The Karakoram Highway follows the old Silk Road route between China’s Xinjiang Province and Pakistan’s Gilgit–Baltistan region across the Karakorum. It’s the highest paved international road in the world as the Khunjerab Pass reaches an altitude of 4,693 meters. In September we rented a taxi in Kashgar (I was there with my girl and we …
Kashgar, which was one of the most important oasis along the Silk Road, is situated at the extreme West of Xinjiang Province, between the Taklamakan Desert and the border with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Even if today has about 400,000 people and its newest neighborhoods are similar to many other Chinese cities, Kashgar features one the …
Kashgar old town – A glance at the Silk Road (Photo Essay) Read More »
While we get on the night bus that will bring us to Hué I look at Jelen and tell her: “I’m happy we are leaving Hanoi. I was craving a bit of peace.” It wasn’t because of the insistence of the street vendors or the screams of the pseudo-backpackers that cross the world to get …
How to survive to the crazy Vietnamese traffic (plenty of photos and videos) Read More »
Anki’s screenshot: The number of flashcards I reviewed every day in the past six months. Click here to discover what Chinese courses that we recommend at the moment! It’d been six months that I’m studying Chinese in a regular fashion. The idea was not to master the language as fast as I could. This is …
Six months of Chinese flashcards’ review: The lessons I learned Read More »
It’s more than two years that I live in China – the country of dog-eaters by default – but I’d never seen a slaughtered dog. It may be because I only spent a few weeks in Guangxi and Guangdong Provinces, the Southern provinces where the habit of eating dog meat is most common. Or maybe …
Bui Vien, the most touristic street of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). The approach “Do you know how to eat it?” I hear from the table behind. “No idea,” answers one the two girls that are sitting at the table beside mine. “I was sure you didn’t,” keeps going the guy. Now that he has …
Before arriving in Vietnam I was expecting a country similar to southwest China with less pollution and more scooters. And I was right! No, wait, I’m just joking. There are a lot of differences between China and Vietnam. In this post I would like to underline ten habits of Vietnamese that surprised me (keep in …
Ten unconventional habits of Vietnamese (photo stories) Read More »
Click here to discover what Chinese courses that we recommend at the moment! This post is a review of the method invented by James Heisig, the master of Kanji (the alphabet that Japanese people borrowed from China) and Hanzi, that is the Chinese characters. The introduction of Remember Simplified Hanzi by J. Heisig and T. …
Chinese characters: Remember the Hanzi, a controversial method Read More »
Introducing the creatures that populate my feet It must be the humidity. Or maybe the fact that I never bring flip-flops with me when I travel. It’s not my fault, my zoom takes all the space available on my bag! The point is that I got a fungus that is slowly (well, not that slowly) …
“The best is not to win one hundred battles in one hundred, but to subdue the enemy without fight.” “To mistreat the men and then fear their reaction is the maximum of stupidity.” “When the men are pushed in a position without exit, they will not escape even in front of death. In this situation …
Click here to discover what Chinese courses that we recommend at the moment! I’ve already discussed in my plan to learn Chinese how I prefer to rely on the “context” while learning a language. This post tells how, when I started to study Mandarin again some months ago, I was able to fix forever on …
The advantage of memorizing Chinese characters in a context Read More »
The great wall of Pan Long Shan, the Mountain of the Curling Dragon. The most visited sections of the Chinese great wall (长城, Cháng Chéng) are Badaling and Mutianyu, which are quite close to Beijing and easy to reach by public transportation. The problem is that there are so many tourists and, more than being …
Lijiang: the South door to Tibet. This story tells how instead of getting on the public bus that from Lijiang arrives at Lugu Lake – the homeland of Mosuo people, last matriarchal tribe, – we trusted a crazy driver and reached the lake only after ten hours of vicissitudes. From Dali to Lijiang We leave …
From Lijiang to Lugu Lake: Chronicle of a Hectic Trip Read More »
Click here to discover what Chinese courses that we recommend at the moment! Two months ago I started to study Chinese (here my plan: How to learn Chinese fast: my (lazy) way) and decided to share my progresses on this blog as an extreme attempt to keep motivated. However, a post only talking about me …
Find out how much of a Chinese newspaper you can understand Read More »
Yunnan is one of most touristic Chinese provinces, especially in summer when everywhere else in China is damn hot. This means that an army of Chinese people had our same idea: visit 石林 (shilin), the Stone Forest. The etymology of the character “林” is one of those that remind me why I like Chinese: 木=mu=tree; …
Click here to discover what Chinese courses that we recommend at the moment! Disclaimer: Even if this post mainly target Chinese learners, the ideas I share are quite general and I believe they hold true for any language. Why should you use flashcards to study Chinese? The use of flashcards involves active recall testing, that …
Anki flashcards: A shortcut for learning Chinese Read More »
West Lake, Hangzhou. The West Lake (西湖, Xī Hú) in Hangzhou is said to be the incarnation of 西施 (Xī Shī), one of the four beauties of China. Hence it is also called Xi Zi Lake, where “Xi Zi” means Lady Xi. This is the story of Xi Shi as told in The Art of …
The art of seduction: the story of Xi Shi, beauty of China Read More »
How to pee on the street… The daily savageries Where do I start from? The Beijingers that every summer wander with the t-shirt rolled-up on the stomach to get some fresh air; the Qingdao people puking in Pijiu Jie (Beer Street); the hygiene (?!) of the restaurants’ kitchens among the draining of dirty waters, garbage …
Five Reasons to Hate China (and Five Reasons to Love China) Read More »
An example of business card you may get walking down Nanjing Road, Shanghai. In Shanghai there are so many prostitutes that I got curious and I did some researches about prostitution in China. One of best source of information on the topics is Red Lights: The Lives of Sex Workers in Postsocialist China. According to …
This story tells about my first experience with SF Express (Shun Feng), which delivers documents and goods within one day everywhere in China and Hong Kong. Before I used to go to a Chinese post office and utilize the EMS service, but with SF Express you only need to call the 4008 111 111 and …
Get 3 Months FREE with EXPRESS VPN
+ Best VPN For China
+ 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee
+ 24/7 Live China Customer Support
+ 3 Months Free on 12 Months Package
