Most foreigners who relocate to China live in Beijing or Shanghai. I moved to Xinjiang, essentially the middle of nowhere, and found that nobody seemed to know anything about it. I blog about places to travel, people I meet, and everything else that makes this place so much different than the rest of China and the world.

My wife and I are teachers here in Xinjiang. On the side I do some travel writing and this blog is a fun hobby to fill the free time.

Mainly because I live here but also because Xinjiang is a very mis-represented area of China. Very few people know much about Xinjiang and even fewer even know it exists! The fact is, though, that without Xinjiang China would be a much weaker nation.

I started this blog in 2006 when I first arrived here but really began building it up towards the end of last year.

Currently I average around 100 visitors per day along with another 100 RSS subscribers. I’ve found that building a reader base takes quite a lot of work and not a little bit of luck. Thankfully I’ve been able to see steady growth over the past few months.

I do place ads but I don’t plan to make tons of money blogging. I try to primarily work with affiliate programs so that I can promote products and services that I find useful as an expat here in China (Chinese learning, traveler’s insurance, etc.).

Any person interested in China or what it’s like to live as a foreigner in remote parts of the world. Living here isn’t easy, but it sure makes for lots of fun stories!

I usually spend about an hour blogging per day mixed with another hour or two working the social networks.

Life is crazy here! Bulls run wild on city streets and we just had the bird flu outbreak the other day. This blog is a good way for you to familiarize yourself with an area of the world that has a huge impact on all of China and the rest of the world.

Unless I’ve got it all wrong, success doesn’t come easy. I still don’t have it and I think I work pretty hard. Sure wouldn’t mind a few more readers and subscribers.

This blog can be visited at http://www.farwestchina.com