Back in the PRC

The Taklamakan Desert

2008-05-30T10:15:00.028+08:00

Final Back in the PRC post! It's been fun while it lasted, and I might update the blog if I ever travel anywhere interesting, but it looks like school and work have to take a priority, at least for the next couple years, alas.Out in the Taklamakan desert, our last adventure in Xinjiang.From Hotan, we rode a little minivan out to Niya, called Minfeng in Chinese. Minfeng is a small town on the edge

The Southern Silk Road - Yarkand, Karghilik, Hotan

2008-05-12T02:24:00.029+08:00

Again, sorry for the huge delay. I've only got a month left in town here, but I'm only planning on one more post after this one, so hopefully it'll work out. Funny I'm writing about things that happened almost a year ago!Selling dried fruit and nuts in YarkandWe left Kashgar in the morning on a bus for Yarkand (Chinese name 莎车 shache), our first stop on the southern Silk Road. The scenery on the

Tashkurgan and the Khunjerab Pass (Pakistani border crossing)

2008-03-03T09:47:00.033+08:00

The stone fortress in Tashkurgan.There were a lot of Tajiks on the bus up to Tashkurgan; the women wore an interesting headdress that looked like this(Wikipedia link; not my pic). Tajik, unlike the Turkic languages of most of the -stan countries, is an Iranian language, related to Farsi and Pashto. The Tajik spoken in China is actually different from that spoken in Tajikistan; it's an Eastern

Along the Karakoram Highway: Karakul Lake

2008-02-24T02:57:00.037+08:00

Karakul lake in the morning.We arrived at Kashgar's international bus terminal, noticing they had departures to destinations in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Pakistan. We were tempted to get on the next bus to Bishkek, but lacking a visa for Kyrgyzstan, we requested tickets for our original destination, Karakul lake. The ticket lady informed us we had arrived at the wrong bus terminal (there are

Yusup Has tomb, Ha Noi/Mor Lam, and the middle of nowhere

2008-02-15T12:55:00.017+08:00

We had a quick lunch (liangpi, cold and spicy noodles) then headed out to the Yusup Has tomb. I thought it was really beautiful - it's a large domed building covered in glazed tile, surrounded by a courtyard of white arches. There was almost nobody about, unlike the Abakh Khoja tomb, so we had the place all to ourselves. I really liked it - the LP guide claims that it's in a state of disrepair,

Kashgar, part 3

2008-02-02T14:37:00.001+08:00

Also see these posts about Kashgar: Yusup Has tomb, Kashgar part 2, and Kashgar part 1An Uyghur bagel maker at work.I really liked walking around the old neighborhoods, so the next morning, we did just that, getting lost in the branching, twisting alleyways of Kashgar. It's so noisy and busy on the street, and then you go into these alleyways and it's so quiet and peaceful. Groups of kids are

Kashgar: Part 2

2007-12-10T06:32:00.000+08:00

The Abakh Khoja tomb.Next, we headed out to the famous Sunday market all our guidebooks had been talking about, although it wasn't Sunday. In fact, we managed to just miss the weekly market of every city we visited in Xinjiang. Before going to the market, I wanted to walk around some old neighborhoods first, so we decided to walk in the direction of the market, cutting through old neighborhoods.

Kashgar

2007-12-01T11:38:00.001+08:00

Ah, Kahsgar!After several days of travel, we had finally made it all the way from Xi'an to Kashgar, a historic Silk Road hub and major Uyghur city lying far out in the west, near the border with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. We had arrived early in the morning on the bus from Aksu, so we checked into a cheap room at the Qini Bagh hotel and rested a bit before going out to explore the city.Our hotel

The Grand Mosque of Kucha

2007-11-23T09:47:00.001+08:00

The Grand Mosque of Kucha.Compared to Urumqi, Kucha feels quite dusty and run-down, but it isn't without its charms. After returning from the Subash ruins, we had some mediocre Sichuanese food for lunch and took a bus to the old town for a walk. The entire town feels old, really, but the west part of town is the historical city center.Ah, Kucha.There were lots of old men riding around on donkeys

Kucha and the Subash Ruins

2007-11-16T11:19:00.002+08:00

Note: Apparently, these ruins are sometimes called the "Subashi ruins"(transliteration from the Chinese name 苏巴什, which is a transliteration from the Uyghur name, which may not actually have an ending "i."(e.g. the Chinese "Ta-shi-ku-er-gan" for Tashkurgan) Our cab driver certainly didn't pronounce it with an ending "i", at least).The Subash ruins.Onboard the sleeper bus to Kucha, I read Uyghur

