Uncategorized | An Unweeded Garden

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Hanging Temple

December 21, 2012

An hour or so from Datong, through dusty villages, where houses are still built of mud and donkeys draw carts laden with melons, is a temple that has clung to the side of a mountain for more than 1,500 years. Unsurprisingly, it’s known as the hanging temple… Now, I’m not much of a one for […]

Datong – Shanxi Province

December 15, 2012

Datong is a gritty kind of town. It’s coal country – and arriving at the station in the dead of night did nothing to change our opinion that catching a train from Hohhot in Inner Mongolia into Datong was something of a risk. Not least because there are several stations called Datong and China’s paranoia […]

Xilamuren – the Inner Mongolia Plains

December 12, 2012

A couple of hours’ drive north from Hohhot lie the grasslands of Inner Mongolia. Nomadic horsemen still ply their trade, but it’s now more for the Han tourist than to make ends meet. It is a shame that catering to the new affluent of China is in danger of homogenising the tourist experience, even in […]

Hohhot – images of Inner Mongolia

December 9, 2012

China may be a single entity, but it has a great variety of people and peoples within its vast borders. Alongside the 22 provinces (23 if you count Taiwan), there is a spattering of Special Economic Zones (2), 4 Municipalities and 5 Autonomous Regions. It’s often these latter that court controversy as the people of […]

Everything’s dangerous here!

April 12, 2012

“Everything’s dangerous here!” said Joely, leaping to safety just in time to avoid the small, energetic bundle of fur that was the captain’s Jack Russell as it made its way to the back of the boat docking outside the restaurant. Perhaps this time, her worry was unfounded – but with tales of shark attacks and […]