Tag Archives: travel
The Summer Palace (颐和园) Posted by Stephen on May 24, 2012
Summer approaches, and with it blows the stifling heat of the western desert winds. In Beijing, temperatures exceed 90 degrees Fahrenheit daily, which coupled with humidity and miles upon miles of blacktop and concrete, gives you a pretty good idea what a steamed bun, or 包子 (bāo zi) feels like. Luckily, there are a few…
Thousand Island Lake (千岛湖） Posted by Stephen on May 15, 2012
Well it’s that time of the year again in China when temperatures (温度 wēn dù) rise (上升 shàng shēng) and a great deal of humidity (潮 cháo) descends upon the mainland (大陆 dàlù). Whether you live in 北京，上海 or 重庆，summer (夏天 xià tiān) always comes early in China. For some people, air conditioning (空调 kōng…
Simatai Great Wall in January（司马台长城） Posted by Stephen on Jan 18, 2011
As the transition from winter to spring occurs, and we experience a “change of seasons” or 物换星移 (wùhuànxīngyí), a real chance to shed off all those winter layers and have some fun outside emerges. Sure winter was frigid, summer’s going to be sweltering, but right now Chinese weather has found a happy medium. To understand…
Zhang Bei Grasslands Music Festival (张北草原音乐节) Part Two – Heavy Metal French Fries Posted by sasha on Sep 9, 2010
When we last saw our 老外 heroes, they had just set up camp and were ready to rock and roll at the 2nd Annual In Music Festival. Having met some super cool next door neighbors (隔壁邻居 – gé bì lín jū) at their campsite, our heroes embark on an epic weekend of music and fun. …
Zhang Bei Grasslands Music Festival (张北草原音乐节) Part One – Getting Out of the Smog and Into the Countryside Posted by sasha on Sep 6, 2010
After our ridiculously difficult journey to the Yi Xian Festival in May, you’d think we would have been turned off by the prospect of once again heading out into the middle of nowhere China for a music festival. Well, you’d be wrong, because one late July weekend, we decided to do just that. As is…
Yi Xian Camping Music Festival (易县露营音乐节) Part 2 – We are Rockstars (我们是摇滚明星) Posted by sasha on Aug 23, 2010
When we last saw them, our 老外 heroes had finally arrived at their desired destination – the Yi Xian Camping Music Festival. Despite the fact that they had just endured a lengthy, exhausting, frustrating journey, they were in high spirits and were ready to experience their first ever Chinese music festival. We now find our…
Yi Xian Camping Music Festival (易县露营音乐节) Part 1 – Travel Troubles (旅行的麻烦) Posted by sasha on Aug 15, 2010
As promised in my last post, here is the ridiculous story of my journey to the Yi Xian Camping Music Festival: Having been back in Beijing for almost two months, I started to feel like I was trapped in the concrete jungle. With the May Day Holiday (五一节 – wǔ yī jié) approaching, I was…