Hong Kong and Macau
We felt like easing our way back into Western society, so we chose Hong Kong as our last stop in Asia. After a very intense China, that proved to be a wise decision. With a little help from a friend, we were able to stay at the perfect location: In Mui Wo, on the island of Lantau, just a stone throw away from the ferry pier. What a great place to stay! A ferry every 30 minutes for USD 1.80, and 45 minutes later you’re in Hong Kong Central. At the same time, the island offered somewhat of a refuge, providing beautiful views over the...
read moreChina’s Beauty
We are down to a 800’000 people city: Welcome to Guilin, China’s most picturesque region. While it still feels like a small charming city, it is actually one of China’s top travel destinations. That was as a bit of a surprise, given the fact that we usually just follow our noses when choosing the next destination. It turned out to be a very good hit: Enchanting rice terraces in the north, dramatic limestone karst landscape in the south, a nice town with tons of yummy streetfood and a super friendly and clean Hostel (check it...
read moreCity of eternal spring 2
The places we visit get smaller and smaller. Kunming is the capital of Yunnan and only 2 Million people live here. It is the main destination in China for summer tourism and is also called city of eternal spring (Number 2 because we had that already in Japan: Fukushima). Temperature is around 15 to 28 °C all year and it is located about 1’900 m above sea level, which results in a pretty nice climate. There is a park called the green lake in the city center, where people enjoy their free time. As soon as the heat of the day vanishes, countless...
read moreThe capital of Sichuan
Jiuzhaigou is a beautiful area located between Xi’an and Chengdu with cristal clear blue lakes and vallies as you would imagine they exist only in wonderworld. It seemed to be the perfect place for us to stay for a few days between the two cities. Turned out it’s still winter there! According to the weather forecasat it was snowing and cold, so we decided to skip it and headed directly to Chengdu. Chengdu welcomed us with dumplings and a smoky hotel room. The non-smoker wave has definitely not yet arrived in China. Nevertheless, we...
read more8’000 soldiers and 11’000 steps
A bit surprised that all trains were actually booked out, we decided to give Spring Airlines a chance and flew from Shanghai to Xi’an. We didn’t stay in the city, though, but instead made our way straight to Huashan, in chase of another item on our bucket list: The much-hyped most dangerous path in the world. The small town of Huashan has a cozy, relaxed feeling about it we immediately liked. After a good night’s rest, we went past the large temple that forms the entry of the climb up to the mountain. The mountain itself...
read more上海市
The high speed train from Beijing to Shanghai – about 1’200 km – takes only 5 hours. It feels like you’re flying a few meters above ground level through the country, past giant unknown cities, many farm fields and hilly areas. We stayed with Markus’ friends Richard and Cinnamon in the suburbs of Shanghai and they made our stay exceptional. They even surprised us with a self-made “Züpfe” and a Swiss Cheese Fondue! Shanghai is the largest city in China with a population of more than 24 millions. The...
read moreWelcome to the “Jing”
After an 8 hour delay and a ride in the probably oldest and worst plane ever, we made it to China, got ripped off by a taxi driver and finally settled into a rather noisy and not-so-clean backpackers hostel. What can we say – it’s Beijing. It’s humongous. There’s more than 63’000 registered taxis (and we didn’t find a single nice one). It’s said to have the most polluted air of any city in the world. Maybe that’s the reason why most people looked not so happy. On the upside, it’s close to...
read more14 random facts about Japan
We loved Japan. Maybe because it is so funky. Here’s some random facts to prove its funkiness. 1. They like Sushi Of course they do. We do too. But only looking at the sheer amount of raw fish they down, you can see how much they really like it. We did our best to keep up (we had Sushi on 13 out of 16 days in Japan), but the piles of plates they left behind left us speechless. 2. They’ve got flashing red traffic lights. Yep. How confusing is that? Is that like, yellow flashing, but more dangerous? No clue. 3. Contamination does not...
read moreA damaged beauty
Fukushima – not the first place you’d think of going to for a vacation. In fact, I can’t think of any place with such a negative connotation to its name for the last few years (with the exception of a few war-riddled countries maybe). Nevertheless, it seemed a logic place to go when heading north from Tokyo, and since we’d read just as many positive things about the area, we decided to give it a go. The weather somehow cleared up as soon as we entered the area, which we took as a good sign. Speaking of signs: I admit that passing this...
read moreCherry Trees and a Tea Ceremony
The small town with the name Yoshino lies on top of a mountain in the Nara Prefecture surrounded by cherry trees. There is a huge old gate half way up to the top. It once was the gate between earth and the spiritual world, and history tells that pilgrims went there to leave everything earthly behind them and come closer to heaven. It was a place where spirituality was trained and developed. Even today, the place is a popular pilgrimage. Even though the town is flooded with tourists, it still has this captivating traditional Japanese flair. A...
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