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I went back to Suzhou for a weekend recently and visited a few new places, mostly around Mudu (木渎) to the west of the city. I’ve been to Suzhou so many times but this was the first time I made it to Taihu, one of China’s largest inland lakes. And finally I visited Mudu old […]

I went to Zhouzhuang ancient town a few weeks for a day trip. It takes just an hour or so by bus from Shanghai, and because of that it’s extremely crowded on the weekend and also very commercialised. There’s also not many indoor attractions and museums to visit, just a lot of shops. The town […]

I forgot to post anything from my work trip to Chengdu last year. A bit late, but I saw pandas for the first time ever! In a sort of semi-wild panda sanctuary. The best bit was when one of them climbed up a tree, looked around, and then climbed/fell down again. Otherwise they lived up […]

Here’s another of these traditional water towns. It would be quite unremarkable if it wasn’t in the Shanghai suburbs, which makes it very easy to get to (it’s actually just a few km from where I live). But this also means it’s full of tourists and very over commercialised. It’s definitely worth an hour or […]

I was at home visiting my parents last weekend and decided to go out for a walk eastwards through the marshes towards Rye. But I didn’t make it that far and ended up in the ancient village of Winchelsea. The Church is worth a visit as it’s very picturesque, and Spike Milligan is buried in […]

I’m back in the UK now but somehow things seem … different. When I left Heathrow in February it was snowing and around freezing. Now it’s 30+ degrees and all the grass has turned yellow. Weird. Went for a walk the other day between Loudwater and Henley. Just following the Chiltern Way like I did […]

I spent a few days in Hong Kong on my way back to the UK. Can’t remember how many times I’ve been here now, feels like a lot… The temperature is about the same as the UK, fortunately all the buildings have air-con. On the second day it was a bit rainy and cooler which […]

China has a bit of a thing for building extravagant replicas of western landmarks. One I found out about recently is this Paris-alike in the outer suburbs of Hangzhou, complete with Eiffel tower. And these residential buildings modelled on the Champs Elysees. I actually rather like it, it transforms what would otherwise be an utterly […]

I’ve discovered something very important about the summer here: every day it’s either 30+ degrees, or raining, or both. This rather limits the potential for outdoor activities so I’ve been going to a lot of museums recently. Which is a shame because I actually found some really good places west of Hangzhou to go hiking. […]

When I went to Wuzhen a few weeks ago I missed the last bus on the final leg of the journey and had to take a taxi. I asked the driver if there was anything interesting in Huzhou, the nearest city, and he told me there was nothing there. Actually he was telling a bit […]