Yearly Archives: 2007
bad news
This post is about a broken lens in Baoding. Some parts are missing, so the repair works will take longer than we thought. This is my room number in the underground hotel I am staying at. As I am writing this, the night guard just blasted out an explosion of intestinal gas that I could […]
Mary’s eternal lotus pond
This post is about the Ancient Lotus Pool in Baoding. I also visit a Catholic church that is located close to it. Today, I went to what seems to be the main attraction of this city: the Ancient Lotus Pool of Baoding 故莲花池. This structure originally dates back as far as the Tang-dynasty. Since then, […]
friends come and friends go
This post is about a 5km walk within Baoding. My new friend Zhu Hui leaves, and my old friends from Beijing come. Last night, Zhu Hui and I had one last TV supper. We got us some chicken, a few bags of chips and a bottle of coke. There was a movie with Jet Li […]
taekwondo
This is a post about a Taekwondo tournament in Baoding. It’s mostly kids showcasing skills, and there are a few fights. Today I finally understood what Zhu Hui had been talking about all this time. Taekwondo! He had been trying to explain to me that he engaged in some sort of martial art, but I […]
health points +10
This is a post about my blistered feet in Baoding. Zhu Hui and I are resting in a hotel room, having KFC and watching Star Wars. We stayed in today, in a green hotel room on Middle Sky Goose Road. The lens is already in Beijing waiting to get fixed. So this is good. My […]
help from inside and outside
This post is about a 39km walk from Gucheng to Baoding. It’s my longest walk yet – and it damn nearly destroys me. I got help today, and I needed it badly. Waking up in that sub-zero hotel room in Gucheng, Zhu Hui came up with an idea: “Why don’t we just walk all the way […]
world in a tube
This post is about a 19km walk from Dingxing to Gucheng. My lens is still broken, and in the end my friend Zhu Hui comes back. First the bad news: My wide angle lens is definitely broken – here’s one of the last pictures I was able to take: I am in deep despair over […]
things falling apart
This post is about an 11km walk from Gaobeidian to Dingxing. It’s the day that my wide-angle lens stopped working, and I was sad about it. Today I didn’t walk much, because some things fell apart. But I didn’t know that yet when I started walking in the morning. I said good-bye to my friend […]
student day
This is a post about a 24km walk from Zhuozhou to Gaobeidian. My friend Zhu Hui and I visit two schools and a fortune teller. Zhu Hui decided to try out the walking thing today. He pushed his bike alongside me while I was stumbling under the weight of my backpack. On a side note, […]
poor dogs and lucky dogs
This is a post about a 19km walk from Liulihe to Zhuozhou. I don’t know it yet, but I will make a good friend today. Let’s start off with some happy stuff: The staff at the Lanhai Hotel in Liulihe were really friendly. They patiently explained to me that the only way to go see […]
wheels and wheels and hot water in the end
This post is about a 23km walk from Liangxiang to Liulihe. The traffic is terrible, but the hot shower at the end is great. Early in the morning, rising to the street. Who could have known that rising to the street meant staying on it for the whole day? This is the asphalt that I’ve […]
quest for country
This post is about a 19km walk from Lugouqiao to Liangxiang. I am looking for nature, and I do notice some sheep on the way. I woke up with an aching back at six in the morning and decided it was too cold outside to leave my sleeping bag. Then my dad rang me up. […]
the first day
This post is about a 26km walk from Beijing to Lugouqiao. It’s my birthday, and it’s the first day of my journey home from China to Germany. The original plan was to get up “as early as possible”, and start walking right away. But the night before saw me going out to have hot pot […]