Marc Wandschneider travels a lot - Marc goes Traveling

marcwan.com

Marc Wandschneider travels a lot

Welcome to marcwan.com, formerly travel.lanfear.com. It's been two years since I last updated this site, but that doesn't mean I haven't been doing anything during those two years. I've got a tonne of new trip reports and promise to add more as I see 'em!

It's been a tumultuous period in my life, with some positive changes (I'm gradually getting better at both Chinese and yoga, and business is looking up), and some serious setbacks (I am no longer married). But, I am still alive and kicking here in China, and will continue to update this site on a regular basis.

The old site was powered by a crappy little XML engine I wrote, and the main little XML file that powered the site was approaching stupid sizes as the trip reports increased. So, I've rewritten the site using the latest and most awesomest-est PHP and MySQL technologies, and have implemented search and support for videos and panorama photos.

As always, please feel free to send me messages and comments at

127 trip report(s) total. Showing items 1 - 25

		2009-05-16 798 - The Beijing Art District
		Once upon a time there was a big socialist factory area called Joint Factory 718, near the Dashanzi neighbourhood and transportation links. One of the smaller units within this complex was the 798 Factory, which made electronics. As this factory complex was abandoned, artists moved in and the name 798 came to refer to the entire greater area. It's now a thriving area of art galleries, cafés, restaurants, and chintzy tourist trinket shops.

		2009-05-04 Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province (江苏徐州) : A 48 hour whirlwind tour (2 reports)
		A friend of mine from Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province (江苏徐州), has been trying for a very long time to get me to go and visit him, but I've always been too busy to go or just otherwise missing good chances. With the labour day long weekend upon us, I took the opportunity to hop the fast trian down to Xuzhou and hang there for a couple of days. At 4 million people, it's not one of China's bigger cities, and there are maybe 50 foreigners, total, but people are very friendly and take their food very seriously.

		2009-05-02 The Beijing Strawberry Music Festival and Labour Day Weekend
		The Labour Day weekend is upon us and there is a three day music festival on the outskirts of Beijing called the Strawberry Music Festival. I embarked on a 2 hour public transit odyssey to find the place and check it out. Fabulous way to spend a sunny day.

		2009-04-05 Chinese museums are so awesome.
		I've often felt guilty about the fact that I haven't been to visit more museums and galleries here in Beijing. In three years of living here, I have only been to a handful, and rarely bother to take photos of them. Today, I remembered why.

		2009-01-28 Spring Festival 2009
		Spring Festival (aka Chinese New Year) is China's biggest holiday, and always a crazy time here in Beijing. This year, with the economic slow-down and all that, things were a bit calmer than in years past, but still crazy, and full of fireworks goodness.

		2008-12-06 The Bird's Nest Olympic Stadium and environs
		After a brief but brutal cold snap, Beijing warmed up a few degrees today to let me hop on the bicycle and work my way up to the Olympic Park, where the Bird's Nest stadium, water cube swimming auditorium, and other venus are located. On the way, I passed by Ditan park, which had some sort of shin-dig going on, so I stopped in to see what was going on.

		2008-11-30 A little bit more exploring Beijing
		Another gorgeous day that demanded outside-time, so I hopped on the bike and went to check out some of the newer areas in the middle-east of the city, just outside the Third Ring Road. My travels took me first to Nürenjie (女人街, or "Women's street"), and then to the huge new Solana complex in the northwest part of Chaoyang park. It's really big.

		2008-11-29 Deutscher Weihnachts-Charity Basar Peking
		One of the big events on the Beijing social calendar is the Deutscher Weihnachts-Charity Basar Peking, or German Embassy Charity Bazaar. It's like a real Kristkindlmarkt, but in Beijing. In an embassy compound. It was awesome, and the weather for it couldn't have been better (well, maybe it could have snowed).

		2008-11-21 Beihai Park on a gloriously sunny day (and some Ritan too)
		The autumn weather here in Beijing has been unbeatable of late — blue skies and mild weather. So, I decided to finally check out one of the last "big ticket" items in Beijing to which I had not yet been: Beihai Park. Being so nice out, I also went down to Ritan park to get some pictures of the lovely trees.

		2008-11-18 16 Hours in Nanjing
		Taking Guerilla Tourism to a whole new level, I took a night train down to Nanjing, spent the day wandering around the city and seeing whatever sights there were to see, and then spent another night going back to Beijing. An interesting way to travel, and a beautiful city to boot!

