We’re eating our Christmas meal, two fish and four hairy crabs. Eva: “When I was young and some families married, we’d go to a restaurant, no hotel, and if they served crab, well such a family was really rich. But eating crab is too slow, takes too much time, so we first ate all the […]
Two out of three trees in Shanghai are London plane trees. City planners call it a supertree. Its secret is its peculiar camouflage-patterned bark, which peels off in quick succession, allowing the tree to ‘clean’ itself from pollution. As a result, it has a high tolerance to pests and diseases, and captures smog and carbon […]
I’ve now been working in Shanghai for over 5 years, and 14 months in a Chinese company using Mandarin as the main working language. So here I list the lessons I took from the past year — many things I should have done better, or things I’ve seen happen in other companies through stories from […]
Outside the office, we see lots of people walking with big boxes of toys and go to see what’s happening. Three ‘cowboys’ are standing next to a pile of stuff like fake Legos, Barbies, and bikes, yelling if you register for a free creditcard you can pick a box, even a bike! Lots of people […]
China-Europe Street in Shanghai (中欧街). Everything is deserted apart from a Starbucks, and a couple having their wedding pics taken. The storefronts of Hermes, Prada, Chanel, and Gucci are fake. Outside are dozens of food stands though, more popular at night. This place would appear in some kind of fever dream. The statues, they’re of […]
If Chuansha (川沙) — being outside of the outer ring — is on the edge of Shanghai, then this is the edge of the edge. No man’s land, just outside of Chuansha. Some live here in old buildings (but a dog barks me away), others grow crops, and others like me take a stroll. This […]
Trying to learn how to eat shell-on shrimp using only chopsticks, the way many Chinese people can. Eva is showing me: “So you put the shrimp in your mouth, bite off the head, then the tail, then this…” (everything is happening inside her mouth so I cannot see the key part) “And done! You spit […]
We’re walking at the quay and a single bird is hopping around, a Chinese starling. Eva, gnawing on a corn cob, throws a kernel, but the bird doesn’t bite. An old man behind us says: “She won’t eat that.” We’re all like “Ah, how do you know?”, and the man replies “She’s my pet, I […]
We walked the entire circumference of the old city wall (South-, West-, North- and East Gate Road), but found not a single brick or remnant — except for names and roads that still follow its former shape: a square around the city of Chengqiao Town (城桥镇). Actually, Chengqiao is still often called South Gate (南门) […]
I actually like moving. Yeah, it’s a bit of trouble, but you get a whole new neighborhood to explore. New roads to cycle, new shops to search for stuff on the shelf, and new restaurants with new dishes to try. Just by physically moving all your stuff (and throwing away maybe 20% each time), everything […]