My Chinese Whispers

Young Monks in Xishuangbanna

Matt — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:48:00 +0800

These monks are aged between about 7 and 13 ... more »

Yunnan Bride

Matt — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:42:00 +0800

In the village in the middle of the tea plantation, we stumbled across a wedding ... more »

Chinese Tea Plantation

Matt — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:34:00 +0800

On our last day in Yunnan we got a tractor ride through a huge tea plantation ... more »

Chilli Pastes at Xishuangbanna Market

Matt — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:27:00 +0800

This guy had made tens of different style chilli pastes to bring to the market to sell ... more »

Yunnan Rice Terraces

Matt — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:21:00 +0800

The flooded rice terraces of Yunnan ... more »

Rice Terraces Shrouded in Mist

Matt — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:14:00 +0800

We arrived at this location about an hour before sunrise, hoping to be mesmerised by the view as the sun rose over the mountains ... more »

Caged Birds in Chaoyangmen in Jianshui

Matt — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:08:00 +0800

I don't know if it happens every morning, but when we arrived at the Chaoyangmen in the centre of Jianshui, a huge amount of people had gathered with caged birds ... more »

More Yunnan Countryside

Matt — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 17:02:00 +0800

I had hoped to use the long bus rides we were taking to catch up on some much needed sleep ... more »

Countryside Rice Terraces

Matt — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:54:00 +0800

This sort of scenery makes taking a long bus ride across the Yunnan countryside more than worthwhile ... more »

Yunnan for New Year

Matt — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:27:00 +0800

The Chinese Spring Festival (or Chinese New Year to westerners) is the biggest public holiday in the Chinese calendar (incidentally, it’s now the Year of the Tiger). Every year Chinese people go back to their parents to celebrate with their families, leaving huge metropolises like Beijing bizarrely ghost town-esque and devoid of life. It’s also an excellent chance for us expats to take a break from city life and go on a tour of China, or at least part of China anyway. This year, Hannah and I decided to go to Yunnan Province in the south west of China; it borders Laos, Vietnam and Burma (or should that be Myanmar? – I can never remember) and has lovely tropical weather, so we’d be feeling an early burst of summer sun, as well as escape from the freezing temperatures of Beijing (honestly, it’s still brass monkeys here, although it’s getting less cold every day) ...

Bars in Beijing

Matt — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:34:00 +0800

I now know a little of what it feels like to be Stephen Hawking. No, not in that way (I can feel the scoffing already); I mean by having to distill an immense amount of information into something digestible by the general public (or in my case by a handful of friends and family and those arseholes that spam the trackbacks). Hawking undertook this onerous task when writing his masterpiece, “A Brief History of Time”. This was a seminal piece of work that furthered his genius (to even more seemingly improbable heights) simply because he was able to take the most complex human imaginings and theories (a lot of which were his own) and make them understandable to the layperson. Make no mistake, this was a hugely important piece of work, and he understandably received plaudits from every quarter of the universe for it. The work I present here is far more important than that, and it’ll only be read by a tiny fraction of the people that read Hawking’s gem and receive no acclaim whatsoever. I suppose my genius will always be underappreciated ...

Mount Fuji

Matt — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:46:00 +0800

No trip to Japan is officially complete without a photo of its highest mountain (and it's an extinct volcano to boot) ... more »

Bar street in Kyoto

Matt — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:36:00 +0800

This is just one of many small alleyways and side streets that are crammed with bars in Kyoto. Each sign shown here is advertising a completely different bar ... more »

Nijo-jo Garden

Matt — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:30:00 +0800

Because the ground is carpeted with moss rather than grass, it gives the appearance of it being a model miniature when photographed ... more »

Japanese idol girl

Matt — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:22:00 +0800

I know what you gentlemen out there are thinking, so stop it! more »

What did you call me?

Matt — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 15:09:00 +0800

I'm wondering if I should apologise for posting this. It could be construed as not being very PC, you see ... more »

Shinjuku Side Street

Matt — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:56:00 +0800

This is one of the more quiet streets around the Shinjuku area, but still brightly lit with bars signs, restaurant signs, sex shop signs, in fact any sign advertising anything can be found here ... more »

Turning Japanese? I really think so...

