The China Travel Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

For this episode we’re delving into the mission of EGRC (Educating Girls of Rural China), an NGO supporting the educational pursuits of girls in China’s underprivileged regions. Our guest is the founder of EGRC, Ching Tien, who shares with us her personal story of growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution. Her path strays from an educated family background and setting, to relocation in Gansu, the poorest province in China at the time, where she worked in a factory. Several decades later, Ching found herself at a children’s concert in Vancouver, thinking of the girls she bumped shoulders with back in Gansu, and the many worldly opportunities they were missing out on. The first seedlings of EGRC were thence planted, and today, 18 years later, over 2,000 girls in China have benefited from the NGO born of that dream.

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For a more detailed write-up on this episode, including links to resources mentioned, please visit our website: wildchina.com

For this episode we’re exploring Yangshuo, Guangxi and Shaxi, Yunnan with Chris Barclay.

Who is Chris Barclay? Well, if you’ve been to Yangshuo anytime in the last 20 years, you’ve probably heard of the Yangshuo Mountain Retreat, a long-standing ecolodge on the banks of the Yulong River.

This Yangshuo staple was Chris’ first foray into the hospitality industry, in 2001. Since then Chris has opened two more boutique hotels in China: the Yangshuo Village Inn and the Old Theatre Inn. In this episode we explore Chris’ journey as an entrepreneur, hotelier, designer and preservationist in China.

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For a more detailed write-up on this episode, including links to resources mentioned, please visit our website: wildchina.com

For this episode we explore the birds and biodiversity of the nation’s capital with Beijing-based conservationist, Terry Townshend. Mei and Terry talk about the remarkable Beijing swift, China’s birding boom and a rising awareness of conservation in the country’s public and political spheres.

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For a more detailed write-up on this episode, including links to resources mentioned, please visit our website: wildchina.com

For our twentieth episode we explore the world of studying China and Chinese language with UCSD emeritus professor of modern Chinese history, Dr. Joseph Esherick. From the athlete and academic superstar Eileen Gu to the history and modern implications of the grueling imperial examinations, Mei and Joe cover a range of education topics comparing the past and present, America and China.

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For a more detailed write-up on this episode, including links to resources mentioned, please visit our website: wildchina.com

For our nineteenth episode we chat with existential wellness counselor, Michelle Mope Andersson. Michelle brings her expertise in ministry to the ground in Yunnan, studying the history of missionaries in China by tracing the routes they took and meeting the people and structures who keep the faith in these Catholic communities alive today. 

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For a more detailed write-up on this episode, including links to resources mentioned, please visit our website: wildchina.com

For our eighteenth episode we chat with Dunhuang Academy Scholar-in-Residence, Dr. Neil Schmid. As one of the world’s leading authorities on medieval Buddhism’s visual culture, Neil covers the importance and implications of the grotto art – from seasonal fruits pictured to social and political inferences. He also gives us his recommendations as a Dunhuang resident, on what to see, do, eat and drink in the city.

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For a more detailed write-up on this episode, including links to resources mentioned, please visit our website: wildchina.com

For our seventeenth episode we cover the evolution of rock climbing in China and its crossover with growing conservation awareness in the country. Our guest for this episode is lifetime conservationist and Yunnan climbing pioneer, Bob Moseley. The episode is hosted by WildChina’s Mei Zhang, and previously Beijing-based, climber Kendra Tombolato.

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For a more detailed write-up on this episode, including links to resources mentioned, please visit our website: wildchina.com

For our sixteenth episode, we talk cycling in China with Ken Goh, founder of Shanghai-based RideNow Cycle Club. Ken is a Singapore native who now lives and works, and of course, cycles, in Shanghai, as well as all over China and the rest of Asia. In this episode we cover the basics of cycling in China, what logistics are involved in planning a group cycling trip, and Ken’s favorite cycling destination – Tibet.

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For a more detailed write-up on this episode, including links to resources mentioned, please visit our website: wildchina.com

For our fifteenth episode we asked Jim Nobles, founder of Bizarre Beijing, to chat with us on some of China’s more haunting facets. We cover a range of afterlife and ghoulish topics, from joss paper burnings going virtual due to growing awareness of environmental impacts to Chinese Ouija boards and supernatural beliefs, and of course there’s a smattering of local ghost stories woven in along the way.

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For a more detailed write-up on this episode, including links to resources mentioned, please visit our website: wildchina.com

For our fourteenth episode we head to the to the Sanxingdui archaeological site in Sichuan province with Harvard’s anthropology department professor of archaeology, Rowan Flad. Dr. Flad shares insights on the importance of the Sanxingdui findings, an overview on archaeological sites across China within the context of Chinese history, and of course recommendations for archaeological sites in China open to visitors.

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For a more detailed write-up on this episode, including links to resources mentioned, please visit our website: wildchina.com