I’ve watched and read many bloggers in the travel community highlight their 7 links these past few days. It was a game of tag I was eager but uninvited to play…until now! Thanks to my fellow New Yorker, Connie Hum, from Connvoyage and Kathryne & Dan from Two Go RTW, I’ve been selected to participate.

So here are my 7 links:

My Most Beautiful Post: Jaw Dropping Sunrises Around The World

My Most Popular Post: 15 Ways To Volunteer In Africa

My Most Controversial Post: Tainted Travel Bloggers

My Most Helpful Post: Nine Rule To Follow When Traveling The World

A post whose success surprised me: Photo Collection: Faces of the Future

A post I felt didn’t get the attention it deserved: Climbing Out Of Poverty

And now, with my magic wand I’d like to nominate the following travel bloggers to participate and share their 7 links as well.

• Katie Tibbetts from Breakawaykatie
• Audrey Bergner from That Backpacker
• Sam Lovell from Any Road
• Kelly McCusker from Travelightly
• Jerry & Adrienne from Shenventure

You’d think that as a Chinese-American and a New Yorker I would know my way around the city pretty well. Nope. I spent an entire HOUR wandering the fishy streets of Chinatown trying to find The Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA). I Googled the museum address in the morning and jotted down the map location: 70 Mulberry Street. Twenty minutes later, I arrived at the corner of the block and realized that this didn’t look anything like the museum I visited before.

I called my sister and asked her to double check the location. She gave me the correct address, 215 Centre Street, and I spent another 40 minutes trying to find the place. I later learned that 70 Mulberry Street was the old location of the museum. Thanks a lot Google. If you’re planning to visit The MOCA in the future, don’t make the same mistake I did. After all the walking, I was glad to hear that the museum offered Target Free Thursdays. I didn’t have to pay admission!

Although The MOCA features their display on one floor, this small museum is filled with fascinating stories of the travels, tribulations, history and culture of the Chinese diaspora in America. You can find them on almost every inch of the walls.

Below is a collection of my favorite photos from the museum. Click here to see the rest of the album.

What do the foreigners want? Our ten thousand goods, our inventions. What do we want? To trade work for dollars. On their land, seized and conquered, We try our luck with sweat and blood.

"Chinese Must Go" - When the toy pistol's trigger is pulled, the man kicks the "Chinaman" in the rear, exploding the cap.

The Fairness Cup - When the pot is filled half way, the contents do not leak out from the hole in the bottom of the pot. However, if you take more than your share all the liquid will drain out. It illustrates the classical Chinese saying that modesty brings gains and arrogance results in loss.

Poem expressing Chinese immigrants' outraged of American treatment carved on the walls of Angel Island in California.

This 8lb iron represents the weight of a day's work - 6 days a week, 20 hours a day.

A pocket guide prepared by the US Army to distinguish the Chinese from the Japanese

The Civil Rights Movement is often remembered as political movement for African American equality but the Chinese diaspora had their own civil rights movement as well. The Chinese people were the only race of people in the history of the United States that were ever banned from entering the Land of the Free in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.

Guest post by @fienuts

I am not Chinese even though I have a fair skin but I’m often mistaken for one. I live in a country where diversity & multicultural races crisscross each other, especially during the many festivals celebrated in Malaysia. Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year is one of those celebrations and I’d like to share with you some of my favorite things, which I feel would be your favorite thing too if you were to join in this auspicious festival. Here is how you can celebrate Chinese New Year:

1. Lion Dance

Before the celebration begins, a lion dance will be seen in most shopping malls to attract shoppers & visitors. This brings “ong” (luck) to the businesses and evicts bad spirits from the premises. The members of the lion dance practice their moves to perfection. It’s not an easy thing to do as 3 members will have to move at ease together as they are running, balancing one another on their shoulders or jumping from pole to pole.

2. Card Games

Many people visits their close friends and relatives. After having a good meal by the hosts, they would gather to play “Twenty-One,” a card game which involves money. It is also deemed lucky to try your luck at winning money during this day but beginners should start off with a smaller amounts and move on to larger sums of money when they’re ready. The thing I found interesting was how they would put “good luck charms” on the money during the game such as oranges, angpow packet, lucky handkerchief, hello kitty keychain or anything to give them a heads up in the game.

