The concepts of manners and personal hygiene are viewed very differently in China. In my two years in the country, I saw people clipping their toenails at their restaurant table, grown men defecating by the side of the road, a pretty violent brawl between two old men on a bus and virtually everybody smoking everywhere all the time. Luckily, it's always possible to retreat to … [Read more...]
Jade Dragon Snow Mountain: Choose the Correct Chairlift or Suffer
When you imagine spending a day in the mountains, you don't generally picture yourself second-hand smoking hundreds of cigarettes amidst thousands of people in a large, dimly lit room, but that's pretty much what a day on the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain (Yulong Xueshan in Chinese) near Lijiang in China's Yunnan province looks like for most visitors. Waiting times for a chairlift … [Read more...]
Karakul Lake’s Sawut: A Soon-To-Be Global Fast Food Giant
Move over McDonald's—it's only a matter of time before the Sawut Fast Food Restaurant takes over your spot as the world's number one franchise. Let's just hope they don't forget their humble roots on the shores of Karakul Lake in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China and continue to serve only the freshest horse and camel kebabs. The truth is, this place is probably … [Read more...]
Yurt Life at Karakul Lake in Xinjiang Province
In the evening, our hosts made us a delicious noodle dinner. After the meal, they entertained us with a "disco night", which involved some pretty bad music from a little portable radio and some crazy dancing by the local children. Naturally some of us (by which I mean people who weren't me) joined in. It was actually a fun time. Afterward we hired one of the local boys to make … [Read more...]
Karakul Lake in Xinjiang Province: Escaping China’s Tourist Hordes
Regular readers will know that I really enjoy traveling in China, despite the numerous frustrations and so far, I've written more posts on this blog about the Middle Kingdom than any other country. I have not yet written anything about China's westernmost province, the Xianjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, though. That needs to change, since it was my favorite area in the whole … [Read more...]