Category Archives: Travel

All main travel articles

Beijing and the 798 Arts District

Although we’d already taken the high-speed train for a brief stop-over from Shanghai to Hangzhou, our journey to Beijing would be our first long distance travel on China’s fast expanding high-speed rail network (reported to be the smoothest and fastest … Continue reading

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Hangzhou and some Emperor Longjing Tea

The outer city high-speed rail terminal of Shanghai came as something as a surprise to us, though given the investment China has been inputting into its rail links over the past few years it probably shouldn’t have. It was light, … Continue reading

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On the Trail of J.G. Ballard and New Wave Art in Shanghai

The overnight train from Hong Kong to Shanghai was very comfortable and fast, a pretty standard sleeper train that goes at 160km/h with four person berth cabins, a toilet at the end of the corridor and an open plan sink … Continue reading

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Hong Kong

Hong Kong is familiar to most people as a nexus of capitalism and is often portrayed as the world’s busiest city, where individualism and the rule of the dollar note have always gone unquestioned. However, it is actually a much … Continue reading

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Menacing Hills and a Brush with Food Poisoning: if we can just make it to Hong Kong…

For the last few days of our stay in Yangshuo, we were transferred to the Mountain Retreat’s sister establishment, the Yangshuo Village Inn at Moon Hill (so called because of the mountain peak with a moon shaped hole which overlooks … Continue reading

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Among the Karst Peaks of Yangshuo, Guanxi Province

The moment we arrived at the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat, we knew we were somewhere special. We were dropped off by taxi on a deserted, wet mountain road which wound its way through immense karst peaks (irregular limestone formations) that dominated … Continue reading

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