To Bird Island
Other than staring out at the vast emptiness that comprises most of the province, the main ‘thing to do’ in Qinghai is to visit Qinghai Lake. More pleasingly known by […]
Author Archives: Joanna James
Slowing Down
I’ve discovered that I’m a bit of a hypocrite. While I love and wholly subscribe to the idea that travelling slowly is preferable to travelling quickly, I’ve been whisking my […]
Getting Going in Gansu
I was prepared to dislike Tianshui when I arrived here a few hours ago. This was due to a few reasons, none of them very good (the bus broke down, […]
A Detour & Mapo Tofu
For the first time since university, I have a proper backpacking trip coming up – six weeks across northwest China – in order to update a guidebook. I’ll be heading […]
Good Good Study, Day Day Up!
Studying Chinese requires that you make a few decisions upfront. Do you learn Mandarin or another dialect? Learn the characters or stick with pinyin? Traditional or simplified characters? Go to […]
Happy Birthday Tin Hau! 1,053 years-old today…
Last weekend, Cheung Chau was roamed by lions and mythical beasts in honour of Tin Hau’s birthday. The legend of Tin Hau, the Goddess of the Sea, has built up […]
The Science of Travelling Light
Eurgh – packing lists. I generally shun them as indicative of control-freakery, but given that my own packing is reduced to putting everything in a big pile, adding some things […]
The Art of Travelling Light
Luggage is a fact of life. Whether you’re going to a friend’s house for the weekend or on a six-month long expedition across the steppes of Central Asia, you’ll need […]
Five things not to do in Cheung Chau
As some of you may have gathered, Little Yak recently moved from Hong Kong Island to Cheung Chau. For the uninitiated, Cheung Chau is a small island about an hour […]
Comfort Food in Any Language & Disanxian
I’ve been thinking about comfort foods recently. What is it that makes them comforting? My guess is that they’re often foods that we ate as children – in my case, […]
Tibet Travel Permits – An Introduction
Travelling to Tibet is a dream for many people. The legend of a high-up, far-away and closed-off kingdom ruled by monks that developed in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries […]
Fish-Flavoured Eggplant & Why Cook Chinese at Home?
Fish-flavoured eggplant (鱼香茄子, yúxiāng qiézi*) was one of the first dishes that I ate in China. I think I must have chanced upon it via a random order from a […]
Charity Art Sale in Hong Kong
Hong Kongers! One of my photographs (the ‘Man with Pipe’) will be up for sale at an exhibition in Hong Kong this weekend. The event is being held to raise […]
Pigs & Monkeys – Where are China’s wild animals?
In the course of many trips to China over the last fifteen years, I have spotted the following wild animals: an enormous stag that bolted in front of our car […]
Tibetan Travel Update – Good News!
Those of you who follow the Byzantine rules and regulations that govern travel inside the Tibetan Autonomous Region will know that since May last year it has been more difficult […]
Little Yak 