(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
It has been weeks since a post has gone up, mostly due to laziness, but also due to the strange clumps of vacation time Sam has had to fit in before the end of the year, lest he lose it. Solution? Plane jaunts to Shanghai and another to the Yunnan province in southwest China. Both…
Read More
When Sam and I lived in Tonga for two years, part of his job was to see the Peace Corps volunteers who lived in Samoa as well. On two occasions, when his stay there was for a few weeks, I was lucky enough to go with him! Both times we stayed in downtown Apia (Samoa’s capital),…
Read More
The Forbidden City, like the Great Wall or the Terracotta Warriors, is on every top-10-things-to-see-in-China list. Oh, fine. Probably not on every list, but close enough. I think the first time I was introduced to this landmark was when I saw The Last Emperor waaay back in the day. The scenes of the Forbidden City,…
Read More