My formative teenage years coincided mostly in the 2000s, and feverishly playing World of Warcraft, Fable and Diablo — so even though I didn’t get most of the references to the Eighties, I totally understood and felt what they stand for. Ready Player One is a fantastic mixture of nostalgia and sci-fi, aptly labelled by USA Today as ‘Willy Wonka meets the Matrix’. The fast-paced writing and its quality made the book an OASIS-like simulation for me: instead of VR goggles and haptic gloves, I turned page after page and was fully-immersed inside the mind of Wade Owen Watts, who’s Parzival inside the OASIS world. Even though some plots are obvious, the book is thrilling and a one big glorious celebration of geekiness. Take me back.
Set an alarm to 05:00, take a taxi to the train station, get onto the train, switch in Hangzhou, and get off in Tonglu (桐庐), take another taxi — to arrive 4 hours and 330 kilometers away from home. For a hike. Maybe it’s crazy, but the alternative is to stay home. You’ll have plenty […]
We’re in Qibao (七宝古镇) — an old water town swallowed by the city of Shanghai, now turned into a tourist attraction. In the center stands a moon bridge, surrounded by heavily renovated buildings that now house shops selling fridge magnets or bites such as tangyuan, scallion pancakes, red bean cake, and parts of pork or […]
If you squint your eyes, you can still see a busy little street here. The shops on Wangxin Road (王新街店铺) near Gaoqiao (高桥) in Pudong, were built in the late Qing Dynasty but now face an uncertain future. They’re not labeled for demolition (the character 拆 isn’t shown), but there are many tags of landlords […]
I saw this message from Curt about how difficult it is to love Shanghai, and there’s some truth in that. Maybe it’s too big a city to love, and I just love some specific locations of Shanghai. Let me have a go. Ye Garden Ye Garden (叶家花园), a ~100-year-old park in Yangpu, hidden behind a […]