This gallery contains 26 photos.
We start our tour of Seoul from when it was called Hanseong 漢城, and ruled by the Joseon Dynasty (also transliterated as “Chosun”). The architectural heritage of the period remains in the form of five imperial palaces within the city … Continue reading
This gallery contains 13 photos.
And so at last we have left China, and made landing on Korean soil. For 500 years, the Korean Peninsula was a tributary state of Imperial China, first under the Ming Dynasty and then the Qing Dynasty. Korea itself wasn’t … Continue reading
This gallery contains 3 photos.
I don’t believe for one moment that Home is just one city. At least, it has never been that way for me. And I suspect that for many people – be it migrants, refugees, frequent travellers or even armchair travellers, … Continue reading
This gallery contains 12 photos.
The grande dame of Dairen’s hospitality scene was the Yamato Hotel 大和旅館, built in 1914 by the occupying Japanese on Nicholas Square. It was the equivalent of the Astor House Hotel in Shanghai, and the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, hosting … Continue reading
This gallery contains 26 photos.
In the aftermath of the Russo-Japanese War in 1907, Russia surrendered the city of Dalny to the Japanese, who renamed it Dairen, and would rule it for the next 38 years. The city of Dalian today still retains significant vestiges … Continue reading
This gallery contains 15 photos.
The city of Dalian was established by Imperial Russia in 1898 as Dalny, within the larger Guandong Leased Territories. They would hold it for only seven years before relinquishing it to Imperial Japan. That said, they managed to stamp their own … Continue reading
This gallery contains 12 photos.
The most important landmark in present-day Dalian is Nicholas Square, called the Ohiroba 大広場 in the Japanese era, and Zhongshan Square 中山广场 today. It is the equivalent of Shanghai and Hankow’s Bund, in terms of the number of monumental concession-era architecture still … Continue reading
This gallery contains 13 photos.
Past Peking, we leave China proper and enter the realms of Imperial Japan. In this new year, our Grand Tour will take us first to 2 former Japanese colonial treaty ports (exploring how Japan itself became an imperial and colonial … Continue reading
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What a year! What a dream! I’ve done so much… and seen so much! I don’t just have one book being published – The Romance of the Grand Tour: Fabled Port Cities from Rangoon to Hong Kong – coming to … Continue reading
This gallery contains 21 photos.
Le Grand Hôtel de Pékin was Peking’s oldest and most splendid hotel establishment, situated just north of the Foreign Legation Quarter and offering the Grand Tourist panoramic views of the Quarter and of the Forbidden City to the west of … Continue reading
Dream Of A City 