Every day I cycle to work from Chuansha (川沙) through Tangzhen (唐镇) to Zhangjiang (张江), a 7-kilometer ride. And in between Tangzhen and Zhangjiang, I cross the Shanghai Outer Ring Road (外环高速公路). It’s currently under construction, with a new additional, elevated road being built on top of it — which makes the border even more […]
Feels like another milestone in my now six-year-long Chinese learning journey: Two days of management meetings, all Mandarin. I could follow everything well, just had to check a few words in Pleco. I did survive mainly on coffee and felt my brains were pretty fried, but that was everyone’s sentiment really. This is West Lake, […]
After walking through the cozy but crowded University Road (大学路), my favorite thing to do is to climb to the top of Jiangwan Stadium. The stadium is a bowl, that also keeps the noise out, and it’s as if you enter a silent bubble. (Luckily it’s used for sports again.) I’ve been coming to this […]
We’re in Zhuanghang (庄行) for its 伏羊Fúyáng Festival. I don’t know whether the 羊 here stands for sheep or goat (the Chinese word does not distinguish between the two), so I ask the chef. “No idea”, he says and yells for the owner. I even show him a picture of both a sheep and a […]
Chuansha (川沙) in the morning, before the heat strikes. Any calories I burned off while cycling, I probably more than compensated with this single oily scallion pancake (葱油饼).
China is extremely safe and full of cameras everywhere — but the irony is that still people break the rules all the time. Some of these are laws, but most are just rules or norms. For example, some people (and I emphasize: some) are loud in the very early morning, at like 6 o’clock. Others, […]
I rarely share anything about my daily working life here. It’s almost like a double life I live. (Although I did share about working in Zhangjiang (张江) before.) But here’s perhaps something cool to share; how Pimax’s electronics are made, and for that matter, many of the world’s stuff. Last Tuesday, with a colleague, I […]
What is the oldest structure in Shanghai? On the bike, I was wondering about that, but back at home googling I discovered it’s a pillar in Songjiang. I wonder if this sea dike (南宋古海塘遗址) — albeit hidden in the water is in the top 10. I’m not sure why I’m drawn to this stuff — […]
We’re climbing a hill today and it’s warm. A fellow hiker is coming downhill, and Eva asks how much longer to the summit: “Twenty minutes”, says the lady. After ten minutes of walking, Eva asks another hiker, and it’s the same answer: “Twenty minutes”. Another ten minutes of walking go by as we pass an […]
We just randomly picked a lake on the map in Changxing (长兴) and somehow we ended up in a sort of Benidorm. Lots of seniors from Shanghai. The place is named 水口茶文化景区 (Shuikou Tea Culture Scenic Area), but locals here even refer to this place as 上海老人村: Shanghai Elderly Village. Lots of tea, herbs, and […]