Cranky German

Tag: China

  • Tibet On The Horizon

    As the sun sets on Shangri-La we ready our bags for an early flight to Lhasa. Even if people here don’t live for a couple of centuries as in the fictional Shangri-La this town was good to us. Great family style dinners at the CrossRoad guesthouse, local peaks to climb, yak pie and Tibetan disco…

  • Light A Couple Of These And Your Sins Will Be Forgotten

  • Morning In Shangri-La (really this time)

    Minds giddy with the thin air of 3200 meters we are closing in on Tibet. Already Yak carcasses are dangling from store fronts and prayer flags are everywhere.

  • On the Road to Shangri-La: Tiger Leaping Gorge

    A towering redwood above the apple tree that is Hell’s Canyon in Oregon, Tiger Leaping Gorge soars some 3900 meters above the water of the Yangzi river. The Yulong Xue mountain, i.e. Jade Dragon Snow mountain stands watch with its 5500 meters. Enjoy the sight while it lasts as plans to dam the river will…

  • Yin and Yang: Laborer and Folklore Disco

    Lijiang is a place of extreme contrasts as hords of affluent Chinese tourist with fat Canons with L-lenses dangling from their necks amble through the narrow alleys of this ancient city come outdoor shopping mall. The stores sell some interesting trinkets that show local color and the bars have women dressed in local tribal outfits…

  • Looking at Yulong Mountain from Lijiang

  • German Bakery

    The things you discover after spending three or four days in place make it worthwhile to stay long enough to see beyond the surface. On our last morning we met the owner of this impeccably run German bakery. What an opportunity for locals to learn German baking and perhaps set off to run their own…

  • All Hands On Deck For Rice Harvest On Lake Er

    Enjoy that rice, it was a lot of trouble to grow and harvest.

  • Communication

    Sometimes a small misunderstanding can have surprising results such as this delicious albeit entirely excessive eight course meal. Somehow ‘Can you recommend something?’ came across as ‘We’d like to order for us and our six friends who are about to join us’. It was so ridiculously that a Chinese tourist took a picture of us.

  • Mystery Courtyard

    For all the bustling and excess of the main streets of Dali there are plenty of stories to be learned beyond the surface. The Mosques reminders of a late 19th century uprising to found a Muslim state. Back streets covered in grain to be dried. Uniformed schoolchildren walking in small groups nearly always with the…