a hui hou kakou

In the summer of 2006 I went through China twice. First for about three weeks in August, and once again for a couple days after I got back from South East Asia. It was an interesting place, but it made me quite tired to travel there. I have never been to a country where it is as difficult as China to find vegetarian food. The air was amazingly dirty most of the time I was there. It is a place very influenced by European civilization but more unaware of other cultural beliefs than perhaps any other country I have been to. I returned to China twice around the end of 2007. Flying in to Harbin and making my way to Russia for the new year. Then returning to China to fly out of Harbin in January. Next I came to China in May 2007, staying for a couple weeks and then going up to Mongolia. I returned to China soon after and made my way up to Tibet and across to Nepal. I returned again to China a couple months later from Pakistan and then flew to North Korea. After returning to China I went to Hong Kong. This was in September 2007. I've grown more comfortable with China as I have gotten used to the culture and how things work. It was actually a relief to return to China from South Asia.

Emblem of China

Emblem of China

Map of China Loren and Gasun on the ferry from South Korea to China. I met Gasun on the ferry and we later met in Beijing. Aug. 2006. View of Qingdao from the sea, this was the first city I visited in China. Aug. 2006. Downtown Qingdao. Aug. 2006. Loren, Sirena and her friend. I met Sirena in Qingdao and she showed me around for a while. Aug. 2006. Loren on Fay's couch. Aug. 2006. Fay getting furniture. I met Fay in Qingdao and stayed with her a few days, later we met up in Hong Kong. Aug. 2006. Teky and Fay in a cafe. Aug. 2006. Teky and Fay in a cafe. Aug. 2006. The sea coast at Qingdao. Aug. 2006. Funny sign at the coast. Aug. 2006. Tianjin train station. Aug. 2006. Company making eink reader devices, new tech that isn't very widespread yet. Aug. 2006. In a meeting with the head of PR and the CTO. Aug. 2006. Variety show in Tianjin, the young acrobats were amazing. Aug. 2006. Tinjin. Aug. 2006. Patrick showed me around Tianjin for a couple days. Aug. 2006. Gate in Tianjin. Aug. 2006. Clock in Tianjin. Aug. 2006. Old gate and metro in Beijing, this gate used to be part of a city wall that has since come down. Aug. 2006. Another shot of the same gate. Aug. 2006. A hutong near Tian'anmen square. Aug. 2006. Mao mausoleum. Aug. 2006. Loren in front of Tian'anmen. Aug. 2006. Sign for the Beijing metro. Aug. 2006. Tian'anmen. Aug. 2006. Old throne of the emperor. Aug. 2006. The very impressive Forbidden City. Aug. 2006. Forbidden City. Aug. 2006. Forbidden City. Aug. 2006. . Some marching troops at Tian'anmen. Aug. 2006. Great Wall of China at Badaling. Aug. 2006. The Great Wall of China. Aug. 2006. Loren at the Great Wall. Aug. 2006. A grasshopper at the Great Wall. Aug. 2006. I met Jeff in Beijing and played some pool. Aug. 2006. Beijing railway station. Aug. 2006. The ID of a taxi driver trying to cheat me, he gave up after I took a picture of this. Aug. 2006. Brad, another person visiting Fay in Qingdao, he lost his shirt and got a ride home from the police, beyond that he was ok. Aug. 2006. Waiting room of a nice 24 hour spa in Qingdao. Aug. 2006. Qingdao. Aug. 2006. Old motorcycle in Qingdao. Aug. 2006. Very crowded train from Qingdao to Chengdu. I always rode hard seat on Chinese trains during my 2006 trip. Sometimes I didn't have a seat. On this trip a group of university students befriended me and made room for me to sit on the 40 hour trip. Aug. 2006. Having tea in Chengdu with my friends from the train. Aug. 2006. Having tea in Chengdu with my friends from the train, this is Zhaoyufei. Aug. 2006. Having tea in Chengdu with my friends from the train. Aug. 2006. Cute kitten. Aug. 2006. I met Lara and Corinde in Chendu and had a wonderful time hanging out with them. Aug. 2006. Corinde at the panda park. Aug. 2006. Lara and Corinde at the panda park. Aug. 2006. Giant panda. Aug. 2006. Wenshu Monastary. There