Getting Out of the Bubble

Last week was, as we all know, Christmas but for me it was a special Christmas because it was my first Christmas in China. The thing about Christmas in China is that they don't really do Christmas. Sure, they do the lights and decorations but they don't really get it, no one celebrates and it really is just a consumer holiday here. No baby Jesus anywhere to be seen. But we weren't going to let China's lack of Christmas enthusiasm stop our celebrations so in true Christmas style we decorated our apartment and even managed to find a little Christmas tree to really get into the spirit. The lead up to the big day itself was pretty different to at home; there was no Christmas holidays to get the festive mood going and no Christmas carols playing everywhere, no Christmas movies on TV and no mince pies. But if there was one thing we did keep it was Christmas parties... Card games at their finest... Our friend, Alvin, hosted a party on Christmas Eve eve, which was...

After seven weeks of travelling around China I amassed hundreds of photos of all the amazing and beautiful places and things that we've seen. It can be overwhelming to think about how much we really saw in a relatively short space of time, but looking back over my photos I am reminded how lucky I am to have seen so much of a country as diverse and amazing as China.  While travelling it's hard to take everything that you see in but, now I am back in China and settling into life in Yinchuan, it's fun to look back and really appreciate where we've been.  I went through my hundreds of photos and tried to pick my favourite 50 photos that would represent our travels and everything we've seen; I couldn't settle on 50, so I upped the number to 60. Some of them may have been posted either here on the blog, on Facebook, or on Instagram but that's because they are my favourite photos and I enjoy looking at them and the theory is other people may too! Then, luck...