Friday morning I will board the super high speed train (not to be confused with the high speed train) and set out for Shanghai to meet up with Noel. Let the Esther Expedition begin!! So, just how fast is this train? Well, as you can see from the stats in the chart above, It takes…
Month: February 2012
Reading Assignment — The Economist in China
In January, the 170-year old magazine The Economist launched a special section devoted to covering China. Every edition will have at least one new story. The new China editor is Rob Gifford, author of China Road: A Journey into the Future of a Rising Power. (My review of this book can be found here.) They…
Bring Warm Clothes
In 1981, a book was published in my home state titled Bring Warm Clothes: Letters and Photos from Minnesota’s Past. The title of that book has been bouncing around in my head the last few days as we put the finishing touches on our upcoming “Esther Expedition,” — a couple of Minnesotans travelling across central…
A Tale of Two Tickets — The Ferry
“There will be Chinese people on the boat,” said the voice at the other end of the phone line. For the 5th time in as many days this was the response I got from a travel agent I had contacted asking for assistance in booking passage on a local ferry boat to take Noel and…
Bald Baby Day
Thursday was the 2nd day of the 2nd month of the Lunar Year, a day also known as “The Dragon Raising His Head.” And when the dragon raises his head, little boys all across China have to get haircuts! I ran across these great photos on the Tea Leaf Nation website, in a post titled…
Reading Assignment — Bathed in Smog (Again)
I realize that you may be getting tired of reading posts about the smog here in Beijing, but it is really…pardon the pun….the air we breathe. I think that this has to be the most depressing headline ever: Bathed in Smog: Beijing’s Pollution Could Cut Five Years off Lifespan, Experts Say. (NBC) This story, written…