Because she was still on vacation for the Spring Festival holiday, Carmen and I hung out for the next few days I was in Chengdu. Eventually, she invited me to go with her to visit several areas near where she grew up. The two of us spent one day in […]
Travel Words
Sichuan: Bamboo Sea
In order to get away from the Spring Festival crowds in Chengdu, I left town towards the Bamboo Sea. On the way I met a girl, Carmen, who had gotten tired of cooking for her family for the holidays and decided to do the same. After walking around the park […]
Huashan
Just east of Xi’An is China’s “Magnificant Mountain.” Though not spoken of with the same level of excitement and beauty of Huangshan (in Anhui Province), Huashan mountain is quite pretty. Greg and I took the cable car up early in the day, spent all day hiking between the 5 major […]
Xishuangbanna
XiShuangBanNa After a few months stuck in Shenzhen without a vacation, my Spring Festival/ Chinese New Year vacation found me straight back in Yunnan Province. Tropical rain-forest bordering Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam. Home to the upper stretches of the Mekong River (before it becomes the Mekong River. 澜沧江。) One of the […]
Fujian and Xiamen
After about a month of teaching in Shenzhen came my first vacation: National Day. Myself and a group of 7 other teachers from CTLC had trouble finding tickets to anywhere we were super excited about going, so instead we headed to where we COULD find tickets: Xiamen. Fujian province is […]
Spending Time in Shenzhen
Spending Time in Shenzhen For the year and a half that I lived in China, Shenzhen was the base of operations. Shenzhen is very much NOT old China. In 1979, the city was a small fishing village overlooking the Hong Kong territory from across the bay. Since 1980, when it […]
Hey there! I'm Stephen, this is my travel blog, and that's me in the poofy hat.
I'm a photographer / writer traveling since 2008, and I've been doing my best to visit amazing places.
My current focus is Central Asia, because for a hiking and camping enthusiast it's as good as it gets.