The Uyghur Mullet

2007-11-11T01:51:00.000+08:00

We spent our last day in Urumqi hanging around downtown, just walking around. If you walk down from the Erdaoqiao market, there's an impressive mosque and a lot of Uyghur music stores, groceries, and restaurants. We had lunch around here in another fancy Uyghur place, although I think the waiters were dressed up as a different minority, Kazakhs maybe?These buns are covered in honey and filled

I <3 Urumqi

2007-11-08T12:48:00.000+08:00

Coming back from Tian Chi, we walked around in uptown Urumqi for a while. This area of Urumqi is quite new, and other than the Uyghur and Russian signs and Mt. Bogeda in the distance, looks just like any other large Chinese city.We headed downtown to check out the night market, but were a bit early, so we stopped in an internet cafe for a while. Coming out, the previously empty street was covered

Tian Chi - the heavenly lake

2007-10-28T08:13:00.001+08:00

Hey everyone! Apologies for the long delay; I finally took the GRE and got a bunch of grad school admissions stuff taken care of, so I should be less busy now.You can see the snowy Bogeda peak of the Tian shan mountains all the way down in Urumqi if you look in the right direction - if it's not too cloudy, sometimes you can see it peeking out between two skyscrapers. The next day, we headed up to

An evening in Urumqi

2007-10-20T14:30:00.000+08:00

From the bookstore, we took a bus all the way down to the Erdaoqiao market. I mentioned before the streets of Urumqi are confusing - there are two long roads that connect uptown and downtown, and we hopped on a line heading all the way down. The bus was quite new and had announcements in both Chinese and Uyghur. I wasn't too sure where to get off, but seeing all the golden-domed mosques around, I

Arrival in Urumqi

2007-10-17T14:32:00.000+08:00

Wow, that's probably been the longest time I haven't updated my blog! Apologies again - things will get a bit less crazy after I take the GRE next Saturday.From Turpan, it was a two-hour bus ride over the mountains to Urumqi, during which we got to enjoy some Uyghur VCDs played at extremely loud volume. Arriving at the long-distance bus station, we grabbed a taxi and drove off to the hotel

Jiaohe ruins, Emin minaret, and a night out in Turpan

2007-10-11T13:55:00.000+08:00

Apologies to my regular readers(i.e. Rebecca's mom) that I haven't updated lately - been busy with preparing for GRE, grad school apps, etc...By the end of the day, Rebecca felt well enough to go out and see more of Turpan. We hired a taxi for only one-way and headed off to the Jiaohe ruins, figuring it’s always easier to find public transportation from a given place to the city than the other

Turpan, day 2

2007-10-06T14:10:00.001+08:00

Freshly baked nan bread.After I had recovered from heatstroke, Rebecca began feeling quite sick and had a craving for juice. I was pretty hungry, so I went out on the town to do some shopping.I picked up a nan bread, and noticed that in front of the market there was a stand with a sign advertising fresh homemade yoghurt! I sat down and a blue-eyed Uyghur fellow served me up the most amazing

Gaochang ruins

2007-10-04T10:39:00.000+08:00

The Gaochang ruins were the next stop on our trip. It was mid-afternoon and exceedingly hot. I waited around for Rebecca to finish using the bathroom. Uyghur donkey cart drivers sat at the entrance to pick up crowds of tourists, and a driver relaxing on his cart enjoyed himself by making loud guttural noises at passing females.We walked off into the ruins, ignoring the drivers who, in broken

Tuyoq: Town in the Flaming Mountains

2007-09-29T11:25:00.000+08:00

After the Bezeklik caves, we headed to Tuyoq, a small Uyghur grape-producing village nestled in a valley of the Flaming Mountains. Both Lonely Planet and my Chinese guidebook had raved about Tuyoq, claiming that it was little-visited by tourists and offered a truly “authentic” experience. But given so much positive press, I was expecting the place to be overrun by tackily-dressed Westerners and

Turpan, part 2

2007-09-27T12:34:00.000+08:00

Inspired by the South Korean who found my blog by searching for "yalu one step crossing", I found this important piece of news! "In the last two days China has erected a barbed-wire fence near the "one-step crossing" - where the Yalu river border is so narrow that you can almost leap across. " Which means: HAHA, suckers! I was the last one to get across the North Korean border! Anyway, back to

La Belle Province restaurant locations

2007-09-25T03:04:00.000+08:00

And now, for something completely different...I've noticed a huge amount of people get to my blog by googling "La Belle Province restaurant locations." For some reason I'm the #1 result for this search, despite having no information whatsoever on locations of this fine poutine eatery. I guess it's due to this post a while ago, where I happen to use the term. I can't help but feel a little guilty,

