Monthly Archives: April 2012

BTC Beijing to Luoyang via Zhengzhou Seriously overcast. Train ride Zhengzhou, then by bus to Luoyang (12 km from the Longmen Grottoes, cave temples), crossing the yellow river. Clearly a travel day, 430 miles or so, most by train, through … Continue reading →

BTC Beijing Cool and as usual overcast. Some rain. As a side note. Google plus is blocked by the Chinese firewall on my ipad. Works fine on the Android. Some of you may even have seen the post and pics. … Continue reading →

For the Terry Prachett fans this is, unfortunately, not about “the luggage”, maybe his greatest character. No, it is the story of preparing to take a train. It is Friday morning as I write this. On Saturday morning we take … Continue reading →

Cool in mountains north of Beijing. Great Wall walk. Obligatory. There are four especially popular sections north of Beijing. We apparently did the most popular. Disney like entrance with parking about 15 minutes walk, and many shops away. Steep sections … Continue reading →

BTC beijing Decent amount of pollution. Early morning view from hotel room. Hutongs, low scale historical part of the city. Many are preserved buildings from the Ming dynasty era. There is a peaceful gray haze or morning fog over the … Continue reading →

BTC. Beijing Warm. Quite warm. Hotel has not turned on the a/condition as the warm season has not started. Local conditions irrelevant. Arrived as planned. Hotel an historic one from 1918,renovated. Designed to be part of the cultural experience. http://www.bjdongfanghotel.com.cn/ … Continue reading →