madiebree

Adventures in Xinjiang: Lavender (Space) Blue & Laghman

When touring through a region as large (truly, just….massive) as Xinjiang, you’ve got to take the negatives along with the positives. Negative: after having just finished a full day of driving to get to the desert, the next step was another 8+ hours in the van to get to our next destination. Positive: just lookContinue reading “Adventures in Xinjiang: Lavender (Space) Blue & Laghman”

Adventures in Xinjiang: Grasslands and Ghost Cities

(To read the first part of this trip, click here!) The pictures from the beginning of this blog post will look completely different from the pictures at the end, and that’s one of the things I absolutely love about traveling around this country. Before moving to China, I ignorantly didn’t know a lot about theContinue reading “Adventures in Xinjiang: Grasslands and Ghost Cities”

Adventures in Xinjiang: Lake Monsters and Fairylands

After returning home from Sanya, I packed up my backpack for what would be the longest and most epic of my summer 2021 travels: a 15-day trip to Xinjiang. Now, before I get into it, a note: these next few blog posts are ones I have been unsure of how to begin. Visiting this partContinue reading “Adventures in Xinjiang: Lake Monsters and Fairylands”

Summertime in Sanya: Rainforests & Romance

(To read Part I of this trip, click here!) The nice thing about staying at a resort with a private beach (silly, silly, silly – what is this life?!) is being able to pop down for some sun and a swim truly whenever you want. Just finished breakfast? Go for a morning swim. Everyone elseContinue reading “Summertime in Sanya: Rainforests & Romance”

Summertime in Sanya: Luhuitou Park

Something I’ve found interesting about moving abroad is learning about all of the new “must-see” places within a country that I had never even heard of before living here. If you’d asked me where in China would be worth a visit a few years ago, I probably would have replied: “Umm… Beijing… Shanghai… and… whereverContinue reading “Summertime in Sanya: Luhuitou Park”

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Happy Madie

Over a three day weekend in early May, I decided to once again take advantage of one of the (many) travel organizations I follow on WeChat and get out of Shanghai for a bit. I booked a weekend hiking trip out to 安吉县 Anji County in the 浙江 Zhejiang Province. Quick Chinese geography lesson: ZhejiangContinue reading “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Happy Madie”

Journey to the West(ern Sichuan Region) : Part IV!

Welcome to the fourth (and final!) installment of my Spring Break 2021 trip out west! Let’s wrap this thing up so we can move on to the six other places I traveled to in the past year, shall we? (One of these days I will be better about actually writing these things on time. Maybe.Continue reading “Journey to the West(ern Sichuan Region) : Part IV!”

Journey to the West(ern Sichuan Region) : Part III!

(Read Part I here! Read Part II here!) As our journey continued through the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Region in western Sichuan, our next stop was the 龙灯草原 Longdeng Gesar Grassland, also known as the Dragon Lantern Grassland. The 12th century legend of The Epic of King Gesar tells the story of the divine Tibetan hero:Continue reading “Journey to the West(ern Sichuan Region) : Part III!”

Journey to the West(ern Sichuan Region) : Part II!

(To read the first part of this trip, click here!) After a good night’s sleep, my altitude sickness had (thankfully) worn off and I was ready to greet the morning in Tagong! Others on my trip were not so lucky, unfortunately, and felt sick sometimes for days at a time. Understandably so – the TibetanContinue reading “Journey to the West(ern Sichuan Region) : Part II!”

Journey to the West(ern Sichuan Region!) : Part I!

When it became clear that we would finally be allowed to leave Shanghai over our spring break – COVID restrictions have started easing up, and I received my vaccine in February – I immediately started thinking about travel plans. Though Shanghai is an exciting city to live in, I couldn’t wait to start seeing someContinue reading “Journey to the West(ern Sichuan Region!) : Part I!”