Arrival in Turpan

2007-09-22T12:05:00.000+08:00

Sorry I haven't updated for a couple days - had a busy week.A busy morning at the bazaar in Turpan. The people here are selling dry nan bread, as opposed to oily nan bread - more on this distinction later.After a 31-hour train journey, we got off at Daheyan station at sunrise. Turpan isn't actually connected by rail, so if you buy a ticket for Turpan, it actually lets you off at Daheyan, a little

31 hours to Turpan: Part 3/3

2007-09-17T03:15:00.001+08:00

Man, having a stats counter is great. I used to think nobody visited the page, since there were no comments, but now I've discovered plenty of people visit my blog, and actually look at all the posts I've written, too! :D This is the last post about being on the train, I promise. Perhaps it can give you some feeling of how long the train ride was ;)Did I ever mention I once went to Henan province

31 hours to Turpan: part 2

2007-09-15T11:23:00.000+08:00

Again, the pictures are unrelated to Xinjiang. Don't worry, we'll be there soon enough :D It's a good way for me to blog pics that I like but don't really warrant a blog entry on their own, at least.Coming at you all the way from Chongqing, 重庆盆盆虾("Chongqing Crayfish") specializes in delicious, mouth-numbingly spicy Sichuan-style crayfish. The restaurant provides you with gloves so you don't burn

31 hours on the train to Turpan: Part 1

2007-08-23T05:36:00.002+08:00

I haven't had much time to blog - I've been pretty busy - but I've decided to write long blog posts on the weekend, then break them up into shorter parts to upload over the week. Because a post without pics is boring, I just uploaded some random pics I took in Xi'an. Stay tuned for more!Good old downtown Xi'an. I'm sure it will look entirely different by the time I return.Our journey to Xinjiang

I'm still here!

2007-08-16T17:10:00.000+08:00

Sorry I haven't been posting - I left Xi'an and have been travelling around Xinjiang for the past few weeks. I won't have any time to blog until I get back to the US on August 21st, but there'll definitely be lots of stories to tell after I get back...

Xi'an sights, part 1

2007-07-22T10:27:00.000+08:00

Xi'an has a history of over three thousand years and was the capital of China from ancient times until the end of the Tang dynasty, but you couldn't tell just by looking. With a population of over 8 million, it's one of the most developed cities in western China; all the same, compared to bigger cities, the pace is a bit slower, the traffic is lighter, and the city is a bit easier to get to know.

Xi'an for two: 40 kuai a day

2007-07-19T17:41:00.000+08:00

You can eat very well on very little in China. I always thought "40 dollars a day" was a lot of money to be spending on just one person's food; here in Xi'an, a bustling city of over 8 million people, two can eat well on just 40 Chinese yuan a day(about 5 US dollars). But how?Steaming hot buns and seaweed soupStart off the day with one long(笼, basket) of baozi(包子, buns） and two bowls of zicaitang

Sangke Grasslands and Maiji mountain(part 3/3 of the Gansu trip)

2007-07-04T13:07:00.001+08:00

Apologies that I haven't posted in a long time - posting blogs with a lot of photos takes a really long time, especially with the internet connections here, so I'm often too lazy to do it.The next morning, we headed up to the Sangke grasslands, taking a minibus driver after the girl at the reception desk told us there was no public transportation. Enjoying the driver's rendition of Celine Dion's

Xiahe: A taste of Tibet (Adventures in Gansu, part 2)

2007-06-21T19:06:00.000+08:00

(previously: Adventures in Gansu, part 1: Xi'an to Xiahe)Getting off the bus in Xiahe, the first thing we noticed was that all the shop signs were written in both Tibetan and Chinese. My first impression of Xiahe was that it felt a bit like a frontier town, with mountains rising up all around the single main road. I'd originally believed that ethnic minorities don't actually wear traditional

Adventures in Gansu, part 1: Xi'an to Xiahe

2007-06-17T10:56:00.000+08:00

(previously: Yungang grottoes)Upon hearing that everyone in class was leaving on a school trip to Chengdu in Sichuan province and that class would be canceled from Wednesday until next week, we decided we couldn't let the opportunity go - when again would we have so much time during school to do travelling? I thought Gansu province would be interesting, but didn't think much about it. As we went

Yungang grottoes

2007-06-09T11:09:00.000+08:00

(Previously: 10 hours in Korea)After my 10-hour scramble in Korea, it was a relief getting to Beijing and hearing Chinese voices around me again. The airport bus was pretty straightforward, although agonizingly slow in the 5 PM traffic. I hadn’t done much research on how to get to our hotel in Beijing, figuring I was too tired to take a bus and would just get a taxi to take me there.

