The Shaxi Friday Market runs … well … every Friday, from the morning to mid afternoon. The town itself (pronounced “Shasee”) lies midway between Yunnan Province’s larger cities of Lijiang and Dali. But it makes up in significance what it may lack in size. The Tea Horse and Caravan Trail It is here that the most complete,…
Read More
When our tour bus pulls into the Panshan Ski Resort at 8:30 in the morning, I peer out the frosty windows, unsure of what to expect. Our “guide” walks down the isle, collects a 300 RMB deposit from each of us — (a surprise because we’ve already paid our admission fee) — then disappears for…
Read More
Of all the places we’ve visited in China, Dali probably wins out as our favorite. Located in China’s southwest Yunnan Province — about a two hour train ride south from Lijiang — Dali was once known as China’s backpacker paradise but is said to have lost some of its granola appeal in the last decade….
Read More
(The below article was first published in JIN Magazine’s February 2014 issue) When Sam and I first arrived in Tianjin, we were excited to explore the local eateries near our hotel. The trouble was, our language lessons had not advanced beyond basic greetings and naturally, all the shops and restaurants were identified by Chinese characters….
Read More
Harbin was once a thriving Russian immigrant destination and home to around 20,000 Jewish settlers — purportedly the largest Jewish settlement in east Asia. (The last Jewish settler in Harbin was said to have passed away in the 1980’s however.) Because of Harbin’s diverse past, Russian architecture, Jewish synagogues and some unexpected food choices await. So…
Read More
The Harbin Ice Festival is currently the largest ice festival in the world. Located in northern China in a city that blends an eclectic mix of Russian, Jewish and Chinese heritage, Harbin is definitely a destination worth a visit — even when temperatures drop as low as negative 40 degrees, which is, interestingly, the one…
Read More
*This article on my experience locating and purchasing a genuine Flying Pigeon bicycle in Tianjin, China was published in JIN Magazine‘s January 2014 issue, and re-posted on the government’s tourism site, exploringtianjin (dot) com.* (UPDATE: Upon review, it appears that the article has been moved to a new China Daily website, so I have updated…
Read More
Last month, Sam and I visited the Yunnan Province in Southwest China. Our original plan was to fly into Lijiang, hike the Tiger Leaping Gorge, take the bus up to Shangri-La* before flying back out of Lijiang. (*Shangri-La, you say? Funny you should ask: the town of Shangri-La (formerly known as Zhongdian) is named after the mysterious place…
Read More
View Larger Map News can be a bit slow getting here, but Sam and I have recently been informed of the category 5 cyclone (“hurricane” for Americans), Cyclone Ian, that hit Tonga’s Ha’apai island group on January 11 with winds of up to 178 miles per hour.
Read More
This post will cover my experience applying to the Writer’s Digest Self Publishing e-Book Awards contest, along with the end result which I will get to shortly. But first, an introduction: Back when I was still in Tonga, I started a micro-publishing company called Penelope Pipp and published two works through the imprint: a memoir penned…
Read More