Cooling down near Yiwu (义乌) today, at Songpushan (松瀑山). It’s a tiny mountain with a waterfall. It has only 58 reviews on Dianping so I didn’t expect lots of people, but actually it was crowded, in a good way. Everyone’s sweaty faces full of smiles. Also watermelons are hot. Yiwu in the distance.

This tiny museum has stones with markings on them that look like Chinese characters (or animals). Eighteenth National Congress (十八大): Shanghai (上海):   Divide the world into three parts (三分天下):   Also animals and the Chinese zodiac: Horse (马): I asked the baoan where these stones were found: “Just in the direct area here.” Either […]

(New photos from 2025 beneath.) We visited the Old Baoshan (老宝山) in the north of Pudong, after a tip of Historic Pudong. Baoshan is also a district on the other side of the river. It has the same Chinese characters, but there’s no proof that the names are related to each other. (It’s not too […]

We accidentally stumbled on what might be the area with the most preserved old buildings in Shanghai: Gaoqiao (高桥古镇), in the far north of Pudong. Gaoqiao is pretty unknown and has a pretty unimpressive Dianping page: just over 1000 reviews, and a really badly picked photo on the top. The buildings (perhaps a hundred of […]

The harbor in Pinghu (平湖市), with self-made cargo boats being assembled and entering the water continuously. “This type of boat is the only way”, but later I’m not sure if the shifu meant the costs or technical specs. (I regret not asking them whether they can swim! Most people in China cannot swim, unlike in […]

“Our neighbors left, the house next to theirs burned down and it also ruined their roof.” Had he not told me this, I might have not noticed the charred beams. We’re in Pinghu (平湖市钟埭老街) and the man lives in a house alongside the Corridor Shed (廊棚), which was built about a century ago when China […]

A trip to a deserted old movie set today, in the far southeast of Shanghai. Dongxu Village (东旭村) will probably soon be wiped off the map, but movies like Green Snake (青蛇) were filmed here, over 30 years ago. I found it when looking for old towns on Xiaohongshu, including a tip to find the […]

Wanghong hell at floor 52 (out of 128). Taitai really wants to see this bookstore, but the reservation spots (all free) were already gone. So we pick a date next week, take a screenshot, and in Photoshop change the date to today, and mess a bit with the QR code so it’s unreadable. The guard […]

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 […]

All the Chinese I encountered in two weeks in the Netherlands. 1. This is a Chinese store near my former high school, named after the Chinese city Wenzhou (温州). When I entered, the owner was calling (via WeChat) with his family in China and later we spoke about living in China and the Netherlands (he’s […]

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 […]