Matt — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 14:41:00 +0800

There are two main public holidays in China: the spring festival (around late January, early February – also known as Chinese New Year) and the autumn festival (around early October). Each of these festivals lasts for approximately one week and is usually a good chance to go travelling. However, it’s often best not to travel around China at these times since every man, woman, child, dog and hamster journey back to their families’ homes in rural China. Leaving the country is therefore the best bet, and Hannah and I decided that we’d like to go to Japan; it’s only a three hour flight away and offered us the chance of further immersing ourselves into Asian culture ...

The Beijing Live Music Scene

Matt — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:34:00 +0800

Back in London, Hannah and I were regular attendees of the live music circuit, surely one of the best music scenes in the world (if not the best). One of the things we’ve missed the most since we’ve been living in Beijing (it’s been officially over a year now!) is the ability to go and watch some excellent live music at a moment’s notice, or buy tickets to see a live music juggernaut play to a stadium sized crowd (Muse at Wembley in 2007 springs to mind). This has been made so much more unbearable when you hear the kind of music that Beijingers seem to like. If you watched the Beijing Olympics closing ceremony you will have seen and heard the dreadful pap that they love here; boy and girl bands singing the type of fearsome rubbish spouted out by reality TV shows like X Factor and Pop Idol. Now, I think that my views are generally quite liberal, but for people and “bands” like these, and the boil on the anus of music that is their sound, I make a strong exception (and even more so for the, frankly, waste of sperm that are people like Pete Waterman and Simon Cowell). Drab music and meaningless lyrics sung by plastic shells of human beings with homogenised singing voices. There is no punishment in my eyes too harsh for the abysmal horse manure that is produced by these festering piles of sloppy excrement. People may say that they are clean cut, don’t do drugs and are a good image for our children to follow. Well allow me to quote the late, and very great, Bill Hicks in response; “when did mediocrity and banality become a good image for your children?!” Anyway…

The Women's Olympic Marathon

Matt — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 16:41:00 +0800

On the day before the race, David and Becky (in China on the last leg of their year long world tour and our guests for their stay) and Hannah and I decided that we would get up early and make our way to a section of the marathon in order to cheer on the athletes as they tried to write themselves into the history books. We had done our research the night before and found several sources depicting the route the runners would be taking on the Chinese version of that taken by Pheidippides running from the Battle of Marathon to Athens. This proved far trickier than we thought it would; a quick search turned up several different Beijing marathon routes, each of which claimed to be the “Official Route of the Marathon of the Beijing Olympic Games”. Deciding that the safest bet would be the route published most recently, we set our alarms for what can only be described as offensively early and retired to bed for what felt like about two minutes ...

Chinese Toilet Sign

Matt — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 13:41:00 +0800

I quite like the fact that the authorities don't often seek for proper approval when sign writing. I prefer to think that they get someone like Mr Tourette to do it instead ... more »

Camel Convoy

Matt — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:36:00 +0800

These are members of our tour group on camels, preparing to scale the sand dune and bracing for a brief spurt of terror as the camels, supposedly sure footed, feel like they're about to topple over as first they climb the dune and then lurch forward once they've crested the peak ... more »

Moon Lake Oasis

Matt — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:28:00 +0800

This is the lake where our hotel was situated in the middle of the Gobi Desert. Strangely it was covered in a thin layer of mosquitos. It was impossible to get anywhere near the waters edge without being eaten alive by the little blighters ... more »

Desert Road Sign

Matt — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:27:00 +0800

There were a handful of road signs placed on the route we took, obviously for the drivers benefit, but I found this one the most amusing. In the unlikely event that some mentally deficient person thought to drive their car on the desert, I don't think they would have made it this far ... more »

The Military Truck

Matt — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:19:00 +0800

This is the truck used by the Mongolian drivers to get us across the desert and to our hotel. It's an ancient thing, almost as old as the dunes it ploughed through but that's not to criticise it ... more »

