Here we are, Pudong. I’m about to fly home to the Netherlands. First time seeing my parents, sister, and brother in almost four years. I couldn’t sleep last night, I’m so excited, but also sad it has taken this long. China has given me so much these four five years, but not long talks sitting […]

A 27-kilometer ride with Eva through Pudong. Shanghai has these places if you look for them, and if you choose to escape the massive city center. Finished with some sweet melons!

I’m going to meet a lot of family and friends in the Netherlands in June. I know they’ll all ask how China is, but I find it really hard to answer anything. “What is China like?” is impossible to answer. It’s such a big area, and actually, I’ve mainly only been in Shanghai and the […]

Seventy kilometers in your leg, the salt on your skin, cheap peanuts from a convenience store. Some of these things I don’t think AI can replace.     The outdoor advertising here hits different than in the city. (Pretty sure CurtExplores was here before, we keep going to the same places despite never having met […]

We’re in a restaurant known for its fried potato chips/cookie things. (Oily but good!) One customer is having a jest with the owner. Both ladies of around the same age. The customer ordered a quarter of a chicken that comes served in chops, but shows her plate: “So much neck! There’s no meat on that! […]

A shushu grabs my bag, tries to stop me: “Where are you from?” I’ve no idea where this is going, but I say I’m from the Netherlands, to which the man replies: “Oh, bordering Germany and Belgium. 40,000 square kilometers.” I admit to him that don’t even know that last part. (Later I google it: […]

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.

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

It’s the story of Margaret Sun, who was born in Shanghai in 1935 and lived through the madness of the cultural revolution, mainly in Xinjiang — China’s new frontier. And while ordinary people in extraordinary times will have fantastic stories, this isn’t a fantastic book. And I appreciate the positive and stoic attitude held by […]

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 […]