Sanlitun Village Beijing is a recently built sleek shopping complex packed with luxury brand names. I didn’t spend too long here as I was more interested in the Ya Show Clothing Market which is just next door. Read More.....» »

Well known and well visited by tourists, the Silk Market is seven floors of clothing, shoes, bags, fashion accessories, leather goods, traditional Chinese crafts, calligraphy, carpets, home fabrics, paintings, hand-knitted dresses, toys, trinkets and souvenirs, fine jewellery and more. There are also plenty of custom tailors for suits etc.etc. Most stall operators speak english. Read More.....» »

Sanlitun Yashou Clothing Market is five floors of clothing and fashion (notice its name can sometimes be translated as Ya Show or Yashou or even Yaxui!). Including mens and womens clothes, suits, womens bags, luggage bags, leather goods, shoes and more. It’s located right next door to Sanlitun Village, a new and ultra modern shopping complex featuring many big brand name stores. Read More.....» »