teach english in china, by china photographer tom carter

having little luck finding an attractive job offer in the u.s. in 2004, i decided to take my skills where they were wanted — abroad.

enticed by the “teach english in china — no experience necessary” ads saturating the online classifieds, i emailed my resume with one hand and packed my bags with the other. i had no idea what to expect, but then, the great unknown can be what makes a job like teaching english in the people’s republic so appealing.

as the world’s largest economy opens to foreign investment, education has become one of china’s thriving sectors. confucius probably wouldn’t stand for it, but he wasn’t wearing pinstripe suits and drivi

china’s internet sucks!!! by china photographer tom carter

in late december of last year, a 7.1 earthquake off the coast of taiwan severely damaged asia’s undersea fiber-optic cables, disrupting telecommunication circuits across the continent.

china and southeast asia saw their communications capacity fall to between 2 and 10 percent, and though a portion of service has since been rerouted to alternative fixed lines and suicidally slow satellite transmissions, the p.r.c. has yet to fully recover from the technological aftershocks, what mainlanders are now referring to as the “world wide wait.

repair status is conflicting, with chinese telecom officials publ

xanadu, china, by china photographer tom carter

in the summer it is a scalding expanse of desert, in the spring verdant grassland; but in the winter, inner mongolia is a white kingdom few travelers, beyong the occasional mongol nomad, brave to enter.

indeed, the traditionally nomadic lifestyle of the native mongolian reflects the region’s unforgiving climate. to quote the usually intrepid lonely planet guidebook chapter on inner mongolia, “…from december to march – forget it!”

occupying 12% of china’s landmass in a majestic arching slope of over one million kilometers, inner mongolia borders 8 other chinese provinces in addition to the colossal countries of mongolia and russia to the north.

autumn is perhaps china’s most precious season, a respite between sweltering summers and fatal winters. but it is only in the northern sichuan highlands of jiuzhaigou, china’s natural wonderland, where fall can be witnessed in blazing splendor.

approaching nine villages gully near the gansu border, one may at first be daunted by the chaos of tour groups and ceaseless convoys of busses not unlike diesel prisons bullying their way through the crowds with deafening blasts of the horn. be reassured, however, that anyone in a red hat following a flag and megaphone most certainly does not have the same itinerary as a more independent-minded visitor.

while jiuzhaigou is a mas

panjiayuan - beijing’s world of antiques, by china photographer tom carter

perhaps not by coincidence, the greek word pangaea, meaning “all lands,” is the name historians have given to planet earth before its continental drift 200 millions years ago, when the world was one.

similarly named panjiayuan, beijing’s largest antiques fair, can likewise be described as a place where every province in the people’s republic have come together to form their own supercontinent-like market place. indeed, one might spend years journeying across china to uncover the same treasures that can be had in a day at panjiayuan.

here, spanning landscapes of antiquated wares, art, precious stones and revolutionary memora

hong kong - hindus, hookers and honkies, by tom carter

having spent over two-and-a-half straight years in the chinese mainland without leave, it was with both anticipation and apprehension that i recently crossed the southern border into asia’s wealthiest city.

despite its one-stop-shopping popularity with mainland expats needing new clothes and a new visa, i truly had no idea what to expect in the former crown colony that supposedly makes even rich men feel poor. rather terrified of exacting reverse culture shock, i hence saved english-speaking hong kong and its “one country, two systems” self for the tail end of my journey across the 32 chinese provinces.

and it is he

chinese youth hostels - sex, drugs and…stir fry  by tom carter

as a veteran backpacker of both hemispheres currently traveling extensively throughout all 32 provinces of the people’s republic of china, this writer has come to depend heavily on hostels. without them i could not financially (or emotionally) last the 10 months i’m expected to be on the road. as such, i’ve brooded on the etymology of the word.

hostel: a term that has become synonymous with world travel. from the medieval latin hospitium, it has been co-opted by over 80 different countries, beginning in 1912 germany whence originated the idea of the modern youth hostel. yet in spite of its global popularity, hostelling h

crime in china - a threat to tourism  by tom carter

perhaps the single most reassuring fact about travel in the people’s republic of china is its remarkably low crime rate.

the ministry of public security (mps), the principal authority of domestic criminal procedures, earlier this year announced a 15 percent decline in violent crime (4.5 million reported cases for 2005), while common property infringement incidents such as theft, fraud and robbery, which account for 80 percent of all cases, rose by only 1 percent.

cosmopolitan cities such as beijing and shanghai, which annually attract tens of millions of overseas visitors on business or holiday, applaud themselves for providing public order and relatively safe city streets where one can walk at just about any hour in relative safety.

but all is not necessarily quiet on the home front. in an uncharacteristically candid public admission, the mps has rep

racism in china’s hospitality industry, by tom carter

anyone who has spent time in the people’s republic of china is obviously aware of the sheer number of hotels and sundry boardinghouses located in even the smallest city.

what patronizing western travelers frequently encounter at the front desk, however, is a sudden expulsion by the proprietor conveying in chinese that no foreigners are allowed!

what would compel a vacant guesthouse to turn away a paying guest into the night 

the answer is found in a longstanding police statute that prohibits the majority of these establishments from accepting non-chinese guests or risk the penalty of a fine; only guests with chinese identification may patron an independently run boardinghouse, called luguan.

considering no westerner could meet such a requirement, what this restrictive policy translates into is a concerted effort to urge foreign travelers to

on chinese tour groups, by tom carter

“what could possibly compel them to do something so… wrong ”

this was the question posed by a group of expats sitting around a youth hostel in scenic huangshan mountain, china’s beloved mountain range in anhui province, discussing the legions of tourists who had disrupted their 72-peak excursion.

as the foreign travelers retell it, what was supposed to have been a heavenly respite turned into an out-and-out circus replete with megaphones, flags and the congestion of untold numbers of tourists with the inopportune desire to see the same thing at the same time.

“we could barely walk up the narrow steps because there were too many tour groups, we couldn’t see the view past their florescent hats and we couldn’t even hear the birds because of all the noise,” complained the foreign travelers.

such a scene is of course commonplace in china, where 1.3 billion people