Monthly Archives: March 2015

Steamships, Grand Hotels and Port Cities in Southeast Asia!

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Please check out my new companion blog: http://www.romanceofthegrandtour.com. So…after two and half years of working on this, it is my pleasure to announce that my new book, The Romance of Grand Tour – 100 Years of Travel in Southeast Asia, is … Continue reading

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The Belle Vue Hotel, Nagasaki

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The grande dame of the Nagasaki hospitality scene was the former Belle Vue Hotel, situated just off the Bund, at the edge of Glover Hill, in the Oura Foreign Settlement. It was the second oldest Western-style hotel in the city, established … Continue reading

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Teramachi 寺町, or A Pilgrim’s Tour of Nagasaki’s Temple Quarter

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Quite unbeknownst to most visitors, Nagasaki is a historic centre of pilgrimage for Japanese Buddhism and Zen Buddhism.  The city centre is quite literally bursting with temples of all kinds, particularly around the foot of the various hills in the … Continue reading

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The Chinese in Nagasaki

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Nagasaki has the oldest existing Chinese settlement and community in Japan, consisting of Chinese migrants (from primarily the Fujian province) who crossed over in the early 1600s, during the final years of the Ming Dynasty. They have assimilated so well … Continue reading

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Oura – Nagasaki’s former Foreign Settlement

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In 1858, Japan signed the Harris Treaty, also known as the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with the United States of America.  The Treaty Port Era had begun for the Land of the Rising Sun.  Five ports were forced open … Continue reading

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Dejima (出島) – The Portuguese and the Dutch in Nagasaki

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Dejima 出島, which literally means “out -” or “exit-island” in Japanese, was an artificial, fan-shaped island reclaimed from Nagasaki bay by order of the Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu 徳川 家光 in 1634, to house those errant Portuguese, whom, ostensibly in the … Continue reading

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The Grand Tour II-12: Long Cape… Nagasaki (長崎)

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From the Korean Peninsula, we hop on a ship over to the islands of Japan, the Land of the Rising Sun; to the very first treaty port in Japan – and quite likely the oldest colonial port city anywhere in Asia, … Continue reading

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