3. “Kam” or Gold

“Kam” means oranges. It symbolizes gold to the Chinese, especially during the celebration. That is why a lot of people will buy Mandarin Oranges for their homes or to give away when they are visiting a friend or relative. The more “gold” the better! Whenever I see stalls with boxes & crates of Mandarin Oranges on the roadside, in malls or sundry shops, I know that Chinese New Year is near.

4. “Angpow”

“Angpow” or money packet is normally given by married couples to the friends or relatives who are still single. They are also given to people who work hard for their living such as the security guards around your home, janitors or cleaners. When I received my “angpow” it normally comes with a “Wish you good luck for this year!” greeting or “Have a blessed year!” or “Many, many happiness this year,” which always makes me feel that the money should be kept for good use as it has been blessed with  “wishes of luck.”

5. Sweets

Whenever you visit someone during Chinese New Year, it is always courteous to bring a gift for the hostess. Most times, the host will return her gratitude by serving a plate of sweet treats for you to eat, ensuring “a sweet year ahead.” Sweets and similar dried fruit goods are normally stored in a red or black Chinese candy box. I had these served to me and chose the coconut version as a starter.

6. Yee Sang

There’s always a reason to eat good food and having the “yee sang” is one of them. It contains a raw fish salad with a variety of crackers, which symbolizes good fortune & good luck. How it is eaten is quite an adventure. One has to pick up the chopsticks and mix these ingredients together and bring it up as high as they can for better luck & fortune. It normally ends up in a mess but still edible!

Yafieda Jamil

Fie is almost five feet tall. She lives in a sunshiny place called Malaysia and loves to promote it! Despite being vertically challenged, Fie is a travel fanactic who loves to randomly go anywhere just to see, touch & smell something different instead of just slaving herself to the advertising industry. Fie has since been bit by the travel bug and would like to spread this friendly infection to everyone she encounters. Check out her blog http://fie-nuts.blogspot.com, LIKE her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter @fienuts.

Guest post by @Kantankkerous

All rights reserved by Marian hushayan

The best aspects of travel involve the reflections and tale-telling of the amazing highlights of your holiday. People love to depict the finest details of how astonishing and impressive the locations were that they had visited. However, there is a greater form of adventurous travel that warrants story telling of a whole different benchmark – one of struggle and bewilderment.

What am I talking about?

The stories you hear of travelers finding themselves in situations so outlandish, one would think that it was a carefully crafted thriller written by a novelist. Stories of travelers whom somehow find themselves on the back of a maniacal rickshaw, or perhaps being forced to drink the urine from a holy cow during an Indian festival! These are the stories I want to tell! Not of how white the sand on the beach were, or how friendly the locals were or what amazing food I had for dinner.

That comes completely part in parcel with travel. It’s a given. It’s the unexpected that makes our trips memorable.

And in mentioning that, China almost felt too smooth.

Sure, I have plenty of hilarious stories from the trip that I’ve yet to share, but the little voice yapping in the back of my head tells me that I should have wandered a few more steps outside my box of comfort. Being fluent in the local language perhaps would’ve contributed to the lack of obstacles, however there were innumerable situations I recall throughout my month on the road where I had told myself, “Nahhhh maybe next time!” that may have helped contribute to my growing archive of travel anecdotes. Ultimately, there were more opportunities made available that I had failed to seize.

Travel reflection will forever be one of positivity and take this as important advice, that no matter how traumatic the predicament you find yourself to be in on the road, if you’re alive out the other end, it is a worthwhile experience. As cliche as it sounds – what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger – can very much so epitomize how you can improve your travel experiences.

As one of my travel buddies would say, ‘live life a little!’. So the next time you find a strange Chinese man at the food market offering you goats testicles for a quid, make sure you accept and have it medium rare. I guarantee you that the taste will matter very little once you return home.