is a nice veggie restaurant here. Aug. 2006. Leshan Grand Buddha. Aug. 2006. Path up from the Leshan Grand Buddha. Aug. 2006. Path up from the Leshan Grand Buddha. Aug. 2006. Chengdu train station. Aug. 2006. Chinese countryside. Aug. 2006. Park in Kunming. Aug. 2006. Sleeper bus from Kunming to Ruili. Aug. 2006. Yunnan was very beautiful. It was amazing to see the sky after so long seeing only smog. Aug. 2006. More beautiful Yunnan. Aug. 2006. The bus to Ruili was supposed to take 20 hours, but it took more like 15. So I was in Ruili, very early in the morning with no idea where to go. Fortunately this cafe was open so I stayed there until it was light drinking tea. When it came time for me to go the guys wouldn't let me pay. Very nice. Aug. 2006. Very nice border guard, his English was perfect and since we were both not busy we chatted for a while. Both he and the woman he worked with were very nice. They let me walk into Burma before getting my passport stamped to look for alternatives to the expensive guide that I was required to get. Aug. 2006. At the land border with Burma I was required to get a guide to go through the restricted area to Lashio. This was very expensive and I was annoyed. The guide was nice, he was just doing his job for the company that has a monopoly on this service. Aug. 2006. Some girls I chatted with on the train from Kunming to Guangzhou when I came back to China for a short time in September 2006. Border guard watching the ship come into Qingdao. Nov. 2006. The port area of Qingdao. Nov. 2006. Some laundry in Qingdao. Nov. 2007. Fall in Qingdao, Nov. 2006. Some hills and construction near the South Korean consulate in Qingdao, Nov. 2006. A flower statue in Qingdao, Nov. 2006. Winter near the Russian border. Dec. 2006. More of winter near the Russian border, Dec. 2006. Ice coming through the window on the train. It got quite cold in there. Dec. 2006. Train station in Suifenhe, Dec. 2006. Train that goes over the border into Russia, Dec. 2006. Suifenhe, the Chinese border town with Russia, Jan. 2007. Early morning at the station in Harbin, Jan. 2007. Harbin train station, Jan. 2007. St. Sophia, Russian Orthodox church in Harbin, Jan. 2007. Another shot of St. Sophia, Jan. 2007. I met my friend Xu Jie at the airport in Harbin, one of the good things about missing my flight and getting stuck in the city. Jan. 2007. The sea between Incheon and Dalian, May 2007. The sun coming up over the Yellow Sea, May 2007. Tugboat guiding the ferry into Dalian, May 2007. Dalian, May 2007. For some reason these single guards that watch the ferries come into China make me laugh, May 2007. Ferry terminal in Dalian, May 2007. Street sign in Dalian. Trolly in Dalian, May 2007. Food booth subsidized by the Chinese government, Harbin, May 2007. Soviet WWII monument in China! Harbin, May 2007. Donkey cart in Harbin, May 2007. My friend Xu Jie, May 2007. Cheap hotel where I stayed in Harbin, only 20CNY per night! May 2007.. Outside the hotel, May 2007. Outdoor market in Harbin, May 2007. Small Russian church in Harbin, May 2007. Interesting building in Harbin, May 2007. When I was in Harbin it seemed spring had just arrived, May 2007. St. Sophia chuch in Harbin, May 2007. Sunset over Harbin, May 2007. Toll booth in Harbin, this is where I started my hitchhiking across China, May 2007. Leaving the northern most province of China, May 2007. Entering Jilin province, May 2007. Train station in Shenyang, May 2007. When I finally found the expressway again so I could leave Shenyang, May 2007. Overpriced trucker hotel in Shenyang. I talked them down to 50CNY, May 2007. Trees by a rest stop on the way to Beijing, May 2007. Horse cart in Beijing, May 2007. 