Example of China’s hukou — or actually, school district houses (中国学区房) — in China. But it gets a bit complicated. Friend is a single parent, living in a house registered in his parent’s name (his parents live with him). His son goes to a primary school near that house. Let’s call it House A. Then […]
Taped posters in Chuansha (川沙) telling people not to create vegetable plots here. And yet people can’t resist or simply don’t care. In some unsighted areas, there are fresh crops. Eva pulls an ugly carrot out of the ground: “If they can steal the land, well, I think I can steal a carrot.”
China is so big. Even though we’re just traveling in one corner of Zhejiang, new cities I’ve never heard of keep popping up on the map. It’s as if you could use A.I. to generate cities, and they keep appearing in a ton of variety. Today, Tiantai (天台), which is part of Taizhou (台州). And […]
If you wish to follow (selected) articles translated into Chinese, follow 雅苑舒院 on WeChat.
Quotations of Chairman Mao on a door in Shengkeng (胜坑村), about the Japanese enemy. It’s a pretty village, with flowers and stepping stones everywhere. Some houses are beyond repair, others maintained well. Mostly inhabited by seniors and swallows.
Near Linhai (临海), whole fields with rice noodles drying (小芝米面).
At first, I thought they were flowers on the trees, but it’s loquat fruit (枇杷), wrapped with tiny bags to protect against birds and insects. You see these trees like this all over Xiangshan County. In Suzhou, people use huge nets for the loquat trees.
Shepan (蛇蟠乡) is so small that even though it’s next to a highway, its exit is named after the service station — not the town itself. There are some boats, plenty of fantastic seafood restaurants, and a muddy shore full of tiny crabs, razor shells, and mudfish. I somehow love this place.
Wushan Grottoes (伍山石窟) on the border of Ninghai (宁海), a recommendation from Ash. It feels like I’m walking in some kind of MacOS wallpaper. Some of these quarries were dug over a millennium ago, and people worked here to mine stone slaps even some 70 years ago. It’s crazy the work that has gone into […]
We’ve been to Zhejiang so many times, but always inland. So whatever Zhejiang means in my head — mountains, tunnels, water reservoirs and more — it feels similar here but different. We’re in Xiangshan (象山县), a peninsula east of the province, bordering the East China Sea. As soon as we cross the bridge onto the […]