Eyes on China – A China Travel Blog

Called doufu in its native China, tofu was invented over two millenniums ago by a Chinese scholar and has been a very important food in Chinese cooking until today. Obtained from the milky liquid extracted from soy beans, tofu has the appearance and texture of soft cheese, but only a faint flavor of its own [...]

“The Chinese are very lucky people because wherever they go, they can always find hometown food” As a Chinese saying goes, “When going to an eating house, go to one that is filled with customers.” A good rules of thumb for choosing the right Chinese restaurants to dine is if the restaurant isn’t packed with [...]

The art of Chinese cooking is not, contrary to popular belief, complicated and difficult. Most Chinese dishes do not require a complex processing and equipment in the kitchen as does one of China’s most famous dishes, Peking duck. Simplicity is the key to Chinese cuisine as evidently shown in their various cooking methods. When you [...]

A rough start- the weirdest case of motion sickness ever We, R, T and I, got to Kunming bus station with stacks of time and found our bus. A nice, modern Daewoo, mercifully not a sleeper (R and I are too tall to do that comfortably). It looked promising. We stowed our luggage and boarded, [...]

Why I’ve never been to Shanghai before Expectations are a tricky thing: equally capable of being a barrier between or the impetus towards experience. I realised this when, after over 18 months in China, I finally decided to visit Shanghai. Why had it taken me so long to visit a city that is not only [...]

The world horticultural garden exposition in northest Kunming is a global exposition of the highest degree. First opened in May of 1999, this theme park remains a dazzling display of sights, sounds and colors. Containing dozens of theme gardens, this park will impress and amaze anyone interested in natural or man-made science, art, poetry or [...]

I woke up startled. The deafening sound coming from outside seemed to make the whole bus tremble. We were crossing an old wooden bridge, below was a roaring chocolate brown river. “Jinsha Jiang” An old man sitting next to me was pointing at the river. I looked at him tiredly still trying to wake up. [...]

A Story of Creation    In the beginning, there was nothing but chaos and from this sprang a single egg. Inside the egg, Pan Gu (盘古) was growing, and he became so enormous that eventually he broke the egg. Some parts of the egg spiralled high to become the heavens and other parts of the [...]

Everything has a beginning and an end. QinHuangDao, a coastal city in Hebei province, is a city containing more than one important Asian beginning. I went there to begin my first May Golden week holiday. QinHuangDao is named after the famous Chinese emperor QinShiHuangDi, the man typically credited with building the great wall. From what [...]