I’ve just finished learning ‘Mastering Chinese, Listening & Speaking 6’ (会通汉语 – 听说6). It’s an OK language-learning book, on the upside there aren’t as many idioms as the Developing Chinese series (发展汉语). The first chapters are extremely difficult, the last few are just pure propaganda: An American lady who lives in Beijing complimenting how well […]

If you walk, you’ll always discover something new. But actually, as soon as I got off the train in Huai’an (淮安) in the Jiangsu province, I start to wonder if that’d be true this time. All I see are empty plots and modern highrises, and I know that if I’ll walk ten kilometers here, I’ll […]

Maybe it’s because I’ve just been on a long trip, but watching ‘A touch of Sin’ (天注定) made me feel like being on one as well — to a place I cannot go back to now. China in 2013: Shanxi (山西), Chongqing (重庆), Hubei (湖北) & Guangdong (广东). Regardless of whether the story grabs you […]

Chicken soup & (very oily) stir-fried niangao (年糕), made by a half-drunk chef in Lishui (丽水). Pickled cabbage (雪菜) and pink white sugar cake (白糖糕). Red braised pork belly with meigan cai (梅干菜红烧肉) in Jiangwan (江湾). Not sure if I ever had meigan cai before, it’s pickled, dried, and steamed vegetables from the Shaoxing (绍兴) […]

We’re in Shen’Ao (深澳村) near Tonglu (桐庐). The average age of the tourists is around thirty, while I’m sure the average age of the local residents is nearly double. Most buildings are over a century old and in pretty bad shape — although I do think this used to be a comfortable village to live […]

Long waits for chargers during the Spring Festival holiday. We’re near the border of Jiangxi & Anhui, and we cannot find a battery swap — so we need to charge as well. We’re already charging but the new cars arriving have no space to queue and randomly find spots. It’s a funny spectacle. The Tesla […]

Today brings us to Shishecun (石舍村) in Zhejiang. We’re here after a tip from Ash, but we’re not the only non-locals — despite this place not being on Dianping. There’s an attraction to off-the-beaten path locations, especially during the last days of the Spring Holiday break. And Shishecun is beautiful. Some buildings here were built […]

The crowds at Qiandao Lake (千岛湖, literally meaning ‘Thousand Islands Lake’) today. We sit on the boat, and over the intercom we get some background of the human-made lake, but people only start paying attention when the lady introduces lunch options and prices. A shushu proudly says his daughter studies in Germany, and opens his […]

We’re in Jiangwan (江湾) in the Jiangxi province. “Ayi, why don’t you use a laundry machine?” “This water is free.” “It’s not cold?” “We got used to it.” We drive up a random mountain with a nameless road (the map shows 无名道路). All the houses are built with white walls and black tiles; the Hui […]

We visited two villages today, Chenjiapu (陈家铺) and Xikeng (西坑). Both are north of Songyang (松阳) and ‘touristified’ (for instance, Chenjiapu has a ‘design’ hotel & book store), but you can still see the original village in between the cafes & hotels, with lots of houses made of rammed earth (夯土). Chenjiapu (陈家铺) The freedom […]

A five-hundred-kilometer drive to Yunhe (云和县) today. Very little traffic, the only real ‘traffic jam’ recharging near Jinhua (金华). Following a friend’s advice: “Don’t eat anything at these rest stations, on the road you don’t want an upset stomach (拉肚子).” Famous Jinhua ham (金华火腿) is on sale here too. We drove to the famous Yunhe […]

Snow in Nanxiang (南翔镇), an over thousand-year-old town in northwest Shanghai, home to the xiaolongbao (小笼包). So of course we have some. (Plus fried xiaolongbao, first time seeing that. Had an American restaurant done this to xiaolongbao it’d be blasphemy, but this was from a 120-year-old local restaurant.) Only a single city block remains of […]