Vignettes of the World
My Travel Journal
The plane touched down at Kansai Airport and I looked for the train ride to Osaka. The plan, originally, was to stay that evening in a hotel in Osaka, then the next morning I would see Osaka Castle before heading out to Kyoto. I saw …
Ask just about any Hong Kong person and you would find answers to all things Japan. Japan is hands down the most popular travel destination for Hong Kong people. In fact, many in Hong Kong call it “going home” when they go to Japan. Clearly, …
The train to Shenzhen would depart in the early evening and I debated how to spend the day in Jiangmen. To be honest, there was not very much in this city that I wanted to see, as I was almost always only keen on heritage …
I have a very favorable impression of Jiangmen due to a personal memory of my grandma. When WWII began, resources were scarce. She would take her mother’s Qing dynasty clothes to the merchants of Jiangmen in exchange for money. “One piece of my mother’s Qing …
The theme of security and protection has been prominently featured in the diaolou’s that I have visited in Kaiping. But Nan Lou is perhaps the only diaolou that came with an official history in the defense of the nation. We called a car to take …
My friend and I went to Kaiping because she saw an ad on the MTR in Hong Kong promoting the Chikan Ancient Town. As such, it was with a whole lot of anticipation that I arrived at Chikan from Majianglong Village. And, to say the …
I had to hurry through the Majianglong Village because time with the hired car was up soon. Even a quick walk through the village brought forth quite a different experience from the previous two sites that I visited, the Zili Village and Liyuan Garden. Majianglong …
At first glance of the introduction of Kaiping, I was actually least interested in Liyuan. Somehow when the Diaolou’s are placed in a rich man’s manicured garden they seemed to lose authenticity to me. As it turned out, the Liyuan Diaolou’s were very engaging as …
I like seeing old towns and villages. I have seen a few of the ancient old towns and communities in Shenzhen, including the Dapeng Fortress, Gankeng Ancient Hakka Townlet, Nantou Ancient City and Shui Wei 1368. I was interested in the areas in Shenzhen that …
The driver suggested that we visited the Zili Village first, as that village was officially recognized, restored and developed as the preeminent location for Diaolou tourism. He told me quite a bit about himself. He is a native of Chikan. Mr. Guan is his name, …