Ancient Kashgar destroyed for "safety reasons"

Uyghur men in Kashgar souk By Alison Bate When I visited Kashgar just over three years ago, I was disappointed at first. The road in from the airport passed concrete roundabouts and boring buildings typical of the modern Han Chinese city. There was even a giant Mao statue close to the bus...

Sun's up! Time to put the kettle on

Tea kettles in Lhundrub By Alison Bate Watching Brad Pitt in “Seven Years in Tibet” the other week, I idly wondered how any movie about Tibet could be so boring. Tibet’s so striking, and there are so many surprises around every corner, that making a boring movie about the country should be...

Winter in Urumqi, one of the world's most polluted cities

The Toronto Star recently listed China’s Urumqi as one of the Top Ten worst places to live in the world. The reason? Pollution. The list prompted my strangely fond memories of coughing and spluttering through winter in Urumqi while teaching English there between 2005 and 2006. By Alison Bate It’s...

Teaching in the Muslim World

Camel driver in Mygoma, a suburb of Khartoum My story about teaching in Khartoum, Sudan in 2007 is now on the Transitions Abroad website. It begins this way: By Alison Bate Shortly after I arrived in Sudan, one of my favorite male students quietly passed me a handwritten note, whispering that I should read...

Kicked Out Of The Karakoram

How we were turfed out of a village in remote China after a friendly soccer game It was late January, the start of Chinese New Year, when Chris and I decided to escape the coal pollution, dirty snow and concrete overpasses of Urumqi. We were teaching English in the capital city of China’s remote...