Category Archives: travel

Shaolin pagoda forest

Posted on May 24, 2011 by andrew

This is the monk graveyard — a pagoda, in this case, is a sort of crypt.  One of the newest pagodas is carved with modern themes:  bullet trains, jets, etc. The man with the big camera is Kangdong Liu, our … Continue reading →

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Shaolin monastary — outside of Zhengzhou

Posted on May 24, 2011 by andrew

(These photos are out of order thanks to an internet outage.) Most buildings in this batch of photos were rebuild in the 80’s.  The temple has been burned down enough times that I’m tempted to question the efficacy of Shaolin … Continue reading →

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Xian + vanishing points

Posted on May 23, 2011 by andrew

Last night we visited a musical fountain in a new part of Xian.  It was ridiculously huge… a couple of blocks long at least. Today we saw some of the excavated pits of the Chin terra cotta statues. They, too, … Continue reading →

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Shanghai: what we didn’t order

Posted on May 18, 2011 by andrew

I mentioned to Tong that Americans seldom eat work animals.  “For instance, we almost never eat horse meat.”  He looked a bit shocked.  “We don’t eat horses here!” “Ok, but you eat donkeys, right?” “Oh, donkey meat, yeah.”

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Hefei

Posted on May 18, 2011 by andrew

My new favorite street signs:  a sign says ‘0 meters.’  Then 50 meters later another sign says ’50 meters.’  50 more meters and it’s ‘100 meters.’  I guess the idea is that since you’re just driving you may as well … Continue reading →

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Jiuhuashan (jiuhua mountain)

Posted on May 17, 2011 by andrew

Right now we are barelling down a brand new tollway trying to catch a train back in Hefei.  Zhihe is eating nescafe crystals directly from the packet, washing them down with strong tea, singing along with the radio and honking … Continue reading →

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Huangshan (yellow mountain)

Posted on May 16, 2011 by andrew

We got up early this morning and stood in many queues. Two shuttle busses, one security line and one glorious cable car ride got us up the mountain.  Everything is well-developed, paved, and incredibly crowded. Zhihe was in his standard … Continue reading →

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Xidi

Posted on May 15, 2011 by andrew

More walking in ancient cities today. Most plaques contained info like ‘the second to last decade of the hoohah dynasty’ so I’m not at all clear on how ancient. I think these sights range from 1000 to about 1850 CE … Continue reading →

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And, finally: artichokes

Posted on November 27, 2010 by andrew

I thought that I was going to have to leave Rome without eating a proper artichoke, but today came up aces. We were shut out of Da Giggetto, which means another visit and I’ve still never had carcioffe ala guidia. … Continue reading →

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Three meals of cheese!

Posted on November 26, 2010 by andrew

Today was a very busy and cheese-filled day. I took too many photos to organize without making many posts, so I’m again stooping to gallery-format. Click on the photos to enlarge (especially the close-ups of plaques, which are interesting.)

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