by Ivo Kruchten | Aug 16, 2016 | two girls in China
Loyally following the route taken by Grueber and d’Orville, we are now crossing the remote and rural parts of the Chinese provinces rarely visited by foreigners. Our presence in the town has often raised astonishment and curiosity from the locals. Everyone, from...
by Ivo Kruchten | Aug 16, 2016 | two girls in China
Since we started traveling we have seen pagodas of all shapes and sizes almost everywhere. Kircher also noticed the numerous “towers”, as he calls them, spread everywhere in the country. The pagodas are defined as “ towers superstitiously built by the Chinese all with...
by Ivo Kruchten | Aug 16, 2016 | two girls in China
We left our beloved Mongolia on a night train and headed towards the province of Ningxia. We arrived in the city of Yinchuan at 5 am after a long journey on interesting Chinese trains!...
by Ivo Kruchten | Aug 15, 2016 | two girls in China
On their way back to Europe through China, our favourite Jesuits, Grueber and d’Orville had to cross the limitless plateaux of grasslands in Inner Mongolia, so we did as well! We woke up to watch a stunning sunrise and get an early start for our expedition into...
by Ivo Kruchten | Aug 15, 2016 | two girls in China
It’s one week into our trip and we are leaving the heat and sweaty streets of Beijing and Datong for the blustery grasslands of Inner Mongolia. The trains are usually quite crowded, but so far everyone we’ve met on the trains has been friendly and helpful!...
by Ivo Kruchten | Aug 13, 2016 | two girls in China
According to a description of Kircher, in a book previous to the China Illustrata, European bells, especially the Erford one found in Germany, are the “queen of bells”. However, Grueber, after having visited a remote city near Beijing contradicts Kircher saying: “ I...
