After a few days in rural Shandong, Weihai (威海) hits different immediately as we get off the train — people and suitcases everywhere. It’s full of an obvious type of people: tourists. And immediately I wonder if the people in those rural areas who cited covid for the lack of tourism are just wrong, and […]

The Great Wall of China was built over centuries and one of the oldest segments ran through the Shandong province, from Jinan (济南) to Qingdao (青岛): Great Wall of Qi (齐长城). It lacks the fame of the Great Wall in Beijing built in the Ming Dynasty (this is the one that comes to your mind […]

So after Tai’an (泰安) our next stop is the city Zibo (淄博), although more by name rather than perimeter.  Luziyu (鲁子峪) is a small town on its own, made up of several villages. From Tai’an we choose to take the taxi instead of the high-speed train. It’s slower and pricier, but the scenery is a […]

Mount Tai (泰山) dwarfs the city of Tai’an (泰安) and is the central attraction. In the park we take the bus to somewhere midway — cheating, I know — but it’s already passed noon and several people told me the whole trip takes ~8 hours. In the bus we’re with other couples, mostly university students (sitting together […]

It is a book by Frederick Forsyth, but it is no ‘The Day of the Jackal’. Some parts are lecturing, some parts feel more like a summary rather than fiction, and other parts are so testostorone drenched that it feels like I’m reading a script of a Jason Stratham or Sylvester Stalone movie. That said, […]

We tried to visit the 贺九岭 temple in Cangshu (藏书) Suzhou (famous for its lamb meat), but it was closed. Because of covid? Because of it being Saturday? Not sure, but we couldn’t go in to burn some incense. Next to it is a mountain though. Eva decided to stay in the air-conditioned car but […]

The many hairy crab fishers of Yangchenghu (阳澄湖) in Suzhou — or at least their boats. Casually refueling their jerry cans while smoking. It’s late in the crab season and there aren’t any big ones left — just “June yellow” (六月黄), the younglings with a thin shell, and lots of yellow meat (tomalley). In the […]

This book isn’t easy for readers for who English is a second language (especially the middle part, or the religious ramblings), but 63 years after being published, it still feels like an important and relevant book. Science-fiction nowadays is usually about some rebellious A.I., but here it’s about nuclear warfare and humanity’s inevitable quest for […]

Shenqiaocun (沈桥村) on the edge of Suzhou is a little town caught between two highways. I like the scenery, but Eva doesn’t. We ask a guy who walks passed us what life is like: “外地人多，偷东西呀” (Lots of non-local people, steal stuff.) Lots of the house owners don’t live here anymore and rent their houses to […]

Before getting off work last Tuesday, I was informed we have a close contact in our building and that we need to be locked down again. So I immediately bought some fresh food, and brought coffee & books from the office (as many things as I could carry), because although our compound says we just […]