Tag: China

China (Beijing, Yunnan and Sanya), Touring In & Around Kunming, 6 April 2010

Ged rose early and wrote up.

Fine breakfast early – then off to flower market on outskirts of town– Cheung Gong.

Next on to the Stone Forest – took a lengthy stroll.

The alleged likenesses of stones to the Queen, Darth Vader, Homer Simpson etc were a little strained, but it was a lovely site – especially the quieter more distant bits of the forest (see headline picture and below) where the large Chinese tour groups don’t go!

…no-one ever had a brother like Martin…

Then a pit stop (mostly for the driver and increasingly excitable guide Martin).

Then on to a Yi village – Chi Shing – Martin is Yi whereas driver Guan is Bai.

Next on to the Yunnan National Arts Museum – more an antique shop than museum but very interesting on tribal cultures.

Home for some rest, watch the video, then out for a local meal at Derein’s Restaurant in a grand old house. Eel (Yunnan style), duck, oil veg and mushroom rice and local Shaoxing rice wine.

Martin left with some persuasion, still doing business on his mobile.

Enjoyed our evening together and stroll home around like et cetera passing clubs & bars on the way – decided on quiet evening in with cookies and veg.

There is a placeholder and links piece for this trip, with links to all the photographs, the full itinerary and stuff – click here for that.

China (Beijing, Yunnan and Sanya), Touring In Beijing Then On To Kunming, 5 April 2010

Both slept well.

Packed and took breakfast at DuGe – quirky & good in parts. Peppery sausages were nice.

Sophie met us and took us off to see the Olympic stadium (birds nest) and then on to Chinese medicine centre.

We met lecturer Doctor Hu (you couldn’t make it up) who told us all about it and insisted that Ged must be Shakespeare reincarnated.

Uncanny resemblance.

Dr Hu also arranged for some trainees to massage our feet and for an aged professor to tell us what ails us & sell us some very expensive Chinese medicine cocktails, which we politely declined.

Hardly able to walk now (okay I made up that last bit) we wandered to back to the car and headed off to 798 district – art complex formally factories.

Some very interesting some not so interesting but all a great atmosphere.

Took some refreshments at an outdoor café, then off to the airport.

First class flight Kunming – service excellent, food terrible.

Met by Martin “Mr Fixit” who insists I look like a movie star he cannot name – Lucien from Underworld – that’s Michael Sheen.

Kind words, Martin – in my dreams I look like him – click the picture to see the fandom wiki

Took us to surprisingly splendid Green Lake Hotel and even hung around to help us order our dinner.

Ate some local style pork and Cantonese chicken, gai lan and rice washed down with a very palatable Montepulciano.

There is a placeholder and links piece for this trip, with links to all the photographs, the full itinerary and stuff – click here for that.

China, Hong Kong & Bali Trip – Song Thoughts, 9 December 1993

If I thought that a long holiday would bring a rush of creativity to my comedy lyric writing career at NewsRevue, clearly I was mistaken. Best part of four weeks and this is all he wrote, folks:

China, Hong Kong & Bali Trip – Hong Kong To Bali, 3 December 1993

3rd Dec – Rose packed & worked out in gyn – had final breakfast at Kens followed by farewell to Debbie [Deborah Biber] & then off to airport for Bali Flight. Check in seemed endless. Arrived Bali late after severe turbulence Jakarta-Bali, It’s hot!

Not much to add about this day. There is one photo of monkeys from Janie’s roll which is manifestly between pictures of the Hong Kong Peak and of Bali which I cannot quite place. Actually this was a few days later in Bali, but anyway I thought best displayed as eye candy on the day we went from one place to t’other:

Monkeying Around Hong Kong Or Bali

China, Hong Kong & Bali Trip – Another Day In Hong Kong, 2 December 1993

2 Dec Hong Kong – Went to Eastern District & wandered round Hollywood Road and surrounding medicine and food shops & markets. Took MTR to Western District & met Debbie [Deborah Biber] for dim sum lunch. Went across to recommended shoe district and then up to Peak Tram again where we could see this time…

…tea up there…

…then returned to rest/jacuzzi then out to Sichuan Lau restaurant for dinner.

“Sze Chuen Lau” is still a highly regarded restaurant 25 years on, it seems – I suspect we were well advised, not least by Debbie (Deborah) Biber.

