I hate lists. Patricia Shultz and her “1000 Places to See Before you Die”, first published in 2003, killed my enthusiasm for being a guidebook writer by persuading the industry that the beautiful intricacy of the world’s different countries, cultures and landscapes – not to mention the sheer enjoyment of travel for its own sake – could be reduced to …
Mesny 1862: A Prisoner on the Yangzi
During the Taiping Uprising, Mesny found work as a “Blockade Runner”, ferrying contraband arms and salt upstream along the war-ravaged lower Yangzi between Shanghai and the inland metropolis of Wuhan. The work was profitable but extremely dangerous, and it wasn’t long before Mesny was fighting off pirates and getting himself badly battered during a near-fatal assault by the Qing navy. …
Mountains and Monkeys
There’s no point spending half your life living rough on the road if you can’t indulge a few private interests from time to time. One of mine is seeing as much wildlife as possible. Though I’m really more interested in smaller stuff like reptiles and insects, I’ve always had good luck with primates; highlights include seeing orang-utan, proboscis monkeys, gibbon, …
Finding A Publisher For Mesny
It took me fifteen years to research and write The Mercenary Mandarin. One reason that it took so long was that papers on Mesny were scattered across the globe, and I had to fit tracking them down into moments of spare time between paid work. But mostly, I’ve also always had to work to deadlines, and this was a rare …
How I Became A Guidebook Writer
Back in 2005, I was interviewed by China Travel magazine in Hong Kong. The journalist took me out for afternoon tea at the swish Mandarin Oriental hotel, and we chatted for a couple of hours about my background as a travel writer, and in particular how I had become so interested in China. Between guzzling tea, petit fours and cucumber …
Seda
We hadn’t wanted to go to Seda. I doubt anybody does, unless they’re a monk studying at the enormous lamasery there, the largest in western Sichuan. But things had gone astray at the bus station in Ma’erkang, where the staff had refused to tell me whether there was a bus through to the monastery town of Ganzi, hundreds of kilometres further …