Though I’ve read on travel websites that Weizhou Island in Guangxi province, southwest China, is volcanic, and seen maps showing a headland curling partway around the main bay, in the south, it’s only when on arriving at a hilltop vantage that…
Though its setting is unusual – nestled in a forested ravine, deep within Shanxi province, Sheng Shou Temple mainly appears like many temple complexes I’ve visited in China. There are buildings with brick walls, topped with curved, tiled roofs. Doorways lead…
Though physically similar to Po Toi, and little more than 10km south of Cheung Chau, Wailingding has a thriving village with a unique character, and a visit makes for an entertaining, out of Hong Kong experience Even if you’re familiar…
With a broad river surging through a valley that’s in places like a canyon, hemmed in by sandstone cliffs on either side, and little vegetation but swarthy conifers, shrubs and grass, the landscape we’re driving through might be in a…
On a fine day, the Eluanbi Lighthouse is a peaceful place. A few tourists stroll into the compound with low, white-painted buildings and the lighthouse that’s a classic round tower with high balcony, and also painted white. It’s in a…
There are resorts that might be described as “Away from it all” when, truth be told, they’re little more than just around a corner from the nearest highway or airport. Yet the Oanain Munina really is in the back of…
Though China’s bullet train network is yet to reach Hong Kong, lines start just across the border, in Shenzhen, and shorten travel times to places that are otherwise just a tad distant for a weekend trip. These include parts of…
With its new-city-on-the-block brashness, and gleaming skyscrapers along Hong Kong’s northern fringe, Shenzhen might seem an unlikely place for a weekend away to admire old Chinese architecture, and head to a beach backed by wooded hills. Yet go east, and…
Scan through a list of “the world’s most beautiful islands”, and you may not find Taiwan included there. Yet it’s perhaps the only island to have a name – Formosa – that simply means “Beautiful”. According to one oft-repeated story, this arose…
Living in Hong Kong, I’m of course aware that the Pearl River Delta region – lately dubbed the Greater Bay Area (without a bay) – has become a megapolis, described by the Visual Capitalist website as “the largest contiguous urban region…
“Look, there are two gazelles,” says my wife, indicating a lush slope with grass and shrubs. Sure enough, I spot one – gazing at us from across a patch of thistles. It’s a slightly built member of the antelope family,…
Checking the schedule for long-distance, high speed rail routes from Hong Kong’s West Kowloon terminus, it appears one of the few convenient stops for a weekend away with my wife and son is Huizhounan – Huizhou South. Huizhou is the…
