“It says it’s doable for anyone of moderate fitness levels,” I said to my husband, looking at the guide to Taipei’s Elephant Mountain on my phone. “I should be fine.” These were famous last words for someone whose idea of…
What It’s Really Like To Climb The Great Wall Of China
Mao Zedong claimed that a man is not a real man until he has conquered the Great Wall of China. (Disney must have heard the news, as “I’ll Make A Man Out of You” was one of the main sing-a-long songs in…
Mid-Autumn Merrymaking for China’s Moon Festival
My first Moon Festival celebration was a mix of east and west, traditional and modern – much like my ex-pat experience in China as a whole. Falling in September 2010, a month into life as a teacher in Tianjin, the…
(Travel) Memories are Made of This
I’ve been looking through scrapbooks recently, and reading old travel journals, digging up the little details of foreign adventures that disappear in the weeks, months, and years after you return from a trip. More specifically I’ve been looking back at…
The Charms of Chinglish: Language Laughs in China
‘Sign Language’, a slideshow of “amusing and confusing” signs encountered by readers across the globe, is published weekly in the online pages of Telegraph Travel. While these signs are seen everywhere – including the UK – my own experience of…
Training My Taste Buds In Tianjin
Nĭ chī le ma? Have you eaten yet? Think of the absolute basic, every foods you have in your home in the UK. Bread. Milk. Cheese. I thought these essentials of my daily diet would be essentials elsewhere – but I…