From Brooklyn to Beijing

 I recently had Golden Week off from work, the holiday in China that takes place over the first week of October, celebrating China's national day. Perhaps you've seen the images around the internet of the insane movement of half the population during this week, such as this one from the NY Times: Well I also wanted to travel, and upon recommendation, I found the most wonderful, tourist free spot possible, just outside of Guilin- a tourist hotspot in Southern China. From a plane to a train to a car to a ferry to a cart... and I made it to my own little piece of paradise.   I arrived at an incredible Airbnb created by foreigners but run by locals that goes by the name of Laojia. I almost don't want to write about it because I want it to remain my little secret but, oh well.  Laojia is in the small village of Langshi, along the Li River, smack dab in the middle of the famous karsts of Guilin and Yangshuo. Laojia is not your average Airbnb. It's a pla...

A little background Xinjiang, China's largest and most northwestern province, is home to Central Asian minority's groups such as Kazakh, Tajik, ‎Kyrgyz, and, most common, Uighur (China's largest Muslim ethnic minority). Xinjiang was once a crucial part of the Silk Road trade route for hundreds of years, linking passages from China all the way to Tibet, India and beyond, to Europe. These days, Xinjiang has been in the news for other reasons, namely "terrorism." In the last few years, some deadly protests have occurred in this region, said to be led by the Uighur separatists.   Late last year, the Chinese government decided to do something more extreme to combat these attacks. They appointed a new chairman to take over control of Xinjiang. Chen Quanguo, previously the chairman of Tibet, is known for his conservative and oppressive tactics to suppress any sort of anti-Party thinking. Chen Quanguo had cracked down on the local Uighurs using similar tactics to hi...