Seoul layover trip

2007-05-24T12:47:00.000+08:00

This year, in addition to being about 20% cheaper than usual, my plane tickets from Los Angeles to Beijing included a 10-hour layover in Seoul! For me, this was a good thing - I'd always wanted to visit Korea, and I figured a 10-hour layover would be the best time to do it. I almost visited Korea during last year's layover, but a small mishap involving losing my camera prevented me. This year,

Sprucing up!

2007-05-04T11:41:00.000+08:00

In preparation for my next trip to China, I've been sprucing up the blog a bit - the most notable addition being the travel map. Most of my posts here are pretty long and image-heavy, so I changed the blog to only show one post at a time. Unfortunately, this makes it hard to scroll through and see where I've been, so I thought a map would be a better way of showing it.Reach the travel map by

La Belle Province

2007-03-28T07:11:00.001+08:00

Almost a month has passed since I went to Montreal. You'd think that back in Cruces with nothing better to do I'd be a bit quicker about getting a travel blog up, but uploading countless pictures and writing captions about things you did a month ago is not really all that fun, alas. However, considering the excellent adventures that await in just another month, I figure I should wrap things up in

Frozen Northlands 2

2007-03-20T06:16:00.000+08:00

Spring break. Sunny beaches and drunken nights in Mexican bars? Hah! Give me rain, snow, and poutine any day...and some assorted Timbits while you're at it.This time I flew into Montreal and took a bus into Kingston, saving myself much border-crossing trouble. It was T-shirt weather when I left in El Paso, but freezing cold when I got off the plane in Montreal. Having enjoyed a delicious cup of

More Canadian adventures

2006-12-01T09:18:00.001+08:00

The Queen's University campus has a lot of impressive old buildings. I felt like I was on the set of one of those movies set in a cold North American place.Every college town needs its own bubble tea house. I drank watermelon milk tea with lychee jellies, while Rebecca got passion fruit tea with tapioca bubbles. Pretty fruity, huh?Cambodiana restaurant serves up some of the best Thai/Camodian

The Frozen Northlands

2006-11-25T01:31:00.000+08:00

I did it! I survived my 26-hour travel ordeal and arrived in Kingston, Canada!Overnighting in O'HareFrom El Paso, I flew to Dallas, then Chicago, then stayed overnight for 8 hours, then flew to Buffalo, then took a taxi to the downtown bus terminal, then got on a long-distance bus, which headed to the Canadian border.Pssh, Canadian border. Come on, I've been over the North Korean one, and

Farewell to the old

2006-11-15T07:02:00.000+08:00

After parting with my instructors and classmates at UIR, we headed off to the train station to board our Z-train to Shanghai.As soon as we stepped into the "Soft Seat Waiting Room", we knew this was going to be a different experience from our train ride to Dandong.Opulence.And how! Comfy seats, lots of legroom, stewardesses with cool headset things, seperate handwashing rooms, western-style

Romantic mountain getaway!

2006-09-18T12:22:00.000+08:00

Crowded Beijing can get tiring sometimes. But there are lots of places nearby to spend a weekend. We passed up Shidu, which sounded like it would have too many tourists, in favor of "Nanxiagu". Riding bus 917 from Tianqiao all the way to Zhangfang(amazingly, we could still use our Yikatong bus cards), we walked around town a bit before getting a ride to Mujiakou, which nobody understood unless

Back in Beijing

2006-08-28T01:38:00.000+08:00

Just finished morning Chinese classes at UIR...What's there to do in Beijing when you're bored?You could try one of the many fine foreign restaurants...Russian food at "White Nights"...bread, borscht, layered eggplant...delicious...And Russian dancers for your entertainment at "Traktir"!Thai food at "Serve the People"...OK, so it's Chinese food, but it's a very impressively sized plate. And

Tianjin

2006-08-21T17:17:00.000+08:00

I haven't been in Dalian this entire time, although it may seem so. I haven't had time to blog ever since that last post, but I might as well catch everyone up on the rest of the trip now.The boat to Tianjin had fairly comfy cabins, with two bunk beds on each side. There was a place to eat with edible food, although the main onboard entertainment seemed to be feeding birds that would follow the

Singapore of the North

2006-07-23T16:15:00.000+08:00

According to one of my classmates from UIR, Dalian is the "Singapore of the North". I'm not sure if he was joking or not, but I was curious to find out for myself.In addition to normal taxicabs, in China you'll find smaller trikes where you negotiate the price with the driver before getting in. They're quite ugly and old in Beijing and Tianjin, but in Dalian they're spiffy little blue deals like

Crossing the North Korean border

2006-07-19T19:27:00.002+08:00

Update(6/2009): Time flies! Just wanted to add the obvious disclaimer that although I managed to cross the North Korean border and return successfully, you shouldn't attempt this. As of now two American journalists are being held in North Korea after being captured near the border, and in 1994 an American was arrested by North Korea after swimming across the river near Dandong.This story starts

Great Wall!

