Author Archives: boogkb

IBTC Xi’an culture and warriors Partly cloudy Good morning Chinese do not say good morning. Nodding of head. Thank you Chinese do not applaud after a show, we have seen this non event after each of the two shows to … Continue reading →

BTC X’ian Rain then sunny Grand mosque visit in the minority district, Muslim of course,followed by a walk in the bazaar and sampling of the street breads. Lots of interesting foods but we had a planned Muslim restaurant meal ahead … Continue reading →

BTC Luoyong to X’ian Might be called partly cloudy High speed train to X’ian. Reaches 200 mph but takes a while to get to full speed. Train is somewhat of a local making a number of long stops. Another large … Continue reading →

Concert with these and other specialists, see flickr. Bamboo wind Pipa, a four stringed lute Zither, 21 strings Erhu, two stringed fiddle Bamboo and gourd minority people’s instrument Xum, pottery, one of the oldest instruments in the world, over six … Continue reading →

BTC Luoyong Overcast Morning in the central square. Exercises are popular and less costly than gyms. Various forms of tai chi, dancing, swords, whips, etc etc. Some pictures and short videos -hopefully on Flickr. The whip master a real treat … Continue reading →

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 →