"One challenge for a foreign correspondent is to figure out how much of yourself to include: If the story is too self-centered, it becomes a tourist's diary. These days, the general trend is to reduce the writer's presence, often to the point of invisibility. This is the standard approach of newspapers, and it's described as...

When it comes to travel on a shoestring - my favorite style - the amount of money you spend or save on accommodation becomes a serious matter. There was a time when travelling to China was very, very cheap, and accommodation options where everywhere. Unfortunately, with China experiencing the economic boom, things have changed quite...

"Prejudice is not a European monopoly. My travel writing, for instance, in Pakistan and Afghanistan is really shaped by my childhood memory, common among small-town lower-middle-class Brahmins, of Muslims as threatening to "others" -- and there are moments when I lapse into these inherited fears. I can't write about China without discussing our nation's image...

Picture credit: Flickr/Helga's Lobster Stew China. A place that changes so much and so fast, one can never know how it's going to look next. However, there are always a few rules of thumb for first time travelers to the Middle Kingdom, especially for those who cannot speak any Mandarin Chinese. I am going to...

"What do I bring?" is a vexing question that most first-time expats face. You don't want to bring something and carry it when you could just buy it on the ground. On the flip side, you don't want to be stuck without an item you really need. Nick and Tim from The Elevator Life ,...

I lived in China as a foreign expert teacher in 2007/2008: back then, things were definitely starting to look like the country would have immensely changed. Grey skeletons of new mass construction works were scarring the land all over, so much that, month by month, the only similar thing on a city bus route was...

China is a huge country, and an even bigger topic to tackle in a movie. Filmmaker Brook Silva-Braga took on that daunting challenge in his new documentary, "The China Question." This is the divisive issue that causes American workers to worry, politicians to vacillate, and businesspeople to make deals: "What does China's rise mean for...

Becky Ances https://www.beckyances.net Age : 34 Hometown : Peterborough, NH Quote : " Most of our problems arose from our connections to our hometown. On the traveling side we had problems every now and then, but it is just easier to roll with it ." How did you find out about Vagabonding, and how did...

As China and America's relationship draws them ever closer together, it was inevitable that some influences would cross borders. UPI had a great photo essay dedicated to this topic: American brands in China . How do you feel when you encounter American brands abroad? My reactions have varied. In Europe, I shunned Starbucks like the...

It's one of the great train journeys: the Trans-Siberian Railway. The train makes tracks from Europe on one end to Asia on the other. If you can't make it out to Russia anytime soon, you can get a sample of the trip from the comfort of your computer. Here's the NY Times article: Trans-Siberian Railway...

The stereotypical Western expat in China is the investment banker in Hong Kong or the executive doing deals in Shanghai. On the other hand, the creative set has also been setting up shop in the Middle Kingdom, according to this New York Times article: For China's Western Expats, Creative Lives of Plenty . Five artists...

Undress Me In The Temple of Heaven , by Susan Jane Gilman, reads almost like a mystery novel, except the mystery is why two naive teenagers who'd never been away from home before would decide to go to China in 1986. You kind of know the mystery right up front. But the rest of the...

[Note: Each Saturday this month, Vagablogging will feature self-published travel books reviewed by self-published travel authors. We start with Robert Downes's review of Two Laps Around the World .] Review by Robert Downes A book of ideas as well as adventure, Two Laps Around the World by Bob Riel offers the sort of insights that...

With factories belching and spewing pollution, benzene plants exploding and contaminating rivers, J. Maarten Troost presents a vivid description of the environmental peril in modern day China in Lost on Planet China: One Man's Attempt to Understand the World's Most Mystifying Nation . Of course, Troost (author of The Sex Lives of Cannibals: Adrift in...