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Afraid you’ll miss out on sampling China’s regional specialties because you only have time to visit Beijing? Worry no more. Each of the provinces and many of China’s larger cities have offices in Beijing, complete with restaurants to cater to homesick officials. Tucked in nondescript hotels all around Beijing, these government-run restaurants offer reasonably-priced tastes of [...]
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Following up on the success of last semester’s trip to Chengde, this month my language program whisked us off to Pingyao for a quick early-summer cultural excursion. Pingyao is perhaps the most famous of China’s “ancient cities,” and it is known in particular for having a remarkably well-preserved set of city walls. Unfortunately, we discovered [...]
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Guangzhou’s “Little Africa” — a stretch of trading markets near the Xiaobei (小北) metro stop — first came to my attention last year via an article in the New Yorker (subscribers only). I was intrigued by the notion of a different expat community from Beijing’s Sanlitun playground for the young-and-overpaid. So when Christmas weekend found [...]
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In the spirit of bringing the travel spirit home, a couple of weeks ago my friend Jane and I headed over to the Lama Temple neighborhood in search of 算命. Literally “counting a life,” this is the Chinese term for fortune-telling. My friend is about to leave China, and getting her fortune told was one [...]
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In the weeks leading up to my trip to Taiwan, our paper copy of the Taiwan Lonely Planet was lost in the mail. And no Beijing bookstore carries it, probably because it doesn’t lump Taiwan in with the rest of China. Since I’m not yet the kind of traveler who goes guidebook-less, I decided the [...]
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I wasn’t sure what to expect food-wise when I arrived in Taiwan. I knew whatever we found would be delicious — but what would we find? I’ve already regaled you with our day of eating in Tainan, but I left out the most intriguing part — breakfast! Naturally, it came in two stages, starting with [...]
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Amid a week of “crazy bad” air pollution here in Beijing, the one saving grace has been the beautiful fall colors that can be seen around the city. Once known for being treeless, a pre-Olympics tree-planting campaign has introduced a fair amount of greenery to Beijing’s streets. And the parks and university campuses have always [...]
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In Tainan, our last stop in Taiwan, we had the luckiest break of our trip: My roommate’s dad’s coworker’s brother (convoluted much?) is a Tainan native and quite a foodie, and he gave us an amazing 24-hour tour of the city’s cuisine. To give you a sense of the variety of food on offer in [...]
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Taiwan has turned out to be the perfect destination for someone who is rather “temple-d out,” at least as far as mainland China goes. The architecture and atmosphere of the temples I’ve visited here are completely different from your average Chinese temple. The colorful dragons and fish along the rooflines are more like temples I [...]
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Today, I learned an important lesson: When heading out on a 7-hour hike, eat more than 2 slices of toast beforehand. And bring snacks! I spent most of my first week in Taiwan in Taipei, but on Monday morning, my roommate Michael and I hopped on a train to the east coast. We were bound [...]
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Travel stories and advice from an independent traveler and expat in China. Full bio
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