Sand Dune in the Gobi

Matt — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:13:00 +0800

I quite liked the rather pristine nature of this dune and was a little upset that the driver ignored my pleas to careen up it and carve tyre tracks everywhere ... more »

The Desert

Matt — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:55:00 +0800

The Gobi Desert appears almost as soon as the Helan Mountains are left behind. Stretching on as far as the eye can see are the sand dunes, making their way slowly across the province of Inner Mongolia ... more »

Helan Mountains

Matt — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:48:00 +0800

hese peaks form part of the Helan Mountain range and the natural border between the two Chinese provinces of Ningxia and Inner Mongolia. On one side lies the baked and parched Gobi desert and the other holds the still quite dry but altogether more hospitable city of Yinchuan ... more »

Oriental Pyramid

Matt — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:38:00 +0800

Unbelievably this structure is over 4000 of our years old and houses some really ancient dead people, who were once very important ... more »

Western Great Wall

Matt — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:32:00 +0800

This is me bravely posing on a crumbling segment of the western section of the Great Wall of China. Mere moments after this photograph was taken, the ruins gave way, sending me plummeting to Earth in a jumble of ancient bricks and sand ... more »

The Gobi Desert

Matt — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 11:13:00 +0800

To celebrate that I’d finally secured a job in Beijing, Hannah and I thought we should go on yet another holiday. Having never been to a desert before (unless you count sailing down the Nile through the Sahara as going to the desert - I don't) we decided that we'd go to the Gobi desert in Inner Mongolia (curiously, Outer Mongolia is a country in its own right, whereas Inner Mongolia is a Chinese province, although both speak the same language). We both liked the idea of sitting by an oasis and looking out at the sand dunes as they flowed to the horizon and beyond ...

An Apology

Matt — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:40:00 +0800

I feel the need to write an apology for those people (particularly MJ, who has been the most vocal) for my tardiness in updating my blog. My only excuse is that I've recently got a job in Beijing and I've been in my "settling in" period, where I needed to get used to getting up early again and going into work (quite tiring when you haven't done it for 8 months!) ...

Zhangjiajie Valley Floor

Matt — Thu, 15 May 2008 12:00:00 +0800

The peaks from the point of view of the valley floor. A huge presence towering into the sky sees everyone gazing up with their mouths slack jawed and not looking where they're going ... more »

Sandstone Peaks in the Valley

Matt — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:51:00 +0800

They rise up like giant stone nails from the tree carpeted valley floor, as if the devil is hammering away below the Earth's crust ... more »

Sandstone Peaks in Zhangjiajie National Park

Matt — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:45:00 +0800

This park is home to some truly awe-inspiring scenery and these quartz-sandstone peaks are sticking out everywhere ... more »

Phoenix Town Alley

Matt — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:33:00 +0800

These are the back streets that link the small town together - if you don't fancy getting around by boat, of course. During the day these alleys are thronged with street merchants, selling food, clothes or kitsch Chinese items ... more »

Phoenix Town by Night

Matt — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:28:00 +0800

At night the town really comes alive, with neon lights illuminating all the various bars and clubs, as well as the river. Traversing the river via the stepping stones in this picture suddenly became very popular in the evening, and also very difficult ... more »

Embroiderers at a Phoenix Town Market

Matt — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:22:00 +0800

These two ladies were running a very small market stall selling hand made embroideries. They also made things to order, if you were sufficiently well versed in Mandarin to be able to get what you wanted across to them ... more »

Washing Clothes in Phoenix Town

Matt — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:17:00 +0800

The locals still go about their daily business, despite the throngs of tourists gawping at them and taking photos (guilty, your honour). I'm not exactly sure how clean the river is ... more »

Phoenix Town

Matt — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:12:00 +0800

Built by the river and surrounded by mountain scenery, it really is a very picturesque village. The houses you see to the right of the picture are typical of Phoenix Town ... more »

