This was a pure coincidence but near Haining (海宁) we went to the riverside & saw people waiting. A shushu said the tide is coming in. Ten mins later we saw the Qiantang River colliding with the tide from the East China Sea. Sure there’s a metaphor for life in there somewhere. The 观潮-crowd: And […]

Shops! Food! Animals! All of it in and around ‘Little Shanghai Pedestrian Street’ (小上海步行街), in Zhoupu (周浦镇). One ‘layer’ outside of the street you’ll find cheap hotels and family-owned businesses, like clothing, make-up, and tattoo parlors. One more layer out and it’s an old suburb, absorbed into the shopping area. The houses are so close […]

I moved to China in 2018 and have integrated pretty well, I think? But especially the 90s and 00s are a mystery to me, while my Chinese friends & colleagues did live through that period, grew up in it, shaped by it (as I was by the 90s and 00s in the Netherlands). It’s very […]

Cycled to Tongli and stopped by the ruins of an old bunker/tower. Built by the Japanese during WW2 to have a good look at the rail- and waterway. Inside the bunkers, someone graffitied the words 肾 (kidney) and 根治 (cure) — I’m not sure why, not even sure if it’s metaphorical in meaning or anything […]

Xinchang (新场) is Shanghai’s best old town. Second time there, back for some 蟹壳黄(Crab shell yellow). It’s hot, it’s packed, and shops are doing well — which is great to see.  

The Great Wall of Shanghai? Sort of. This is the Huating seawall (华亭海塘) in the Fengxian district of Shanghai. 3.9 kilometers of stones are left — built centuries ago to keep floods and Japanese pirates out. Actually, I’m not sure which stones are original. The history is fuzzy and long; different segments built by different […]

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 […]

I recently got a Garmin watch (Nevu 2 if you’re wondering). It’s just a piece of tech, but feels like a lot more, because my brother also uses it in the Netherlands. This way we can sort of sport together. (He mostly runs, I mostly cycle.) Actually, Garmin/Strava are one of the few apps both […]

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 […]

The playing, the rider, and the painted (Songjiang today). I’ve sinned a bit. 4A and 5A tourist attractions in China are horrible, but we did go to Guangfulin Relics Park (广富林遗址) today, which classifies as 4A. It was good though. Lots of old buildings on the huge premise, most if not all reproductions & a […]