This is a Sunday night, and I’m now back in Chuansha, after driving 800 km this weekend (Gaoyou and Xinghua). It’s a long time on the road, but it beats staying in Shanghai. Work is in the city, but to me, most fun is found where not everything has been optimized by big corporations. Although, Chuansha is not so bad.

For the past five years, I’ve lived in places like this. Pastelle colored xiaoqu’s where you know most of your neighbors by the sounds you hear through the walls. How late they go to sleep, how they quarrel, or which instrument their kid plays on Saturday. Hanging out of the window you can softly hear the city’s hum in the background, the merged sound of my 26 million neighbors.