Yangshuo Winter
Last week Lily and I were able to take make a quick weekend trip to Yangshuo with a few friends. A world renowned travel destination, Yangshuo is an unapologetic tourist trap bordered by stunning karst mountains on one side and the Li River on the other. Sometimes a tourist trap is just what the doctor ordered. [...]
500KM City Music Festival – Kunming Rocks
Howdy folks… been a while. After weeks of going back and forth with a gaggle of different editors about which images to include in an upcoming photo essay, I’m finally able to post some shots from the 500KM City Music Festival. The two-day event took place September 10 and 11 in Kunming with Sunday’s headliner [...]
10 Days in Kunming – Perspiration Free
Welcome to the land of no humidity… That was the first thing I noticed about Kunming… the weather. During the 10 days I was there the temps topped out each day out in the mid to low 20′s with lots of sunshine and no humidity. It was nearly perfect. I had gone to Yunnan to [...]
731 Collision Music Festival
The 731 Collision Music Festival took place last night in Liuzhou. 6 bands and a couple of DJ’s later, I walked out of The People’s Square Arts Center equal parts surprised (pleasantly), alarmed, and I guess I’ll say encouraged somehow. A couple of slight, aging security guards in makeshift uniforms manned the doors with a [...]
Yangshuo Weekend
Yangshou is a picturesque tourist trap of a small town located in Guangxi Province about two hours south of Guilin. I’ve been a few times now and despite the touristy thing it still works for me on many levels. The scenery is the big draw. The rivers flowing though Avatar-looking karst mountains have enticed artists [...]
10 Minutes – The Pillow Huggers of IKEA
I’ve never seen anything like the Chinese when it comes to sleeping. Even after all this time I’m still amazed by some of the innovative sleeping contortionists I run into on the streets. If the ability to fall asleep absolutely anywhere at the drop of a hat ever becomes an Olympic event, China is going [...]
Sunday Morning at Xin Hui Tea House
A couple of weeks ago on a hot, humid Sunday morning in Nanning, I met my friends Anissa, Vern, and Suri at The Xin Hui Tea House. Groups of retirees get together there and perform a variety of traditional music throughout the week. They are all past their prime, most with weak voices supported by [...]
Three Hours In Sheung Wan
I had a meeting in Hong Kong this past Saturday and had a few hours to walk around Sheung Wan and Central before catching the ferry back to the mainland. I’ve never managed to spend enough time in Hong Kong to really shoot all I want. I’d like to go back and actually have a [...]
One Night in Nanning
I posted a short series of photos last night featuring Nanning’s dough-tossing pastry chef, Mr. Zhiang. Those images were taken during a photo-walk with young friends Vern and Suri. The couple spent a large portion of their weekend showing me around the streets of Nanning and despite the overwhelming heat and humidity, I’d do it all again. [...]
10 Minutes – Chef Zhiang from Hunan
I was in Nanning last week and in my free time managed to get out for a few photo-walks with some Flickr friends. Flickr is particularly great in one aspect, the ability to meet up with fellow photographers from around the world, knowing beforehand that you’ll have at least one thing in common. Over the [...]
Foreign Bodies – Laowai in Liuzhou
A couple of nights ago I met a bunch of Liuzhou Laowai. I’m not talking about THE Liuzhou Laowai (Ken). The folks at the Liuzhou Foreign Affairs Office, in conjunction with the Liuzhou Workers’ Hospital, sponsored an Expatriate Health Symposium/Banquet at The Nationality Restaurant located inside Long Tan Park. The event was a bit contrived, as [...]
Two Nights In Boao
During our short visit to Hainan we were able to get out a couple of nights and mingle with the Boao locals as we scoured about looking for dinner. We were usualy welcomed with big grins with an occasional curious stare now and then. As I mentioned yesterday, this place is friendly. The sidewalks were full [...]
10 Minutes – The Knife Sharpener
A few days ago I met this slip of a man just outside my apartment building. Li Yongkui is a charismatic traveling knife sharpener. The 32 year old father of 2 walks from neighborhood to neighborhood, pulling a grinder along behind him while touting his services via a recorded message played on a beat up [...]
Sunshine
After weeks of dismal, dank weather we finally had a decent day this past Monday. The parks were full of old folks taking advantage of the warm up, myself included. I hadn’t been out with a camera since coming back from Beijing three weeks ago and it was good excuse to once and for all [...]
The Diabetes Report – (by the numbers)
Howdy folks and welcome to the South China edition of Diabetes Central. I dunno exactly why I’ve been putting off this post/update, but here’s the skinny. I returned from Guangzhou a few days ago and after the latest round of tests I find myself equipped with a short and long-term treatment plan, and a lot [...]
Lantern Festival – 2011
The Year of the Rabbit is officially in full swing now. With last night’s Lantern Festival, The 2011 edition of Spring Festival is over and it’s time for all of us here to go back to work. Lily and I took a walk down to the Liuzhou People’s Government complex where there were lanterns and [...]
Liuzhou Goes Live (almost sorta)
I’ve been feeling much better of late, so much so that I’ve actually been getting out a fair amount over the past week or so. A couple of days ago I had the great fortune to be invited to Liuzhou Television’s first ever Spring Festival Gala. Government officials put the live show together, hoping that [...]
Tribute To A Dog
After more than a month of inexplicably wasting away, our little dog Chewy died on the 9th of January. She was still young, having just turned four. None of the “vets” here in Liuzhou were able to determine exactly what was wrong with her, nor could they figure out an effective course of treatment. Of [...]
Natalie & Nick In China (Day IV Xi’an) – The Terra-cotta Warriors & Tang Dynasty Show
Day 4, our 2nd day in Xi’an, may have been my favorite day of our tour. We were well-rested and the weather was once again remarkable. We met our guide Melissa at the hostel at 9 and then headed out to see The Terra-cotta Warriors. During the drive Melissa regaled us with stories about Emperor [...]
Natty & Nick In China (Day III Xi’an) – The Muslim Quarter
On Saturday morning we said goodbye to Jia and Beijing and headed to Xi’an. Packing, the taxi to the airport, check-in and security were all uneventful, as was the 2 hour flight. I’ve had a few folks ask about where we stayed, as well as more specific travel questions about transportation and the like. I [...]
Natalie & Nick In China (Day I Beijing) – Tiananmen Square & The Forbidden City
The kids arrived safely very early last Wednesday morning and we’ve been going at it pretty hard since. Everything has been going fairly well, with just a minor hitch or two. We’ve made it *home* to Liuzhou, after touring Beijing, The Great Wall, Xi’an & The Terra-Cotta Warriors and Guilin. Our accommodations have run the [...]
10 Minutes – Card Sharks of Que Shan Park- 雀山公园
One thing I really like and admire about the Chinese is how the older generation stays so active and engaged with one another. Excluding all but the coldest of days, I can visit any park in Liuzhou and find groups of retired folks dancing, singing, playing music, performing plays, practicing Tai Chi, or taking part [...]
Liuzhou Metal
As part of an ongoing photo-documentary I’m doing on China youth, I went to see a thrash metal band last night at a new outdoor concert venue here in Liuzhou. My friend A Quan plays bass in the band and I’ve been following him and the other boys for well more than a year now. [...]
Confucius’ Birthday Bash
We had a big party here this past Monday and I somehow managed to snag an invitation to the grand opening of Liuzhou’s new Confucian Temple, staged to coincide with Confucius’ 2,561st birthday. It was a much bigger deal than I’d imagined. It turned out the celebration was a nationwide thing, as for the first [...]
