Catshanghai

Jenny just got her Schengen visa to go to Spain next week. Hurray!
The Schengen agreement allows visitors to travel around continental Europe without requiring a separate visa for each country, although the UK has a separate protocol. This means Chinese visitors need to get a visa for the UK and a Schengen visa for the [...]

We got married in March 2006. As a Brit marrying a Chinese girl, we followed the UK Consulate’s guidelines of notarising the wedding certificate so it would be recognised abroad. This has made it relatively easy to get permission to visit the UK and France, although we still have to collect more than a dozen [...]

This audio file was recorded in anger and desperation after Jenny was sent home from the visa office after failing to bring her family’s red household book. She brought every other document you could think of including my bank statements and a letter of invitation from me, her husband. I spent an hour trying to [...]

We spent yesterday at Zhujiajiao water village, which is an hour’s bus ride west of Shanghai.
I last went there in the Autumn of 2004 soon after I arrived in Shanghai. At that time cheap kitsch and temples had not yet become a cliche, but we were disappointed to see this yesterday. We have been spoiled [...]

We’ve just enjoyed a five day holiday in Qingdao and Laoshan, which are two seaside resorts in the north eastern Shandong province. Here are a few highlights.
Qingdao used to be a German colony at the turn of the 20th century so the city has fantastic architecture such as The Granite Castle and St Michael’s Cathedral. [...]

I love these pictures!
See this link.
Contrast this with Will Richardson’s recent impressions of Shanghai.
And then there is the old part of Shanghai, the “real” China, the part where a restaurant may be a couple of chairs and a table on a street corner where people can sit after buying some type of meat or fish [...]

Going to Hainan may not be as intrepid as naked breakdancing in a Laotian minefield, but it’s easier, more relaxing and probably cheaper. Don’t expect more than a relaxing beach holiday and you will not be disappointed. Here are a few pointers to get you started.
About Hainan
Hainan is China’s most southerly province and is warm [...]

Comic Paul Merton has recently been touring China, making a light hearted documentary that is currently being aired on Channel Five in the UK. If the few clips we have seen are anything to go by, then this follows the best tradition of whimsical British travelogues such as Louis Theroux’s Wild Weekend.
Highlights include a visit [...]

This blog is a collection of articles about the things I am passionate about: technology, music, films and life in Shanghai. It is not a vessel for travel writing, but I have just come back from a five day holiday in Phuket and I figure that this part of Thailand is vaguely within the Shanghai [...]

Below is a copy of a message I just sent to Thai-Air’s customer service department. It says it all. I do not enjoy being ripped off whether it is in a restaurant or by an airline.

I have been unfairly charged a service fee of £30 to buy tickets using your booking office in London after [...]