A Market Dentist

Matt — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:54:00 +0800

This is where the inhabitants of the surrounding villages come for their dental work. The man at the back of the table is working on some false teeth and those that he has already completed are waiting for use at the front ... more »

A Rural Village Market

Matt — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:46:00 +0800

This is a typical local village market. Almost anything you can think of can be bought at these rudimentary stalls set up on the dirt road ... more »

Rice Field Farmer

Matt — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:34:00 +0800

A farmer and his water buffalo working the rice terraces. These are the people that make up the backbone of China; farmers working year round for little pay to feed the masses ... more »

Rice Terraces

Matt — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:20:00 +0800

This was taken as the coach was winding its way through and over mountains on narrow roads. It is one of the many places where China's main foodstuff, rice is grown and harvested ... more »

Yellow Dragon Cave

Matt — Thu, 15 May 2008 09:57:00 +0800

These are some of the amazing stalagmites that can be seen in this cave. As mentioned in a previous blog article, this cave was discovered in the early 1980s by soldiers seeking refuge from the weather ... more »

Holiday in Hunan

Matt — Thu, 15 May 2008 09:09:00 +0800

Hannah and I recently spent some time back in the UK, taking the much needed chance to see friends and family and generally remind ourselves what our home country is like. By the time we’d got back to China, we were raring to get back into the culture and life that we’ve made for ourselves here and decided that the best way to do this was to go on yet another mini break somewhere. China is a big country (the fourth largest in the world, behind Russia, Canada and the United States) so there was quite a bit of choice. We decided that we’d like to see some traditional Chinese scenery, the kind which traditional Chinese artists regularly depict in their paintings. Whilst this did narrow it down somewhat, it still left quite a wide area of choice. A quick jaunt on the Internet and we’d made our minds up; we were going to go to the Hunan Province and visit the remarkable quartz and sandstone peaks in the Zhangjiajie National Park. We found a web site that specialised in tours there and booked our trip ...

Reclining Buddha

Matt — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:16:00 +0800

Measuring about 29 metres from head to foot this is the second longest reclining Buddha in Thailand and is situated very near the ruins of Ayutthaya (the longest is in Wat Pho in Bangkok) ... more »

Buddha Head in Ayutthaya

Matt — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:05:00 +0800

The head of this Buddha has been overgrown by a fig tree planted after the Buddha was placed there. The body of the Buddha was removed and placed elsewhere in the ruins as well as given a new head ... more »

Ayutthaya Ruins

Matt — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:49:00 +0800

These ruins are all that is left of the old city of Ayutthaya, one time capital of Thailand ... more »

Wat Arun in Bangkok

Matt — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:42:00 +0800

Situated on the banks of the Chao Phraya river, this magnificent temple is decorated with broken pieces of porcelain ... more »

Banyan Tree Roof Bar in Bangkok

Matt — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:35:00 +0800

This is the view of Bangkok from the 60th storey bar. As we sat quietly and sipped at our cocktails, we were looking down on the rest of Bangkok ... more »

Bangkok Break

Matt — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:19:00 +0800

In March Hannah was sent to work in Bangkok for a couple of weeks so we though it would be a good idea if she took a few days off and I came out for a little break. The first, and blindingly obvious, thing to note about Bangkok is the weather. When I left Beijing, the weather was still cold, a nasty wind cutting the skin to the bone, but it couldn't have been more different on arrival in Bangkok. I stepped out of the airport and was greeted by a warm wind and an outside temperature of about 30 degrees Celsius at about 6pm. Being that Thailand is in the Northern hemisphere (just) this therefore made it what the locals called the "cold season"; That time of year where in Beijing winter begins to transform into spring but the days are still cold and the wind still stings. It was a very welcome change!

Happy birthday to me!

