‘Past Caring’ is only the second book from Robert Goddard I’ve read, but it shares many key ingredients with ‘In Pale Battalions‘. Again it is about generations in England around World War I, a heritage house again takes a role, but most of all, it is about time. ‘In Pale Battalions’ lets us explore morality […]
Here’s a place — on the banks of the Yangtze in Taicang (太仓) — that reminds me of the one in Shanghai — which is simply about a hundred kilometers downstream. People try to catch a breeze and cool down after sunset. Others hunt for tiny crabs (螃蜞). Vendors sell snacks, cold drinks, and buckets. […]
On Xiaohongshu, a lady named Niu Er (汼二娘) walks through an old street wearing a long winter coat. After her example, we’ve traveled to the same place, but I’m wearing shorts, sunscreen, and the thinnest shirt I could find. We’re at Xijiao Street (西郊老街) in Taicang (太仓) in Jiangsu, and it’s 35°C. This street used […]
We’re in Fengyi (丰义村) this weekend. It’s a tiny village with just over 600 people — trying to get tourism going. It has all the ingredients for it. There’s a coffee place, a noodle restaurant, an ‘I Love Fengyi’ sign, and fake Dutch windmills around a mount that is in between a hill and a […]
Here’s a place I visited before: West Gate (西门) in Shanghai’s Jiading district (嘉定). Two years ago, I walked fifty meters from here, oblivious to this once-lively alley. It’s something-something about ‘you can’t step in the same river twice’. As you live in Shanghai and learn the language, you grow less reliant on Google or […]
Written: August 2022 — Updated: August 2024 Open any history book or article about Shanghai and you’ll probably read something condescending along the lines of “Shanghai was a backwater fishing village until the foreigners came in the 19th century.” And it evokes a visual image of fishermen on the banks of an empty yet huge […]
Before departure, we had read about Cambodia’s mind-blowing temples and mystical sunrises, beaches with pristine sands and crystal-clear waters. Superlatives piled onto adverbs. But we also read about how dangerous the traffic would be. That even crossing the street would be difficult. Pickpocketing and bag snatching is common. Bus operators sell more tickets than they […]
Visited Luodian Town (罗店镇) today, after a tip from Ash. It’s super deep in Baoshan, beyond the Outer Ring Road, beyond some green patches, close to Taicang (太仓). It’s so far out that it doesn’t feel like Shanghai at all. The village is spacious and has lots of trees around the roads, apart from the […]
Zhuqiao Village (祝桥镇) in Shanghai. It’s scorching hot. I bought a 2.7 RMB icecream from Mixue (蜜雪冰城) and it was dripping down my wrist within a minute. Eva said it looks here like she remembers her childhood. The buildings off the main road are smaller, but the streets are cozy. There’s a dentist (牙科) and […]
Outskirts of Shanghai (上海三甲港海). It’s a dead-end street and planes fly over our heads to land on Pudong Airport. We’ve climbed across barbed wire and down the sea dike to mudbanks, full of tiny crabs (螃蜞). Some fishermen stand on the dike and take in the view. We tell them how they can get down: […]