Dali, China is an ancient city in the country’s western Yunnan Province, a couple hours south of Lijiang. The area was settled by the Bai people, a tenacious Tibetan-Burmese folk who established the Nanzhou Kingdom in the 8th century after successfully defeating invading Tang dynasty forces. A Bai chief minister staged a coup at the beginning of the 10th […]
Museums
Shanghai’s Modern Art Scene on Moganshan Lu
One of the most exciting neighborhoods in Shanghai has sprung up along Moganshan Lu in a dilapidated industrial complex near Suzhou Creek. Drawn by low rent, artists have flocked to the area now known as M50, an abbreviation of the address 50 Moganshan Lu, where a former factory has been converted into a collection of […]
Exploring Asian Culture at the National Museum of Korea
I am a total museum geek. Give me a building full of ancient artifacts and I will be happy for hours. If the collection is well-curated with detailed English descriptions, I could be there all day. Which is what happened when we visited the excellent National Museum of Korea in Seoul. We started on […]
Touring the DMZ and Dorasan Station
When planning our trip to Seoul, the only part of our itinerary I was certain about was a tour of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) running between the borders of North and South Korea. We had pre-booked a tour with Koridoor, which operates in conjunction with the non-profit United Service Organizations (USO) and is widely considered […]
One Day in Siem Reap, Cambodia
Fish Amok Cambodian Khmer cuisine