Matt — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 12:42:00 +0800

Yes, today I am 32 years old, which to me sounds quite old, but fortunately I've still managed to keep my youthful good looks, allowing me to pass for a much younger specimen. Outrageous claims aside, it may seem quite narcissistic (and it is) to post an article wishing myself a happy birthday, but as Hannah is in Bangkok for work, I am left alone in Beijing on my birthday (yes, I know, sad isn't it?!) ... more »

Snowboarding in Nanshan

Matt — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:42:00 +0800

About a two hour drive to the north of Beijing lies a resort called Nanshan where, for very reasonable rates, it's possible to ski or snowboard. Rising early on Saturday morning, a group of us travelled to Nanshan in a tour minibus to see if we could get through the day without serious injury and possibly come away with a new skill to boast about to friends ...

Fireworks during the Spring Festival

Matt — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:58:00 +0800

The Chinese Spring Festival, better known to most westerners as the Chinese New Year, is the one time during the year that the residents of Beijing are allowed to shoot fireworks from within the fourth ring road. And given the chance, they take it with both hands and several lighters. For the two weeks comprising the Spring Festival and the week afterwards, leading up to the Lantern Festival (the lighting of many lanterns on streets marks the formal end to the new year festivities), the dark night sky of Beijing is scarred and streaked with light from the thousands of fireworks being set off ... more »

The Pudong Skyline at Night

Matt — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:37:00 +0800

The famous view from the Bund across the Huangpu River, Pudong was given the status of special economic zone by Deng Xiaoping in the 1990s and has flourished ever since ... more »

Shanghai Buildings

Matt — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:33:00 +0800

The two different styles of tall buildings in Shanghai are showcased here; in the foreground the 1934 clock tower, very European you'll notice and a typical building of that time, dwarfed by the Rocket skyscraper in the background ... more »

Shanghai Light Machine

Matt — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:30:00 +0800

Not content with relying solely upon the sun, the ever resourceful Shanghainese have created a building that actively spews forth light ... more »

New Year Market in Shanghai

Matt — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:27:00 +0800

This giant inflatable rat was the centrepiece of the market, which was heaving with locals. Set in an old courtyard surrounded by traditional Chinese buildings, people flocked here on New Years day ... more »

Cherry Sellers in Shanghai

Matt — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:22:00 +0800

It feels as though there is at least one or two down every main road and side street. They'll set up a very basic shop anywhere, consisting of two baskets full with cherries, suspended from bamboo, which is used to carry the fruit ... more »

Mahjong Players in Shanghai

Matt — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:17:00 +0800

On almost every street corner and in parks, locals will gather and play Mahjong or cards at tables they've brought along themselves, or else on stone tables erected in certain parks for the express purpose of card or mahjong playing ... more »

Old Town Market in Shanghai

Matt — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:13:00 +0800

These are the classic markets that appear as soon as anyone steps foot into Old Town. The stalls mainly sell souvenirs and keep sakes ... more »

Old Town Houses in Shanghai

Matt — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:04:00 +0800

Built while under the heavy influence of European and American settlers, these are the typical buildings that can be found in a part of Shanghai known as Old Town. This is where the Shanghainese themselves were decamped to and forced to work for a pittance to provide the western people with sumptuous silk clothing and other luxuries ... more »

Chinese New Year in Shanghai

Matt — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 15:17:00 +0800

While Beijing has generally been the home of various Chinese dynasties and their seats in the Imperial Palace (AKA the Forbidden City), as well as having a huge political history, Shanghai has pretty much been where the money is. Before the Opium Wars and the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 (where China ceded Hong Kong to the British and gave them the right to trade and reside in five cities, one of which was Shanghai), Shanghai was just an isolated port town residing on the Yangtze River Delta. This very location, however, made it an ideal place to bring in trade of all kinds from the rest of the world, giving it the potential (which the brutal British saw) of being a major hub in world economics. After the British got in and began making enormous amounts of money, other countries wasted no time in following suit. Before long the French, Americans, Germans and Japanese had all taken parts of Shanghai for themselves and also began to accrue vast wealth at the expense of the Chinese people (who were employed to spin silk, mill grain, roll cigarettes and perform other forms of menial labour for the rich foreigners, often in pitiful conditions and for miniscule wages). The money kept coming in and in the 1930s Shanghai finally reached its decadent heights, with the city being described by Fortune magazine as "the fifth city of the Earth, the megalopolis of continental Asia, inheritor of ancient Baghdad, of pre-war Constantinople, of nineteenth century London, of twentieth century Manhattan". A city of so much money brings with it gangsters, drugs, warlords, brothels and spy rings all searching for their own way to use and abuse the "whore of the Orient" as Shanghai came to be known. Still it grew. Even through the second World War, Shanghai still found ways to prosper ...