All the photos we took in Hong Kong during our four night stay – by which I mean all 34 photos – can be seen in raw form in the Flickr album below:

CB_1993_J3_ (18)

China, Hong Kong & Bali Trip – A Day In Hong Kong, 1 December 1993

At the time I thought this sign was very funny

1 Dec Hong Kong – Ros elate, had breakfast at Kens & said goodbye to Phillipa. Went round Central District (main roads and alleyways) and into Mandarin Oriental. Then took ferry to Kowloon to collect D&P and wander around some more.

Rested/jacuzzi a while & met Janie’s friend Debbie Biber for drinks/light supper – had an early night.

We spent a fair bit of time with Debbie (Deborah) Biber towards the end of our time in Hong Kong; she was very pleasant company and it was very helpful for us to receive some local knowledge.

All the photos we took in Hong Kong during our four night stay – by which I mean all 34 photos – can be seen in raw form in the Flickr album below:

CB_1993_J3_ (18)

China Trip – Clean Business Cuisine Book Thoughts, 30 November 1993

While in China, I did a great deal of thinking about the planned book which became Clean Business Cuisine. Here are the notes I made while on that trip. I shall not try to translate them.

China, Hong Kong & Bali Trip – A Day In Hong Kong, 30 November 1993

30th Nov Hong Kong – Half day orientation tour early (after Breakfast at Kens) – up (Peak tram to) Victoria Peak in the rain – saw nothing…

Move on – nothing to see here

…then on to Stanley Market followed by Aberdeen Fishing Village including a Sanpan ride…

On return went across to Kowloon to drop off D&P and then went home to rest in jacuzzi.  In evening walked round temple market and back along Nathan Road – got home quite late.

Perhaps I need to explain what D&P was, for any younger readers. Back in the day, photography was done on film – much of it on negative film. In order to see the photographs, you would take (or send) your completed rolls of film for developing and printing (D&P). Some people (like me in the late 1970s) even did their own at home – although I never got past doing that in black and white. My dad made his living by having a photographic shop, much of which was about  selling D&P equipment and/or being an agent for D&P services.

I remember loving the large rooftop jacuzzi at the New World Harbour View. The hotel seemed very modern and luxurious compared with anything we’d encountered in China. Currently (2018) I think that hotel is the Renaissance Harbour View. Still highly regarded.

Harbour View at night

China Trip – Guangzhou To Hong Kong, 29 November 1993

29 Nov. Guangzhou -> Hong Kong – Early start off to railway station for grueling journey – train surprisingly good once you finally get on it. Long wait to get through immigration at Hong Kong – rested in afternoon once we got to hotel. Then met up with Phillipa, Clive & Berni – had sandwich supper & then nipped across to Kowloon for a while – early night.

Janie and I both only have limited recall of this day. There was one older member of our tour who was really quite poorly by this stage – I remember the tour party needed to look after him on the journey and try to arrange for him to get medical attention on arrival. Word reached us that he was fine in the end.

We had been given a detailed briefing about our crossing from China to Hong Kong…

Hong Kong Briefing 26 November Ahead Of Transfer From Guangzhou To Hong Kong 29 November 1993

…so we shouldn’t have been surprised by the grueling and wait-strewn nature of the journey.

I’m trying to recall Phillipa, Clive and Berni. I am pretty sure the latter pair are the red-headed couple on the right hand side of this picture from Shanghai – I think Phillipa is the youngish woman wearing a dark pullover in the middle of this group:

I remember that Janie had a crazy craving for some western food and in particular a club sandwich – hence the sandwich supper. I’m guessing that the others had a similar craving so we agreed to go on a club sandwich hunt together on that first post-tour night.

Our hotel in Hong Kong was the New World Harbour View, which was very pleasant.

Not sure whether this picture of me enjoying the harbour view was taken that first afternoon or not – who cares?

All the photos we took in Hong Kong during our four night stay – by which I mean all 34 photos – can be seen in raw form in the Flickr album below:

CB_1993_J3_ (18)

Hong Kong Briefing 26 November Ahead Of Transfer From Guangzhou To Hong Kong 29 November 1993

Three blithering pages of notes on how to go about transferring from our tour ending in Guangzhou to the unguided part of our holiday, starting in Hong Kong.

Perhaps some need reminding/informing that Hong Kong was still a British protectorate in 1993 – the “one country, two systems” transfer to Chinese rule thing was still at the planning stage.

To be fair, only the first page-and-a-half was really about the tortuous transfer – the rest was about what we might do in Hong Kong once we got there.

I won’t decipher my hieroglyphics in this piece but might extract some elements of them in my reports of our transfer to and then our time in Hong Kong.