格雷旅馆是剩下的四家律师学院之一，成立于1370年，是律师生活和学习的场所。这是南广场一号。维多利亚女王期待的作家查尔斯·狄更斯年轻的时候在这里当事务员工作。 Gray’s Inn is one of the four remaining Inns of Court, founded in 1370 as a place for lawyers to live and study. This is 1 South Square. Victorian author Charles Dickens worked here as as a clerk when he was young. Several of Dickens’ novels include scenes set in Gray’s Inn. 广场的尽头是历史学家和政治家弗朗西斯·培根的雕像，他在这里生活了五十年，直到1626年去世。作为大法官，他被认为给英国法律制度带来更大的公平和公正。然而，他自己被判贿赂，因此被罚款四万英镑，并被监禁在伦敦塔。 At […]

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 […]

  Called to a film shoot in the far south-west corner of China close to Burma, my acting pedigree had landed me a role as General Merril the leader of a special forces group operating behind Japanese lines in Burma in World War Two.   My character was subordinate to Field Marshall Stillwell played by […]

Three days of lectures about teaching Chinese, curtesy of Chinet, had me travel to Palacky university in Olomouc eastern Czech. My interest had been especially aroused when I learned that most of the presentations were to be given by staff from the university in Taiwan at which I studied twenty years ago.   The first […]

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. […]

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,

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, […]

  Having yet to bathe in a river that never makes it to the sea, I could not resist a visit to the one river that flows out of China yet fails to reach the ocean.       So I get to Xinjiang province in China’s far west, and take a bus from Yining […]