Monthly Archives: February 2008

The first thing in the morning – lazy cats on the roof: They were bathing in the sunlight while I was leaning over a dirty sink brushing my teeth. When I got on the highway to Xi’an though, the sun was shining upon me too, I had a can of cool herbal tea in my […]

I was going to walk to Xi’an today, but in the end I didn’t make it. By far. Instead my mind got corrupted by the lifestyles of the rich and infamous: This is Huaqingchi 华清池, the legendary hot springs resort of the emperors. This place has apparently been in use for more than five thousand […]

When I woke up in my PLA bed, I noticed something was going on outside: By loading the video, you agree to YouTube’s privacy policy.Learn more Load video Always unblock YouTube Morning music – now that’s something different to a regular hotel. I decided it was time for me to get going as well, because […]

Another night of the elevator-symphony had gone by, and so there I was, not suffering anymore, and on the road again. I guess it’s too easy to forget about real misery unless it’s in your face: Where do they come from, all the unwanted and lost? – Every place in the world seems to have […]

I told you it had been pretty hot the last two days, and also that I was staying in a hotel with no heating last night. Because it had been so hot. Well, it wasn’t so hot at all when I woke up and stepped outside to have a look: Not that bad? Okay, how […]

Today might have been even hotter than the day before; I’m not wearing my long johns and my sweater anyways, and I’m definitely not cold. Anyways, warm or not, it seemed like it was going to be another boring day on the road at first: Somewhere after the railway tracks I came across a couple […]

Not much happened today, except for one thing: temperatures were rising, and it definitely got a bit warm on the road: At some point, I came through a large working unit 单位 (a kind of government-owned company from the socialist era): This one was so big it basically formed a village by itself, complete with […]

I finally crossed the Yellow River and made it into the province of Shaanxi 陕西 today. Yay!! The last steps through public traffic before the river were hasty and confused though: But then I got to the bridge: What a sublime feeling to be crossing these massive waters… The Yellow River 黄河. Slowly winding its […]

You see the blue stream on the map? That’s the famous Yellow River. I am so close to it, but alas! I can’t see it just yet, because it has pulled back too far into its bed: The road I was walking on today looked the same for hours and hours: No people, no cars […]

This is my friend Chang Haiqiang 常海强: Awesome guy; fixed me up with a nice place to stay and fed me home-cooked chicken wings for breakfast. The dude has done just about everything everywhere, from motorbike maintenance in the South to running a restaurant in the capital. He knows everyone in the little settlement that’s […]

There is an aeroplane on a square in a public park in Yongji: Obviously, this is a nice place to play with friends when you’re about 10 years old: I’m 26, so I didn’t play. Instead I was going to climb yet another pagoda, one that seemed to be leaning slightly to the right: The […]

There’s a photographer (I forget his name) who has published a book about things people sit on in China. I think that is an interesting subject indeed, and I am a bit jealous that I didn’t think of it first: There’s not necessarily a deeper meaning to this – most chairs are still just chairs […]

Someone had left his sneakers outside, on a wall next to the road: My boots didn’t care much though. They just carried my aching body away: The mountains to the left, the flat land to the right, stomping the concrete highway, so we walked, my boots and I: Some kids were shooting pool, and I […]

Oh, so good to be on the road again! Or so I thought… It seemed like the Chairman himself was going to hail me off when I was about to leave the city: Everything was quiet, almost all shops and restaurants remaining closed during the holiday season: I seemed to find a kid around every […]