China

Filter/sort posts
Steph20

How Much It Costs to Travel in CHINA (& Other Handy Advice)

It’s fair to say we had a lot of expectations when it came to China, and yet it somehow managed to shatter every single one of them. There’s so much to say about this huge monster of a country, and yet one thing is for certain: there’s no middle...
BudgetingChinaTips & Tricks
Steph27

You’ve Gotta Know When to Fold ‘Em

With a PhD in Psychology, I've accrued tons of information over the years that our switch to a full-time travel lifestyle has largely made irrelevant.
ChinaMusings
Steph19

What We Ate: Shanghai

Few things during our week in Shanghai were sufficient to tempt us from the cozy little den we created for ourselves in the French Concession—I’ve already recounted our somewhat disastrous foray into traditional sightseeing, an outing that only served to make us less interested in stepping out our front...
ChinaFood
Steph12

Shanghighs & Shanglows

If you have never traveled long-term before, it is hard to appreciate just how exhausting an endeavor it can be. Ironic though it may seem, sometimes as a traveler the greatest luxury you can indulge in is a respite from the road and a break from traveling.
China
Steph10

Escape to Shanghai!

Given that we're in the midst of Chinese New Year Extravaganza 2013, it seems only right that I should tell you about how Tony & I handled the last major Chinese holiday, one we actually had to face while we were in China proper.
China
Tony17

Revelations in the Rice Terraces

It isn't often that a place or an event has the power to change you. Most of the time change seems gradual, the sum of a set of experiences that just kind of creeps up on you, until one day you realize the person you were is just that:...
AdventuresChina
Steph26

How Do You Like Them Apples?

I'm sure by now our astute readers have cottoned on to the fact that our time in China was filled with plenty of ups and downs. Truth be told, it probably featured a lot more downs than ups. And no one is more disappointed about this than we are....
China
Steph25

Tea Scammed (?) in Guilin!

Not 10 minutes after stepping out of our hostel in Guilin, he was upon us. Like a shadow—albeit, an extremely charming and talkative one—he kept pace with us, smiling and asking us about ourselves and our interests. It’s a sad thing to admit, but the very fact that a...
China
Tony17

Conquering the Terracotta Army

Sometimes when you go to a place there’s a story about a mishap or a dislike or something wacky that happened, and sometimes there just isn’t. Sometimes everything works out just the way you want, expectations are met and you get to go home and feel like you did...
China
Steph10

And Now for Some Culture…

On this trip, Tony & I have been walking the delicate tightrope that balances visiting the well-known tourist attractions with trying to uncover the sides to the countries and cities that often get overlooked. As much as we love a UNESCO world heritage site (or most of them, at...
China
Steph18

What We Ate (Even if We Shouldn’t Have) in Xi’an

In my last post, I said that although we loved Xi'an, it was hard for me to identify precisely why that was.
China
Steph14

Fourth Time’s a Charm in Xi’an

It's true that in travel, just as in life, there is no accounting for taste. Though some travelers have tumbled head over heels for China, our time in China started off about as rocky as we could imagine. Though there had been a few bright spots during our 10...
China
Steph16

How to Solve a Problem Like Pingyao

Playwright Christopher Marlowe lived by the motto "That which nourishes me destroys me." Given that he was killed in a bar brawl, it's likely he died by those same words too.
China
Tony14

A Hidden Gem in Datong

Following our escape from Beijing by the skin of our teeth, we set off for a city called Datong, home to two more of China's wonders: a series of caves filled with 1600-year-old Buddhist carvings known as the Yungang Grottoes, and a Hanging Monastery. Given our experiences so far,...
China
Steph15

A Pricey Plate of Pancakes

We tried the best we could to enjoy our time in Beijing, but in the end, we had to admit that it was not a place we liked really at all, and we anxiously looked forward to our departure. Given that this was the case, you would think that...
China