Author: bristolianbackpacker

6 Things I Will Miss in China

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Our flight to leave China is getting closer and closer. It’s been a whirlwind experience with some great memories. What will I miss about this fascinating country? 1. The Hospitality of Locals Before coming here, I heard some hearsay about how rude Chinese people can be. Firstly, China has 1.3 billion inhabitants so you really can’t generalise. Secondly, I have received some wonderful hospitality from people here. From being invited to people’s homes for meals, being shown around hometowns, and even just somebody on the street offering me some soothing cream for my mosquito bites. Even with my limited Mandarin speaking skills, …

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6 Things I Will Not Miss in China

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Tomorrow I’ll be leaving China. It has been a truly incredible experience and I’ve learnt much about the culture and history. However, there are some things that I can safely say I will not miss from this country. 1. Pollution Pollution in China is bad. Not everywhere and not all the time. Spring has brought with it cleaner air, as well as humidity and rain. Still, the day before Christmas eve, the PM2.5 level reached over 400. This basically means the air is “hazardous” to breathe. Of course, not every day was like that but, in the winter months, I would …

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Getting Off The Beaten Track in Panan, China

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Unless you speak and read sufficient mandarin, and have access to a car, it’s difficult to get off the beaten track in China. This is why we were thrilled when our Chinese friend Edmund invited us to his hometown, Panan. Upon Googling the town, Wikipedia wasn’t very useful. The story of how we met Edmund is not your average tale. It was one day after a heavy night of drinking that Mitch and I craved a pizza. We hadn’t been in China very long, so with my limited Chinese, I headed to Pizza Hut (Mitch was too hungover to make the 10-minute …

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How My Love of Busted Got Me Thinking About Life Choices

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About Busted…. For those of you who aren’t British, Busted are an English pop band, consisting of Matt Willis, James Bourne and Charlie Simpson. Their music graced our ears between 2001 and 2005. They broke up because one member of the band (Charlie) wanted to go focus on his other, rockier band. I was 15 and heartbroken. Everyone has a favourite band, but Busted weren’t just my favourite band, they were my hobby. By this I mean, my evenings were spent on the Busted message board (Username: ***I love James***). I’d buy weekly magazines so I could read interviews and get …

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A Whirlwind Weekend Seeing The Terracotta Warriors

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With just over a month left in China, Mitch and I are pushed for time to visit places. While we take opportunities during the Chinese National Holidays, these weekends are ridiculously busy at the hot-spot tourist places (The Yellow Mountain on New Year’s Day = Very bad idea!). With this is mind, we decided to pick a random weekend to visit the famous Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an. A domestic flight from Hangzhou airport got us there in about two hours. We’ve avidly been trying to avoid air travel while in China (up until Xi’an we’d only taken two domestic flights in …

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Travel Planning, Blogging, and Life Post-China

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I love planning. I love lists, researching and organising, and I love the implementing of said plan. However, with travelling, I’ve come to realise that planning only gets you so far, and then you just have to go with the flow. Mitch and I planned to go to Vietnam together two years ago, but unexpected eye surgery got in the way of that. When we travel, we have vague plans, and that’s what I like. We finish our teaching jobs here in China at the end of June. Naturally, we have begun to talk about our plan for afterwards. We’ll …

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