2006-07-10T20:45:00.000+08:00

So I finally went to the Great Wall this weekend! When people visit the Great Wall, they access it from certain sites, and either walk around in the area or walk from one spot to another. In our case, we went from Jinshanling to Simatai, a 10km hike along the Great Wall. It was awesome! So awesome that I took over 100 photos.There was a huge rainstorm at around 4AM the morning of our hike, but

2006-07-07T19:47:00.000+08:00

Writing a travel blog has been harder than I thought it would be. It seems I could write pages upon pages about trivial matters back at home, but now I'm travelling all over the world and the best I can come up with is some bland commentary, most likely unconsciously scrapped together from what remains in my head from reading guidebooks. And really, there are better places to go for pictures of

More BJ

2006-07-05T23:19:00.000+08:00

Xiu Shui is a big shopping center where you can buy fake brand-name clothing. I didn't really find it very interesting and there were a lot more tourists than locals. At these kinds of places you have to bargain to get reasonable prices; I've found the best way is to counter the vendor's starting price with a ridiculously low price, then slowly increment until you're near the price you want to

Tiananmen

2006-07-03T17:43:00.000+08:00

This weekend I payed the obligatory visit to Tiananmen square and the Forbidden city. Tiananmen square is the largest public square in the world. It's best known in the west for the 1989 incident, but Tiananmen square is actually the symbolic center of China. The big gate with the picture of Mao on it is Tiananmen, or "The gate of heavenly peace."

Getting around in Beijing

2006-06-30T20:17:00.001+08:00

I can hardly believe I've only been in Beijing for three days. It feels like at least a week has passed; I've learned so much and I get a lot done every day.So far I haven't really been able to capture the feeling of Beijing in photos. Sometimes you see the perfect moment for a photo, that moment when the intersection is in absolute chaos and there are cars and bikes and people everywhere, and

Arrival

2006-06-29T17:18:00.000+08:00

It looks like I can access Blogger from behind the Great Firewall of China. In fact, I haven't noticed any blocked sites yet, although I haven't had time to do much web surfing.EDIT: OK, the weird thing is, apparently you can access the Blogger dashboard to update your blog, but you're not allowed to actually look at any blogs, including your own. Fortunately, I have a few ways to circumvent the

Back in the PRC (People's Republic of Canada)

2000-01-04T10:55:00.000+08:00

The Frozen Northlands - my first trip up to the US's northernly neighborMore Canadian Adventures - injera at Queen Sheba, patbingsu in Koreatown, dim sum and bubble tea in Chinatown...what's not to love about Toronto?Frozen Northlands: This time actually frozen! - a spring break frolic during which I am acquainted with that white fluffy substance which so rarely falls in southern landsLa Belle

Beijing 2006

2000-01-03T09:43:00.000+08:00

The arrival - in which a small-town boy remarks on his first impressions of the big city. Also featuring the fastest ever immigration and emigration from South Korea.Getting around - my first attempts at navigating the capital by public transportation.Tiananmen - where I hang out in a really big square, enter the Forbidden City, and stroll around old alley neighborhoods.More BJ - more of the

Northeastern Travels 2006

2000-01-02T13:16:00.000+08:00

North Korea border jump not to scale.Our first really big adventure in China!Dandong - whether you're here just to admire North Korea across the river or get your feet(and pants, and shirt) wet by crossing the North Korean border as I did, this charming little Northeastern town is sure to please.Dalian, a sparkling seaside city featuring aquariums, beaches, and a kitschy Russian shopping

PRC travels

2000-01-01T12:37:00.012+08:00

Click on the red stars for detailed blog entries!Beijing: The PRC's lovable capital city and my home for summer 2006.Shanghai: Old-style grandeur and futuristic skyscrapersDandong: Charming little town on the North Korean border.First stop on our Northeastern travelsDalian: Shiny seaside metropolis.Part of our Northeastern travelsTianjin: Great buns and wide intersections.The last stop of our

The Travels of Pravit Chintawongvanich

2000-01-01T00:01:00.000+08:00

Hi there, I'm Pravit Chintawongvanich, and this is my travel blog! I've listed some of my favorite posts on the column to the left, and you can try clicking on the map in the upper-left - or just browse the archives. Have fun!