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 […]

Reading ”A Trip to Mountain West Village“ with my GoEast Mandarin teacher Lilia. A poem about hardship; the road is difficult, but suddenly you arrive in a village.

I wanted to go to the old village of Hengmian (横沔古镇) in Shanghai Pudong, but couldn’t really find it. Still a nice walk along old buildings, gardening plots, highways, and power lines. These buildings will be gone in a decade, driven out by modernization. I think these places are infinitely more interesting than modern high-rises […]