Stuart

As amazing as the falls are, Niagara, New York, is a hellhole of a town. A run down dump with nothing of value to see. I STRONGLY recommend visiting the Canadian side.

One of the most shockingly beautiful places on earth.

It is absolutely beautiful. The architecture, the streets, the wine, the bread!

OK, I will admit that the area around Athens, Georgia, seemed nice. With that out of the way, avoid the rest of it.

I lived in southeast Georgia for a year and a half and can only describe it in foul hand gestures. It would make a great prison.

Lived there for 8 years before I decided to return to the civilized world. No plans to go back. Ever.

Every season except winter is great in Ohio.

Spring really teaches you what the term “spring fever” means.
Summer is not too hot… nice and warm.
Fall is leaves changing from green to red, orange, purple, brown and cool sweater weather.
Winter is hell (at least in the most northern parts).

Overall, Ohio beats the crap out of, say, Florida.

Taiyuan itself is, sadly, not really worth visiting. It feels old and somewhat polluted (even by the rather low standards set by other chinese cities). However, several places outside of it are quite nice and the provinces (Shanxi province) vinegar is great.

Pingyao, an old walled city, and Jingci, a temple/palace sort of complex are both great.

Neat city. A mix of old (like, a temple) and extra new (Japan has the absolute latest, up to the second, technology). First time I saw beer in vending machines.

Only sour note, I visited a video rental store and saw some of the nastiest porn (trust me, you don’t want to know) out for display right next to the regular videos. I’ve got nothing against adult stuff but this was just too much.

Loved Stockholm. Particularly the Old Town (Gamla Stan?).

Hohhot, located in China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region, is a mix of standard Han China and Mongolian cultures. For example, Mongolian writing and chinese characters exist side by side on most signs (I had no idea there was a written Mongolian language, let alone one as strikingly exotic as it turns out to be… see the attached photo for an example of their written language).

Short drives (a couple of hours) out of the city you can find an absolutely barren desert with a river running through it or you can visit the grasslands and see yurts, horses and meet Mongolian people (who use Honda motorcycles more than horses these days). Both places are beautiful but the grasslands seem more “genuine” and endless while the desert is more touristy and limited in scope.

I hear it gets quite cold there in the winter (like, -25C cold) but the summer conditions are fantastic (i.e. warm and dry).