Around the Planet

Standing famously at the crossroads of East and West, and established over 3,000 years ago, Ankara is a city truly steeped in history, and offering a fine blend of Eastern and Western culture. If you are feeling the pinch of the credit crunch, yet yearning for a city break, the plethora of cheap hotels in [...]

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Following my post on David Rogers’ on-the-road travel blog Last Train to Lhasa, I was very happy to finally catch up with the man himself, who has just had a very hectic few months setting up his new web design company. We had a bit of a chat, and I asked David about some of [...]

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It was almost exactly a year ago, with another English winter on its way, that David Rogers decided that it might be more fun to spend winter in Tibet than in his usual London habitat, and so, travelling overland, he headed off east in the direction of Lhasa, Tibet. Thus, Last Train to Lhasa was [...]

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As well as an Introduction to the Trans-Siberian Railway, I have already discussed the Trans-Siberian railway proper, which is the Moscow-Vladivostok route, and the Trans-Mongolian alternative, more popular with the tourists, that goes via Mongolia to Beijing.

The third and final alternative for crossing Eurasia is the Trans-Manchurian route from Moscow to Beijing. This train, known [...]

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I have already talked about the Trans-Siberian Railway generally, and about what might be called the Trans-Siberian proper, which is the Moscow-Vladivostok route. However, a route which tends to be more popular with the tourists is the Trans-Mongolian. This route is the same as the Trans-Siberian as far as Ulan Ude, where it departs from [...]

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In my Introduction to the Trans-Siberian Railway, I spoke of the three possible routes that can be taken. Today I want to focus on the Moscow – Vladivostok route.
It is the Moscow to Vladivostok route that is the Trans-Siberian Railway proper, as opposed to the two other trans-Eurasian routes that end up in Beijing. The [...]

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The original idea to build a Trans-Siberian Railway, in order to connect the then capital of Russia, St Petersburg, with Vladivostok and the Pacific, was first approved by Czar Alexander III in 1891. Vladivostok had been founded in 1860, fulfilling Russia’s long standing desire for a Pacific port, and by 1880 it had rapidly grown [...]

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Vietnam has such hot summers that, back in the colonial days, the French, in a similar manner to the British in India, took to the hills where the weather is cooler. In doing so, they established the town of Dalat up in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, in the Annamese Mountain Range. Being 1,500m above [...]

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The last time I was in China, doing a tour around Canton, our guide was a chirpy and pleasant man from Foshan, who managed to get everybody smiling, and even singing, on the course of the trip. However, at the mention of Shanghai, he went off into a mild rant: “People from Shanghai - they [...]

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Harbin is a delight to the senses for those who love architecture, and the amazing thing to reflect upon as you gaze upon its quintessentially European-styled structures, is that you are actually in China, in the northernmost major city of the ancient Middle Kingdom. But ancient Harbin is not - the city actually started life [...]

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