Monthly Archive: October 2011

Jade laughing Buddha pendant in Lijiang Old Town, Yunnan, China.

Oh James! I'm Sorry About the Jade!

James is bookish, bespectacled, educated in Kunming and Chiang Mai, a walking encyclopedia of Chinese history and culture. He’s thirty, with a three-year-old son, yet...

Learning Mandarin: Week 4

“If you finish this book,” Sophie reiterates, “You’ll be able to get all around China with no problems.” I wouldn’t have thought it possible when...

The Friday Photo: Black Dragon Pool

This is Black Dragon Pool, one of the most tranquil places in beautiful Lijiang, China. It was built as a pleasure garden for the feudal...

The Prettiest Town We’ve Ever Visited

Ever heard of Lijiang? It’s an old town in northern Yunnan, in what was once the Dali Kingdom, the fought-over hinterland between China and Tibet....

Learning Mandarin: Week 3

A week to go before we head out of Kunming into the great wide open, over 30 hours of language lessons in, and we are,...

The Friday Photo: Nine Dragon Pond

It’s been sunny lately. So t’other day we went to the park. And the park was a lake. With nine dragons. Now, the Chinese have...

Learning Mandarin: Week 2

So the boy and I have completed our second week learning Mandarin in China. We’ve only got a week’s more learning before we’re out on...