Tag:China

A Walk to Remember

Beijing Beijing has a lot to offer – Forbidden Palace, Tiananmen Square, Temple of Heaven, Summer Palace and of course the famous Great Wall. On the first day Derek took off and visited the surroundings of the Forbidden Palace, though was barred from visiting the Tiananmen Square as he didn’t bring his passport with him (there was a security check just outside the Square). The following day we visited Forbidden Palace. To fully enjoy the place you need some powerful […]

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Bells, Drums & Warriors

Xi’An We arrived in Xi’An, the former capital of China – where the emperor resided, after a 27 tiring hours train ride. Due to not thinking ahead, we ended up spending the first night in a hotel (we arrived late at night).  The next day, we booked our Hostel and started exploring. The city’s main attractions were the Drum Tower, Bell Tower, Big Wild Goose Pagoda with its nightly fountain show and the Terracotta Warriors. The night is full of […]

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One Pagoda, Two Pagoda,…Water Cave?

Guilin: We arrived in Guilin after a 12-hour long train ride in a sleeper compartment where we occupied the top bunk (three bunks per side, 6 total). The city itself is located on the Li River and surrounded by karst landscape (hills created by water erosion). Barely anyone spoke English (we’re getting used to it – maybe it’s time to learn some Chinese 🙂  as the city targets towards Chinese tourists. There were only a few things to see – […]

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Hong Kong – Plenty of people but no Jackie Chan sighting…

We landed in Hong Kong around midnight and made our way from the airport to the island of Kowloon (Hong Kong is made up of many islands) where we rented a room for the night.  The room was so small and it reeked of cigarette smoke. The next morning we made our way to the China Travel Service center where we applied for visas into mainland China.  We were charged twice as much to get the visas expedited (normally it […]

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