Very close to Shanghai and less than an hour away by high speed rail, Hangzhou is a beautiful place gifted with stunning natural scenery and fertile soil. It is the land of my forefathers and hence my father would bring me there to visit the place my grandfather called home Read more…
One of the placed I’ve lived in and grown to hate (but later appreciated) was Shanghai. It’s hard to imagine that the place 6-year-old me lived in was so different when I visited at 17 and 19 years old. Back then, the Shanghai metro consisted of just two short lines Read more…
During my research of national socialist architecture in the 1930’s and 40’s I travelled to many places in the German-speaking world including places of historical significance in Austria and Germany. One of my more unexpected finds were in Czechia where I met a former Czechoslovakian border officer in the border Read more…
What better way to celebrate Einheitstag on October 3rd in Berlin than a long weekend of Rotbratwurst mit Brotchen and basking in the sun with an ice cold Paulaner’s? Less than one generation ago, the Berlin Wall fell and the image of a divided German people still haunt our memories. Read more…
Called “Tag des offenen Denkmals” in Germany, I discovered this gem by pure coincidence. I was itching to visit the Berliner U-Bahn museum at Olympia-stadion Station in the west end of Berlin. The museum only opened every second weekend of the month so I thought the second Saturday of September Read more…
Hong Kong has an issue with its discriminatory mindset and its not very often brought up in conversation. Although there may not be racial discrimination on the surface of day-to-day interactions with different people, there does seem to be a preference or some sort of ranking in terms of race. Read more…
Dividing Germany’s capital city, Berlin, for nearly three decades, the Berlin Wall divided not only land, but a people between two contrasting ideologies. Is it East versus West, or Regan versus Gorbachev? Berlin was at the battlefronts of the Cold War, a city a spies, and a city of dreams. Read more…
“Näschte Halt, Alexanderplatz, übergang zur U2, U8, zum Regionalverkehr, zur S-Bahn mit verbindung zum Hauptbahnhof, und zum Bus mit verbindung zum Flughafen Tegel. Change here for bus service to Tegel Airport.” ~ U5 announcement for Alexanderplatz Station I’ve been on the U5 to Alexanderplatz so many times I can memorise Read more…
Open air concerts, fireworks, meeting Benjamin Franklin in the flesh, and having huge hot dogs for lunch, all this means the 4th of July in Washington, D.C. I’ve only watched movies about Americans having barbecues and setting off fireworks on this festive date and never experienced it myself. Being there Read more…
Theres a running joke among my Canadian friends that even though I was born near Vancouver I seem to have more friends in Toronto, even though I haven’t been to Toronto until I turned 19. When I did visit, I decided to make it my Canadian heritage trip where I Read more…