Traveling Inspiration

"...pigeons echo through the damp gloom of massive, unfinished brick edifices. A group of farmers take a smoke break nearby, while a bustling film crew directs several costumed monsters for a television commercial in a blue-roofed fantasy tower a few dozen feet away...And yet, everything seems still, as though the vast expanse of open air, sleeping buildings and swaying crops swallow sound in this abandoned sanctuary." An article excerpted from one of my favorite traveling blogs—Atlas Obscura.


The Atlas Obscura blogger team has an excellent writing ability.Their traveling stories not only depict a vivid story, but also reveal information residing in these areas. A Visit to China's Knock-off Disneyland, an article showing in above, for instance, describes how they traveled in an abandoned area in a suburb of Beijing. Pigeons echo, sleeping buildings and swaying crops show me a gloomy scenery that a big project has run aground, which trigger me an old memory when I was in China. Actually, with the development of China, commercial companies purchase a huge amount of farmland to build up houses and amusement places. The Disney Wonderland is one of them.Once the company is involved in a legal dispute, the project will be stopped for one or two years long, leaving a forlorn land in the suburb.

The bloggers describe their experiences as a story and record the scenery as a news as well, which is in accordance with the principle of Roy Peter Clark. He states that story creates the experiences, and report conveys the information. A Visit to China's Knock-off Disneyland not only puts me into a deserted countryside, but also points me to the terrible situation when public facility was abandoned. In fact, the local blackmailers extorted them there.

In a summary, a nice blog should tell a detailed story as well as reveal its social significance .

 Photo by Zoetica Ebb, Alternative Beijing