Have you failed to seize an opportunity in your travels?

Kan Huang

Kan is a current university student completing his major in Events Management, a photography enthusiast and a travel addict. He resides in Sydney, Australia and currently works in the hotel industry and hopes to one day be able to combine travel and work together. In the meantime, he hopes to share his experiences on his flashpacking trip to China and explore this enormous land of deep culture and economic prominence, combining his photography with anecdotal tales of his travel (mis)adventures. He keeps a personal blog Tales of a Globetrotter & you can also find him on Twitter @Kantankkerous.

All rights reserved by Designi1

2010 has been a tough year for me – mentally and emotionally. I know I haven’t been cranking out as many original posts as I would have like to lately. I’ve been working really hard and I can’t wait to fill you in on what’s to come in the near future. But first, I’d like to give a heartfelt thank you to  all my readers for visiting my travel blog, my guest bloggers who help keep my blog running and all the friends I’ve made since I starting writing about my travels. I hope you know that every time you leave a comment, send me an email or tweet at me, it makes my day a little brighter because it reminds me that there’s more to life than my 9-7 grind.

2011 is going to be another crazy and busy year. I can’t wait to share my travels around the world and my travels through life with you. So wrap up this year, here are the top 10 posts on A Pair of Panties & Boxers in 2010. I hope you enjoy these posts. Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays wanderlusters!

15 Ways To Volunteer In Africa

Guest post by @BorderJumping

Our Journey began in October 2009 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — when we left to visit nearly every country in Africa. At every stop we are meeting with farmers, community organizers, labor activists/leaders, unions, non-governmental organization (NGOs), the funding and donor communities, and local press. Read more

One Week Itinerary For Honduras

It’s two months away but I still have the urge to take out my backpack and starting packing. I’m eager to leave, eager to see and eager to live.  I can’t wait till I get on that plane to Honduras. I booked it for only $280! I’ve got my plate full working 50 hours a week, volunteering, studying for GMAT, researching grad schools and running random errands I don’t have time to do during the work week.

I haven’t had a chance to do much planning for Honduras. Although, experiences have taught me that things never…Read more

Temples From Europe To Asia

Temples. Temples. Temples. What can I say about temples?

Let’s just look at pretty pictures of temples instead.

Here is a collection of images submitted by travel writers around the world of temples from places like Uluwatu, Madrid, Greece, Cambodia, Italy, Cambodia, China, India, Nepal, Japan and Indonesia. Read more

I’ll be calling for photo submissions in the future for an upcoming photo collection post. If you’d like to contribute, please feel free to email me at monica@apairofpantiesandboxers.com.

7 Essential Items For Light Travelers

Sometimes I forget to eat when I travel. I get full off of life and everything else around me. That is until my stomach starts growling like a dinosaur and I realize that I’m half way up the mountain already.

Afterward, I started packing crackers. It was cheap and it was good enough to hold me down for the time being. Then I realized that granola bars, although slightly more expensive, are much better and healthier alternative.

Read more

Jaw-Dropping Sunrises Around The World

Today’s Photo Friday Special is inspired by my previous blog post, Sunsets From Around The World. It was such a big hit that I decided to feature sunrises in this edition. I thought I’d be receiving a lot less sunrise submissions than sunset editions. I mean, unless you’re jet-lagged or an insomniac, who gets up at the crack of down to catch the sun rise?

Read more

Traveling Latin America Safely – It’s the little things

Guest blog post by @Brendanvanson.

I remember the first time I left home on my own to travel the Central America I was 20 years old.  Everyone around me warned of the thousands of dangers – real and make believe – that would exist in this strange part of the world of which I knew little about.  I remember clearly my mom telling a friend of hers that I was going to Central America, where “the favourite pastime of people is kidnapping foreigners.”  The truth of the matter is that the media always has a way of accentuating the negative aspects about different parts of the world. Read more

新年快乐！ Happy Chinese New Year!

Chinese New Year is on Valentine’s Day this year. It’s different every year because the holiday is based on the lunar calendar. Learning about my own traditions has always been a hands-on, and sometimes painful, experience. When I was 5, I stuck my chopsticks upright in my bowl of white rice and got whacked. I later learned you only do that when making offerings to the deceased. Oops!

Chinese New Year celebrations began with the legend of a wild beast called Nian. “Nian” in Chinese means year. Read more

Hangzhou, China: A Stunning Sunset On The West Lake

The travel bug bit somewhere between Wuzhen and Suzhou. We returned from Suzhou Saturday night. But by Sunday morning, JC and I already had our bags packed and a one-way ticket in our hand. We took the next departing train fr0m Shanghai to Hangzhou. It was an hour and a half of smooth sailing.

The first thing we did was go island hopping. In Xihu (West Lake), the most famous lake in Hangzhou, there are three smaller man-made islands. Nearby are three small pagodas erected from the water. Read more

Things I Can’t Stand When Traveling

I use to think that I was the most level-minded person on the face of this earth. I always heard two sides of the story before passing judgment and I’ve been told countless times before that I’m an extremely understanding person. I use to think I’d make the world’s coolest girlfriend. That was before I got  a boyfriend and that was before I started traveling.

I guess certain things never use to bother me because I controlled everything. I planned for everything. I let no surprises hit me with a curve ball. That wasn’t always successful but most of the time it worked. But after I started traveling, I realized that I can’t stand it when…Read more

Make Your Bucket List Less Daunting With A F***-It List

Guest post by @Jetpacker

Bucket lists are cultishly popular right now.  It seems like everyone is making a list full of life goals so lofty they make The Most Interesting Man In The World look like an incompetent jackass.  Conquering fears.  Gaining independence.  Finding enlightenment.  It all sounds so… overwhelming.

I needed something that would make my bucket list seem less daunting and more realistic. Read more

Which one is your favorite?

Guest post by @Kantankkerous

Some rights reserved by Steve Webel

Humanity

One late afternoon, two canonical ladies had knocked on my door. I shut the dog in one of the bedrooms to muffle the constant barking and peeled open the day to a cheerful hello. We discussed the usual riff-raff of (my lack of) personal religious beliefs and enthused about scientific rationale as a basis for reasoning and discounting religion as simply an inexplicable series of phenomena that seemed to have been anecdotally miscommunicated across time. As our conversation digressed, I was asked by these two women what my plans were this impending summer break – to which I responded in a particularly over-zealous manner about my China trip, so much so that they began to glance back and forth between each other, almost as if to suggest whether they should’ve even asked this question in the beginning.

Why do I travel?

Their attention was snapped back again at the mention of beliefs in my travels, though to an irrelevant degree as I shared with them the origins of Taoist and Confucian foundations in Chinese culture and beliefs. I remarked how astoundingly consistent and simple the principles were in prescribing people on how to speak, eat, sleep, drink and ultimately live. And I was to embark on my journey in December to have a taste for myself in a framework of presupposition that has thrived for so long. The big cities of China are a fantastic stomping ground for my touristic appetite, but I personally believe that materialism is only a minor aspect of why I hit the road whenever I can. More importantly, the villages; the locals; the historic monuments; the street food; and most significantly, the stories that are evoked from each and every site I stumble upon.

Taoism

It’s often debatable as to whether or not Taoism and/or Confucianism should fall under religion, in which I can fiercely say that neither do. Taoism is in fact, iconoclastic right from its origin. Madelyn Hamilton best sums up Taoism in her piece “The Search for Tao”: ‘Taoism is the consolidation of a number of concepts and practices that make up the ‘Path’, or ‘Way’, of living. The consolidation of ideas and concepts include basic principles or ‘theories’ regarding the body, diet, breathing and physical exercises, use of herbs, philosophical inquiry and, of course, meditation. All of which the Taoist feels brings a human being into closer alignment with the ‘natural order’ of life and living – pathway that humankind appears to have gotten derailed from.’ Confused? Here are a few words – ying and yang; fengshui. Both derive from the beliefs of Taoism and its meanings. Its laws of living and its ideals of living with nature rather than against it are practiced innumerably all over China.

Confucianism

Skipping the explanations about the origins of Confucianism, it is essentially an ethical belief system based upon the concept of relationships, featuring dual aspects of responsibility and obligation. Mother and child; husband and wife; brother and sister all have their own responsibilities and obligations. These extend further than the family environment and aim to formulate an empirical back-to-basics framework in which people are expected to abide by in order to live within a harmonious and just world.

China 2010

It is forthright to acknowledge that my trip to China will have so many of these ‘case in points’, each city or town with its own derivatives and variance in Taoist or Confucian beliefs. It’s an attempt for me to understand my roots again, comprehending why practices of such etiquette are so important in a population of people with so many ethnic groups. Yet for the majority of Chinese people these two archetypes have existed for generations without many of them knowing. Understanding the culture and asking the key “why” question will ultimately be a beneficiary in a travel adventure (at least so I think so). And so what initially was meant to be a discussion of scripture related to its many variable forms of deities, had transfigured itself into an enthusiastic reminiscence of why I love travel so much. Strange! The two ladies bid me a succinct goodbye and I turned back inside, ignored the orders of my mother to take out the garbage and planted myself back onto the computer to decide which hotel I wanted in Shanghai when I arrive on December 1st.

Kan Huang

Kan is a current university student completing his major in Events Management, a photography enthusiast and a travel addict. He resides in Sydney, Australia and currently works in the hotel industry and hopes to one day be able to combine travel and work together. In the meantime, he hopes to share his experiences on his flashpacking trip to China and explore this enormous land of deep culture and economic prominence, combining his photography with anecdotal tales of his travel (mis)adventures. He keeps a personal blog Tales of a Globetrotter & you can also find him on Twitter @Kantankkerous.

Above is the Iron Bell at Luoyang, China. Check out the related posts below:

• The Missing Heads of The Longmen Grottoes
• Photo Friday: The Longmen Grottoes

Some rights reserved by Michael Cavén

Mid-Autumn Festival happens every year on the 15th day of the 8th month according to the Lunar calendar. The popular harvest festivities are celebrated by the Chinese, Vietnamese, Japanese and Koreans. There are so many variations of the story behind this day.

Singapore

Photo by CHEN Jinghui (景晖) a.k.a TAN GengHui

Copyright All rights reserved by TAN_GengHui

Photo by CHEN Jinghui (景晖) a.k.a TAN GengHui

For more of Tan’s photos from Singapore, check out his blog, Photojournalist, and his Flickr.

Vietnam

Photo By Adam Bray

Photo by Adam Bray

Photo by Rob Somberville

Korea

Photo by Mireille

Photo by Mireille

Photo by Mireille

China

All rights reserved by Art Of Backpacking (Michael Tieso)

All rights reserved by Art Of Backpacking (Michael Tieso)

All rights reserved by Art Of Backpacking (Michael Tieso)

For more travel stories and photos from Mike, please visit Art of Backpacking and follow him on Twitter @djskylab.

The Forbidden City At Night

Top Beijing posts on A Pair of Panties & Boxers

• The Temple of Heaven
• A Snow Day On The Great Wall of China
• The Forbidden City & The Hidden Hostel

This short photo collection shows the agony the Chinese suffered during The Rape of Nanjing. These stone statues are located in front of the Nanjing Massacre Museum.

Mother mourning her dead child.

A thirteen-year old carrying his grandmother who died in a bomb.

Mother carrying her child to safety

Chinese man running from the Japanese

Husband carrying his dead wife.

Scared orphans left behind

The devils have sent the bombers again…

The poor orphans,

Frightened by the vicious laughs of the brutal devils.

Terrified by the corpses piling up in the alley,

Have lapsed into numbness…

If you’re interested in visiting the Nanjing Massacre Museum, please see the information below.

Nanjing Massacre Museum

Address : 418.Shuiximen Street Nanjing China

Tel : 86-25-86612230,86-25-86610931

Fac : 86-25-86501033

Postcode : 210017

Web : http://www.nj1937.org/english/

Email : nj1937@126.com

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