Brian Zhang Larsen's Blog » China

Live from Yanji

Brian Zhang Larsen — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 02:36:17 +0000

We have now arrived in Yanji, where Lei’s mother live. It is considerately colder here than any other place we’ve visited this year. But its fine, and it is kind of similar to Denmark, so in a way, we are preparing ourselves for our return.

Last week we spent in Beijing, and a lot have happened since last year. We were lucky with the weather, and had clear blue sky everyday. Since my parents were with us we visited the major tourist sites like the great wall and the forbidden city again.

We took a tour bus to Badaling, which is one of the heaviest visited tourist attractions on earth. The trip itself couldn’t be more profit optimized. Just when we got in the bus, the (chinese speaking) guide, recommended we went to the toilet before departure, for which they charged 0,50 RMB. Then on the way they dropped us off at a jade shop, where the prices were supposed to be especially favourable. The shop itself had a layout like a maze, where it was hard to find the exit. And the nearer to the exit, the cheaper was the prices on the same items, to squeeze as much out of the travellers as possible, no matter if it would mock or anger the customers who allready had made a purchase (poor suckers).

At Badaling there is now so many people, so they have extended the parking lots down the mountain, which means that there is now even longer to walk to the wall itself. But it is pretty impressive though, and it certainly is a challenge to walk on the wall.

Later we went to the newly reconstructed Qianmen street. The street have been completely rebuild to look like it did in the 1920′es. After the reconstruction, the prices are so high so very few companies can afford to rent in, which have resultet in an almost completely empty street, with the exception on the obligatory Quan Jude Roast duck restaurant, and a post office.

A visit to Beijing in 2008 have to include a visit to the olympic city I guess. And so we did. It has become a pretty nice area, with crazy theme hotels and off course the well known stadiums.

Live from Guilin

Brian Zhang Larsen — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 09:12:43 +0000

We have now been in China for about a week, and are now staying in Guilin. We started out in Shanghai where we did some shopping and went for a one-day trip to Suzhou. The weather is nice here, with around 27C, but unfortunately it is quite misty so it is difficult to experince all of the fantastic scenery here. Yesterday we went to the top of the Longji rice terrace hill, where we ate some local rice, prepared in bamboo over fire, and drank some homemade strong rice wine. We also went there last year, but we didnt go all the way to the top then. This year we did, and our legs was shaking a bit upon descent. This time of year, they have just finished harvesting, so the terraces are all empty and dried out. As you can see on the picture, it is a little foggy here at the moment.

Tommorrow we will head to Beijing, and then to Yanji where we will spend the last week in China. I look forward to treat myself with delicious spicy Korean food, when we get up there.

The China Daily version

Brian Zhang Larsen — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 13:47:44 +0000

A religious leader in China’s Tibet Autonomous Region and local Tibetans condemned Friday’s riotous activities that undermined the religious order and peace in Lhasa.

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China 2007, pics and tracks

Brian Zhang Larsen — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 14:03:33 +0000

Finally I finished processing our track logs, and pictures. I used JetPhoto studio to EXIF stamp the pictures, and upload them to flickr. From the tracklogs and the newly generated picture metadata, I have made some .kml files for google earth. You can see the result below.

Beijing, day 1. (.kml)
Beijing day 2 (.kml)
Beijing, summer palace (.kml)
Shanghai, day 1 (.kml)
Shanghai, day 2 (.kml)
Hangzhou (.kml)
Shanghai, day 4 (.kml)
Zhouzhuang (.kml)
Guiling, day 1 (.kml)
Guilin, river cruise (.kml)
Guilin, 26th (.kml)
Guilin, 27th (.kml)
Longsheng, dragon back terraces (.kml)

Fear of flying? Not till now…

Brian Zhang Larsen — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:43:48 +0000

Lei was trying to book tickets for domestic flights for China this summer from a site called www.sha911.com (kill 911, or death 911). I am not quite sure how the precise meaning of this name should be interpreted, but it doesn’t exactly mean “happy fun flights”. I think very few (hope none) would associate this name with positive thoughts, especially when it comes to booking flight tickets.

…I think I’ll take the train this time.