Why You Should Visit Xinjiang
The adjective most commonly applied to Xinjiang* is “restive”. After a series of recent attacks attributed to the region’s Uyghur separatists, it was with some trepidation back in June that […]
The adjective most commonly applied to Xinjiang* is “restive”. After a series of recent attacks attributed to the region’s Uyghur separatists, it was with some trepidation back in June that […]
I stand corrected. After four years living on Cheung Chau and almost four years of telling people that it was kind-of-lame and best avoided, I’ve finally done the Cheung Chau […]
When I started the Little Yak blog in August 2012, I really didn’t know what I wanted to say – it took me until January 2013 to work up to […]
In southern China, where there are hills, there are rice terraces. These “ladder fields”, as they’re called in Chinese (梯田, tītián) snake across hillsides from Fujian to Yunnan, cut into thousands […]
The town of Manigango sits astride a crossroad in north-west Sichuan. Turn right here, and an ancient dirt road will lead you into Sichuan’s extreme northwest, the birthplace of Tibetan […]
{In which my guests and I leave Chengdu on the journey that will take us to Lhasa:} While driving through rush-hour Chengdu bears more than a passing resemblance to piloting a […]
The post-trip dust of mystery receipts and cryptic notes-to-self (‘It [what?!] starts at 4,650m’ and ‘Watch out for… [illegible scrawl]‘) has finally settled. When I’m leading a journey, the adventure is […]
All is well in cloudy Chengdu, my guests having thus far braved Chinese domestic flights, temporary driving license applications, and weapons-grade hotpot. Tomorrow the actual hijinks begin… Unlike my adventures […]
First for the rainclouds… It’s been a wet afternoon here in Hong Kong. Earlier, as I squeezed my way through the forest of head-height umbrellas that lined a crowded section […]
Last week, as I sat in a hotel in Burgundy overlooking acres of vineyards and writing about the Karakoram Highway, I realised the strangeness of writing about China regardless of my […]
On April 1 this year, Nirwan Moktan set off to cycle from Hong Kong to his hometown in Nepal. On his 6,000-kilometre journey home, he passed through many of my […]
I recently found myself in the awkward position of having to call someone to ask whether they were still alive or not. The man in question, Doctor Ho, and I […]
Like many British people, I come from a family of tea-drinkers – black tea with milk, please, served after meals or with biscuits and cake. In the past, I’ve tended […]
Earlier this year I bought a kilo of pork belly in order to make some zhajiang – a satisfyingly salty pork-based sauce that’s popular served with noodles in Beijing. As I unwrapped […]
As she walks past, her bottom jiggling with each step, the men’s heads turn and their eyebrows rise appreciatively. A wolf whistle would not be out of place, although nobody […]