My favourite spot in Yunnan is the lake that cherishes, soothes, cares for, comforts and nourishes the Immortals, in Chinese 抚仙湖 Fuxian Hu. With its equable climate, generous sunshine, fertile soil and abundant fish this area could even serve as a base for my retirement. A large modern hotel complex looms over its north-eastern corner, […]

Planning an Arthurian tour for Chinese visitors to the UK was my plan for autumn 2017 – a good idea, but it has yet to materialise. Sites associated with tales of King Arthur proliferate in that area of southwest England known as Wessex. One of these locations is where Merlin commissioned the smith Wayland to make […]

My first experience of a city on Mainland China was that of Weifang in east central Shandong. I was out of the place within 24 hours, not willing to tolerate the noxious quality of its air. Happily it proved easy enough to find a bus bound for Yantai on the province’s northern coast, and thence […]

Dunhuang is a refreshing oasis adorned with deciduous vegetation. Whilst most tourists come here mainly to visit the Mo Gao caves bearing paintings and statues of the Buddha and his celestial entourage, other attractions include trees, water, sand dune mountains, and camel rides to the Crescent Moon spring

Departing from Wushan, the ‘Little Three Gorges’ cruise is an enjoyable day-long excursion up a tributary of the Yangste river. It includes such curiosities as suspended ‘iron coffins’, and holes in the sheer cliff-face bearing witness to an ancient plank walkway. Rock formations include ‘Fairy Maiden Cave’ and ‘Fairy Throwing a Silk Ball’. Whilst the […]

Enshi Grand Canyon Bit of a cockup on the naming front regarding this mountain crest in central China. There is a canyon, but it is narrow, hardly ‘grand’. Close to the cablecar’s lower station, a path leads down into this fissure, but it is a paultry affair compared with the splendour awaiting at the top. […]

With the cost of a China tourist visa for UK citizens up to nearly one hundred and fifty pounds this year I resolved to give the mainland a miss, and head for Taiwan. Great price on a return ticket, but a twenty-two hours’ gap between flights at Beijing needed filling.

Nestling in the mountains that straddle the border of Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, Lugu Lake is somewhat off the beaten track. Consequently, it wasn’t until my fifth visit to southwest China that I finally made my way there. According to Wikipedia, following an illicit meeting between a promiscuous goddess and a god,

  Internal tourism is big business in China. Along with weather reports for major cities Chinese TV includes the data for Jiuzhaigou. This ‘Nine Stockades Valley’ now has an airport and a motorway connection to the regional capital.  Consequently, the getting-away-from-it-all element of the area is greatly diminished. It was mid-afternoon under a leaden sky,

In mid autumn the overnight train from Urumchi disgorges passengers at its penultimate stop around dawn. A fleet of buses trundles us onward the few miles into an urban centre. We have arrived at Bole the principal town of Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. There is a nip in the air, […]