Hutongs

Matt — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:51:00 +0800

Hutongs (a Mongolian word meaning "water well" - many homes like this were built around wells thus providing a constant source of water) are the traditional living arrangement in Beijing. They are courtyard style houses clumped together that make a maze of alleyways leading from one Hutong to another. To the untrained (i.e. western) eye it does look like a mess of houses surrounded by walls, with access to a particular courtyard only possible by first having to negotiate the labyrinth successfully ...

A commercial Hutong

Matt — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:38:00 +0800

Contrast this with Hutongs as they actually are and it's easy to see the gloss the Government has applied for the benefit of visitors. All the buildings are well maintained, trade is happening from the front of every building and trinkets and souvenirs are sold by the bucket load ... more »

A Hutong in Modern Context

Matt — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:30:00 +0800

This shows the two different sides of Beijing; the traditional Hutongs, in the process of being destroyed, watched over by the brand new buildings that are taking their place ... more »

A Scavenging Hutong Resident

Matt — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:22:00 +0800

This Chinese woman is searching through the remains of a Hutong, looking for anything valuable. Most of the valuable items that will be found in this destruction will be recyclable materials that locals can give to the local Government in return for money ... more »

A Hutong Resident

Matt — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:12:00 +0800

As I was lining up for a photo, this man wandered around the corner with his bike. His expression changed upon seeing me, I doubt whether this is how he normally looks ... more »

Part destruction of a Hutong

Matt — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 16:05:00 +0800

This Hutong has been almost completely levelled now and when I took the photo, people were coming back to pick possessions up that they'd left behind as well as searching through the rubble ... more »

Hutong house partly destroyed

Matt — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:56:00 +0800

Clothes still hang from the lines, one in the room one outside, although it makes little difference now ... more »

A Hutong bathroom

Matt — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:47:00 +0800

It doesn't look particularly hygienic but this is a very typical example of the kind of washroom to be found in Hutongs ... more »

A room in a Hutong

Matt — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:40:00 +0800

This Hutong is in the process of being demolished and it seems apparent that the people who reside there have yet to find a new place to live, not got round to moving a lot of their possessions or have decided to leave this for the Government to dispose of ... more »

Alleyway of a Hutong

Matt — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:31:00 +0800

This is a sort of behind the scenes look at a Hutong. This alley leads to the back doors of all the homes/shops/markets in one of the courtyards. Locals congregate here to play card games or Chinese checkers or just escape for a few minutes from their work ... more »

A Hutong Market

Matt — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:15:00 +0800

The broken and falling down building serves the dual purpose of home and work premises for the market operators. The upper rooms of this structure serve as the living quarters ... more »

A Hutong Shop

Matt — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 15:00:00 +0800

A typical example of a small convenience store located in a Hutong. Along with the crumbling, part demolished building next door, the proprietors will actually live as well as work in the shop ... more »

Entrance to a Hutong

Matt — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 14:43:00 +0800

Hutongs are the traditional living quarters of Beijingers and within the walls of each that remain there is a bustle of activity and life. Market stalls, shops, convenience stalls, restaurants and trades of various kinds ... more »

Traditional Sweets at the Ice Festival

Matt — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:24:00 +0800

Stalls like these were dotted about all over the festival and were pretty much the only buildings not made out of ice ... more »

Ice Slide at the Ice Festival

Matt — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:19:00 +0800

People could actually take a mat from anywhere around these slides and slide down them ... more »

An Ice Castle at the Ice Festival

Matt — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:16:00 +0800

As before, every structure visible is made of ice. This castle was the largest thing built at the festival ... more »

