Sunday’s Inspiration: Coronavirus, My Slow Boats Through China, Sadness Reflecting Those Memories

“Some might say you get what you’ve been given. If you don’t get yours, I won’t get mine as well.
Some might say that we will find a BRIGHTER DAY” – Noel Gallagher.

Sunday’s Inspiration: Coronavirus, My Slow Boats Through China, Sadness Reflecting Those Memories

The year I started this blog, 2007 was also my first ever trip to China. I got my Chinese Visa in London and headed to explore the Great Wall and the Hutongs of Beijing. It was just a taste of China for me and I loved it.

 Backpacking in Beijing, China way back in 2007

As this blog progressed and my travel story grew, I learnt to enjoy the madness of China. I buzzed off it and made a whopping 19 more visits over an eight year period! In that time, I visited 13 of what I personally class as 29 China/Chinese provinces. Below I have listed the parts I visited, and the cities/towns/sites within them. I was mostly based in Hong Kong and held a few consecutive separate multiple entry visas to China. I worked in the Irish Pub in Kowloon (Delaney’s in Tsim Sha Tsui), I worked in over 10 schools as a Native English teacher as well as working for Internations and monetising this blog to fund my wanderlust. At the time, China was some kind of crazy passion to me. I had some home comforts too though, often taking some Guinness on those never ending bus and train journeys.

Backpacking through China with a Guinness in 2012

I bought the China Lonely Planet book in 2012 and started ticking off places in China I had been and using it to try and crack the whole country. I ticked off province after province, city after city, national park after national park – even on short weekend breaks away from Hong Kong. I was taking lunatic night trains to places I’d never heard of, or had any real desire to see. But it was all so obscure, bizarre and beautiful. 99% of the time I was the only foreign looking person in sight.

In the city of Shaoguan, China

When I reflected on it this week, I realised I had forgotten about my zany travels in China. I had forgotten where I had been. Over an 8 year period (2007 – 2015), I visited China on 20 ocassions, not including Hong Kong, Taiwan or Macau. I wondered today had I visited Wuhan, the place where the entire madness of the COVID-19 coronavirus all began. I gazed blankly at my Lonely Planet book. Wuhan was unticked. I had never been there. Nor had I even to its native province Hubei. But yet I had circled myself almost around it.

Hiking in Sanqing Shan, south of Wuhan

Below are the places I visited in China from 2007 – 2015. My only trip back since was to Hong Kong and Mongolia (the country, rather than the Chinese province) in 2017. Right now, I have no desire to see all 29 on that list, or ever return to China. It’s done.

Relaxing in Little Likeng, this is how you dreamt China to be…not far from Wuhan

This list contains any places that I felt was relevant to add, if you click on the link it should open my story from those places – I have written over 100 posts about China alone. I have included one photo from each province listed. I cannot remember every exact village and town, for example short 20 minute – 1 hour lunch breaks etc. but the list is pretty much where I went:

Friday’s Featured Food: Peking Duck at the Quanjude Restaurant in Beijing, China

Hold on tight my friends – Chongqing is a monster!!

It’s a rock that looks like a dick!!

Down the mini waterfall! Bamboo rafting on the YuLong River near Yangshuo, China

Backpacking in Changsha, Hunan Province, China

Loving the quiet and tranquility of the Master of the Nets Garden in Suzhou, China.

Sanqing Shan

Taxia Village / Ta Pa Tsune in Fujian Province

Backpacking in Shanghai

Our group enjoying beers and banter on the party train from Pyongyang to Dandong.

Yuan Yang Rice terraces

Backpacking the West Lake in Hangzhou

The Peak in Hong Kong – a fantastic vantage point

Workingat Delaney’s in Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong

My final day working in the Primary School in Yuen Long was St. Patrick’s Day 2012 so I dressed in green, introduced some Irish gimmicks and had the kids posing with my Northern Ireland flag.

Sunset in Ma Wan, near my old flat

Backpacking in Macau.

Cycling in Shinying, Taiwan

Backpacking in Taiwan somewhere between Hualian and Tiansiang, apparently!

There is a hint of sadness within me tonight as I write this and reflect on my travels in China. As I said, I visited 13 of the 29 parts I recognise, extensively and with real passion. I was often the only tourist, and I did about 60% of those trips with Panny, my ex-girlfriend (who is from Hong Kong, with family in Kaiping, China). I did that over an 8 year period (2007 – 2015) and haven’t been back to China since – except Hong Kong (in 2017). So it is basically a closed door for me, five years ago. It was once my ambition to finish 29/29 of those. But no more.

Guangzhou, China

Karaoke night, Hong Kong

I could write hundreds of blogs on the places I went, the markets, the food, the smog, the hot sun, the rainstorms, the electricity power cuts, the language problems, the illnesses. It was the madness of it that I loved. One time I almost got stranded in Changsha as it was a national holiday and there were no seats on trains. That night, when I was finally on my way to the next city, I stood in a narrow corridor chatting badly to the locals and drinking Tibetan green barley beer. If I hadn’t made notes or taken photos and videos, I would not recall those moments of madness.

The green Tibetan Barley beer train out of Changsha

The green Tibetan Barley beer train out of Changsha

The green Tibetan Barley beer train out of Changsha

With the Coronavirus crisis getting worse, I had to pull out a map and my old Lonely Planet book tonight to see if I was ever in Wuhan. And so, as you can see from my list of visited places in China, I discovered I was never actually in Wuhan, but was very nearby at Jiujang, Jiangling, Likeng, Jingdezhen, Shangrao, Nanchang and Changsha. I liked some of those places and met many fine people there. Drank tea and ate chicken and rice with no internet in sight. Some of the food and the markets I visited for sure were not healthy and I recall that now. I was definitely a big fan of travelling in China for the adrenalin buzz of pure remote and random places, but I never truly liked the food. The only saving grace could be those Xialaongbao in Shanghai, which are like a shit pierogi, with fat and water inside them. Overall though, the sadness kicks in as the Coronavirus spreads.

Stay safe everyone, stay at home if need be, this disease has wiped out thousands of people all over the world, mostly Italians, Iranians, Chinese and South Koreans. Here are some more of my memories from those days in China. I ponder that tonight.

Guangdong province

Yunnan province

Fujian Province

Tiger Leaping Gorge Hike

Tibetan Zhongdian, China

Thirsty Thursdays: A Night Out in Kaiping, China

Sinuiju – the last town in North Korea before crossing the border into Dandong, China.

Chairman Mao’s Old Bedroom in Changsha China

Thirsty Thursdays: With my host and tea maker in Little Likeng, Jiangxi, China.

All alone in Jin Ji Cun, China

Thirsty Thursdays: Drinking with 70 Year Old Guys in Chongqing China.

Checking out the ceramics in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, China.

Arrival in the cool seaside city of Zhuhai in China!

Eating snails in Yangshou in the Guangxi Province of China!

An outstanding view over the Yellow Canola Fields near Luoping in Yunnan Province, China.

Standing in the stone forest at Shilin in China’s Yunnan Province.

Sampling the excellent sweet coloured rice in China

Visiting the West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China

Bullet train

Near Yongding

iPod loyal

Eating eel fried rice in Kaiping in China

The Ganden Sumtseling Gompa is a 300 year old Tibetan Monastery in Yunnan, China

Guangzhou Metro, China

Admiring Vagina Rock in Danxiashan Mountains in CHINA.

The charms of staying in Shuhe Old Town in Yunnan, CHINA.