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
This gallery contains 12 photos.
If the epicentre of the First Opium War was the port of Canton, the stage for the Second Opium War was here at the Summer Palace in Peking. The Palace was first constructed in 1707 during the reign of Kangxi, … Continue reading
This gallery contains 28 photos.
There isn’t much that hasn’t been said already about the Forbidden City. How it was the seat of the Chinese Emperor from the 1400s all the way till 1911. How it survived the marauding hordes of the Cultural Revolution because … Continue reading
This gallery contains 25 photos.
Instead of the more obvious historical and tourist sites, I have chosen to start off my sojourn in Peking with a tour of the Former Foreign Legation Quarter. Unbeknownst to many today, Peking too was not free from European colonial … Continue reading
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On this Grand Tour of the Far East, we pay a visit to only three Imperial Capitals. The first – and the grandest of them all – is Peking, a.k.a. Beijing today – the oldest of the three capitals, and … Continue reading
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I’ve just been in Shanghai over the weekend, visiting a city I consider home, and my family living there. I thought it convenient – since I was there – to also check out some of the contemporary art on offer … Continue reading
This gallery contains 20 photos.
Tientsin is my favourite city on this entire Grand Tour of the Far East not only because of its wealth of historic architecture and history, but more importantly, because of incredibly evocative and beautiful Astor Hotel, Tientsin. The Astor Hotel … Continue reading
This gallery contains 15 photos.
The Japanese Concession was established in 1898 and lasted till 1945, following the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II. The Concession is noted for housing the last Emperor of China, Puyi – who, after having been forced to … Continue reading
Dream Of A City 