Continuing my walk around the historic centre Macau (see Part 1) I headed south from Senado Square and quite by accident stumbled across the Sir Robert Ho Tung Library (何東圖書館) housed in the mansion which belonged to the influential Eurasian businessman who it’s named after.
Despite having lived in the south of China for the best part of the last three years there is was one striking place I had never visited; Macau (澳門). As a former Portuguese colony Macau is classed as a special administrative region along with Hong Kong, and retains a large degree of autonomy.
Despite being one of the most built-up and dense cities in the world Hong Kong provides some of the best hiking to be found so close to a large urban center. Within half an hour you can be away from the skyscrapers and climbing rolling mountains or walking along pristine coastlines.
Last weekend I took a trip to South Wales to get a bit of fresh air and to explore a part of the UK I’d never been to before. It takes about two hours to reach Cardiff, the capital of Wales, from London by train making it ideal for a short getaway. While travelling around this region by public transport can be a bit limiting I did manage to get out of the cities to somewhere a bit more remote and moreover stunningly beautiful…
My second, but first full day in Jeonju was spent leisurely exploring the Hanok Village (day 1 here). As it was a Monday morning there weren’t very many people around and many of the shops were closed but this gave us the advantage of having the place to ourselves and there was still plenty to see…
During my two-and-a-bit days in Jeonju, South Korea I spent most of my time in the traditional Hanok Village and managed to snap a sizable number of pics which I want to share over the next few days in a three-part series. I’ll keep my notes short but should be enough to give you a flavour of what you can find there.
Today was my first day off work in a long while (excluding weekends). After a leisurely start to the day I took the metro to Lychee Park, otherwise known as Shenzhen’s central park. The park was buzzing with people enjoying the pleasant autumn weather – mostly old people practising Tai chi and looking after their children’s children (as is the way in China). “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Granny” It seems the park was well equiped for all possible emergencies, the veritable menu of services included; Emergency Command, Emergency Water Supply, Emergency Fire “Ingufsher”, and last but not least an Emergency Toilet! Something tells me whoever was responsible for translating has had the last laugh
Last weekend I joined some colleagues to climb another mountain, this time near the coast in Yantian district and more of a scramble rather than a walk! The path took us around a large reservoir and then up a rocky river bed which provided for a pretty unforgiving obstacle course. Due to the volume of other people on the same route the pace was a bit slow but luckily we had perfect weather; not too hot, not too cold. There were one or two hairy moments, especially at a steep waterfall where an old rope had been provided to climb up, the only problem being that water was still running over the rock face. The sensible ones in our group opted for the detour…
On my first full day in Beijing I had planned to visit the embalmed Chairman Mao in his hideously ugly Mausoleum, which lies in the centre of Tiananmen Square, however that plan was thwarted by the National People’s Congress which was being held that week at the Great Hall of the People on the west side of the square. At other times of year you may see this notice: “Not always open when the corpse of the Great Helmsman requires attention.” …which I find rather hysterical for a dead guy more akin to hitler than God! The general public was definitely being kept at arms length from the communist big-wigs with identical looking PLA soldiers stationed along the length and breadth of the surrounding…