Mar
24
2008

Tibet, TLG, and the Olympics

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I don’t normally get into these things, but I have some strong feelings about China and the Tibet situation. Beware, I have decided to vent my negative chi into something positive with this post!

This is a petition to try to get the Chinese government to come to the table and talk rather than sending in more AKs.
http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_end_the_violence/98.php/?CLICK_TF_TRACK

They are currently at around 800,000 signatures and need a million. I don’t know if the PRC will pay any attention to it, but it is also a good thing to send the message out to the rest of the world as well – including the brilliant Olympics Committee that is strangely rewarding these people for their actions.

Tibet has always been China’s dirty little secret. By the end of the cultural revolution, 1.2 MILLION Tibetans were killed and 6000 religious sites were destroyed by the Chinese government under Chairman Mao. Tibet posed no military threat to them whatsoever.

(Read more…)


Posted in China, travel | Tags: , , , , , , ,
Oct
24
2007

Back to Lijiang

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tiger leaping gorge hike

The sun provided another perfect day for the last segment of our trek through the Tiger Leaping Gorge.

We left the Halfway House GH, which I was not too sad about. I have never encountered a more rude place to stay in Asia. They did have the most spectacular views, and a steady influx of travelers (maybe that was the problem)…but the girls working there would roll their eyes and curse us in Chinese when we tried to order the overpriced food and drinks – crazy!

I soon forgot about the negativity though, as we crossed waterfalls and made our way down some steep paths and out of the gorge. At the house, we picked up Fi and Steph from England, two girls I had met in Lijiang before and were doing the hike on their own.
The scenery was even more beautiful than the last couple of days, it was a feast for the eyes and you would have to be a corpse not to feel the power from the ancient mountains.

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Posted in China | Tags: , , , , ,
Oct
24
2007

Tiger Leaping Gorge (Day 2)

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tiger leaping gorge trek

We left the Family Naxi Guesthouse and hit the trail for what turned out to be the best trekking day of my life. We didn’t exactly get an early start, but it did not matter, and the owner of the guesthouse walked us down the trail with smiles, hugs, and wishing us a safe journey. That is the way adventure travel is supposed to be, and it makes me happy to know that capitalism may have its icy fingers in the gorge already, but not everyone has sold out completely.

Unlike yesterday, we could tell that the weather was going to be spectacular. A ghastly mist was rising up from the Yangtze River 300 meters below us, and we were literally in the clouds that were clinging to the mountain. Soon enough, as the hours passed, the clouds lifted to reveal a sky that looked a lot like it does in Alaska, a pure blue color that is unspoiled by pollution or humidity.

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Posted in China | Tags: , , , , , ,
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