Land | Food | Nature | People
Surfacing Originally uploaded by Natmandu. …one thing I have learnt so far is that e-mail is a pain in the neck. Hotmail never worked in India so I relied on Gmail, and now Gmail never works in China, so I have to rely on Hotmail – this is a real pain in the neck as …
After a week in Yunnan with Simon, I’m now safely ensconced back in Shanghai at Simon and Charlotte’s place, freshly showered, cup of coffee on the go, with their cleaning lady Ayi buzzing around me. This is a different world from where we’ve been for the last seven days. I’ve been going on about how …
I have no idea what that means. Simon and I are heading to Yunnan province today, to see Tiger Leaping Gorge, Lijiang, and hopefully some of the more remote minority villages. Shanghai has been good fun, the highlights of which were the most amusing haircut I ever had, and an excellent facial yesterday. I say …
Old poser Originally uploaded by Natmandu. That’s what Richard Nixon apparently said when he saw the Great Wall. Well done Dick. There was no need to worry about whether the Great Wall would be any good – it was fantastic. A small group of us walked between Jinshanling and Simatai, a beautiful quiet stretch of …
What a strange time to be in Beijing – yesterday was the sixteenth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. Passing by Tiananmen Square, hundreds of tourists packed the square, many probably unaware of the relevance of the date, but with more police and army than usual in case of demonstrations, and with no mention of …
Line up, look straight Originally uploaded by Natmandu. Repeat after me… “Ching gay wor yee-pying shwee”. That is the way you say “Please give me a bottle of water”. Useful if you’re sweating your bits off walking around Tiananmen Square like I was today. Mandarin is becoming slowly less scary the more I’m using it, …
© Nathan Nelson 2026