Being so far from home and living (even if it’s only for a short time) in such a different country poses personal challenges I’ve not met before, well perhaps that’s not altogether  true; together with new challenges it prompts me to look at old ones in a new light. (more…)

This morning I left Fuzhou with very mixed emotions. Our plan was to fly to Chongqing this evening however our flight was cancelled. The reason was typhoon Chan-hom. Estimates vary as to whether Fuzhou is in its direct path some say yes and that it may have reached super typhoon  status with winds up to 160mph (257kph). Others suggest Chan-hom will pass north of the city. If it is the latter then there will still be high winds but there could be anything up to 2in (50mm) of rain per hour. The rain is an especial worry for the university area as it is sited alongside a major tributary of the Ming river. So perhaps you are thinking that my reference to panics in the title is about this? Not a bit of it read on! (more…)

And we thought we were leaving trouble behind! My next post was due to be about the train journey and earlier I started work on it. However events have overtaken us. About an hour ago there was a great commotion in the corridor and we realised that there was a fire! (more…)

I was intending to finish an article about the train journey and start writing about Chongqing. I just haven’t had the time. Yesterday was packed with activities and today it’s another rail trip to Xian. I’ve no idea how comfortable the next leg will be so I may not get much writing done today. (more…)

Yesterday in the main square of Chongqing we bought some peaches.

In the hot sun and exotic surroundings eating peaches out of the blue I was reminded that countless times a day and in billions of ways people do the sensible/helpful and socially beneficial thing. And that this far outweighs negative and antisocial acts.

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I’ve decided to leave finishing the article about the rail trip to Chongqing and the one I’m planning about the day we had in the city as they are tricky to do on my phone. In addition to that, the WordPress Android app from Automattic has a bug and twice I’ve lost hours of work and had to recreate it. So I’m focussing on shorter articles.

I’m currently lying on a 2nd tier bunk on a train heading north to Xian.

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Well I’m sat in the sun near the East peak in the Hua mountains. It’s a bit like sitting in a classical Chinese watercolour.

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I never travel without a good handful. They are one of the great multipurpose devices of the 20th century and a good handful takes up little space and weight. (more…)

Beijing Airport is big, I flew in last night from Xian. I exited the baggage Hall at T2 around 24:00 I then started to look for the China Air customer services. As I walked around I was accosted by hopeful taxi drivers. I ignored them. Eventually I found out that I needed to be in T3. I naively thought I would walk. Not so easy it seemed, it was a fair way and if I understood what I was being told not accessible by foot. However there was the free shuttle but the sign was ambiguous, on one hand it said that it ran 06:00 to 23:00 yet it allows seemed to show service through the night too. One of the airport staff showed me where to stand and did look somewhat bemused at me. It was then I committed the cardinal error. (more…)