Intro to Qingdao We visited Qingdao quite unintentionally, but it turned out to be a great stop. Located at the southern tip of the Shandong peninsula, this charming port city…

Longsheng Rice Terraces Hands-down, our favorite part of our visit to Guilin was a day-trip several hours away to the Longsheng Rice Terraces. We shared transportation with four others from…

Xi’an to Pingyao Vowing to never again settle for a “hard seat” on an overnight train (especially the lowest grade, like the one we experienced), we arrived in Pingyao from…

Intro to Danba, China Have you ever been to a destination that during the journey to get there you thought to yourself, “This better be worth it!”?  Well, Danba is…

Watch out if you’re visiting China in summer! We were there in July and August, just in time for all the university students and families to snatch up the budget-priced seats on the trains. We were stranded on several occasions without any option of where to go. In one case, we ended up having to buy an airline ticket rather than lose more days when we were more than ready to move on. This obviously increased spending in the overall “Transportation” category.

Check out some of our favorite shots from the second half of our time in China, Shenzhen to Tagong, July-August 2011.

Photo highlights from the first half of our time in China: Beijing to Shanghai!

South Korea Knowing less about South Korea than either Japan or China made for some wonderful surprises. A rich, colorful culture and curious, helpful people made our visit here one…

Intro to Tagong In this high-altitude land of snow-capped mountains and grassy plateaus, priorities revolve around what helps you to get by. Here, two of those things are spiritual beliefs…

8:15 am Danba, high in the mountains of Sichuan Province in southwestern China. We ready our packs, go downstairs to the hostel’s common area and cross the town’s one street…