UNESCO World Heritage Site
China
China travel
Travel
Visiting the ancient village of Hongcun in Anhui
One of two old UNESCO World Heritage Site villages near Huangshan, Hongcun is the most attractive Chinese village I’ve ever been to (not that I’ve been to that many, but trust me, it is beautiful). Situated next to a stream, with a small lake in front of it, Hongcun is also where scenes from the […]
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Sri Lanka travel
Travel
Sri Lanka’s Galle Fort
Despite being a small island next to a giant country, Sri Lanka boasts a lot of historical sites, lush mountains, national parks with elephants, and beaches. The country is really special for travel; so special that I wrote two articles about it. I mean how many countries in Asia, especially small island nations, can you go hiking, relax […]
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Cities
Malaysia travel
Southeast Asia travel
Travel
Visiting Malacca
The first place I ever visited in Malaysia was Malacca, the famous port city for which the adjacent strait is named after. Malacca has a very mixed background. It used to be a powerful Malay sultanate, but was conquered by the Portuguese in 1511, who in turn were defeated by the Dutch in 1641. In […]
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Japan travel
Travel
Kyoto’s Nijo castle
Kyoto is a city full of historic temples, but it also has several imperial and shogunate castles right in the middle of town. The most well-known one is Nijo Castle, which served as the shogun’s residence after it was built in 1603, and then became an imperial castle after the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate […]
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Japan travel
Travel
Kyoto’s Kiyomizudera and Nanzenji temples
Kyoto is a city full of historic temples, old neighborhoods and shrines. You can easily spend days there visiting different districts each day and still not covering all of Kyoto’s many sights. One of Kyoto’s most distinctive temples is Kiyomizudera Temple, located on a hill in the east. Outside the temple is a historic neighborhood […]
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China travel
Travel
Visiting Datong Grottoes in Shanxi, China
While Shanxi Province may be better known as the dusty, polluted coal-producing center of China, it is also one of the country’s oldest areas of civilization. The coal city of Datong in Shanxi was a former capital of the Northern Wei dynasty, a Xianbei (Mongolian) regime which ruled much of northern China from 386-535 AD […]
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