The grueling bus rides, the near death experiences and massive vehicular breakdowns were totally worth it. We reached the top of the world and walked back in time – a time of coyboys and indians, pioneers and loose labor laws. Litang is home to gorgeous women with long colorfully braided hair and beautiful long aprons.
I don’t have much faith in my sense of foreboding – I’m always wrong when it comes to omens. But if I did believe in prophetic images, perhaps the Yak ass sold outside the bus station would have indicated that my life was in grave danger and that getting on the unheated, broke-ass bus headed
Ok, so we’re not really in Tibet. We’re in Kangding, the capital of the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan. At 2,600 meters above sea level, we can barely breathe and it’s DAMN COLD! We arrived just after sunset and were kindly led by some christian missionaries to a popular backpacking hostel, the Black Tent
Let me clear up one thing, the word “highway” implies a certain level of road development. This post should rightly be called, “The Great Sichuan-Tibet Snow-Covered Dirt Road Death Sentence” because truly, that’s what this was. The guide book said not to travel to Western Sichuan in winter.  Does mid-to-late November really count as winter?  Yes.
People in Chengdu love their Giant Pandas. How could you not – they’re known for being hungry, tired and socially reclusive. Just like me! The first night we arrived in Chengdu the hostel played ‘Kung Fu Panda.’ Â I wonder if the writers did any research at all about the lives of Pandas because I can
We’re in Chengdu, home of the legendary giant panda, spicy hotpot, rabbit heads and a big Mao statue.  And we didn’t actually know about the rabbit heads until we arrived at the hostel, but take it from us, this delicacy is everywhere. We thought Xi’an was a great place to relax. Little did we know that
It’s really hard to stop, to just put down your pack and stay in for one whole day. We managed to find the best chill-out hostel in the world (seriously, ranked 9th worldwide) and take a break in Xi’an. Â It didn’t hurt that we were forced to stay put for 5 days while our visa
Yesterday we  met up with our new Israeli friends and headed on a day trip to see Buddha. We will send a postcard to the first person who knows where in China this Buddha resides.  Use your google terms wisely and it will be the first search result. At any tourist destination there are hundreds
Writing this from the top bunk of a hard sleeper on a K series train to Chengdu (which translates to a smoke-filled, slow moving train with many stops). After our first experience on the ‘hard seats’, we upgraded to ‘hard sleeper’ – still not the top of the line for sleeping, and there were no
We ended up spending nearly two weeks in Beijing, I don’t think we missed much. Of course we did all the proper tourist things – how could you not, they’re so accessible! Â We ended up at Tianamen Square nearly every day as we zipped around checking out museums, shopping streets, and food markets. I think
It’s not the ever-present glowing McDonalds sign that best represents America in China. It’s not the hugely over priced Starbucks or artery clogging KFC. Nope. These chains may be all over the place, sadly including the most culturally sensitive areas, but they’re not what Chinese people want to communicate with you about. When we happen
We may not have jobs right now but that doesn’t mean that we’re not working. From figuring out all our visa crap, dealing with Chinese bureaucracy and mapping out our trip: things are not as carefree as I would have thought. We entered China with two 30-day one entry visas, which meant that after thirty