China: In Search of the Past: Part 4: The Four Olds, From Coastal Hunan to Mountainous Yunnan

Eternal Audrey at Changsha Airport newsstand After many detours, it’s back to China. We’ve been heading north from the Vietnam border of Guangxi Province to Hunan Province—still in the south yet far from the rural, traditional countryside we’ve been traversing. It’s a shock arriving at the huge railway station of capital Changsha. Hunan is the birthplace of … Read more

China: In Search of the Past: Part 2: Nanning and Vietnam border

Detian Waterfalls From Hong Kong, it’s a short flight to Nanning, capital of Guangxi Province in China’s deep south. During the French colonial era in Indochina, their railway connected Vietnam with Nanning and Kunming, which we’ll visit later. When I ask about visiting the old part of town, the hotel clerk gives me only a blank look. … Read more

China: In Search of the Past: Part 1: Hong Kong

  I avoid red-eyes like the plague, but  there we were, off for Hong Kong, only hours after my 23-year-old daughter and her second-graders finished the countdown to summer break! Eighteen months ago, we’d traveled to India and Sri Lanka for my WW2 research. Now to continue in China.   Around dawn Sunday, approaching the glamorous “new” … Read more