Apart from Huangshan, I’ve never heard anyone say they’re going on a holiday in Anhui. I often hear Chongqing, Changsha, Qingdao, Beijing, Sanya, and the nearby province of Zhejiang is popular for people in Shanghai — but never in five years has anyone said Anhui. All I hear about Anhui is that it’s poor. If […]
Shanghai often feels to me like a GTA map or Azeroth: Massive with distinct areas and yet so many tiny places and sidequests to explore. Today I went on a sidequest, to see the site of China’s first rocket launch. (Thanks to Historic Pudong for the tip.) On the site now stands a pillar, with […]
This month I rewatched the original three Indiana Jones movies — which was a blast, as even today these movies are timeless thrills. I do vaguely remember seeing these movies as a kid, as the holy grail face-melting & eating from monkey skulls left deep imprints in my memory. Archeology was a fascination. Not just […]
Two weeks in the Netherlands. We’re not that known for any 美食 (great food), and compared to Chinese food I’m sure it looks crude, but for me, it’s all real comfort food: 1. Real bread and real cheese 👌 2. Battered chunks of fish and tartar, and 3. My mom’s tomato soup 4. Fries with […]
I’m cycling through my hometown and the places of my youth, and it’s impossible not to get romantic. The pond we used to feed the ducks with our mom and later fish on our own, the field where we played football but had to watch out for dog poo, and the outdoor swimming pool that […]
I’m in my hometown in the Netherlands, a small city of around ten thousand people. And yet these words are still very much about China. Normally in this space, you’ll find me looking at China through foreign eyes, but like many people who have lived abroad for a long time, I now also feel a […]
When I was in art academy, the vaguest class we had was on concept development (‘workshop activity’, or in Dutch ‘atelier practicum’), and one part of it was just collecting pictures, which we’d then discuss personally with the teacher. This was always on Mondays and the continuous struggle of it is burned in my mind. […]
These days, the annual post-Double Eleven piles of deliveries can be seen on the streets again, although they’re less high as previous years. For the first time, Alibaba is not disclosing full sales results for the event. Before, each year a new sales record was boasted — which always felt political; the message to the […]
We’re in Heshang (河上镇) — which basically means ’town on the river’ — and we’re here for the most famous of its 28,042 citizens: Mister Zhufa (朱法). Zhufa is 86 years old but still works every day, and he’s so famous that people drive from nearby provinces to get his advice on Traditional Chinese medicine […]
Foreigners often lament the loss of old areas in Shanghai (or anywhere in China) — most notably Laoximen — but we do so with a luxury that many Chinese people don’t have. We’d like these old buildings to stay around for us to look at and understand better the China of old, and perhaps the […]