Kantou Village (坎头古村落) lies in between a range of mountains in Anhui. Some guides speak of a mysterious and hidden village, but it is a popular destination for tourists — especially people riding bicycles and motorbikes. Kids playing in a litter. The village is pretty, but the best view is provided by a nearby hill. […]
In Anhui, leave a city, drive for half an hour, and leave the highway. Then drive half an hour on a long and narrow road into the mountains through tiny villages. You’ll encounter a dozen grey Wulin mini-vans. No restaurants, two tiny supermarkets. Park your car. Then walk two hours alongside creeks and waterfalls, and […]
Lower-tier cities in China always fascinate me, because they’re so anonymous and unknown, yet house hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. (I wrote more about this phenomenon in an article about Danyang.) Anyway, today we’re in Ningguo (宁国) in Anhui, where 400,000 people live, and while Eva still sleeps I’m taking a quick […]
Shops! Food! Animals! All of it in and around ‘Little Shanghai Pedestrian Street’ (小上海步行街), in Zhoupu (周浦镇). One ‘layer’ outside of the street you’ll find cheap hotels and family-owned businesses, like clothing, make-up, and tattoo parlors. One more layer out and it’s an old suburb, absorbed into the shopping area. The houses are so close […]
Xinchang (新场) is Shanghai’s best old town. Second time there, back for some 蟹壳黄(Crab shell yellow). It’s hot, it’s packed, and shops are doing well — which is great to see.
The playing, the rider, and the painted (Songjiang today). I’ve sinned a bit. 4A and 5A tourist attractions in China are horrible, but we did go to Guangfulin Relics Park (广富林遗址) today, which classifies as 4A. It was good though. Lots of old buildings on the huge premise, most if not all reproductions & a […]
Every hike is its own little story. Today, Luyu Ancient Road (陆羽古道) in Huzhou (湖州) with friends & ten thousand mosquitoes. A two-hour drive from Shanghai and you’re in a totally different scenery. (Two hours back and you’re surrounded by glass, concrete & coffee stores again.) We only took the 6KM trail but with a […]
Songxicun (嵩溪村) today, with buildings from different centuries. Lots of history here, but we didn’t really study all the plaques or Baidu, we just had a quiet day in between the rain showers. Amazing woodwork here in this temple. No visitors around, just corn left to dry. The village has two creeks coming together, one […]
“Our neighbors left, the house next to theirs burned down and it also ruined their roof.” Had he not told me this, I might have not noticed the charred beams. We’re in Pinghu (平湖市钟埭老街) and the man lives in a house alongside the Corridor Shed (廊棚), which was built about a century ago when China […]
A trip to a deserted old movie set today, in the far southeast of Shanghai. Dongxu Village (东旭村) will probably soon be wiped off the map, but movies like Green Snake (青蛇) were filmed here, over 30 years ago. I found it when looking for old towns on Xiaohongshu, including a tip to find the […]