798 Art Village in Beijing, May 2007. Fay at the 798 art village, May 2007. I came across a lot of green spaces in Beijing, May 2007. The amazing Temple of Heaven, May 2007. More of the Temple of Heaven, May 2007. It was really beautiful. If you visit one place in Beijing I would say this is the one to go to. More of the Temple of Heaven. May 2007. Beijing hutong, May 2007. Line 13 of the Beijing metro is very nice a modern. May 2007. The landscape as I hitched north of Beijing soon became pretty. Here are the hills where the nearest section of the Great Wall are. May 2007. Soon this opened up to a drier landscape and bigger mountains. May 2007. I took a wrong turn and ended up stuck in Datong. Interesting city and a lot poorer than places just a little ways east. May 2007. A horse statue I saw a few different places in China. May 2007. Cheap hotel in Datong, 20CNY. May 2007. More of Datong. May 2007. Monument near the expressway in Datong, May 2007. The empty road, waiting for a ride, May 2007. One of the nice truckers who picked me up, they did not of course speak any English. May 2007. As I got closer to Mongolia the land got drier. May 2007. More dry land, May 2007. Most of the way from Beijing to Mongolia the road is a big expressway, but in some areas it is still a small road. Although in good repair. May 2007. This truck passed me several times. I kept getting short rides that passed it. They certainly noticed me as well and were waving a lot by the end. May 2007. There were a lot of model dinosaurs near Erlian, some just jumbled together. May 2007. This is after I came back from Mongolia. These businessmen gave me and Wade a ride as we were going south away from Mongolia. May 2007. Thats me on the right side. Me and Wade slept out under this nice tree near Shuozhou. May 2007. Picture of me taken by my friend Wade while we were trying to get a ride. May 2007. Picture of me taken by my friend Wade while we were trying to get a ride. May 2007. A section of the Great Wall near Shuozhou, May 2007. Nice fields, May 2007. Not as nice as where we bedded down the night before. Just a ditch near the road. May 2007. Man cleaning the sewers in Suzhou. May 2007. Suzhou is a beautiful town with a lot of canals, May 2007. More beautiful Suzhou, May 2007. Near the Tiger Hill Pagoda, Suzhou. You can see it in the backround. May 2007. More near the pagoda, May 2007. I met Yvonne in Suzhou and we saw a bit of the city together, May 2007. I met up with my friend Jade in Shanghai and we had a great time exploring. May 2007. The only maglev train in normal use in the world. I had been wanting to go on this train for years! May 2007. Inside the maglev, May 2007. The normal Shanghai metro, May 2007. Detail of elephants outside the Jade Temple in Shanghai. May 2007. Nice simple statue in Shanghai, May 2007. Sign for the Shanghai metro, May 2007. Lovely People's Park in the very center of Shanghai. May 2007. More of the park, nice contrast old and new. May 2007. Pudong at night, May 2007. The Shanghai metro. June 2007. Train schedule at the station in Shanghai, June 2007. Landscape a couple hours east of Xi'an. Pretty but the air is oh so dirty! June 2007. Rail bridge, June 2007. Xi'an may have a lot of history but the air is too dirty for me to be very tempted to see much of it. June 2007. As I got west of Xi'an the air began to get cleaner, June 2007. River in the Tibetan Plateau. June 2007. Here it was very clean and beautiful. Tibetan Plateau, June 2007. Tibetan Plateau, June 2007. There were people in the middle of nowhere pushing carts along, June 2007. Tibetan Plateau, June 2007. Tibetan Plateau, June 2007. Someone living by a lake in Tibet, June 2007. Some yaks by a lake in Tibet, June 2007. The Potala Palace as I first saw it, June 2007. Yak statues in Lhasa. June 2007. Nice sidewalk in Lhasa. June 2007. Me in front of the Potala Palace, June 2007. Lhasa, June 2007. Tibetan part of Lhasa, June 2007. At the Barkor in Lhasa, June 2007. At the Barkor in Lhasa, June 2007. Me at the Potala Palace. June 2007. The Potala Palace. June 2007. Interesting, a punk fashion shop in Lhasa. June 2007. An arctic tern over the Lhasa River. I used to see these a lot in Iceland. June 2007. Sadly the Chinese authorities are blatant in their oppression of Tibetans. The police were everywhere in Lhasa. Checking locals. Tibet is the only place I have been in China where it felt like a police state. June 2007. On the road out of