The Harbin Ice Festival

Matt — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:12:00 +0800

This photo was taken standing on the battlements of a huge ice castle and gave an impressive view of the rest of the ice festival ... more »

The Menu for the Tigers

Matt — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:05:00 +0800

It's not that great a photo but these are the live animals visitors to the Siberian Tiger Park in Harbin can buy to give to the tigers. Annoyingly we were only treated to a live chicken, who lasted approximately two seconds once released into the park ... more »

A Liger in the Siberian Tiger Park

Matt — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:59:00 +0800

Yes, that's right, a liger. It's a cross between a tiger and a lion. No, I didn't know it was possible either ... more »

A Tiger in the Siberian Tiger Park

Matt — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:46:00 +0800

Annoyingly, the Tiger never said cheese or smiled ... more »

Swimming in the Frozen Blue

Matt — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:41:00 +0800

This sprightly chap shows that he's actually enjoying swimming in water that most people would find unendurably cold, taking the time to relax while making his way slowly to the other end of the makeshift pool ... more »

Diving into the Frozen Blue

Matt — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:30:00 +0800

In temperatures that reach anything down to about -25 Centigrade, Harbin locals bravely (or stupidly, you decide) put on a show for visiting foreigners by diving and swimming in the frozen river. They come out of their cabin to a rousing round of applause (as well as gasps of incredulity from anyone dressed in duck down clothes and still frozen to the core) ... more »

Headless Olympic Mascots

Matt — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:16:00 +0800

Known collectively as Fuwa, there are five mascots (called Beibei, Jingjing, Huanhuan, Yingying and Nini) for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, each one representing a colour of one of the Olympic Rings as well as four of China's most popular animals (Fish, Panda, Tibetan Antelope and the Swallow) and the Olympic flame ... more »

A Completed Ice Sculpture

Matt — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 11:56:00 +0800

This was one of the sculptures that greeted visitors at the entrance of a local park ... more »

Ice Sculpture Under Construction

Matt — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 11:52:00 +0800

This shows just how big some of the ice sculptures actually were ... more »

Songhua River

Matt — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 11:48:00 +0800

This is the river that runs through Harbin and, we were told, was frozen to a depth of at least one metre ... more »

Second view of our living room

Matt — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 13:10:00 +0800

Taken from the doorway of the study, this photo gives a better representation of the length of the living room. The window looks out onto fairly old Chinese apartment blocks and does not provide a classic view of Beijing (not a bad one, though) ... more »

First view of our living room

Matt — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 13:05:00 +0800

The living room acts as the hub of the entire apartment. All other rooms (with the exception of the en-suite and walk in wardrobe of the main bedroom) open into this room. The door open at the end of the room leads into the study ... more »

Our Kitchen

Matt — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:57:00 +0800

The kitchen always appears very dark because the only window looks directly onto the side of the building, hardly allowing any light in at all. Not that we're too bothered by this. We have a gas hob and an electric oven, something which does not normally appear in the homes of Beijingers ... more »

The Shower Cubicle

Matt — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:50:00 +0800

Located in the main bathroom is a very nice shower indeed. It's a power shower (rare in China unless you're an expat) and the lucky shower-goer can choose to be sprayed by lovely warm water from either a ceiling mount or from the usual shower head ... more »

The Main Bathroom

Matt — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:44:00 +0800

Despite the name I've given it, it doesn't actually contain a bath at all ... more »

The en-suite

Matt — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:40:00 +0800

This is the bathroom leading off the main bedroom ... more »

The Study

Matt — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:37:00 +0800

It could have been a third bedroom but there would only have been space for a single bed, rather than a double as in the two main bedrooms in the apartment. The border viewable in the very foreground of the picture is the doorway from the living room ... more »

The Spare Bedroom

Matt — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:33:00 +0800

This photo is taken from the doorway of the bedroom. Unlike the main bedroom it does not have a full window ... more »

Second view of our bedroom

Matt — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:29:00 +0800

From this perspective the window is visible. The view to the right would normally show the Central Business District ... more »