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Heb je wel eens gehoord van de Boeddha?
Boeddha is een meneer uit India die meer dan 2,5 duizend jaar geleden leefde. Hij was een soort leraar en wat hij onder andere vertelde is dat alle mensen evenveel waard zijn. Een mooie wijsheid, vind ik! In China worden de wijsheden van Boeddha ook weer meer populair en veel mensen willen naar oude Boeddha […]
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Over the Gobi to Ulaan Baatar – 3378 km
Night train across the Gobi desert. Wild camels walking outside in small herds. Of course, just when I had lost the camera behind the bedding… Hundreds and thousands of wind turbines sprawling kilometers along the tracks whirr with a promise of a possibly cleaner future. Coming up on the Mongolian highland we were welcomed with […]
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Datong: Diamond in the Coal Belt? – 2369 km
I dreaded staying overnight in Datong. I was afraid that we would suffocate in the smog in this industrial city in the northern coal belt. The city had it’s hayday as capital of a small turkish kingdom in the 5th century, when Buddhism was introduced. Just outside the town are “Yungang Grottoes” one of the […]
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Night train across the Loess Plateau
The northern plain, the “Loess Plateau” is an area with fine yellowish soil, which was the fertile center of the northern Chinese civilization. The train ride from Xi’an to Datong was There is a beautiful film by John D. Liu about an area not far from here that was re-greened in a World Bank Project […]
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Electric Cars Coming…
China is clearly world leading in electric scooters. 100 million electric scooters roll on the streets, silently zooming around. Last year, they sold 20 million scooters, and the price ranges from 700-3000 RMB (90-400 euro). The e-scooter technology is now being scaled up to micro-cars. This is a fantastic development, with light-weight cars for city […]
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+ en – met leven in China
In china dan zijn er + en -. + 1. Er zijn heel veel mooie gebouwen in China. (of nu zijn er heel veel mooie gebouwen.) 2. Er is heel veel mooie natuur (of nu is er heel veel natuur.) 3. Er zijn heel veel mooie monumenten ( of nu zijn er heel veel […]
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Natuur
Heel veel van China was natuur maar nu word er minder en minder. Ze heben somige dieren soorten met uitstijging bedrijgt, maar die gaan best heel snel op in China. Net als de siberische tijger, voorig jaar waren er honderden in China maar nu zijn er minder dan tien. Maar niet voor ale dieren zijn […]
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Blote-billen-broek
De blote-bille-broek is een heel goede uitvinding en hij werkt ook! Je loopt gewoon en als je moet poepen of plassen doe je het gewoon en dan loop je gewoon verder. Maar dan komt er wel overal poep en plas op straat. Dat is het enige naadeel. Voor de rest werkt het heel goed. Je […]
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Xi’an: a centre for (learning) tourism – 1491 km
Xi’an, the starting point of the old silk road westward, is where we enjoy the sunshine and the hospitality of the great hostel of the Seven Sages. Xi’an (“西安”) means literally “Western Peace”. We like the Peace(ful) aspect of the Xi’an life. Although the by far biggest group of the 8 million inhabitants are Han […]
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Longmen Buddha Caves – 1123 km
The Longmen Buddha Caves are one of the three famous Buddha caves in China, along with the caves outside Dunhuang (westwards, into the desert, not part of this trip) and outside Datong (where we go tomorrow). We are in the Buddha-land. In the Tang Dynasty (approx 600 CE-900 CE, when Europe was deep down in […]
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Temple Trees
Most of China’s ancient forests have been cut down for firewood and lumber, just like in Europe. However, the temple grounds have saved some of the specimens. Even in monasteries that have been abandoned, the sacred grounds protect the remaining giants of the past. In Shaolin, as in many temples we have been, there are […]
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High Heels are Hot
We are stunned by the skills of the local ladies. They scramble up mountainsides and over cobblestones wearing spectacular high heels. However, at the end of the day the ankles may need soothing, and low shoes are for sale at the exit of the tourist area, next to the icecream.
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Fresh air behind the behind
The classic Chinese children’s trousers are more common in the smaller cities. In Shanghai it is almost gone, after an assault by the international diaper industry. Huggies and Pampers’ brand managers try to create an aura of modernity and progress to purchase plastic to ‘protect’ the babies’ bottoms. The Chinese system makes all children self-regulating […]
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Shaolin Temple – 1062 km
Shaolin Temple – the Kungfu Monastery. Legends and lore from kungfu films lift this place to a mythical level. Today it is a thriving park with thousands of students, show business and a bite of Buddhism. Millions of visitors come each year to this martial-arts Mecca. The first temple was built here 1500 years […]
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Dengfeng, Henan (next to Shaolin Temple) – 1044km
We are now in the heartland of the northern Chinese civilization. Along the Yellow River (Huang He), the ancient kingdoms of the north placed their capitals and vied for power. Luoyang, Xi’an, Kaifeng are all on the river. This was a lush and rich country with vast production and abundance. Agriculture started here with millet […]
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Our new adventure has started: from Shanghai to Soest – 1 km
Although our adventure already started with all the preparations for both the moving of all our wonderful stuff and the trips itself, now we are really flying! We landed next to Gate 2 of Hongqiao Airport, the hotel on crawling distance from the Hongqiao Railway Station. It feels still a bit unreal to leave Shanghai […]
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105 more trees in Inner Mongolia
On leaving Shanghai we collected money from our yard sale and we got donations from several friends for the TreesForPeace project. This time we decided to channel the resources to “The Million Tree Project”, run by Roots&Shoots Shanghai. 105 trees are planted this week in Tongliao, Inner Mongolia. Next week we will travel through Inner […]
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Shanghai Urban Farming – Meetup in our garden
We had a meetup with the “Shanghai Urban Farmer”-group at our place last Saturday. (See MeetUp.com for more interesting groups near you.) We enjoyed a sunny afternoon with inspiring stories about sustainability and individual initiatives. We discussed how to best grow beans and which compost format is superior. (Goran is a fan of the dig-down […]
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Ginger Ale – Homemade Happiness
A healthy sweet-and-sour softdrink for sunny days – what is better than homemade ginger ale? I always thought that home-bottled softdrinks = SodaStreamer, which is doubly dubious after the revelation that those machines are made on the occupied Palestine Territories. However, in the last few months we have experienced another wonder of the natural world. […]
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The Tragedy of the Plastic Bags
In the village of Banjar Ngis, like in every village across South East Asia where we have been, the plastic bag has made its entrance. It provides watertight protection and bright color branding for potato chips, shampoo and instant coffee. The marketeers and product developers of Unilever, Mars, Procter& Gamble have made it possible to […]