Tag Archives: china

Seeing the Terracotta Warriors

In 1974 some farmers were digging a water well near Xi'an, China. They accidentally made one of the greatest archeological discoveries of the twentieth century, the terracotta army of China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang (秦始皇). Construction of the necropolis began shortly after Qin Shi Huang rose to power at age 13 in 246 BC. By the time of his death in 210 BC, the three pits containing the Terracotta Army contained 8000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 510 horses and 150 cavalry horses. This army was built to accompany the emperor in the afterlife.

I spent most of a day visiting the Terracotta Army. For me, the site lived up to the hype. The most impressive part was the minute level of detail. Every soldier had a unique face. Each strand of hair was individually carved. There was even tread on the bottoms of their shoes. Besides the opportunity to look at the soldiers themselves, there was a lot of information about the history of the army and its discovery. In fact, the Terracotta Army was one of my favorite sites in all of China.

AtW Podcast, Episode 9: Josh Klemons

Josh Klemons is my guest for this episode of the podcast. Having lived in Isreal, Josh has a deep understanding of Israeli-Palestinian relations, as well as those of the rest of the Middle East.

Josh is also the voice behind Reverbal Communications, which manages social media for companies with a variety of budgets. I can attest to his expertise – he has helped me to grow my presence exponentially.

Finally, Josh is the editor of my first book, 1000 Days Between. He did a great job of bringing my book from draft to final copy. If you want a sample, you can read the first twelve chapters for free, right here at 1000daysbetween.com.

My conversation with Josh was great. We talked about travel in a number of different places, as well as what's happening in our respective lives on opposite sides of the planet.

A Chinese Tour of Jiuzhaigou National Park

...I found a group of women from my tour and they invited me to have lunch with them, near the edge of one of the lakes. They were extremely nice and insisted that I take their food. I ate pig spine and chicken gizzard. They refused to try my peanut butter. I looked around and noticed that they were all enjoying themselves immensely. Maybe, just maybe, I was beginning to understand something about Chinese culture: This was exactly the nature experience most Chinese wanted. They valued shared experiences, something they could talk about later with each other. And they wanted to observe nature from afar, like they were watching it on a really high definition TV. Whereas I (and most Westerners, I imagine), wanted to be a part of nature, to walk through it alone, to listen to the chirping of birds and the blowing of wind, to feel snow crunching under my boots, to smell the flowers, to camp outdoors, to really take it all in, not just look at it. Maybe that was why I was frustrated and everyone else seemed happy.

AtW Podcast, Episode 8: Carson Leong

Carson Leong is my guest for this episode of the podcast. Carson and I met on top of 黄山 (Huang Shan, or Yellow Mountain) in central China. He and his girlfriend had been hiking around the park, and they were staying in the same hostel as me. We hit it off when we learned that we both had the same camera. We even did a short hike together, posing in each others' pictures for dramatic effect.

Carson currently lives in Hong Kong, so when I made my way to his city, we met again for some hiking and chatting about travel. On a Saturday night in a lively park in the middle of the city, we spontaneously sat down to record one of our conversations.

Two Hundred Miles as the Mole Burrows

The three of us boarded a train bound for Kunming, a small city of three million, about five hours away. Our tickets were for a sleeper car, with beds stacked three high. But instead of using all of the bunks, everyone sat on the bottom one, four to a bed. I ignored this convention and went straight to the top bunk, where I organized my backpack. Soon I felt a yank on my foot, and then I heard a continuous, angry shout. I turned around and saw a train employee who reminded me of Nurse Ratched. Apparently, the “convention” of sitting on the bottom bed was actually a “rule.” After I climbed down, Nurse Rached yelled at me some more, then stormed off. Per an eery custom in China, everyone else around us was locked into a distant gaze, as if completely unaware of the scene unfolding before them.

AtW Podcast, Episode 7: Jesús and Elisa

I'm going to try something different for this podcast. I met Jesús and Elisa in Yangshuo, China. Because both of them were from Spanish-speaking countries, I decided to record a podcast in their native tongue. I hadn't spoken much Spanish in the last five years, but it still came back to me, more or less. If you don't speak Spanish, you might want to skip this one. Otherwise, enjoy!

Este podcast estaba grabado en español. Lo siento, no había usado mi español en mucho tiempo, pero no se preocupen. Jesús de España y Elisa de Chile hicieron la mayoría del hablando. En el podcast hablamos sobre varios paises, incluyendo China e India. También hablamos sobre la alerta roja de contaminación en Beijing y porque es tan importante viajar por el mundo. Espero que ustedes desfruten nuestro conversación. Dígame lo que piensas.

AtW Podcast, Episode 6: Roni Rodrigues

I met Roni Rodrigues and his wife Hester on top of Zhangjiajie National Park in southern China. Still at the beginning of an open-ended trip around the world, he and his wife Hester were busy filming hour upon hour of footage with their quadcopter drone. I sat down with Roni outside of his hotel in the famous town of Yangshuo to record this podcast. Roni was an inspirational character who always kept a positive attitude about the world.

GMIC Beijing, 2015

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing. The GMIC is one of the world's largest mobile technology conferences, with over 400 speakers and 30,000 people in attendance. The conference was held in the China National Convention Center (CNCC), next to the “Bird's Nest” stadium that was made famous during the 2008 Olympics. Here are some of the highlights...

The Smartest Air Filter In China

I've been living in Beijing, China since last August. Whenever I talk to friends in other countries, the subject of air pollution comes up. Is it really as bad as the international media makes it out to be?

Observations From Five Months in Beijing, China

You can't visit a new continent (let alone two new continents) every year. This year is special for me, my only multiple-new-continent year. After spending nearly five months in China, I'm due for a break. I'm heading to Australia.

Friends back home are always asking what I think of Beijing. To be honest, even after living there for nearly half a year, I still don't know how to respond. I've written about many amazing experiences in China (the best so far being my trip to Inner Mongolia). In fact, there are many more facets of China that I love and have yet to write about. But almost every day, I find myself in a situation that makes absolutely no sense to my Western eyes and ears.

I could go on and on about China, but for now, I'll give you 10 observations from my limited experience in the country: