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Postcards From Mimi

Travel Differently: Food, History, Culture

20th January 2024

Postcard from Yantai: Snow, Seafood, and Sickness

View of the coastline in Yantai

After a busy fortnight packed with sightseeing in Beijing, we headed to my home city of Yantai in Shandong province. Yantai is a mid-sized coastal city of around 2.8 million people in northeast China. Yes, a city with a population…

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30th December 2023

Postcard from Beijing

Bridges over stream inside the Forbidden City

I took a career break towards the end of 2023 and headed to Asia for a long-term trip. My first stop was Beijing, the capital city of China, where I spent two weeks. Hotel Horror We got off to a…

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8th June 2019

Postcard from São Paulo

Postcard from Sao Paulo

After an intense week in Rio de Janeiro, my next stop was São Paulo, a sprawling metropolis in Southeast Brazil. With about 12 million inhabitants, it is the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere, and also the financial centre of…

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29th May 2019

Postcard From Rio de Janeiro

Postcard from Rio de Janeiro

I have officially quit my job and will be travelling South America for the next 5 months (March to July 2019). After several years of dreaming and planning, it’s finally happening! Somehow my friend and I turned up at the…

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About Mimi

Hi, I’m Mimi – a British-Chinese traveller and doctor. I’m passionate about history, food, and languages. I’ve explored over 40 countries across 6 continents, and hope to visit them all one day.

I'm currently on a career break. Follow me on Instagram for the latest updates on my travels!

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Recent Posts

  • How to Visit the Forbidden City in Beijing
  • China to Vietnam Crossing By Land
  • Visiting Detian Waterfall: Asia’s Largest Transnational Waterfall
  • Getting a SIM Card for China
  • 6 Essential Apps for Travelling China

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Mimi Li

postcardsfrommimi

The northern lights really are spectacular this ye The northern lights really are spectacular this year. They’re so strong that you can even see them as far south as London, which is almost unheard of.

Why is the sky putting on such a show right now? It’s because we’re at the peak of the sun’s 11-year cycle, when its magnetic poles flip. This leads to increased geomagnetic activity and our luminous aurora displays.

Thursday’s aurora was particularly strong in England… but I missed it! cue major FOMO 😭 I still haven’t seen northern lights in the UK… so enjoy this video (shot on my iPhone!) from a few weeks ago in the Westfjords in Iceland.

#northernlights #auroraborealis #northernlightsiceland 

Did you catch the northern lights?
I drank a lot of coffee in Vietnam… so here’s I drank a lot of coffee in Vietnam… so here’s a round-up of the best types of Vietnamese coffee you should try.

☕️ Black coffee
☕️ Milk coffee
☕️ Iced coffee
☕️ Coconut coffee - Cong Ca Phe (all over Vietnam)
☕️ Salt coffee - Café Muoi in Hue
☕️ Egg coffee - Café Giang or Café Dinh in Hanoi

#vietnam #vietnamtravel #vietnamesecoffee #visitvietnam
This is the largest annual human migration in the This is the largest annual human migration in the world. It’s known as Chunyun (春运), or the Spring Festival travel rush. It happens every year in China around Chinese New Year, as millions of people head home to spend the holiday period with their families.

Pictured: Shenzhen train station 1 week before Chinese New Year.

#chinesenewyear #lunarnewyear #china #人山人海 #traintravel
Street food in China: part 1 Glutinous rice balls Street food in China: part 1

Glutinous rice balls from Chongqing called ciba

#streetfoodchina #streetfood #chinatravel #chinatravels #chongqinginsta #chongqingfood #chongqing #foodietravel
We got up at 5am to watch the sunrise over a sea o We got up at 5am to watch the sunrise over a sea of clouds. A beautiful experience, and one of my favourites in China so far. But not sure if I’ll be getting up that early again for a sunrise anytime soon!

📷 Shot on Fujifilm X-T4

📍 银厂上寨 (Yinchang Shangzhai), Xishuangbanna, Yunnan

#xishuangbanna #yunnan #yunnanprovince #sunrisephotography #sunrise #sunriseview #seaofclouds #visityunnan #chinatravel
Taking the high-speed bullet train in China - inst Taking the high-speed bullet train in China - instant noodles and hot water included!

#chinatravel #visitchina #bullettrain
💭 Life is like a hotpot, you get out what you p 💭 Life is like a hotpot, you get out what you put in…

After a period of burnout last year, I decided to shake things up and take a year-long career break (we’re in month 3 of 12).

Here’s what I’ve been up to so far:

🫒 1 month in Croatia - olive harvesting and chilling

🌏 China - holy moly I’ve been here for almost 2 months now. So far: Beijing, Yantai (family visit), Xi’an, Zhangjiajie (Avatar mountains), Chongqing, Christmas in Chengdu.

➡️ Next stop - I’m heading to the south of China for some warm weather to celebrate the new year. I’ll also be heading to Southeast Asia later on.

🦪 Excited to see what the future holds!

#chongqing #chongqinghotpot #hotpot #visitchongqing #chinatravel
Watching the sunset over the Forbidden City in Bei Watching the sunset over the Forbidden City in Beijing 💛🌅

✨ Jingshan Park (景山公园) has the best panoramic views of the Forbidden City

✨ There’s a relatively short climb up the hill (70m) via steps to get to the top

✨ Entry to the park is ¥2 (free for children)

✨ It gets quite crowded around sunset (don’t expect zen vibes here), but people usually take their photos and leave, so you can get a good spot if you’re patient.

📌 Save for your China trip!

#visitchina #chinatravels #visitbeijing #travelinchina #timelapse #sunsettimelapse #forbiddencity
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