		2008-08-19 Two months in India doing Yoga (13 reports)
		I decided to spend a couple of months in India doing some yoga. My plans changed on account of a massive case of the plague, but I was still able to have an awesome time in Mumbai seeing the Ganesh festival and the beautiful sights of the Ganges River in Rishikesh, up in the Himalayas.

		2008-08-15 Back in Beijing for the Olympics
		Before heading to India for a few months of yoga, I decided to go back and spend a few days in Beijing checking out the Olympic fun. The city was beautifully clean and sunny the whole time, with perfect temperatures. I walked around the newly opened Sanlitun village with the Apple Store, and also checked out the newly renovated Qianmen neighbourhood.

		2008-08-13 Day trip to Port Townsend, WA
		I did a day trip up to Port Townsend, WA, to visit some old neighbours of mine. Lovely town, crazy weather, and a nice way to relax for a day. Surprisingly decent food, too!

		2008-07-22 A week in New England with my sister (7 reports)
		My sister had a week's vacation, and we thought it might be fun to go and do something together, so we rented a car and took a drive around New England. It basically turned into a "Maine Vacation", but that's okay — Maine is awesome.

		2008-07-18 A few days in New York City
		My friend Zoltan moved to New York City a few months ago, and I had to go there to finish up a publishing project, so we planned to hang out some and see some places in the city that neither of us had seen before. We managed to get to the Empire State Building, the Guggenheim, and some parts of Central Park.

		2008-07-15 Marc visits the Family Island
		In the middle of my whirlwind touring around the northeast of the US and Canada, I managed to squeeze in a few days of relaxing up at my father and his wife's island. It's a great place to spend a few days not doing much, except catch some sun, and the dock makes for great waterfront yoga!

		2008-06-28 A few days in Singapore (3 reports)
		I had a few days to spare before the Asia Yoga Conference in Hong Kong next week, so I decided to head to Singapore and finally see one of the famous Asian Tigers. It was significantly cleaner and less polluted than Beijing, but also a bit more sterile. The zoo, however, is unparalleled.

		2008-02-28 PHP Quebec 2008 and New York City (2 reports)
		I was invited to give a couple of talks at the annual PHP Québec conference in Montreal this year, so I took advantage of the trip to visit a few other places in North America as well. I managed to get some nice photos in New York City, and also up in Quebec.

		2008-02-06 Spring Festival in China
		Spring Festival is the biggest holiday of the year for the Chinese, on par with Christmas in the West. Everything shuts down, the locals all go visit family, and much gift money exchanges hands. It's a great time to be a child. In 2007, they started allowing fireworks again. The results are simply insane.

		2008-01-28 Ice Skating at Houhai
		The weather has been pretty nice out lately, with cold, but not freezing temperatures, and generally pretty nice skies. So, we decided to try our hand at ice-skating in the Houhai neighbourhood this weekend.

		2008-01-15 The new National Grand Theatre of China in Beijing
		Construction has finally finished on the Beijing National Grand Theatre of China, an ambitious egg-like building a few hundred metres west of Tiananmen Square. The building took some seven years to complete, and was designed by French Architect Paul Andreu. We went to check it out today.

		2007-10-20 Another trip to the Summer Palace
		The weather for Zoltan's visit here to China continues to be spectacular, so we took advantage of another day full of blue skies to visit the Summer Palace (yíhéyuán, or 颐和园) in the northwest of the City. The previous trip was made in 38C+ (over 100F) in miserable humidity and haze, but this time the weather was a gorgeous 15-20C (60s F) and the visibility was incredible.

		2007-10-17 A couple of days in Qingdao (4 reports)
		We decided it would be fun to take a couple of days to go see some other city in China, not too far from Beijing. Unfortunately, we couldn't find train tickets for many of the more interesting places, so we went to Qingdao. It's a city.

		2007-10-16 The Great Wall of China, Mk III
		This is my third trip to the Great Wall, but certainly my favourite location. Great weather, a nice group of people, and lots of ancient walled action. And a toboggan ride down the hill (check out the video).

		2007-10-11 Roaming around Beijing with a friend (3 reports)
		My friend Zoltan came to visit Beijing for a coupla weeks from Seattle. The first few days, we just walked around some of the different neighbourhoods and explored places such as the Forbidden City and the Jingshan just north of it.