I’m in my pajamas reading a book in bed in my parent’s guest room — back in the Netherlands after living in China for over five years now. My mom walks into the room and sits on my blanket for a chat, but I tell her that’s so gross because she has been wearing those […]
It’s the second day of the National Holiday and we’re in Zhoupu (周浦), not for the first time. Again we’re in ‘Little Shanghai Pedestrian Street’ (小上海步行街). I want to take in some of the crowds and chaos before going to the Netherlands, and look at the barbeque stands (but not eating anything there).
I found on Xiaohongshu some pictures of Tangzhen (唐镇) taken in 1986, and realized some are on the road I cycle every day to work. So on National Day I set out to find these locations and if possible — reshoot them. Some locations are gone (or I couldn’t find them). Others were hard to […]
A ride to Datuan Town (大团镇) today, deep in Shanghai’s Pudong district. I saw a post on Xiaohongshu about it, but mostly the map made me curious, as a city block squared into tiny rivers hints at an old town. That’s not some professional knowledge I possess, but a fair guess. (But yes, Datuan was […]
I’m trying to count how many old villages I’ve visited in China, but the definition is too vague to get to a real number. Sometimes it’s a real old town, such as Shishecun or Ruyayang. Other times, it’s just an old street in a city, such as Gaoyou . Sometimes we simply visit a single building, […]
Here’s a place — on the banks of the Yangtze in Taicang (太仓) — that reminds me of the one in Shanghai — which is simply about a hundred kilometers downstream. People try to catch a breeze and cool down after sunset. Others hunt for tiny crabs (螃蜞). Vendors sell snacks, cold drinks, and buckets. […]
On Xiaohongshu, a lady named Niu Er (汼二娘) walks through an old street wearing a long winter coat. After her example, we’ve traveled to the same place, but I’m wearing shorts, sunscreen, and the thinnest shirt I could find. We’re at Xijiao Street (西郊老街) in Taicang (太仓) in Jiangsu, and it’s 35°C. This street used […]
We’re in Fengyi (丰义村) this weekend. It’s a tiny village with just over 600 people — trying to get tourism going. It has all the ingredients for it. There’s a coffee place, a noodle restaurant, an ‘I Love Fengyi’ sign, and fake Dutch windmills around a mount that is in between a hill and a […]
Written: August 2022 — Updated: August 2024 Open any history book or article about Shanghai and you’ll probably read something condescending along the lines of “Shanghai was a backwater fishing village until the foreigners came in the 19th century.” And it evokes a visual image of fishermen on the banks of an empty yet huge […]