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You say you want a revolution? After the disastrous 19th century, the Chinese people did. The Qing Dynasty realized it had no choice but to reform and modernize. Unfortunately for them, there was nothing less modern than China’s 2,000-year-old imperial system. (And in an era of nationalism, it didn’t help them in the least that they weren’t ethnically Chinese.) Over a period of many years, the people began to rise up and revolt throughout the vast [Read more…]
I will admit right off the bat that Tianjin was not the most exciting place I went on my trip to China. But it’s a major city just a short high-speed train ride from Beijing, so how could I resist spending a day [Read more…]
When I got off the train at Badaling to see the Great Wall of China, I stepped into an arctic blast. By the ticket office, a woman was selling pancakes from a counter window. It wasn’t a fancy affair; it was meant to be eaten by hand. It wasn’t the most flavorful thing. But it was warm, and that’s all that counted.
After spending time at the Great Wall, I had lunch in a restaurant in the tourist village at Badaling. I must have been sat in the section for foreigners because the tables were set with forks. There were no chopsticks to be seen.
The infamous Boxer Rebellion. But what was it? Ultimately, it was a war between China and virtually the rest of the world’s powers. Guess who won. Hint: it wasn’t China.
The Boxer Rebellion started off as sort of the opposite of the Taiping Rebellion. The Taiping Rebellion began as an uprising by a somewhat irrational [Read more…]
Today was the day for the highlight of my trip: my visit to the Great Wall of China. Coincidentally, this was the second time that the highlight of my trip was also the literal high-point of my trip. The first was [Read more…]
