Arriving at Haneda airport on a slightly overcast Wednesday morning was not the most auspicious way to enter Japan for the first time but even in my severely sleep-deprived state there was still a sense of excitement in the air. I had made it. Finally after literally years of false starts I was in Tokyo and ready to lap up the experience.
It had turned into a bit of a running joke that every time I planned to visit Japan in the past few years I have somehow been diverted to China or Korea – but no longer – after many false starts I’ve finally booked a return flight to Tokyo for 1 week at the end of the month (Sept 29 – Oct 6)!
The past week has been fairly hectic and thanks to China’s generous system of making you work the weekends either side of a national holiday I’m still in the office today (Sat). To add to my woes the weather is oppressively hot and humid in Shenzhen making it very hard to sleep at night, even with the AC on. I’m tired out.
The mid-autumn national holidays are upon us in China with most people taking 8 days off work (but working weekends either end to compensate). I’m about to embark on a trip to explore some of China’s most beautiful smaller cities and villages around Shanghai in Jiangnan. In order I’ll be visiting: Shanghai (1 night) -> Suzhou (1 day) -> Wuzhen (1 day) -> Hangzhou (3 days) -> Ningbo (1 day) …before returning to Shenzhen late next week. Known at “the Venice of the east” with many beautiful canals and lakes I’m looking forward to exploring the area and hoping that it’s not as busy as everyone is telling me its going to be! As ever I’ll be updating on Twitter where possible and have…
It’s a little known fact that Hong Kong is comprised of 236 unique islands, the largest being Lantau Island and the second largest being Hong Kong Island which is the political and commercial centre of Hong Kong (where all the skyscrapers lie). During my short trip to Hong Kong last week I decided to head out to Cheung Chau island which is comparatively small at around 2.45 km² with around 30,000 inhabitants mostly clustered in the developed central area. Traditionally it was a fishing village but today the economy is mostly related to tourism. To get there you can take a ferry from pier 5 of the Central Piers on Hong Kong Island which takes about 40 minutes (there’s also a more expensive faster ferry) providing a pleasant trip…
Over the next few weeks over 1.3 billion Chinese around the globe will be celebrating Chinese New Year (Lunar New Year / Spring Festival). 2009 is the Year of the Ox and for those who believe in this nonsense – The Ox is the sign of prosperity through fortitude and hard work. This powerful sign is a born leader, being quite dependable and possessing an innate ability to achieve great things. As one might guess, such people are dependable, calm, and modest. Like their animal namesake, the Ox is unswervingly patient, tireless in their work, and capable of enduring any amount of hardship without complaint. Over the holiday I’ll be taking a trip to the ancient city of Xi’an (pronounced Shee’an), terminus of the…
Last week was pretty busy with work and it looks set to be fairly hectic till the end of the year, which for me ends December 14th due to all the vacation days I have left! In the week directly before Christmas I’ve planned a short trip to Amsterdam for a couple of days – I last went their when I was 14 (9 years ago) so it will be nice to see it again and hopefully take the camera through its paces. Recently I was helping giving my uncle some advice about buying a new computer – he showed one particular model he was looking at and I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw the operating system options: Yep, that’s right you…