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 […]

Southeastern Yunnan’s Honghe prefecture borders Vietnam, and is bisected by the Red river, from which the area gets its name HONG meaning ‘red’, and HE ‘river’. Aside from the narrow Red river valley, which is generally hot and tropical, this part of Yunnan has a comfortable climate and much very pleasant scenery – a place […]

Another set of Chinese characters I succeeded in memorising whilst waiting at traffic lights in Taipei were those forming the text of one of the ‘Nineteen Ancient Poems’. ‘Altair is Far Away’ tells of the Weaving Maid weeping with grief as she stands parted from her husband and their children who dwell on the far […]