http://www.thum.org/wander/ en-us pj@thum.org 2005-06-01T01:01:02+00:00 hourly 1 2000-01-01T12:00+00:00 http://www.thum.org/wander/archives/000510.html The Wanderings of Confucius are at an end. Confucius has returned to Oxford.... 510@http://www.thum.org/wander/ UK 2005-06-01T01:01:02+00:00 http://www.thum.org/wander/archives/000429.html [Dear Readers, my China entries are now complete. For a quick way to see all my entries on China in one place, you can visit the China category archive. Enjoy!] Some final, random thoughts on my experiences in China: Fujian/Kejia... 429@http://www.thum.org/wander/ China 2004-10-25T13:30:34+00:00 http://www.thum.org/wander/archives/000434.html The trip came a full circle as our tour returned to Xiamen. At my suggestion (although some might call it a full blown tantrum at the thought of wasting our last evening shopping), we took in a cultural show in... 434@http://www.thum.org/wander/ China 2004-10-24T14:56:32+00:00 http://www.thum.org/wander/archives/000433.html The Kejia (Hakka) are the famous 'Guest People' of China, a dialect group without a home, spread widely over China and anywhere there are Chinese in the world. As their name implies, they came to many provinces in China as... 433@http://www.thum.org/wander/ China 2004-10-23T14:39:53+00:00 http://www.thum.org/wander/archives/000432.html I wandered out of the hotel in Zhangzhou and found myself behind a young, pretty girl in a tight white outfit. As we stopped at the zebra crossing and waiting for a pause in traffic, I quietly admired her from... 432@http://www.thum.org/wander/ China 2004-10-23T14:14:27+00:00 http://www.thum.org/wander/archives/000430.html 80 years ago, my then-3-year-old maternal grandfather left the home he was born in and came with his parents to the Nanyang (Southeast Asia). He has no living memory of the house, nor of the quiet little village where his... 430@http://www.thum.org/wander/ China 2004-10-22T14:14:41+00:00 http://www.thum.org/wander/archives/000427.html ... I can hear the roar from Boston. YES!!!! The greatest comeback in baseball history- against the Yankees, to boot! World Series, here we come!!!... 427@http://www.thum.org/wander/ China 2004-10-21T05:13:20+00:00 http://www.thum.org/wander/archives/000428.html "The Most Scenic Mountain in Southeast China" read the travel brochure. I seriously detest building your entire holiday around a package tour, for they offer you little freedom. They are a great way to cover a lot of ground quickly,... 428@http://www.thum.org/wander/ China 2004-10-20T13:28:18+00:00 http://www.thum.org/wander/archives/000426.html Xiamen, as far as I can tell, has only one claim to fame: it's the home of the famous Overseas Chinese patriot Tan Kah Kee. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Tan, he is basically the second most... 426@http://www.thum.org/wander/ China 2004-10-18T13:12:08+00:00 http://www.thum.org/wander/archives/000411.html The amazing thing about Cuba is that despite the poverty and desperation, there are no beggars in the streets. Everyone is works hard to find some way of making money, whether it's honest or not. This is all the more... 411@http://www.thum.org/wander/ Cuba 2004-09-11T15:25:44+00:00 http://www.thum.org/wander/archives/000415.html Cuba has an extremely well developed tourism industry, catering to the every whim and desire of the foreigner with hard currency to spend. Nowhere is this more evident than in the state-run tourism bureaus. Aside from a vast array of... 415@http://www.thum.org/wander/ Cuba 2004-09-08T22:44:42+00:00 http://www.thum.org/wander/archives/000414.html Calle Hamel, a little alleyway in central Havana, unites two art forms: music and visual arts. It is home to the art studio of Salvador Gonzalez Escalona, a famous self-taught Cuba painter who's been feted across the art world. He's... 414@http://www.thum.org/wander/ Cuba 2004-09-06T22:24:49+00:00 http://www.thum.org/wander/archives/000413.html Here's a quick tip if you're looking for cheap cigars: Tobacco farmers are now allowed to keep a small amount of tobacco for themselves for their own use. As such, many of them roll the tobacco themselves and sell them... 413@http://www.thum.org/wander/ Cuba 2004-09-05T22:00:59+00:00 http://www.thum.org/wander/archives/000412.html My initial impressions of Havana were off, after all. Perhaps it was because my first few days here I felt like a fish out of water, and wasn't used to being hailed from all angles by strangers. However, after several... 412@http://www.thum.org/wander/ Cuba 2004-09-04T10:36:07+00:00 http://www.thum.org/wander/archives/000409.html Havana is simply like no other place on earth I've ever been. It's like everything froze in the 1950s and slowly started decaying, and that's how it has been ever since. Some parts of Havana would not be out of... 409@http://www.thum.org/wander/ Cuba 2004-09-02T01:40:26+00:00