About

Beijing China Travel Blog
I wish all birthdays could be spent like this..!

Hi, I’m Joella! Thanks for stopping by my blog.  I’m originally from a lovely, little town in England, but my thirst for adventure has led me to live all over the world. From summer camps in the USA, teaching English in South Korea (I met Justin, the Californian guy I’d later marry, on my first day in 2006!), working in Venezuela, backpacking South America, training to be a school teacher in London and teaching at an international school in Beijing– I’ve been living internationally on and off for over fourteen years!

Paper Crane Stories originally began life as This Beijing Life-  a Beijing and China travel blog. We recently left Beijing and moved to sunny California where my husband grew up (lucky him!). I hope you’ll join me as I blog about my travels, expat life, the food I love (which is, errr, most of it!) and all the adventures I have.

Find me on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest or Bloglovin from the links below.

You can tweet Joella @joellaBjacobs

Instagram: @joellajacobs

Follow on Bloglovin: here

Pinterest: here

Email at: papercranestories@gmail.com

Read more about us and life in Beijing: here

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25 thoughts on “About

  1. I’ve only ever visited China on work related trips, but an incredibly interesting (and confronting) place!

    Hope you’re enjoying your time there and would love to get there and explore it properly sometime

  2. Thanks Chris. We are having a great time here but you do have to put up with certain things- like the awful pollution! I definitely recommend getting out here and exploring! There’s so much to see. We are planning to travel the West (around the Tibetan regions) in the summer but it’s such a huge country!

    1. Sounds like a great idea!

      Of the little I’ve seen, Shanghai certainly felt the most cosmopolitan.

      I did get quite shocked on a back road in Nanchang seeing stalls along the side of the road selling watermelons, pillows, small crossbows, handguns… the usual I suspect!

      1. Haha I can’t say I’ve seen any guns or crossbows yet but I’ll keep an eye out. My favourite market stalls so far sell gross and badly dried out animal fur. There’s usually a head still attached and I’m sureI once saw a saber toothed tiger rug. It both repulses me and fascinates me at the same time!

  3. Southern California! I’m a little jealous! I’ve never visited California but a lot of the bloggers I follow live there and I would love to visit someday.

    1. Thank you!! That’s so nice of you! I’m going to answer the questions soon and thank you for the nomination. But first I’m looking forward to reading a bit more of your blog. 🙂

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