Chan's Language Teaching and Urban Explorer Blog

Zhongguo is Mandarin for Middle Kingdom or Middle Country and, since 1000 BCE, has been the Chinese name for China. For almost seven...

Inner Mongolia extends across northern China from the eastern edge of Xinjiang Autonomous Region to the western edge of Heilongjiang...

At the risk of some Zygote (my name for Generation Z, chosen specifically for this article) rolling their eyes as they sigh “okay...

Call them grasslands, plains, prairies, or steppes, they’re wide open spaces like those some people dream about. The Hulunbuir Grasslands...

Suifenhe, China is in the southeastern part of Heilongjiang Province along the border with Russia. It’s also the end of the line for the...

My two favorite things in the world are coffee and cigars. I like my coffee strong and black - no milk, no sugar, no flavorings, just...

We've long heard or read about man's inhumanity to man, how humans can treat each other in a manner that is, well, inhuman. During the...

Named for Russia's Volga River, Volga Manor was originally built in 1899, but, sadly, what remains are merely replicas of the original...

Located at number 2 Shangyou Street just off Harbin's famous Central Street (Zhongyang Dajie), this is apparently one of several such...

Nestled deep within the Greater Khingan Mountain range among deciduous forests, Mohe is China’s “Arctic” region, though it is several...

Surrounded by mountains of the Greater Khingan Mountain Range, and reminiscent of West Virginia (a mountainous state in the eastern...

Not to be confused with the city by the same name in China's Yunnan Province in southwest China, this Fuyuan is located in Heilongjiang...

Qing'an (pronounced CHING-AN) is a county located within the prefecture level city of Suihua in Heilongjiang Province, China. By train,...

Heihe (approximately pronounced hey-her) is a small city on the Heilong River (or, for Russians, Amur River) across from Russia in...

Dalian is a city on the southern coast of China's Liaoning Province. It played a significant role in the Russo-Japanese War around the...

Dandong is a city in China's Liaoning Province on the river that borders North Korea. I went there for the May Day holiday. You can read...

Qiqihar (Chi-chi-har), alternatively Tsitsihar, is the second-largest city in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province and one of the...

I really dislike long vacations! Seriously, I would much rather be in the classroom with my students than to have to spend more than two...

Qingdao (the Q is pronounced as ch) is my favorite city in China. I first visited in 2015 when I decided to take a short ride on one of...