The city Haiyan (海盐: literally Sea Salt). Kids are playing in the mud, trying to catch tiny crabs, and fishers (men & women) are reeling in their nets.
‘Sea Salt’, near the sea
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China
Sweaty Shaoxing
32 degrees and the heat is soaked up by the stone roads and stone houses, and ultimately our bodies. It’s sweaty Shaoxing. We head to 八字桥 (Character Eight Bridge), because it looks like the character ‘Eight’ (八). Nearby is the St. Joseph’s Church (八字桥圣若瑟堂), built in 1871 but today mostly used for photos & basketball. […]
Away from the cities, underneath the Milky Way
We’re somewhere in between Shengzhou (嵊州) and Yuyao (余姚). The hills are dotted with 枫叶: red maple trees. We make our way to the hills of the Fuzhi Mountain (覆卮山), with its terraced rice fields. One part of the valley is an old glacier, and it’s a thing to climb the rocks, even though the […]
The path we would have never walked
Update: As of March 1st, 2025, this route is no longer accessible. We’re in Anshan Village (安山村), a two hours drive south of Shaoxing (绍兴) in Zhejiang. There’s an old walking path here (安山古道) here that’ll soon be flooded by the placement of a dam — so a colleague advised me to walk it, now […]
Villages around Ningbo
This weekend I went to Ningbo for a Chinese language study trip with GoEast Mandarin, and for the first time I took my bike with me on the highspeed train. It’s allowed when you can put it inside a bag, and it’s a total game-changer. I arrived in Ningbo and set out to the village […]
In Hangzhou’s new innovation park
Today, visiting the company’s second office, in Hangzhou. Quite far from the city center in the newly opened ‘5G Innovation Park‘. Not a lot of people here yet, as it’s still half under construction. Many companies have a huge reception or exhibition area on their first floor, then staff working on the second floor. Or […]
Twenty kilometers yet worlds apart
Sunqiao Town (孙桥镇) in Pudong. Only about 15km from the famous towers in Lujiazui (陆家嘴), or 20km from the former French Concession. But here no Starbucks, McDonald’s, Nike or FamilyMart. People wear different brands (meaning: no brands), and more than half of the cars have license plates from other provinces. People without a car rely […]
Queens WeChat group
A friend gave me a peak into a female-only WeChat group for preparing/planning pregnancy, named “Queens” (in Chinese). “It started with only three people, but now we’re over fifty. Not just in Shanghai anymore.” They’re encouraging each other and sharing so many details openly with strangers. “When we fell in love it was so romantic, […]
Past & future — Covid & AI
Interviewed ten young Chinese people for two positions last month at Pimax (designer & copywriter). Nearly all applicants changed jobs or roles last year as companies went bankrupt or downsized due to covid restrictions: “The company doesn’t need a writer now, my manager told me to either leave or become an account manager.” “We used […]
Back home in Yangpu Qu
Today, a walk through Shanghai’s Yangpu district (杨浦区, pronounced as Yángpǔ qū). Fuxing Park on Fuxing Island (复兴岛). The park houses ‘白庐’, where Chiang Kai-shek stayed in 1949, before forever leaving Shanghai, and shortly after that mainland China. The interior is totally destroyed to make way for government propaganda. The air conditioner pours out hot […]