Our big trip
A few thoughts and photos from our travels
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Day 87 – The morning market
21st November: Hangzhou, China to Shanghai, China It was our final morning in Hangzhou, which has proven to be one of our favourite cities so far. We didn’t have too far to travel today to Shanghai, so had time to take it easy and check out the morning market. This is a mixture of an…
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Day 86 – Longjing for a good cuppa
20th November: Hangzhou, China Not quite 13 hours but I’m starting to gradually feel a bit more rested. The sun even made a brief appearance this morning, which brought out the colours of West Lake and the surrounding autumn trees. Wandering its shores whilst drinking morning coffee felt incredibly peaceful. We caught a bus from…
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Day 85 – There is Heaven above and Hangzhou below
19th November: Hangzhou, China According to Marco Polo, the Hangzhou of his day was “without a doubt the finest and most splendid city in the world”. Much can be said of his veracity as a historical source; however, Chinese proverbs agree that “there is Heaven above, and Suzhou and Hangzhou below”. Today, the best-preserved area…
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Day 84 – The world’s greatest bore
18th November: Hangzhou, China No, not me! The Qiantang River in eastern China has the largest tidal bore in the world, which is visible on around 120 days per year. Today’s tide was set to be the second highest of the 60 this month (only marginally less than yesterday’s), so we hoped there was a…
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Day 83 – All aboard the snack train
17th November: Hong Kong SAR, China to Hangzhou, China Once we’d crossed back into China, we both relaxed. That’s not something I expected to say prior to this trip. On my previous visit 15 years ago, Hong Kong felt futuristic and organised in comparison with bewildering Shenzhen. Now, the reverse is true. Things are more…
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Day 82 – Reaching the peak
16th November: Hong Kong SAR, China We awoke to the first semi-clear day we’d had since arriving in Hong Kong. Kaja wasn’t feeling so good, so stayed in the room for a chilled morning. I wanted to do something I’d not managed in the 8 days I’ve ever spent in the city – go up…
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Day 81 – Day trip to Macau
15th November: Hong Kong SAR, China So, what was meant to be a non-travel day became our worst travel day of the trip! We set out for a day trip to Macau, which everywhere says takes about an 60-90 minutes for the journey from Hong Kong. Well, it took us 4 and a half hours…
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Day 80 – Typhoon Toraji
14th November: Hong Kong SAR, China It was a very blustery night! Typhoon, now Tropical Storm, Toraji finally stalled and began to gradually show signs of westward movement when the eye was 130km south of Hong Kong. Overnight winds in the city were sustained at around 70 km/h, which isn’t too bad in the grand…
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Day 79 – Train tracks to storm tracks
13th November: Shenzhen, China to Hong Kong SAR, China Our second sleeper train of the trip is behind us. I actually slept quite well but unfortunately Kaja did not. We shared our compartment with one other person. He was a quiet and polite man from the Chinese Air Force – just the sort of person…
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Day 78 – Sleeping our way south
12th November: Zhangjiajie, China to Shenzhen, China Our final day in Zhangjiajie began with a chilled start. Breakfast consisted of my new favourite – millet porridge – some oranges and another fruit we’ve been keen to try. Ever since Xi’An we’ve seen fluorescent orange plums (we think) for sale. Unfortunately, these turned out to have…