Xi’an

Xi'an was another city that we visited for one reason: the Terracotta Army. There are 3 main excavation sites, but most of the excavation has been done in the first one. The other two were dimly lit and most of the soldiers are still entombed. So these photos are from Pit 1. This was, by...

Luoyang

We went to Luoyang for one thing: the Longmen grottoes. They were more my friend's idea than mine, but I'm very glad we went. The grottoes are limestone hillsides, carved so that buddhas remain behind in the caves. The task was started during the Wei dynasty in the 5th century, and continued until the Tang...

Shanghai

We stayed in Shanghai for a few days, but took some down time. It doesn't have as many old historical attractions as Beijing. Like other Chinese cities, Shanghai is a modern, livable city. It has plenty to do if you live there, it's mostly well laid out, and it has less smog than Beijing. We...

Beijing: Day 3

So, I mentioned before when talking about The Forbidden City that I really like the colourful architecture in China. Well, I got to see even more of it when we visited Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Heaven is where the Emperor of China used to do important religious rituals. Ancient Chinese emperors certainly weren't...

Beijing: Day 2

Of course, if you make it to China, one of the things you should find a way to see is "The Great Wall". A few points you should know first: It is not a single wall, and never has been. Most sections of the wall are in the North-East of China. Parts of the wall...

Beijing: Day 1

First day, and straight into the sightseeing! On day one, we saw Tiananmen Square and Th Forbidden City. Tiananmen Square was just a square. It does have a long and interesting history of being at the centre of Chinese politics, but that's not something that you can really see when you're there (unless you count...

Beijing

This is where the truly touristy adventures begin. A friend met me in Beijing and we went from there. Beijing will not fit in one post. The main attractions we saw were Tiananmen square and the Forbidden City, The Great Wall (Badaling section) and the Temple of Heaven. We also wandered into the old Olympic...

Tianjin

Dates: 26 (evening) - 28 June I wasn't in Tianjin for very long. I took the opportunity to relax and wander a bit. Unknown to me, my hotel was in a former concession zone. When I arrived, I thought it all looked strangely European. After a quick online search, I realised that it was because...

Farewell, Dalian

Before setting off to see all sorts of interesting things all over China, I stayed in Dalian for a weekend. Dalian's not a big tourist destination, but it can offer a nice lifestyle. It has random plant artwork (which I've since noticed is actually all over the place in China), nicely laid out streets, and...

Campus

This turned into a longer post than it was originally intended to be. There's an extremely short TL;DR at the end with a summary table. On sports day, I had a rather interesting conversation with a colleague. I tried explaining that our campuses are very different in NZ - we don't have sports grounds. Students...