Explore the great cities of the world!
Shanghai and Beijing were the major destinations on my 2015 trip to China. Out of my 3 day trips, I was really impressed with Nanjing. Hangzhou has 2 must-sees: West Lake and Lingyin Temple. Tianjin isn’t the most exciting place (although getting a great Italian dinner in Italian Style Town is worth the 30-minute train ride from Beijing). In Nanjing, you get a bang for your yuan.
Back in 1934, the Chinese Civil War between the Nationalists of the KMT and the Communists of the CPC was in full bloom. In October, the KMT overwhelmed CPC forces in southern China. The CPC began a long, slow retreat of over 5,500 miles to northwestern China. This “Long March” (actually a series of retreats) took over a year and cost many lives. As many as 90% of those who initially escaped the KMT didn’t make it. But the CPC grew in isolation [Read more…]
The bloodiest war of 20th-century Asia was the Second Sino-Japanese War, or as it’s known in China, the War of Resistance Against Japan. You know it as World War II. (Okay, technically it eventually became part of WWII, but you get it.) Notice the word “Resistance”, reminiscent of the European resistance against the Nazis. Like Germany, Japan was looking to absorb neighboring lands to access natural resources needed to fulfill the needs of its densely [Read more…]
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…]
The Taiping Rebellion? What the hell is that? In school I learned about the Opium Wars and the Boxer Rebellion. But I’m quite certain I’d never heard of the Taiping Rebellion. Would you believe it was the bloodiest conflict of the 19th century and the bloodiest civil war in history at likely well over 20 million dead? Battle deaths were actually less than half a million. The remainder died from famine and plague directly related to the war. (Plus there was the matter of thousands of civilians executed by the victors for suspicion of loyalty to the rebels.) [Read more…]