Budget Travel in Shanghai: What to Do and See

Whenever we used to think of China, more often than not, we’d think of  Shanghai.  And when we thought of Shanghai, images of 1930’s glamour, junk boats, cosmopolitan streets and seedy opium dens straight out of a Clavell novel came to mind. Turns out, Shanghai isn’t at all like that.  It’s a modern, bustling city…

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Cheers from Qingdao … Touring the Tsingtao Brewery and Old Town!

Here’s one the first lessons of living in China: Nothing is ever spelled consistently. For instance, Qingdao, a town on China’s eastern coast, about midway between Beijing and Shanghai, is the very same as the formerly spelled Tsingtao, pronounced “Chingdow” (with the the “d” giving a slight “t” sound).  It is this same venerable town that…

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