Most people who come to Sichuan either do so because they are about to head to Tibet on a trek, or to visit Chengdu and its surrounding tourist attractions, especially the pandas and Lei Shan and Emei Shan, two large standing Buddhas. Few ever go see Dazu Rock Carvings, which is [...]

KTV is the Chinese karaoke (sometimes actually said as ka li OK).

I’m not usually one to broadcast my religion as I travel, but around Christmas time, as people continuously asked me how I celebrate the holiday, I began to tell them I was Jewish.
To date, every single person to whom I have told I am Jewish has responded with the same thing: [...]

For those of you who thought siestas were only for people working in Spain, you’ve obviously never worked in Sichuan before. Indeed, each day my microfinance organization has between 12 PM and 3 PM off for lunch, and a good xiuxi, or rest. This is the kind of thing that you [...]

I knew when I packed to move to China for half a year that I only wanted to bring one backpack, assuming that at some point I’d want to be mobile for backpacking.
Plus, you can’t take the cheap buses to and from airports if you have to lug a lot of [...]

This is the second post in a 2-part series about culture and food in Sichuan, China.
Manners
Manners certainly differ across countries, but by American standards, some Chinese manners are, um, severely lacking.
For example, everyone screams fu yuan! (”waiter”), to get attention in a restaurant. For any food with bones, you put the [...]

The role of filling cups of tea falls to the youngest woman at the table.

“The mountain blew up right in front of us. There were tremors every few minutes. I will never forget the thunderous echo of those boulders – as big as two-story buildings – crashing down the mountain and into the gorge. We saw a small bridge that crossed the gorge and led to a small hotel [...]

The flight from Chengdu to Lhasa was cool – crossing over the Tibetan Plateau – the snow-capped, glacier-ridden mountains slowly coming into view through the cloud cover. Getting to the airport early had paid off – I was able to secure a window seat (13A) for both legs. Next to me were two [...]

In planning my trip around the world, I always thought of China as my gateway to Tibet, rather than a destination unto itself. The language barrier concerned me, it was a huge country, and I didn’t feel too curious about it. Since I couldn’t travel to Tibet, it allowed me a second week [...]