The Unbidden Truth of the Forbidden City – Beijing’s palatial heart.
20 May 2018. For a start it’s huge! Within the walls there are 980 separate buildings with over 8700 rooms. …
Author Archives: Alison and Don
The Quietly Beating Heart of Old Beijing – the living hutongs
17-22 May 2018. At 6pm we all meet in the lobby of the hotel. There are eight of us (from …
The Forty-Dollar Cup of Tea – and other tales from Beijing
16-18 May 2018. I don’t see her coming. I’m walking through Beijing’s Jingshan Park and suddenly there she is beside …
Japan – the Untold Stories
27 April-16 May 2018. Trains I’m on a train from suburban Fuchu heading back to my hostel in Central Tokyo …
The Gorgeous Golden Heart and Soul of Nikko: the Tōshō-gū Shrine
2 May 2018. I met a man on the train going to the Shibazakura Festival. He bragged about being a …
Why You Should Visit Yangshuo!
In May and June of last year I spent four weeks in China, three of them on Intrepid’s China Experience …
What’s my problem?! Arashiyama is touristy but still has much to offer.
14 May 2018. I take the train past the stop for Arashiyama and travel on to Kameoka. I’d read that …
The Ordinary and the Extraordinary: Kyoto’s Kitchen and the Hollyhock Festival
9-15 May 2018. From the outside it looks like you’re entering a dark tunnel that goes on forever. Even though …
Shooting Squirrels in the Park: a Montreal nature hunt
I first saw it about a year ago: a photo, taken by my sister, of a white squirrel in the …
Travelling with a small-group tour in China
My latest article for Intrepid Travel has recently been published in their online journal. It’s about the advantages of doing …
Japan’s Imperial Heart: walking the streets of Kyoto
9-15 May 2018. Kyoto is old, but she is no old dame. She is an ancient goddess in a flowing …
Kimonos-Weddings-Geisha: the streets of Kyoto
10-15 May 2018. I have six full days in Kyoto but I lose two of them. I lose the first …
The Red and the Gold – Kyoto’s Fushimi Inari Shrine and the Golden Pavilion.
9-15 May 2018. In 1950 a disturbed 22-year-old novice monk burned down the five-hundred–year-old Rokuon-ji Temple in Kyoto, and then …
Climbing the Sacred Mountain – China’s Emei Shan
Emei Shan, or Emei Mountain, was an unexpected highlight of the three-week tour I recently did in China with Intrepid …
