JAMES TAM  谭炳昌

A Photo Essay on Confucius’ tomb. The 2500-year-old burial grounds have been in service since 479 BCE for his descendants. It’s the oldest a

A few days ago, on my way to evening meditation at Dong Shan ( link to Shadows of Cave Mountain ), I was captivated by the moon. It was a...

A 16-day mediation camp at Dongshan Temple in China

Like most tourists, I prefer historical sites or “exotic” destinations when travelling, wishing to see something “different”. Since I...

Photogenic Iceland has been exhaustedly covered. Every visitor to Iceland has taken a picture similar to this. Perhaps I'll focus more on...

Vientiane has become a familiar name in the past few days because of the 49th ASEAN foreign ministers meeting. Lao’s capital Vientiane,...

I'm still wondering if the two figures I saw at the magnificent Phapeng Falls are real or not 我到今天還懷疑 Phapeng 瀑布石頭上的人，是真是假 We entered...

Digging for the truth 發掘真相 Nothing much happened in the ensuing centuries; just the usual merging and splitting, rebellions and...

Link to previous post: Xishuangbanna 链接到上一篇：西雙版納 I know it’s downright silly to attempt summarising a country’s history in a hundred...

Whoever has heard of a border city in Xishuangbanna called Jing Hong? Just short of half a million inhabitants, it’s neither here nor...

Dusk at Jing Mai Shan 景邁山暮色 Inside Jing-Mai Shan (Shan means Mountain) is one of the oldest natural tea plantations in Yunan Province...

These days, when travelling, I often feel a precocious sense of nostalgia. The photos that I take could become mini time-capsules much...

Ah! Soho! Sounds so Chinese. But the name originated in London, probably as hunting grounds for Henry Number Eight and friends. Nobody’s...

要瞭解格魯吉亞的處境，失業率是個好參數。蘇聯瓦解後，格魯吉亞獨立，失業率狂飆至85%，社會動蕩了二十多年。現在比較安定，失業率降了下來，仍然停留在65%的懸崖邊上。導遊指出，格魯吉亞人的傳統本領是務農和打仗。現在人口只有三百多萬，要把本事擴大，經濟多元化，談何容易？美國，北...

A capella singer in a stone chamber at Garni, Armenia 在亚美尼亚古迹 Garni 石室清唱圣诗的歌手 我將阿塞拜疆與亞美尼亞兩個世仇放在一起，是對他們的一種友好祝願。早在一戰前，這兩族人一有機會便你插我眼珠，我咬你耳朵...

We are supposed to be tolerant of religion no matter how absurd it is; but religions have not been very tolerant of others. Throughout...

A few months ago, I was still misspelling Caucasus as “Caucuses”. Now that I’ve visited Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia for 18 days,...

While I was in Levi, a South China Morning Post article reported that Chinese tourists in Lapland have increased dramatically in the past...

This X’mas, we were part of a locust cloud in Santa’s homeland, warmly welcomed by the cool Finns. Before getting into all that, first a...

Long time no see Finland. I saw light everywhere, gleaming, glinting, blazing, more dramatic than before, enchanting as usual. And thank...