Tibet. June 2007. A river in Tibet. June 2007. I adore roads like this. Two lanes in the middle of nowhere, empty. June 2007. More of the road in Tibet. June 2007. Some interesting rocks in Tibet. June 2007. The bus I took from Lhasa to the Nepal border. June 2007. Some swampy ground in Tibet. June 2007. Looking like rain. Tibet, June 2007. More of the mountains in Tibet. June 2007. Looking towards the Himalayas from Tingri. June 2007. Looking towards the Himalayas from Tingri. June 2007. Me in Tingri. June 2007. Post office in Tingri. June 2007. How the locals live in this part of Tibet. They were pretty poor. June 2007. Trails going into the mountains. June 2007. Horse cart in the middle of nowhere. June 2007. Bridge on the road coming down off the high plateau. June 2007. Zangmu, the border town with Nepal. It snakes along the narrow road coming off the plateau. It is very much a border town. June 2007. Mountain along the Karakoram highway, just over the border from Pakistan. August 2007. Mosque in Kashgar. August 2007. Giant Mao statue in Kashgar. August 2007. A lovely park in Kashgar. August 2007. Ferris wheel in Kashgar. August 2007. Old Kashgar. August 2007. Malika, nice girl from Tashkent I met in Kashgar. August 2007. The ferris wheel again. August 2007. Sisters from Tashkent. Gulzy and Malika. August 2007. Livestock market in Kashgar. August 2007. Livestock market in Kashgar. August 2007. Train station in Kashgar. August 2007. Desert near Kashgar. August 2007. More desert. August 2007. After some time the land got greener again. August 2007. Snow filled mountains between Kashgar and Urumqi. August 2007. More snow. August 2007. Some beautiful rocks once the snow was left behind. August 2007. Train station in Urumqi. August 2007. I used to work in a factory that made insulated pipes like this in Iceland. This is Urumqi. August 2007. Mosque in Urumqi. August 2007. University in Urumqi. August 2007. Even in the far west of China you cannot escape the smog! August 2007. Hankou train station in Wuhan. August 2007. My friend Lily is on the right. In Wuhan I took a break for a week at this hostel. The Pathfinder Youth Hostel. I wasn't planning to stay so long and I usually don't stop like this while traveling. This picture is from a friend of hers. August 2007. Shopping street in Wuhan. August 2007. One reason I stayed so long in Wuhan was I got an offer to star in a water filter advertisement! August 2007. More of the advertisement. August 2007. Wuhan is on the Yangtze River. August 2007. Wuhan on the Yangtze. August 2007. Waiting for a train at Hankou station. August 2007. The train arrives. August 2007. Guilin train station. August 2007. Fields on the road to Yangshuo. August 2007. South China has so many yummy mushrooms. This is the most delicious variety I've ever had. August 2007. Beautiful Yangshuo. Very touristy place sadly. August 2007. Gate in Yangshuo. August 2007. More Yangshuo. August 2007. View from my room in Yangshuo. August 2007. Sugarcane fields near Yangshuo. August 2007. High speed Chinese train. August 2007. Inside the high speed train. August 2007. Shenyang train station. August 2007. The Koryo Air plane I am about to take to Pyongyang. August 2007. My friend Gracie in Shenyang. September 2007. Near the border with Hong Kong. September 2007. Qingdao, August 2006. Inside the Forbidden City, August 2006. Outside the Forbidden City, August 2006. Harbin, May 2007. Suzhou, May 2007. Pudong, June 2007. Shanghai, June 2007. Shanghai, June 2007. Potala Palace in Lhasa, June 2007. Potala Palace in Lhasa, June 2007. Potala Palace in Lhasa, June 2007. View of the river in Lhasa, June 2007. The back of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, June 2007. Hotel in Tingri where I spent a night, June 2007. View of the road and mountains at Tingri in Tibet, June 2007. View of the Himalayas from Tingri in Tibet, June 2007. Kashgar, in Xinjiang, August 2007. Kashgar, August 2007. Yangtze river and park in Wuhan, August 2007. River in Yangshuo, August 2007. Yangshuo, August 2007. Passport Stamps |back to travels |