I think it was the Pabst that gave me the crappy head, as I only had three very small measures of baijo. The hotel breakfast took most of this away, with all the staples plus some chicken noodle broth and some loal cardamom-flavoured doughnuts. The breakfast buffet does offer a wide selection, including broccolli/cauliflower, taro cakes, pumpkin balls, black rice congee (it’s purple), spring rolls, cold meats and cheeses, all sorts really. And tepid coffee. While I haven’t ventured to try a local coffee around the town, the hotel coffee is about the worst I’ve tasted, worse than anything the English have ever served me. Then a bunch of the…

China is a magnificent, ancient, land of culture. I am, if nothing else, maybe slightly above the average base grade western barbarian tourist. I don’t speak the local lingo, save for a handful of words (thank you, hello, pork dumplings, fire water/Chinese ‘Whisky’) and can read nothing in Chinese script. So I’m obviously prepared. The good news is that L and I are going to Wuhan, one of the older and more civilised Chinese cities, proudly promoting a long history of Chinese defiance (gave the Japanese as good as they got, and were a KMT stronghold for a number of years). It’s also not really a tourist town and boasts…