Monthly Archives: May 2016

Going from my business class railroad seats… …to the sad, anemic (no Diet Coke???) “first class” lounge at the Tianjin airport, I’ve become acutely aware of just how bourgeois my tastes have become.

I grew suspicious when my Tianjin hotel seemed to have fewer restaurants & bars than its guest information guides had suggested.  I stopped of at a floor with a supposed year-round bar and found this derelict room.  Only reverb-drenched big … Continue reading →

Tianjin’s “Ancient Culture Street” is a reconstruction of a Qing-era shopping street (but is largely a tourist trap for Chinese visiting the city.) Many Chinese claim they are not religious, but I’m always struck by how reflexively superstitious almost all … Continue reading →

I took a lonely ride up a sort of ski-lift to the mountains overlooking Shanhaiguan.  The sea falling away behind me, the mountains rising up before me, the Great Wall tracking along to my right, the wind blowing through the … Continue reading →

As the sun set in the west beyond Shanhai’s mountains, you could still see — faintly in the distance — the silhouette of the Great Wall and its battlements along the ridgeline.  I had to zoom in like crazy, so … Continue reading →

A short walk from the Old Dragon’s Head — and jutting out into the Bohai Sea — is the Sea God Temple.   

This is the Shanhai Pass gate through the Great Wall.  In 1644, a great battle took place here which led to the end of the Ming dynasty and the establishment of the Qing dynasty by the Manchus from north of … Continue reading →